Tasty Tuesday: Personal Pizzas and Indoor S'mores Bars

PART 1
We love making pizza. I toss a few ingredients in my bread machine and 90 minutes later we have pizza dough. (Have I ever mentioned how I love my bread machine?) Fifteen minutes after forming the pie and adding toppings, we have hot, delicious pizza, fresh out of the oven. Usually, we make one big pizza. This time, I decided to split the dough into fourths and let everyone make his own. The kids loved it!

I save left over dipping sauce when we order pizza. If we need more, I use jarred pasta sauce. You can't even tell the difference. Jake, who is the pickiest of the three, had no hesitations in putting mushrooms and banana peppers on his pizza. Alyssa loves toppings. Her pizza would have had a pack of cheese, a whole onion, and half a pig if she had her way! Zachy eats anything you put in front of him . . . and then some.

Pizza Dough for bread machine
Ingredients:
3/4 tsp salt                                             2 tsp active dry yeast  
4 c all-purpose flour                               1 3/8 c water
1 Tbsp pizza seasoning                         3 Tbsp olive oil

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in bread pan.
2. Select dough setting and press start.
3. Once the machine is done, remove dough and pat into preferred shape. Prepare as desired.
4. Bake at 400°F for 15 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. Let rest 5 minutes before cutting.

PART 2

We love camping. Jake asks all year long if we can go. He doesn't care that it's freezing temperatures outside. He just wants to camp! One of the best things about it is making s'mores. I love sitting by the fire and sloooowly roasting marshmallows. It is a science to get them just right - lightly browned on the outside, ooey-gooey on the inside. Once it's perfect, you use the graham crackers and chocolate to slide the marshmallow off, leaving a clean stick behind. The chocolate melts into creamy goodness. Mmm, now I'm ready to go camping! Almost.

Currently, it's too cold to go camping, but that didn't stop us from eating s'mores.

Indoor S'mores Bars
Ingredients: 
8     cups Golden Grahams cereal           5     tablespoons butter
5     cups miniature marshmallows             1     teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2     cups milk chocolate chips              1     cup miniature marshmallows, if desired
1/4     cup light corn syrup

Directions:
1. Into large bowl, measure cereal. Butter 13x9-inch pan. In large microwavable bowl, microwave 5 cups marshmallows, the chocolate chips, corn syrup and butter uncovered on High 2 minutes to 3 minutes 30 seconds, stirring after every minute, until melted and smooth when stirred. Stir in vanilla.
2. Pour over cereal; quickly toss until completely coated. Stir in 1 cup marshmallows.
3. Press mixture evenly in pan, using buttered back of spoon. Let stand uncovered at least 1 hour, or refrigerate if you prefer a firmer bar. Cut into bars.  Store loosely covered at room temperature up to 2 days.

We made a few modifications. We made half a batch because somebody ate most of the Golden Grahams. We melted the coating on the stove. We had to use regular marshmallows because that's all we had. I cut some into pieces and tried ripping some to the size of mini marshmallows for the final mix-in. It was actually easier to just tear them apart. As I put the  ingredients away, I found a bag of minis, right where they were supposed to be. Go figure.

The bars don't taste exactly like a s'more. They have a strong Golden Grahams flavor. Strange, I know, since that's the main ingredient. They would be more s'more-like if made with plain ol' graham crackers. They are delicious and very addicting! But, they will never replace a good, old-fashioned s'more.