"Make it again! That pizza is awesome!" -dad

NOT...it was an epic fail in my opinion! 5 star rated recipes on food.com do not mean they are fool proof. Though Seth (w/my supervision) followed the recipe for the Pizza Dough (#43740) exactly, it just didn't work. Too sticky even after adding at least a cup more of flour. Impossible to roll out. Made the average deep dish pan pizza look like thin crust! Maybe it was the yeast? It was fresh, purchased today. Maybe the water temp? Ugh, I suppose there's a reason there's a pizza place on every corner and dozens of frozen varieties to choose from! Silly me, it's something I myself haven't perfected. Will try again, I am determined to figure it out! Pizza dough and pie crusts; they seem simple enough, but NO! It is so hard to get them just right.

I may even have to invest in a bread maker again as there were several "bread maker" recipes on food.com.

Fortunately the recipe for "Ultimate Pizza Sauce" also Food.com, #114392, turned out very good. So, by putting the full sauce recipe on 1/2 the pizza, it somehow worked. At least enough for Dad to claim it was "awesome!". But then again, he's never met a pizza he didn't like. :)

Side note: Cade was to make the sauce for his 3rd recipe, but his date with his girlfriend went too late. So, I made it. He will prepare a recipe tomorrow to make up for it!

Pomegranates...what to make, what to make!?

Last week I was given several home grown pomegranates from Bob, a regular attender of the step aerobic class I teach. I am fortunate to receive fresh & delish avocados, grapefruit, nectarines seasonally from him! Wanting to find a recipe "outside the box", I searched www.food.com and came across Healthy Pumpkin Pomegranate Muffins. They sounded interesting enough, and yes, did appear to be healthy. Plus they have several 5 star ratings which is always a plus.

Cade was more than willing to undertake this as his recipe #2. Lessons he learned:

1. There are several different standard kinds of flours. This recipe used whole wheat and all-purpose. It did not call for "self-rising". I explained how that was different and yet it comes in a similar package and looks the same so be sure you use the right one.

2. Cade learned how to load the muffins tin, leaving a bit of room for them to rise.

3. Cade had fun using the adjustable measuring cup from pampered chef. He got more practice

leveling the measuring cups just right. I also reminded him to use the appropriate measuring cups for liquid and dry. (Learned that in high school home ec, & it stuck with me)

Again the outcome was terrific! Delicious, perfectly cooked, interesting and healthy muffins. Don't know what purpose the 1/4 c grape nuts served but it made for a nice crunch. We did use Splenda Granulated as we had it on hand, which might explain why they weren't as sweet as Seth would have liked. Cade and I liked them just fine.