The wife and I are enamored with our new Sunday treat, the Chicago-style Italian beef sandwich.
If you’re not familiar with this heavenly mess, think of it as the bastard offspring of a French dip and a Philly cheese steak. Watch this video for more information. There’s really no place locally to get these sandwiches, so I’ve been experimenting at home with my crock pot. There are several recipes online that have merit, and I’ve pieced them together to formulate my own method.
We figured the best way to use our homemade mozzarella cheese was to make Margherita pizza. My wife decided to make pizza dough to keep with the ‘fresh’ theme. We used this pizza dough recipe. Here she is manually dissolving the yeast:
Getting your hands dirty is the key to good dough.
A few weeks ago, my wife and I tried our hand at making mozzarella cheese. This kit from Leeners.com cost $25 and will make 6 pounds of cheese:
The kit cost over $30 after shipping and handling, and we'll have to buy six gallons of fresh milk. That might sound like a lot of effort and money for so little product, but it would cost us over $90 to buy that much fresh mozzarella from the grocery store. So we think it's a good deal — if the cheese tastes good.
