Sunday, January 23, 2011

Pita Pita Pita

I made pita bread for the first time tonight! I wish I had taken pictures, but, I didn't. Sorry. Let me just say that they were completely warm and delicious. I adapted the Peppy's Pita Bread recipe from allrecipes.com. Can you be in love with a website? Maybe.
Anyway, here is the recipe:
Original Recipe Yield 8 pitas

Ingredients

· 1 1/8 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

· 3 cups all-purpose flour

· 1 teaspoon salt

· 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

· 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar

· 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in bread pan of your bread machine, select Dough setting and start. When dough has risen long enough, machine will beep. ( I did it by hand, call me old fashioned. It was not hard. If you don't have a bread maker, let the dough double in size. I didn't use my dough right away, it freezes very nicely!)

2. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gently roll and stretch dough into a 12 inch rope. With a sharp knife, divide dough into 8 pieces. (I used my fingers to pinch the pieces apart.) Roll each into a smooth ball. (Mine, well, they weren't completely smooth.) With a rolling pin (I used a lumpy cup.), roll each ball into a 6 to 7 inch circle. Set aside on a lightly floured countertop. cover with a towel. Let pitas rise about 30 minutes until slightly puffy. (I actually did this...)

3. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). Place 2 or 3 pitas on a wire cake rack. (I put all of the pitas on the wrong side of cookie sheets and cooked them all at once for 5 minutes) Place cake rack directly on oven rack. Bake pitas 4 to 5 minutes until puffed and tops begin to brown. Remove from oven and immediately place pitas in a sealed brown paper bag or cover them with a damp kitchen towel until soft. Once pitas a softened, either cut in half or split top edge for half or whole pitas. They can be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for 1 or 2 months. (I served the pitas right away with some chili, they were sooooo good! If you eat them right away, they are already soft!)

Monday, January 10, 2011

Zoom Zoom

In addition to being back in school, being friendlier than normal (at least trying to be), waking up on time and being all around great, I am buying a car.

Unfortunately, I do not know how to drive a stick shift. There goes half of my options. My future sister-in-law told me about a great guy that sells cars, he sold her his car. I googled him. He sounds pretty swell. I am calling him tomorrow. But if that doesn't work out, I can always have this car. It doesn't tote much, but for something this cute, why not make two trips?