How To Make Pizza - A Step By Step Guide To Show You How To Make Pizza

So you want to learn how to make pizza yourself? Making pizzas is quite easy when you know the steps involved. Follow this step by step guide to making your own pizzas at home, and delight everyone with the flavor of your hands.

Step 1. Preparing your tomato pizza sauce

Melt the butter with the olive oil and slowly but completely sauté the garlic and onion in a skillet.

Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper, oregano, basil and puree. Bring to a boil, then simmer covered for two hours. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes with a potato masher.

Continue to mash, stir, and simmer partially covered until the sauce reaches the consistency of a rich soup.

Step 2 Making Pizza Dough

Making your own pizza dough by hand is both challenging and satisfying. Home made pizza dough, "from scratch," is without a doubt the single most defining factor that differentiates a great pizza from any other pizza that you will ever have. And, the personal gratification that comes of successfully making pizza at home for yourself, your loved-ones and your friends makes it all the more worthwhile.

Step 3 Panning the Prepared Pizza Dough

Panning the dough is the step where you use a rolling pin or machines to create the pizza base with your dough. There are machines that help you sheet and pan the pizza dough, or you can use the hand tossing method or the rolling pin if you want to do it yourself.

Depending on the style, size, composition and number of pizzas you choose to make, the methods of sizing, shaping, trimming, and ultimately, panning the pizza dough, will vary.

step 4 Topping the Pizza

First, spread the pizza sauce evenly over the surface of the dough. Spoon the sauce out to the edge of the dough sheet, leaving "un-sauced" about 3/4" to 1" of the dough crust.

Next, layer the shredded cheese creating an evenly distributed bed of cheese on which to arrange your toppings. (You will use another cup of cheese for finishing off the top of the pizza.)

From this point on, let your eyes, nose, creativity and taste buds take over to add other toppings to your pizza.

Some toppings, (fresh vegetables, certain cheeses and fatty meats), are higher in moisture and fat content and you have to take this into account when you use them, to ensure your pizza doesn't turn out soggy.

Step 5 Baking the Pizza

The final step is to bake to pizza. When you oven is at the right temperature place a prepped pizza in the center of the middle rack to allow for maximum air circulation around the pan.

Make adjustments to your baking process one at a time until you've found the perfect balance of rack position, temperature and baking time to suit your oven.

Signs to look for that the pizza is ready are:

- The cheese has melted on top and is beginning to brown,

- The crust edge has browned, from a medium to a golden brown, and,

- Carefully lift the edge of the pizza to inspect its bottom. The bottom dough should be evenly browned.

If these signs are evident, your pizza is done!

A Great Baked Potato Recipe

What makes a great baked potato recipe? Is it that it is full of flavor that burst out of your mouth as soon as you take that first forkful? Or is it perhaps the quality of the ingredients that you buy from your local grocer? I like to think it's a combination of all of that, and being able to find the best baked potato recipe is of upmost importance before cooking, which is why I'm here today to introduce you to a few little tips of mine, some that I've always adored yet never shared before.

To ensure your baked potato is at the highest quality, the correct potatoes must be used. Potatoes that are of the wrong type may produce flavors that you do not want in your food and will often take away greatly from the overall quality of the package. One of the best picks for potato is the Russet; though ensure it is of a good quality, with a nice even brown tone and no green tinge. Also when cooking a large batch of baked potatoes, try to get potatoes of a similar size and shape, this will ensure that the potatoes cook evenly, making sure that some don't burn quickly while others take forever to cook.

Preparation is a critical step to creating the best baked potatoes. To prepare the potatoes, be sure to scrub them clean of dirt and run them under cold running water to ensure they are completely clean and free from both dirt and germs. After washing, dry the potatoes thoroughly with a serviette or similar item. Before placing the potatoes in the oven, prick them several times with a fork to allow steam to escape from the potato so it doesn't explode in your oven.

To ensure the potato has a good soft skin, give it a rub with some butter or olive oil before backing. The best temperature to bake medium sized potatoes at is approximately 45 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius). When baking, don't wrap the potatoes in aluminum foil, as this will cause your baked potato to taste more like they've been boiled than baked.

A Great suggestion I learnt from a friend years back to really create great tasting baked potatoes, is to bake the potato once slightly, then stuff the potato with the ingredients you'd like inside, such as bacon and cheese on top, then bake the potato again in the oven until it's a lovely golden brown color.

Finally the very best way to ensure your potatoes are absolutely perfect is to make them with love, a love for cooking and a love for delicious baked potato recipes.

Tea- What is White Licorice Tea?

White tea was once reserved for only the most elegant affairs in China. In fact five years ago most Americans had never even heard of white tea. Today, however, white tea is rapidly gaining popularity in the US. White tea is much milder and sweeter than black tea and lacks the grassy flavor of many green teas.

White tea is the healthiest of all teas and has the lowest caffeine content as well. White tea brews to a pale color and has a very delicate aroma.

One of the finest white teas available is a blend called white licorice tea. This tea is a delicious blend of the finest white tea with the addition of sweet and bold licorice flavor from the use of star anise.

All white teas come from the camellia sinensis plant. What separates white teas from black and green teas is the time of harvest and the method of processing. White tea is harvested just once each year, in the spring before the buds have opened and while they retain a fine white hair. White tea is simply steamed and dried, often right in the fields, without going through any oxidation process.

This not only means that white tea has a much more delicate and sweet flavor than other teas, but also means that white tea retains more anti-oxidants in their natural state than green or black tea.

The anti-oxidants in white tea have been shown to fight cancer, heart disease and high cholesterol. White tea has also been shown to improve the immune system, too. In particular, white tea seems to have the ability fight off bacteria and viruses. White tea is also high in fluoride, making it great for preventing tooth decay and inhibiting the formation of plaque.

White licorice tea gives is one of the best blends of white tea available. It combines the sweet and delicate flavor of all fine white teas with the sweet and exotic licorice flavor that only whole pieces of star anise can provide. The addition of licorice to the slightly herbal and smoky flavor of the white tea provides a bolder tea than most plain white teas.

The addition of licorice also increases the health benefits of the white tea. Licorice has long been renowned for its ability to calm the stomach and ease headaches. For centuries Chinese herbalists have prescribed star anise to treat colic in babies, as well as headaches, abdominal pain and intestinal distress in adults. So, this may be just the tea for the person who suffers from chronic stomach troubles, and may be an effective natural way to treat a colicky baby.

Other countries have used licorice and ginger tea to treat colic for centuries. However, one downside to treating colic with black tea flavored with licorice is that black tea has a fairly high caffeine content and might prevent sleep or make babies jittery. White tea, however, has very little caffeine, so using white licorice tea is likely a better colic treatment. For the adult who periodically experiences stomach upset before bedtime, a natural treatment that won't interrupt sleep is also welcome, indeed.

Brewing White Licorice Tea

White licorice tea is brewed in the same manner as other white teas. It should be brewed with water just below the boiling point and steeped for about 5 minutes. Because it is very fluffy, it requires a bit more tea per cup to brew. Begin by using about two teaspoons per cup and adjust to your taste. As your tea is brewing inhale the wonderful aroma created by the combination of white tea and star anise. A good white licorice tea should provide a minimum of two infusions.

The addition of licorice flavor to white tea makes for a bolder and more exotic flavor than many other white teas. White licorice tea is also a bit sweeter than other white teas since it derives sweet flavor from both the tea and the star anise.

You can also use white licorice tea to make iced tea. You'll find the licorice flavor to be quite refreshing and yet it will be bolder than other iced white teas. To make iced tea, simply brew several servings of tea at once and allow the tea to cool before serving. Because white tea is delicate in flavor, pouring it over ice while it's still hot may dilute the flavor a bit too much.

To retain the flavor you must allow the tea to cool first. Once cooled, you can either refrigerate or use ice to bring it to the proper temperature.

You may quickly find that white licorice tea is one of your very favorites. Once you've discovered that you want to drink it regularly, you may want to buy it in bulk to ensure you always have it on hand. Because white tea is plucked just once a year, it is the rarest of all tea varieties.

And because only a certain amount of white tea is blended with star anise each year, white licorice tea is even rarer that plain white tea.

Once you've discovered this variety in a high quality loose form, you'll want to buy enough to allow you to drink it daily.

The Fire Boys

They didn't like to brag about the way they saved the dogs from the fire; they way they did it without panicking or even saying anything. They did it without screaming, "Jesus, it's hot in here and I can't see!" or "If there are any children cowering in the corners and losing limbs to the crackling firery abyss, they need to speak now."

They just weren't bragging people.

But the Stacy Jones Firefighting Company was the most wonderful thing in the world, and although they didn't act like they were aware of this fact, they knew. The boys knew.

At night, all the Stacy Jones Firefighting Company boys would sit around the firehouse's northern common kitchen area and sing, in perfect monotone unison:

Save us, save us,
Lightning quick!
Save us from the fire.
Save us with skill, you derelict!
Fulfill our small desire.

Sometimes the largest and strongest member of the group, Forty Lens, would sing "Fulfill our small desire" as a solo. Sometimes he wouldn't.