I smiled at all the comments to my last post that you thought I was quitting the blog!  As I always tell Tony, he’s stuck with me and so are you guys! 😀

Tony was under the weather this weekend so it was low key in the Bizzy household, which is just fine with me because the closer the holidays get, the more stressed I tend to get thinking of all the things I need to get done.  Hope you feel better today Tony! 😀

Our Saturday morning greeted us with our first round of snow.

I guess I won't be using the Weber any time soon 🙁

I had planned on us going out to lunch on Saturday, so while Tony was taking it easy, I looked to see what I could make myself for lunch.  I saw that I had a thawed chicken breast that needed to be cooked up, so I thought I would try another version of almost gluten free pizza dough.

Biz’s Low Gluten Pizza Dough

  • 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten-Free flour
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 1/2 packet of yeast
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix together all the dry ingredients and add water.  This is enough for 2 personal (8 inch) pizzas.  I still had to roll the dough on my pizza pan, but it was much easier to work with.

I grilled the chicken breast with rosemary and garlic seasoning.

I used half of this breast for my pizza

Then added diced green pepper and mozzarella cheese and baked for 13 minutes at 400 degrees, then I finished it off under the broiler for a couple minutes.

Super crispy!  I am really liking this dough.  I need to see if Whole Foods sells gluten free flour in bulk – does anyone know?

I had a fantastic grocery shop.  I spent $79.12.  This was the score of the day though – $1.28 a pound for boneless, skinless chicken breasts!

So my menu for the week (remember breakfast and lunches are just me 😀 )

Breakfasts:

Lunches:

Dinners:

  • buttermilk fried chicken with potato wedges
  • beef stroganoff with grainy mustard green beans (don’t worry Tony – the green beans are for me!)
  • pork chop milanese with basil and parmesan brown rice
  • buffalo chicken chili mac 3 ways (Hannah, you can put onions on yours if you wish!)
  • beef stew with carrots and cauliflower

We have a cookie exchange coming up for work, and I plan on making gift foodie baskets for our immediate neighbors.  I decided to do a dry run on an idea I had for dried cranberry brittle.  My final version will have pistachio’s instead of almonds, but because pistachio’s are quite a bit more money, I didn’t want to waste them in case it didn’t turn out.

Biz’s Dried Cranberry and Almond Brittle

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 stick unsalted butter
  • 1/3 cup light corn syrup
  • 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
  • 6 ounces dried cranberries
  • 6 ounces chopped salted roasted almonds
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Combine the sugar, water, butter and corn syrup in a large saucepan.  You need to either use a big pot, or a stock pot with tall sides because it does boil up pretty high.  Insert a candy thermometer and bring to 300 degrees – because I used more water this process took about 30 minutes.  I had my measured out baking soda and nuts/cranberries ready to go when it hit 300.

Once it hit 300, take off the heat, stir in the baking soda and nuts and cranberries, stirring quickly because it will bubble up and quickly pour on a parchment lined jelly roll pan.  Using the back of a spoon, quickly spread out evenly while it is still hot, then sprinkle with coarse sea salt.  Let cool completely – mine was cool to the touch in about 45 minutes.

Then break in pieces.  I plan on buying some cute bags at Hobby Lobby to put them in with pretty ribbons.  I think it will be a nice addition to our cookie exchange this year!

pouring in the corn syrup
300 degrees is the hard crack stage
make sure to have your parchment pan ready to go - it does start to harden pretty quickly
it came close to boiling over, but id didn't 😀
the fruit and nuts were ready to go
sprinkle with the sea salt while its still hot - I kind of gently (carefully!) pressed the salt into the brittle

Ready to wrap up and give away!  I love giving gifts from the kitchen.  This year I bought identical snowman (shocker!) mugs for my co-workers and plan to make homemade cocoa mix with homemade peppermint marshmallows – yum!

Alright, its time for me to get ready for work – its going to be a cold week here in Chicagoland – lows in the single digits!

Oh, and I almost forgot to select a winner for Bacon Santa!

True Random Number Generator 55 6

My favorite way to eat bacon is in a broccoli salad. It’s amazing! I feel ya on the ‘not posting on the weekend’ thing. I’m the same way! It’s all about balance :)

Congrats Anne Marie!  Send me your address at mybizzykitchen@gmail.com and I’l forward it to the company to get your loot.

Have a great Monday!