Michael's Haul, Knitting Updates, and a Recipe to Share

Hello Friends,

I hope you are all doing well. I just got back from a lunch and then shopping trip to Michael's craft store. It is beautiful outside today I just want to stay outside but I have some things to do in the apartment today like blog and do some cleaning.
I went to Michael's craft store today and I was going for the purpose of buying another fitness insert for my Happy Planner. I did buy it, and another planner for recipes, and some Patons Astra yarn in the color of "hot lilac".  I am going to knit something special for Mother's day, but it is a surprise, so I won't be posting it for awhile. I am excited to use the recipe insert in my planner, I have been more interested in trying new recipes and cooking lately and thought it would be fun to try it out. I will share a page with you once I have filled one out!

Happy Planner's inserts recipe and fitness editions, and Patons Astro yarn 

I have finished knitting the first sock using Bernat Sox yarn, and I have started on the second andhave made some progress since Tuesday's post. I realized I knitted the front piece of the sweater wrong and had to frog quite a bit. I knitted too much before the neck shaping part by accident. I frogged the part I knitted too much of and will do the neck shaping right after the armhole shaping instead of knitting the pattern for 24 inches like the back piece. I read: "front: Work as for back until armhole shaping is finished, ending with a WS row" as do exactly as the armhole shaping says and it had said to "DEC 1 st each side every RS row 6 times. 49 (55, 61) sts remain. Continue working in pattern until piece measures 22 (23, 24) inches ending with a WS row." That's where I continued but that was only for the back piece so I ended up with another back piece. I had not compared the two piece at all and they are the exact same length now without the neckline. If you are interested in the sweater pattern, it is 3TimesChic on the Knitty.com website.  I have found the pattern to be easy to follow until this point, but I just need to read more carefully next time.

First sock done and second in progress!

Had to frog some of the sweater, but will start the neckline now!

Yarn I bought today at Michael's for a secret Mother's day gift!

I made cauliflower pizza last week for dinner on Thursday night. I had wanted to try making this for some time. I am on a diet, or nutrition plan, which calls for no grain at dinner. This is the Cityline Weight Loss Challenge if anyone is interested in participating. The official challenge actually ends next Wednesday on Cityline when the "Winners" or four people selected to go in the challenge reveal themselves and discuss their results. I will be continuing along with many others as I have not reached my goal weight yet, but I am on my way. I am so excited to see how they all look and I am hoping that I am down even more by then. So far I have lost 11 pounds since starting and 11 inches (from chest, waist, and hips, combined). So anyways, this program has a no grain at dinner rule so I follow it most nights and I cheat maybe a couple times each week because it is hard to have no grains if out for dinner or visiting people. I tried this cauliflower pizza and it was delicious! I made one for my boyfriend and one for myself but we both agreed that one would work for both of us with a side salad next time because it was more filling than we thought it would be. That works for me because it takes quite awhile to make two crusts and put in the oven to cook the crust then again after toppings are put on top. I followed a recipe I found on YouTube by Chef Buck . It is called "the best cauliflower pizza crust recipe that won't fall apart" and it did not fall apart! He says that the Parmesan cheese you add to the crust keeps it together than any other cheese he's tried. I bought fresh Parmesan and used the whole thing, so there is a lot of cheese required just a warning.

The crust when I pulled it out of the oven after cooking for 40 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit 

The pizza once I put the toppings on and cooked for 10 minutes in the oven - Yummy!

Cauliflower Pizza (from Chef Buck on YouTube)

Ingredients:
2 cups of grated cauliflower
1 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese 
1 egg beaten
Parchment paper to line your baking sheet
Pizza toppings (pizza sauce, vegetables, pepperoni etc)

How to Cook the A Cauliflower Crust Pizza Recipe:

1. Grate fresh cauliflower florets into small piece
2. Heat the grated cauliflower in a skillet--don't add oil or water--use medium heat, not too hot. Stir until the cauliflower has dried out somewhat, it won't dry completely, but the dryer the better. Heat at least 10 minutes, just enough to evaporate the moisture, not enough to color or cook down.
3. Remove skillet from burner and set aside to allow cauliflower to slightly cool.
4. In a bowl, beat 1 egg.
5. Add grated Parmesan cheese to the egg. You can substitute, asiago or romano cheeses, just be sure you use a hard cheese for best results.
6. Add the cauliflower to the bowl and mix well with the egg and cheese and form into a ball.
7. Spread parchment paper onto a baking sheet. It is important to use parchment paper, otherwise your crust may tear when you try to pick it up (and also be sure not to mix up parchment paper with wax paper!)
8. Place the balled cauliflower and cheese onto the parchment paper and spread out into a pizza shape about ¼ inch thick. The crust will be about 10" across. Do not make the edges of the crust too thin; keep the size of the crust uniform for even cooking. The cauliflower will darken quite rapidly around the edges if too thin.
9. Place crust into an oven preheated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and cook approx. 15-20 minutes until the crust has colored and firmed up.
10. Remove cauliflower pizza crust from the oven and top with your favorite pizza sauce. Use a marinara sauce, pesto, white sauce, or whatever. Top with your favorite pizza toppings.
11. Return pizza to the oven and continue to cook at 400 F for about 10 minutes until the toppings are done, watch the edges of the cauliflower crust; the edges will darken too much if overcooked.
12. Remove the pizza from the oven and set on a cooling rack if you want to, but not needed. I did not do this step and my crust was a bit soggy underneath, but not too bad. 

Enjoy!

A cauliflower pizza crust will not rise since there is no yeast involved, and since the crust is entirely cauliflower, cheese, and egg, it will not achieve the same crispness as a thin dough pizza. But the pizza will stay together just fine, and will taste very much like a pizza. 

The video Chef Buck made is very helpful to watch beforehand and it really helped me to know I was doing the right thing because this was all new to me having never made pizza before!

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Have a great day!