Saturday, February 9, 2013

Pie-Tastic

 Very few things make me happier than a Saturday spent playing in my kitchen.  A Saturday spent playing in my kitchen while watching a Michigan football game would do it.  Today I had to settle for a Michigan basketball game (darn those Badgers!) but I'll take it!

Today's celebration was two-fold - Bagels and Pizza Pie.  It's no secret that bagels are kind of a specialty of mine.  Ever since I got my bread machine (which is the only appliance other than the coffee pot that has a reserved spot on my counter) I've been turning out bagels by the dozens.  I've made different flavors, different toppings and served them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  My Dad and brother beg for them and they are a surefire lunch hit with the kiddos.  I made up a batch yesterday which were devoured for lunch today.  Bagels around here are easy.

Pizza pie had me a bit baffled, though.  I mean, isn't all pizza known as a pie?  Was it more like a deep dish pizza?  My searching of the internet didn't turn up a solid answer one way or the other, so I decided to make up my very own pizza pie.

I started with my homemade pizza dough.  I rolled it out just like pie dough and put the first piece in the bottom of my pie plate.  Then some ground beef, onions and pizza sauce all simmered on my stove for awhile before being added to the crust.  A layer of Parmesan and then Mozzarella followed.  You can't have pizza at the Gatchel's without pepperoni, so I layered that one.  Another round of cheese and then all topped off with another piece of pizza dough.  To give the crust a little color I brushed the top with my garlic butter, cut a few slits for venting and popped it in the oven.  Forty-five minutes later I pulled it out, brushed it with the garlic butter again and then gave it about fifteen minutes to cool on a wire rack.  I was hoping that by giving it some time to cool I'd end up with solid slices of 'pie' rather than oozey insides spilling out of the crust.  It worked!  It held together so well Noah actually picked it up and ate it like a piece of pizza.

So what's the point in me spelling all this out for you?  I'm not exactly sure other than to 'prove' that one of the best things about this experiment of mine is at the end of the day I get to create something fun and new and then we get to 'celebrate' it.  Who's to say that my 'pizza pie' isn't right?  Everyone here enjoyed it which is what was most important at the end of the day.

I also made up a few of the celebratory items for over the next couple of days.  We're heading to Toledo tomorrow to spend some time with my parents so I had to make sure that our cream cheese brownies were ready :)  Hope that wherever you are you're enjoying your own bagels or pizza pie tonight.  Until tomorrow...

Mikayla and I were potato stamping a Valentine's Day project


 Aren't my homemade bagels pretty?

 Building my 'pizza pie'



 All ready for the oven

 Kinda beautiful 


An inside shot

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