One of my children has been ‘pre-diagnosed’ with ADHD and Dyslexia.  Three of my four children wet the bed.  (The younger three).  I was talking with a friend at belly dancing and she was saying how they’ve seen huge improvements in behavior and bedwetting by cutting out artificial dyes.  I figure it’s worth a shot right?  I’m giving it a month.  If I don’t see any improvements then there’s no harm done.  If I do then we all win.  This is what I had to get rid of:
Saddest about:
Life Cereal:  yellow 5, yellow 6
Quaker Instant Oatmeal:
- Strawberries and Cream: Red 40
- blueberries and cream: Blue 2 lake, red 40 lake
Pickles (Nalley and Vlassic): Yellow 5
Hosin Sauce: Red #40

Sad but not devastated:
La Choy Fortune Cookies: Yellow 5 and Yellow 6
Smucker’s caramel flavored syrup: yellow 6, red 40
Smucker’s butterscotch topping: yellow 5, yellow 6
Kraft creamy french dressing: yellow 6, yellow 5
Any flavor cake mix except chocolate

Not really that sad:
Vanilla pudding mix (harvest of the west): yellow #5 and yellow #6
bear creek tortilla soup mix: Yellow #6

Sorry for those of you who now have 5 million posts from me in your readers in 2 hours time.  I’ve moved all my recipes from the old recipe blog here and have indexed them.  You may not care- but it’s a nice thing for me.

Some of the pictures from old posts are killing me.  This one in particular from November of 2007.

I was thinking today how big Cori looked- then I saw this picture and the chub in her cheeks (that’s no longer there) and it just seems so long ago that she even remotely looked like a baby!

This is a recipe from a friend who used to own a pizza restaurant. My biggest problem with homemade pizza used to be the crust- it was always ‘bready’ and too often undercooked (gross!) So there are several secrets to this crust being fabulous.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp Yeast
2 Tbsp Sugar
2.5 Cups warm water
2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp oil
5-6 cups of flour

Mix all ingredients together- kneading until flour is incorporated. Let rise overnight for the dough that’s easiest to handle- or let rise on counter until double in size. But you can make the dough up on Monday and not use it for several days if you want.

Press the dough out into circles (about 10 inches works well) and then rub with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and oregano. Par bake the crust in a pan on the stove until it bubbles and is golden brown (flipping to par bake both sides). Remove from pan before it’s cooked all the way through. Top with sauce, cheese and toppings and put it in the oven (preheated to 500 degrees) directly on the rack until the cheese is melted.

The par baking and high temperature baking helps to avoid the soggy crust.

1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1-2 tsp sugar

Spices to taste:
basil
garlic
salt

Mix all ingredients and heat to a low boil. Turn down and simmer until combined and the same consistency/texture throughout. You can run it through the blender for a smoother sauce.

We ate at a pizza place several months ago that had THE BEST breadsticks. I’ve fiddled around with a way to copy their recipe. I use my pizza crust dough- usually I make two pizzas and then use the rest of the dough to make breadsticks.

You’ll need food safe dowels- I get them in the cake decorating aisle (of a craft store or Walmart).
I start soaking the dowels in warm water when I make my dough- so they soak for at least an hour while the dough rises and I make my crusts for pizza.

Then roll out pieces of dough into long ’snakes’ as my kids call them, roll out all your dough so that the first ones are ‘resting’ while you roll out the rest, this will make the dough easier to roll onto your sticks.

Then wind them up around the soaked sticks and lay on a cookie sheet. Brush with melted butter and either sprinkle with garlic salt and basil, or brush with butter and then roll in a cinnamon and sugar mix. (Don’t sprinkle on the cinnamon and sugar- you’ll end up with a burnt, smoky mess).

Here is the rolled out dough and the first couple of one’s ready for the oven:
Here is a close up of the oven ready ones (before adding spices):
Here they are out of the oven :

Brush with butter as they come out of the oven while they’re hot- this will keep them soft. Baking them on the sticks keeps them moist. They turn out fabulous (and eating them off the sticks is just fun).

And these are my lovely assistants/taste testers: