Best Beef Dip! - for a slow cooker

Beef Dip is one of those recipes that I always order at a diner.  I love it.  It's a treat when made well, but I've never thought to make it myself.  Rewind to two weeks ago, I was browsing at one of my favorite recipe sites, food.com, and found this recipe.  It had very high ratings (4 1/2 stars out of 5) and a lot of positive reviews.  The ingredients were simple and staples in our home.  It looked super easy (and it was) and honestly, I couldn't believe how delicious this really was.  My husband has not stopped talking about it ever since.  He has asked a number of our friends if they have slow cookers and told them to get this recipe off of me.  That's high praise :)  The original posting is found here: http://www.food.com/recipe/french-dip-roast-beef-for-the-crock-pot-103403.

• 3 1/2-4 lbs boneless chuck roast
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1 beef bouillon cube
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 -4 peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary , crushed
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 12 French rolls , split - (even better when toasted and then spread with a little mayo before adding the meat)

Place roast in a 5-quart slow cooker. Combine soy sauce and next 6 ingredients.  Pour over roast.  Add water to slow cooker until roast is almost covered.  Cook, covered, on LOW for 7 hours or until very tender.  Remove roast, reserving broth.  You may shred roast with a fork and serve on sandwich rolls with the broth on the side for dipping.

The Best Pizza Dough and Pizza Sauce!

When we were living in Toronto we made some fantastic friends.  We met through work (the man being my husband's boss) and were invited over for lunch out of politeness to get to know each other better.  I had to laugh later on as both couples afterwards had the same conversation of, "those guys seem really cool, I hope we get to know them better" and over the next year and a half we did.  Both families love to cook so we spent a lot of meals together.  One of their standards was their home made pizza.  They make a lot of dough and put out a wide variety of toppings and everyone just goes for it creating.
Since we moved to where we are currently living, I've made home made pizza a couple of times, but it just wasn't the same.  So I emailed Tiffany and asked for her pizza dough recipe.  Tonight we made it and this is it.  This is simply the best pizza dough recipe.  It turns out so well.  The dough rises really nicely and it crisps up well on the crusts.  I paired it with a pizza sauce recipe I found on All Recipes.  It has a 4.5 star rating and I can see why.  It's tasty and a great consistency.
We made 2 pizzas tonight.  The first was the kids' basic cheese.  The second was a little more adventurous (and perfectly delicious).  Half was fig and goat cheese.  The other half was shrimp, sun-dried tomato, onion and feta cheese.  I couldn't pick a favorite, just delicious.

Pizza Dough

1 tablespoon yeast
3 ½ C flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

1.       Pour ½ cup warm water in a measuring cup.  Stir in the yeast and let it stand until dissolved and creamy, about 5 minutes.

2.       In a large bowl, combine flour and salt, make a well and fill it with the yeast mixture.  Add olive oil and 1 cup of warm water.  Stir until a rough ball of dough forms.  Turn out of bowl and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.  You may need to add some flour along the way.

3.       Shape dough into smooth ball, place in a large, oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.  Punch down and divide into 4 balls. Can be frozen up to 3 months. Yields 4 10-inch pizza crusts.


Tiffany's Notes:  makes roughly 2 pounds of dough.  I use about 1 pound of dough per pizza (so my pizzas are bigger than theirs), thus I usually double this recipe.  I often use about 1 ½ C whole wheat flour and 2 cups AP flour per batch.  I usually bake the pizza at about 450.

Pizza Sauce

• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 6 fluid ounces warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (I used the stuff out of the shaker)
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon anchovy paste (optional) - did not use, would love to try
• 3/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (did not use - worried about spice for kids)
• 1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
• salt to taste (left out)

1. In a small bowl, combine tomato paste, water, Parmesan cheese, garlic, honey, anchovy paste, onion powder, oregano, marjoram, basil, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and salt; mix together, breaking up any clumps of cheese.
2. Sauce should sit for 30 minutes to blend flavors; spread over pizza dough and prepare pizza as desired. 

 She has this as a recipe for 1 pizza, it worked well for the 2 that I made without having to double it.