Cooking up a Storm!

I have been really into cooking recently, especially new things, so this weekend I took the opportunity to make 2 things I have really been wanting to try: pizza and spinach pasta.

Saturday, after my mom and I went to every furniture store in Atlanta (only kidding, but that's what I felt like afterwards), I decided that I would make pizza for an appetizer for myself and my parents. Well, my dad decided we should just have that for dinner, so I went about making a full batch of the pizza dough. It was actually really easy, with the help of a KitchenAid mixer with a dough hook. I had to let it rise, and I red online that if you preheat the oven to 150 degrees and then let is cool down, it will be the perfect warm temperature the dough needs to rise. I was a little crunched for time since I started making it late, so I only let is rise for an hour. After kneading it into a ball, I began to stretch it out. I had to restart like 5 times, because the dough kept breaking (maybe because it didn't rise long enough?) But I finally put the toppings on my 2 pizzas and put them in the oven.... et voila:

Before:

This was right when I put it in, it had lost of veggies and proscuitto

Traditional pepperoini pizza right when it went in the oven.

After:

Both pizzas! They look pretty yummy!

Sunday night, I tackled my second item: spinach pasta! My parents gave me a pasta machine for Valentines day, and I have used it several times to make plain pasta, but I wanted to make the spinach on. It was pretty simple, I had to boil the fresh spinach for about a minute then drain and squeeze it dry. Then I put it in the blender and chopped it (however this part didn't work too well since I only used a cup of fresh spinach, which turned into nothing when I cooked it). I then added a little water to make it puree consistency, then  mixed it with the egg and then put all that in the Cuisinart with the flour. It turned out very well, but I did end up adding an extra egg and a little water because it was way too dry! I then rolled it out and cut it and served it in a white wine and butter sauce with onion, garlic and artichokes... yum! Unfortunately, no pictures of that one.

I am excited to try the pizza again, hopefully letting the dough have more time to rise and using a pizza stone (literally a big stone slab you put in your oven and let preheat, then cook the pizza on there) it will be better. 

I hope y'all had a great weekend and Monday!

ERK