Pizza Stone

It's time for my weekly Favorite Tip, Trick or Tool!

This week's tool is, the Pizza (or Baking) Stone!  I have long been a fan of the baking stone.  My mom has one and so I used it as a teenager just learning how to cook, and then left for college and was so sad to leave it behind.  Now that I have my own kitchen, I own TWO and I use them at least once per week.

Why a baking stone?  It works similar to a cookie sheet, except that the stone is supposed to heat up more evenly and thus bake your cookies, pizza, rolls, etc. perfectly evenly.  This is especially great for items such as pizza (thus the name "Pizza Stone") which are prone to being well done on the outer ring and doughy in the middle.  The other wonderful thing about the baking stone is that after greasing it for the first few uses, you are done! You have a stick-less cooking surface that really IS stick-less.

***FYI for baking stone owners- Do NOT wash your baking stone with dish soap.  The stone comes with it's own little scraper- which you use to clean the surface of the stone under hot water.  If you use dish soap it can soak into the stone and then later it will flavor whatever you cook on it.***

Does it work? Yes! I find that my crusts come out evenly cooked, and I never have a problem with food sticking to the stone.  Plus I honestly love having little gadgets that make me feel more adept at the whole cooking thing.

Where can I get one? You can find these pretty much anywhere.  This specific baking stone is from the Pampered Chef, but I have seen them at Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Etc.  They are really becoming a lot more common and easy to find.

Creamy Poppy Seed Chicken

This made it to my list of top 5 recipes.  I LOVE poppy seed chicken.  I love it so much that in my VERY organized recipe book (I know, I'm a freak), it skips the "casseroles" section all together and is Recipe Number Four, just so it's easy to find.

Delicious Salmon Filets

This is a recipe I took from mom when I left home.  I've talked about finding other Salmon recipes, but we just love this one so much that I always come back to it.  I love the slight tang that the mustard provides.

Fantastic and Easy Greek Steak Marinade

Have you ever come across a recipe so easy that you pass it by, thinking that a delicious meal couldn't possibly be so simple to achieve?  This marinade is oh-so-simple but is a staple at our house.  All it takes is 4 ingredients and a few hours in the refridgerator.

Chicken Tikka Masala

My husband lived in Hong Kong for two years, and therefore is slightly picky when it comes to oriental food.  (You know the type... no Panda Express for us, and buying any kind of rice but Jasmine is practically sacrilege).  This dish, however, completely won him over.  He's requested that it be added to my go-to list of recipes. When I made this dish I omitted the jalapeno, to cut down on the spiciness for my daughters, and it still tasted great.

Cheesy Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

Sure, the cheese may cancel out the health effects of the wild rice and vegetables, but it also does a great job of masking them for my veggie-hating toddler.  I really love the mix of wild and white rice in this recipe, as well as the blend of cheese and crisp carrots and celery.

The Oven Thermometer, A Must Have

I must admit I stumbled upon the idea of an oven thermometer by unlucky necessity... We moved to a new home last year and I soon found that my dinners (and more importantly, my desserts) were frequently ending in disaster! While I have had the occasional kitchen mishap, this trend was unusual for me.  I decided that my oven must be to blame, and did a little online searching.

I was quite happy to find that these oven thermometers are QUITE inexpensive, I think I paid less than $10 for this one, and was even happier to learn that my oven was "off" by nearly 20 degrees.  (And so I was not to blame for my recent cooking catastrophes).  

I reset the oven temperature and all has been well since then.

But this led to the discovery that an oven thermometer can be a useful item to have around anyway.  I use mine ALL the time now.  I also learned that my oven "preheat timer" is very wrong.  So when it dings and tells me that my oven is preheated five minutes after I set it, I think "Aw.... that's cute"  And wait another 15 before I check to see if my oven is actually ready.

In consequence, our cakes, cookies, brownies, casseroles, breads have all arrived evenly baked and delicious.  Thank you, Oven Thermometer!

Meatball Subs

This is one of my husband's favorite dinners of all time.  And my favorite things are that it's really quite simple to make, and the meatball recipe lends itself to plenty of leftovers.  We usually end up eating meatball subs, and then later in the week we have spaghetti and meatballs with whatever didn't become a mid-week snack.

Greek Pastitsio (Casserole Style)

I found this recipe on Pinterest, and thought it looked yummy.  I'm always looking for something a little different to feed my family, and we don't eat a lot of Greek food.  I have to admit the nutmeg in this recipe made me nervous, but the entire family agreed it was delicious!

Southwest Eggrolls

This is one of my first recipes in which I used Egg Roll Wrappers.  They are so much fun! You can typically find them in the cold section in the produce aisle.  Near the packaged salads/Tofu, etc.  Once you use them you will be amazed at how many exciting dishes you can use them in.