taco pizza

We have a regional chain here, Godfather's Pizza, who makes our favorite pizza, which just happens to be taco pizza. The best part about this taco pizza is that there's no refried beans to be found - something that my picky husband refuses to eat. Sparked by a craving, I concocted my own taco pizza and think it rivals the original!

What you'll need:
dough:

• 10 fluid ounces warm water
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast

topping:

• 1 small can tomato paste
• 1 Cup taco sauce, approx. (spiciness depending on your taste, we used mild)
• 1+ T chili powder
• 2+ tsp ground cumin
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 small can chopped green chilies, optional
• 2+ C monterey jack or Mexican combo cheese, divided
• 1+ C cheddar cheese, optional
• shredded lettuce, optional
• chopped tomatoes, optional
• sliced black olives, optional
• sour cream, optional
• additional taco sauce, optional

What you'll do:

Making the dough in a bread machine is easiest, but you could do it by hand also. Into the bread machine, dump in this order: water, salt, oil, flour, and yeast. Meanwhile, combine the tomato paste, 1 C taco sauce, chili powder, and ground cumin. You can add more sauce if you want the sauce thinner or spicier; you can add additional chili powder for more spiciness, and more cumin for a more robust flavor.

Add the ground beef, onion, and green chilies to a skillet, season with salt and pepper, and cook until beef is brown. Drain the beef mixture.

When the dough finishes, pat it out on your greased pan(s) (if it's sticky, use some flour on your fingers). I used a rimmed 15x10 cookie sheet for a deeper dish crust, but you could spread it out more thinly and do two pizza rounds. Spread with the taco sauce mixture to your liking (you may have extra sauce). Sprinkle sauce with 1/4 C monterey jack cheese. Top with beef mixture. Add remaining monterey jack cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25min for a thicker crust, 15-20 min for two thin crusts. Pizza will be done when the edges are golden brown.

Serve with sour cream and sprinkled with cheddar cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, olives, and additional taco sauce, if desired.

Grandma Micki's Dark Chocolate Pound Cake

Ingredients

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup dutch processed cocoa powder (I use Hershey's Cocoa Special Dark)
• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1 1/2 cups butter (softened)
• 3 cups sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups milk

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Do not preheat oven.
2. Grease & flour bundt pan.
3. Sift flour, baking powder, cocoa, and salt together. Set aside.
4. Beat butter & sugar on low speed until fluffy. (8-9 minutes)
5. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix well after each.
6. Mix in milk.
7. Gradually mix in dry ingredients.
8. Beat in vanilla.
9. Pour into pan and back at 325 degrees for 1 hour 20 minutes.
10. Allow cake to cool in pan for 1 hour before removal.
11. Cool 3 more hours before serving.

It is very important to follow all the directions and measurements exactly!

Dutch Apple Pie

We made these from scratch (except the pie crust) in my moms' group recently as our "craft." It was such a fun idea, and it turned out that they were tasty, too!

Dutch Apple Pie

Ingredients
(1) deep-dish pie crust
6-8 apples (peeled and sliced)
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs flour
1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbs butter

Crumb topping:
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup butter (I was math-challenged and just used the rest of the stick missing from the 2 Tbs above)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place apples in 1-gallon Ziploc bag. Add sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Mix (shake) until apples are well-coated with sugar mixture. Place apples in pie crust. Dot apples with butter.
In small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour, and butter with pasty blender or fork. Cover apples with crumb topping.

Bake approximately 1 hour.

Yum!

"Jeans" Apple Bread

Bread Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1cup sugar
2 cups finely chopped apples (peeled, cored)
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon shredded lemon peel (optional)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Bread Crumb Topping Ingredients:

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter (half a stick)

Directions:

Grease bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of an 8x4x2 inch loaf pan; set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg; set aside.

In another medium mixing bowl combine sugar, chopped apples, cooking oil, egg, and lemon-mix well.

Add dry mix to apple mix and stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy).

Fold in walnuts or pecans

Spoon Batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 350 at 50 minutes or until a wooden toothpick in center comes out clean.

Place crumb topping on bread before baking.

Cool completely before removing from pan.

Enjoy!

Poppy Seed Chicken

Who doesn't love a casserole covered in buttery Ritz crackers?

Ingredients:
5 cups chopped cooked chicken
(1) 10.5 oz can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1.5 cups crushed Ritz (I use 1.5 sleeves)
1 tsp poppy seeds (rumor is it's just as good without them, and they're kind of pricey)
1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Place the chicken into a 9x13" baking dish. In a medium bowl, stir together, the condensed soup and sour cream. Pour over the chicken. In a separate bowl, stir together the crushed crackers, poppy seeds and melted butter. Sprinkle over the chicken and sauce.
3. Bake for 30 minutes , or until the top of the casserole is browned and the sauce is bubbly.

We like it served with rice!