Stone and Chowder

I'm so excited, I finally bought myself a ceramic pizza stone (yes simple things like this excite me). Pizza has become one of the boys favorites and is often requested so I thought it was about time I bought one of these. A ceramic stone is supposed to bake your dough much more evenly and helps create that "Classic Crisp Crust". And, this pizza stone comes with a serving rack so you can keep your pizza on it, helps keep your pizza warm...yeah! Now I just need to work on rolling out an evenly round pizza.



I've been buying premade pizza dough from Trader Joe's which makes for an easy meal. Roll it out and top with your favorites. But thanks to my good friend Susan, I'm going to start making my own pizza dough in my bread maker. Susan is the bread maker guru and has given me all sorts of helpful hints. Will keep you posted on how that goes...

Yesterday was a rainy gloomy day, the perfect day for chowder. So along with pizza for the boys I decided to make crab chowder for mommy and daddy. Didn't have time to look for a recipe so I just made this one up and it was scrumptious.



1 med shallot
2 carrots
2 celery
1 red bellpeper
4 med yukon potatoes
1 cup frozen corn thawed
2 T olive oil
1/2 stick unsalted butter
2 bay leaves
sprig of fresh thyme
1 cup half/half
4 cups milk
2/3 cup flour
1 to 1 1/2 cups of lump crab meat
garnish with flat leaf parsley (optional)

saute shallot, bay leaves, carrots, and celery in olive oil and butter for a few minutes then add red bellpepper and saute for aprox 3 more minutes. Add flour and whisk until flour is throughly coating all veggies and is a golden color (aprox 2-3 minutes). Add 1/2 and 1/2, milk, potatoes, and thyme, simmer for aprox 12 min. and soup thickens. Stir in corn, crab and salt & pepper to taste, simmer for another 5 - 10 minutes.... whaa-lhaaa a yummy crab chowder, perfect for a rainy day. Now if I could just get the boys to eat it.