Kitchen Sink Pizza

Kitchen Sink Pizza

So tonight I was in charge of making dinner- without any input from my better half! Shoot! I'm terrible at making decisions! But then I remembered that about a week ago, Skylar (the better half's name) was asking for pizza. We love artichoke hearts on our pizza, I checked the pantry and - SCORE - can of artichoke hearts! So I googled the recipe for dough (from All Recipes.com), which, by the way, is the best pizza dough I've ever encountered! It's light and airy but you don't have to roll it too thin to get that crunch that every pizza base should have! I did tweak the baking times, however. So my personal recipe goes as follows (feel free to tweak this how you'd like as well).

Dough:
1 package yeast
1 cup hot (110 degrees) water
2 Cups flour
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 tsp white sugar
1 tsp salt

**I ended up adding about a handful of cornmeal to my bread machine after it had mixed all the flour in with the liquids to help firm up the dough a little bit more**

As mentioned in the note above, I have a bread machine. The recipe from allrecipes.com has instructions to mix w/out a bread machine. I just combined all the ingredients listed above into the machine and mixed/rise as scheduled according to the machine.

When the dough is about 30 mins away from being done w/ rising, I started to prep my toppings. I haven't addressed the fact as to why it's called "Kitchen Sink Pizza" - if I need to - it's because I went through both my pantry and my refrigerator and grabbed anything that looked remotely cohesive on a heap of carbs, topped w/ cheese (which happened to be sharp cheddar - so we didn't use a ton) and of course, to make any meal that much more amazing - bacon! But you can use whatever your heart desires! However, if you don't feel like thinking too much, this turned out really good!

Toppings:

2 cloves garlic, diced

about 10 kalamata olives, diced

1/2 Can (7oz) artichoke hearts, diced

4 slices bacon, diced and fried

about 20 pieces Salami

2 C(ish) of Cheese, your choice

Start by freezing your bacon for about 20 minutes before you try to dice it (makes your life so much easier). Dice your bacon and fry it until it is JUST barely crispy (it will crisp more in the oven, but make sure it's cooked), strain from fat and set aside on paper towel. Dice up the rest of your ingredients and set aside. To roll out your dough, dust your surface with either flour or cornmeal and start rollin! Make sure to fit the size of your baking tray - I have a round Pampered Chef baking stone that I use (thanks Mom). 

After you have rolled out your dough and placed it on your baking tray, set your oven to 350 and start preheating. While it's preheating, place your dough in the oven to pre-bake for 5 minutes. Remove dough, placed sauce (we used olive oil) as light/thick as you'd like and place toppings - I'd start w/ the minced garlic, then 1/2 your cheese, then flat meats, followed by diced toppings. Then top w/ remaining cheese. I started baking this for 15 minutes, then after 15 minutes I turned my oven up to 400 and baked for an additional 5 minutes. Cut into pieces and serve!

Bon appetite! Please leave your versions behind, I love new ideas!

Thanks for reading!

Megan's Magnificent Mac-&-Cheese

Hello everyone!

Because of the compliments I got last night on my Mac and Cheese, I've decided to post my recipe! Here we go!

Ingredients (serves 8)
- 9x13 Baking Dish
- 1 lbs Pasta (I prefer shells, I'm not a fan of elbow macaroni - too much like Kraft)
- 1 Package Bacon; diced
- 2 Tbsp Butter
- 2 Cloves Garlic; diced
- 2 Tbsp Flour
- 2 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream
- 5 oz Sharp White Cheddar Cheese
- 5 oz Shredded Parmesan Cheese
- White Cheddar Cheese-Itz (crushed for top of dish)

Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Dice garlic, set aside; Dice bacon into bite sized pieces (hint: if you freeze your bacon for an hour before you dice it, it makes your life so much simpler)
- Place bacon in large frying pan; fry until just slightly crispy. Drain from fat and set aside
- Start boiling water for pasta; start cooking pasta (you'll want it very al dente)
- Place butter in frying pan and melt; add garlic and sauté.
- Add Flour and cook approx 2 mins or until bubbly
- Slowly incorporate cream, at a low simmer, continuously stirring for approx 3-5 mins until thick. Taste sauce and add salt as needed (I added 5 clicks of my salt grinder)
- I added a handful of both cheeses at this point and reduced the heat to low. Add bacon to sauce.
- By this point, your pasta should be done. It only needs about 7 minutes, it will still cook when it's in the oven so don't over do it!
- Strain pasta and return to pot. Add sauce to pasta and remaining cheese and stir until mixed well
- Place pasta mixture into baking dish and top w/ crumbled cheese-Itz. Bake 25 minutes; or until heated through
- If you like a crispy top, broil your dish for about 5 minutes until the top is browned
- Enjoy! 😄



That's it! It's pretty easy and doesn't involve too much clean-up after (if you clean as you go). I hope you all enjoy this as much as my friends did! I can't emphasize enough how important it is to taste your sauce and season it to your tastes! We are salt whores around here so what works for us may not work for all!

Please leave feedback or tweaks you made when you make it. I love variety!

DENTAL HYGIENE PATIENTS WANTED

Hello All!

First let me say thank you for taking the time to read about what getting your teeth cleaned @ Lane involves. Since I'm a first year student, I'm looking for people that haven't had their teeth cleaned for approx Six (6) Months to One (1) Year. We are looking for simple cases this year, for more advanced cases I'll see you next year :-)

Being a patient at our Dental Clinic involves 2 steps; Step One: The Evaluation and Step Two: The Cleaning

Step One: The Evaluation
This is also known as a "screening" appointment; you will meet with myself or another first year student to evaluate your oral health needs and make sure they fall within our range of care. If you do, then you go into a patient pool book we have at school. Unfortunately just because you have an evaluation appointment doesn't guarantee that you will get an appointment for a cleaning. I will have a year and a half of needing patients, but if everyone is very easy and I need more difficult patients, well I have to rearrange my list. I'm sure that everyone understands, but I will try really hard to get you an appointment! (And we would discuss where I saw you as far as needs go at your screening appointment). The Evaluation process is completely free, but I ask that you get the Health and Medical History forms ahead of time (I will get you a copy upon confirming our Evaluation date) so we can get you right in the chair and maximize our time together

Step Two: The Cleaning Appointment
If your oral health status meets my requirements for class, I will schedule you a cleaning appointment personally, giving you my own cell phone number to make changes or cancel appointments (although emergencies happen, I'd prefer to keep originally scheduled dates to avoid unnecessary panic attacks on my end). We have designated appointments available on Monday mornings from 8:30- 11:30 and Wednesday afternoons from 1:00pm-4:00pm. At Lane, we refer to cleaning appointments as the "hurry up and wait" appointments due to instructor/doctor/student ratios; we will be using all the allotted time for the appointment, and please note that we highly encourage patients reporting for appointments at least 10 minutes early (to allow for check-in and paper work completion-if needed)

The cost of the Cleaning Appointment is $40 (which includes 4 Bitewing X-ray Films and the Cleaning; compared to $200+ price tag at a private practice office). Forms of acceptable payment are Cash or Check, the Dental Clinic has no way to process credit/debit cards at this time. We also do not bill insurance, although some insurance companies will reimburse you after your appointment (with proof of receipt). As of right now we aren't offering Nitrous options for just cleanings (as we are just looking for simple cleanings for First Years)

Some cleanings may be more involved than others so multiple appointments may occur (chances of this occurring will be discussed in your evaluation and also during your cleaning appointment)

Evaluation Dates:

Monday, January 24th - Spot held for Patient
Wednesday, February 29th - 1-2:20pm - Open
                          2:30pm - 4:00pm - Open

Cleaning Dates:
Monday, February 27th - 8:30-11:30am - Spot held for Patient
Monday, March 5th - 8:30-11:30am - Open  
Wednesday, March 7th - 1:00 - 4:00pm - Open 
Wednesday, March 14th - 1:00 - 4:00pm - Open 
 
 Radiology (X-ray) Patients
We are also looking for Radiology patients! This is just a one time appointment! Ideally we are looking to take 1 Full Mouth Series (FMX; 18 Films to assess every tooth in the mouth); which is done once every 3-5 years and requires a prescription from a Dentist. If you need any radiography  done, please let me know - we need 1 FMX patient a week! I believe the cost of a full mouth series of films is $25. We have other x-ray requirements to fill, but since the term hasn't started I'm not sure what exactly that involves. I'll post updates as I know, but if you're interested, please message me on Facebook or comment on the blog site itself or call/text me)

Price List (of Services offered @ LCC)

• Screening appointment:  No Charge
• Adults: $40.00
• Seniors (60+): $30.00
• Children: $20.00
• Sealants (per): $5.00
• Full Mouth Series: $25.00
• Panoramic X-ray: $20.00
• Nitrous per session: $15.00
• Restorative:  Variable fees (provided only to patients who have completed dental hygiene services)

This is all the information I can think of at the moment. If anyone has any questions about the above information please message me ASAP so I can edit this post and get you booked for an Eval! My cell phone number is (541) 915-9541 Thanks again for reading!