The mommy wars, solved!

It's time to quit arguing amongst ourselves about the best and only way to raise kids and balance motherhood with a career and beating ourselves up over seemingly impossible choices, someone has finally discovered the answer to the 'mommy wars!'  Or so I hope, find the article here.

Cinnamon Apples for the cast iron skillet

I'm having a dangerous affair with cast iron folks, and guess what, every recipe I try that actually works and is wonderful (so far everything I've made, there's a reason I'm in love) I'll pass on to you.  These apples are fabulous, no more drooling jealously over those steakhouse sides when I can make it at home!  Recipe here.

The search is over, a stuffed crust pizza that doesn't leak!

I'm having a dubious flirtation with a 12" cast iron pan right now, mostly pizza for some reason, but I'm in love and something tells me this fling will last a lifetime, or at least the pan will and then some.  I've spent years trying to find the secret to a stuffed crust pizza (a pizza with melty wonderful cheese lurking inside the crust) that doesn't leak cheese everywhere and I may have actually stumbled across the secret.  I managed to do it with my pretzel/bagel cheese bites by boiling the dough before baking but you can't exactly boil a pizza crust, I'm sure someone has but I have no wish to try!  Usually the cheese melts and the water vaporizes and the expanding gases rupture the crust allowing the cheese to ooze all over everything, but not this time.  I've tried sealing the seams really well, I've poked air vents of every shape and size, but still no luck.  The rimmed pan must be the secret, because the pizza I made in the cast iron skillet came out lovely and wonderful and the crust was cheese filled and completely intact.

Here are the basics, adjust to personal taste:

1/2 pound pizza dough (I used a half recipe, ~2 cups of flour, of regular white dough from the bread machine)

Sauce, cheese, toppings, spices, oil of preference.

A 12" cast iron pan.

Oil the pan well and preheat oven to 500 degrees F.  Roll dough into a circle slightly larger than the pan.  Place the dough in the oiled pan, make sure it is snug against the iron with excess draped over side.  Cut preferred cheese into ~3/4 inch diameter strips and line the edge of pan with cheese (or use string cheese).  Flop dough from sides of pan over cheese and seal the seams, cut away excessive dough.  Add 1/2 cup of your favorite sauce, top with 2 cups of your favorite shredded cheese, and 1/2 cup of your favorite toppings.  Oil the exposed crust and shake parmesan, basil, and garlic over everything.  Heat skillet on stove top over medium heat, just until pan is hot, about 2-3 minutes, being careful not to scorch pizza crust.  Once pan is hot, stick in over and finish baking until crust is golden and the cheese is bubbly.  Let sit a few minutes then enjoy!

Another adventure in plant keeping

I tried to force some bulbs a few years ago when I found them on clearance after Christmas, that really was more a mess than anything.  Now I'm going to try growing a lotus in the house.  I'm not sure they can survive our ridiculously short winter days, but if that doesn't work, there's always next summer.  I can't find much on the interweb about the subject, plenty on growing them outside or in general, but not much on the smaller varieties (the bowl lotus) as houseplants.  So I will conduct the grand experiment and let the anxious internet community know how it goes.  The seeds are inexpensive on amazon so even if it fails, I'm not out much besides a little messing around, besides, this is for posterity!