Pepperoni Roll Recipe

Once again I need to give credit to The Drummer Boy for a recipe. He gave me this one over the phone one day and it's so unbelievably easy and delicious that I make one every time I whip up a batch of pizza dough.

Pizza Dough Recipe

The Drummer Boy posted his world famous homemade pizza recipe a while back, and in it he included his pizza dough recipe as well. I've cribbed his process for making pizza dough and use it so often I felt it deserved its own post.

The ingredients I've listed call for Double-0 ("00") Flour. Double-0 is more finely milled and bakes up a bit crispier - but it can also be hard to find. If you can't locate it, standard white flour will do.

Chicken Soup Recipe

Many people have a story of their grandmother's chicken soup that would simmer for 12 days before it could be served. While I hold true to certain cooking traditions, sometimes I want a soup that can be eaten the same day I begin preparing it.

Nothing against your grandmother, but this is a full-flavored chicken soup that comes together fairly quickly and is hearty enough to be a full meal. I find that if you start with a good stock, the soup nearly makes itself. As with most things, I've used my homemade vegetable stock in this recipe, but feel free to substitute with your favorite chicken / veggie stock.

Chicken and Rice (Arroz con Pollo) Recipe

When I was younger, my mom learned how to make Spanish style chicken and rice from a neighbor of ours. There were a few other latino-influenced dished she picked up along the way, but this is one she made frequently.

Once I was on my own and cooking for myself, this dish quickly became a habit of mine. I've mentioned a few times in this space that I've never had much time to cook on weekdays, so I'm big on dishes that can be prepared in large batches and refrigerated / frozen for mass quantities of leftovers. This is one of those dishes (but don't freeze this one - the rice doesn't revive itself so well. That said, it keeps nicely in the fridge for 7-10 days).

The original recipe I learned from my mom called for two Goya products - Recaito and Sazón - as the main seasonings. Those are fine products but as I got older I preferred to use as little prepared products as possible and do as much from scratch as my talents and available time would allow. So I've replaced both of those with some fresh herbs, veggies, and dried spices. The end product doesn't taste exactly like the one mom used to make, but you can still find some behind the milk, waiting to be heated up after a long day at work, fairly often.