Pizza Dough, Corn Dogs, Etc.

Last night I tried a new pizza dough recipe. It's a keeper. It was so easy to make and definitely kicked my old pizza dough's butt. We had gotten into a pizza dough rut. The same dough every Sunday night... always turned out a little tough, too crunchy for the kids, the toppings were totally masking the unremarkable crust we had grown accustomed to. That's probably why homemade sauce and fresh mozerella were the stars of the show. Not that there's anything wrong with delicious toppings, but we could make a nice pasta dish out of the same stuff. The crust is where it all begins... the blank, yet perfect canvas that holds our favorite toppings together. I must give The Pioneer Woman all the credit for this crust. It's in her cookbook (The Pioneer Woman Cooks) which I have had for over a year now just waiting for me to try it. It's also free on her website here. I have tried many of her recipes and never has one disappointed me. I didn't have olive oil (what is wrong with me?! I keep forgetting to put it on the grocery list) and substituted canola oil and it turned out very well. I will not go back to my old recipe, in fact I may black it out of my cookbook. The Crust. It was very easy to work with and I spread it out in the pizza pans with my fingers like the recipe stated. It was much thicker than our usual dough so I expected the bottom to be a little soggy, however, it was beautiful and crisp! A perfect golden brown crust that was the perfect combination of crunchiness, chewiness, and airiness (is that a made up word?) that I have been waiting to devour. T said it was by far the best crust yet. The kids actually ate their crust instead of declaring it inedible, because our old crust used to crack our teeth. I just can't say enough about this crust. It was perfection.

I am frantically researching cameras and am proceeding to narrow it down. I keep finding wonderful things to take pictures of and start reaching for my camera only for it to tell me to turn it off again. How dare it "talk back" to me! I told T my price range and he breathed a sigh of relief when I told him; he thought he was going to have to shell out thousands of dollars. I thought he knew me better than that... come on I have a hard time buying essential items at the grocery store like milk, diapers, bath tissue... Funny story, or sad, you can decide. This weekend I went to HEB (a local chain of stores in Texas) and debated getting the special "Buy corn dogs and get popsicles free" coupon they had. I started thinking on this two days before I even got to the store. Then at the store I went against my gut feeling that was telling me corn dogs are gross (reading mechanically separated chicken and pork in the ingredients nauseated me) and dropped a box in the basket then went and found the popsicles. I wheeled my way to a checkout lane and then my heart started pounding. I stared long and hard at the box of frozen corn dogs. I tried to convince myself that corn dogs every once in a while doesn't hurt. I tried to convince myself that the boys would gobble them up. That led to me imagining them morphing into obese porker children that don't get up off their butts unless they have reached the bottom of the chip bag and are in search of a new glorious bag of artificially flavored cheese puffs or something like that. Yes, I went there. Anyhow, I gave into my gut feeling and turned the basket around and returned the corn dogs to the freezer. I then selected a better popsicle for the kids because they do deserve to have a little fun and I'm not a complete freak-of-a-mother. So, you can only imagine the way I research cameras. I feel like it's a five four year investment/commitment to consider. I'm sweating now. I have to make the right decision based on other peoples reviews, my gut feeling, and a salesperson. I'm done ranting. My time is up.
Dear God, please give wisdom, amen.
Mama