All right, kids. Remember how I predicted that I would be sick by Sunday with the crazy weather changes? Well, just to spite me, the universe and my body decided to wait until I thought I was in the clear and knock me down two days later than expected. Not funny, you two. Caitlin is not laughing right now. In fact, she’s trying not to do a whole lot except sleep after work so that she can kick this combination sore throat/ear ache to the curb. She doubts she was even able to stay up until the season premier of Smash last night either (but she’s ok with that because she can watch it today on the internet). Consequently, today’s post is going to be short and compromised of some recipes I (or fine, Joe, too) have made within the last week for your viewing pleasure! Questions, comments, concerns about any of them? Feel free to send me an email or ask away in the comments! Thanks, Jenn, for hosting!
Friday Night Pizza Dough
Ingredients:
~3-4 cups of flour (white, whole wheat, or bread work…we used bread to be extra fancy this time, but I’ve used all purpose and wheat numerous times before and had no problem)
~1.5 cups of warm water
~1 package of yeast
~1 teaspoon of sugar (or honey…use honey…it’s my favorite…someone ignored that)
~1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
~1 teaspoon of salt
To make:
Throw all of your ingredients into a bowl and stir/knead until combined. If you’re lucky and have a Kitchen Aid, use a dough hook, and it will do the work for you. If you’re poor and unlucky like us, you’ll have to use your hands…and it will take at least 10 minutes to form the dough…but you will get out a lot of stress in the process and feel immensely pleased with yourself when done. Cover the dough, place it in a warm area for an hour or so, and then check on it. It should theoretically double in size; ours didn’t, but we had more than enough to make two pizzas, so we were fine with that. Split it into however many pizzas you want, roll out the dough, and add your toppings. We went with marinara sauce, mozzarella, and basil on one, and goat cheese (made more spreadable with the addition of a dash of olive oil), balsamic carmelized red onions and mushrooms, and freshly grated fontina cheese . Throw them in a 500 degree oven for approximately 15 minutes, and you should be good to go. If your pizzas resemble these,
you did something right! Nicely done 
Banana Bread for the Boy
The only baked good that Joe will ever ask for is banana bread. I know…he’s crazy. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good loaf every now and then myself, but when I’m offering oodles of cookies or brownies or cake or a combination of all three and all he wants is banana bread, I tend to shake my head and wonder how we work so well (KIDDING! LOVE YOU!). And to make matters worse, he won’t even let me play and experiment with different types and add-ins (unless it’s walnuts…those are acceptable). He likes one recipe and one recipe only. For people who like to have fun and try new things where banana bread is concerned, check out this page from Sally. I’ve had my eye on that Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread for ages now and may have attempted to make it last night, depending on how much energy I had when I got home. Check instagram for results. In any case, the actual banana bread I make for a certain boring in the bake department boy comes from this recipe over on Courtney’s blog. The only thing I change is the use of normal sugar instead of NuNaturals. I don’t have that…and real sugar works just fine.
See?
Caitlin’s Wishful Attempt At Cooking Something Not Leftover During the Week
Homemade Chicken Cheesesteaks from Jessica, which Sam reminded me about last week. I planned to use English muffins for the rolls (forgot them at Trader Joes on Saturday morning…no way was I going back there before the Super Bowl), regular cheddar and chicken breasts since that’s what I had on hand but was then going to follow everything else to the best of my ability. Then I got sick and had no energy for anything more complicated than tomato soup and a grilled cheese with turkey (Big Kid’s idea for dinner…he’s already a genius at the age of 2.5) followed by froyo. These will sadly have to wait until tomorrow or Thursday when I’m theoretically feeling better. Fingers crossed, friends, fingers crossed.
Tomato soup with fresh basil and kale + whole wheat bagel thin topped with honey goat cheese, fontina cheese, tomato, turkey, and honey mustard.
Big Kid gets a huge hug for this one
Have a wonderful Wednesday!
Do you like to cook during the week? Has the weather made you sick, too? Did you watch Smash last night? Thoughts?
i can’t wait for homemade pizza friday night! i am sorry you’re not feeling well but i am glad you’re taking care of your body and sleeping it off! nothing better for a cold than some sleep, i think. well that and grilled cheese certainly helps
Thanks love
They definitely do! And start thinking about pizza toppings you want….
Awe, I hate that you are ill! There is nothing like tomato soup to cure anything
. Pizza looks smazing Caitlin and I am on this huge banana bread kick myself 
.
Hope you feel better soon and get plenty of rest!
So true, darlin! I’m working on it
I hope you wake up feeling better this morning! Soup and grilled cheese is so comfort food to the max in my opinion! I love how you and my mom have been teasing me with homemade pizza this past weekend. Pizza craving has hit, homemade preferably now I just have to find the time! Haha Joe is funny, my mom is like that with her favorites. You will have to experiment before March 8! Final well wishes coming your way <3
Experimenting as we speak haha, and you need to jump on the pizza train stat
That’s one of my favorite breads! I use regular sugar now too…enjoy!
It’s a huge compliment to your skills, darlin! Someone can be a complete food snob when he wants to be, so the fact that he won’t accept anything besides yours is big
It seems like everyone I know has gotten sick this winter! There must be one massive bug going around. I hope you feel better soon girl!
I’m like Joe – I LOVE banana bread. Definitely one of my favourite snacks. I haven’t made a loaf in ages though because I’m never able to keep bananas around until they get that ripe.
I love cooking during the week. It helps to relax me after a long day of work/school!
Thanks darlin! I wish I liked cooking more during the week. I’m always happy when I actually do it (like tonight) but I can’t talk myself up to it often haha. And banana bread is always welcome in my opinion…I just love other desserts too
neeeeed to make that pizza dough! I’ve made bread before, I can do a decent pie crust, but for some reason, never pizza dough. Needs to be done!
And I hope you feel better! There’s a hideous flu going around here right now – I’ve had 4 different profs cancel classes because they were sick, and my class (of 6) was missing two people due to it. So I’ve been taking my vitamins and using hand sanitizer like its my job.
I hope you get a chance to make those cheesesteaks! One of the best dinners I’ve made in a while.
You can make pie crust??? TEACH ME! It scares me haha…and yeah I have no idea what this is, but I’m not a happy camper. I can handle congestion/sore throat, but throw in the ear ache and I’m even more like a child haha. I’ve been trying to step up extra nutrients and taking my vitamins…hopefully sleep tonight will cure this! And those cheesesteaks were amazing :_
I want that tomato soup recipe! It looks awesome. Feel better soon
Thanks love
And it’s a super simple recipe…TJ’s tomato and roasted red pepper soup with some fresh basil and kale thrown in…that’s it…all I can handle when I’m sick after a long day with the munchkins 
Feel better soon! I hate those pesky weather bugs. I’m definitely going to be making pizza. Maybe thursday night. Yes, thursday will be a good day for it. Although maybe not by myself, so that may have to wait a couple more days until my roommate gets back from conferences. But now that I’ve seen pizza, that all I can think about. Need. It. Now.
You could make a little recipe to test run it before you do it with your roommate…just saying
So many great recipes! I can’t wait until I get home and can try them. Banana bread is one of my all-time favorites. And how could I not love that homemade pizza dough?! Hope you feel better soon!
Thanks girl! I hope you enjoy them
yum. The bread and pizza dough look amazing. Those are some of my favorite things to make. Back when I was able to eat them, there is this master pizza dough recipe on All Recipes that uses rapid rise yeast (<<<best invention ever for those of us who don't like to wait). And banana bread is my favorite baked good from my childhood. My great grandma made us a loaf literally every other week. I'd only eat it about half the time though because she sometimes made it with nuts… Oh how times have changed!
I always seem to get sick when it gets cold or warm really fast. Hope you feel better soon!
I have to grab some of that rapid rise yeast because I can’t stand waiting haha…Joe had it ready to go when I got home Friday, otherwise there would have been some serious whining…and you are so right about how the times have changed. I wouldn’t have touched banana bread or nuts when I was younger…now they’re some of my favs
Sometime tomato soup and grilled cheese is the best thing anyway. I hope you’re feeling better!
Thanks love…very true
pizza and banana cake. I’m in.
Excellent! Come to the burgh and we’ll make it happen
yespleeeeaaaase!
Excellent! I expect you this weekend
Feel better! That pizza looks amazing! I love a good thick crust.
Thanks girl! And I agree…I’m a thick crust lover all the way
hope you get some rest and feel better.
thanks hun…working on it
your pizza dough sounds amazing! Thanks for the link to my banana bread.
I love banana bread! Did you end up making mine?
Thanks love! And it’s in the oven as we speak, making my mouth water…I can’t wait for it to be done haha…definitely sense a burned mouth coming
Yum! I had to laugh when you were complaining about him only liking on baked good. I still can’t get over the fact that Chris eats peanut butter maybbeee twice a month-yeah, how are we still together? Haha I totally want that tomato soup recipe! It looks great!
Have a good Wednesday, girl!
Thanks lovely…I’ll shall the soup secret Friday
And seriously…what is with our boys??
Aw, love – I hope you feel better soon! I hear the cold that’s going around packs an industrial-strength punch, so hopefully you can nip this in the bud. Give yourself lots of fluids, veggies, zinc, and…you could see this coming from a mile away, but I’m totally going to say it anyways…rest. I’m sending lots of germ-busting thoughts your way!
That’s all I’ve been doing lady love! Pinky promise! and thank you for those germ busting thoughts…fingers crossed they get through tonight!
Eep! Feel better soon, girlie! I got hit with some minor virus a couple weeks back, and even though it never turned into the full blown plague that seems to be going around, it was annoying all the same. Hopefully you’re feeling back to good in no time! And hopefully the next time you decide to bake up some pizza and banana bread, you invite me over
I have yet to make my own pizza dough, but banana bread is something that I absolutely adore. It’s been way too long since I’ve made any, though… I just can’t stop eating banans long enough to let them reach the perfect ripeness!
Come to the burgh and we’ll make both…and go get cupcakes and froyo…and visit Target and Trader Joes…and talk about books…sounds good?
Those pizzas look SO delicious. There is just something that is sooo good and comforting about homemade pizza
.
Agreed! I’m super picky about ordering pizza now because I’m too spoiled by homemade haha
Where was this pizza dough recipe last week?? Haha it’s all good, especially since that’s basically the exact same recipe I followed anyway. I like the honey idea, though. For a decent stretch of 2012 I refused to sweeten things with anything but honey. Then I stopped being stupid and afraid of white sugar, so I happily tossed some in my pizza dough, but I bet honey gives it a really good flavor. Something to keep in mind the next time I make my own dough!
Get better soon!
I sorryyyyyyy
Let me know what you think when you try it 
Feel better- but pizza is so the antidote for feeling rotten. Happy WIAW- new reader
Thanks for stopping by, love
And you are so right about pizza…it solves just about anything…especially when combined with chocolate…and froyo 
Yum! Nothing beats a homemade piza
You are incredibly correct on that
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