I have this friend Jennie. She’s a great cook, chef, and recipe developer. She is a single mother of two little girls. And she makes time to cook most of their meals from scratch.

New York, August 2012

Her new book, Homemade With Love, is a beautiful incarnation of Jennie’s recipes and philosophy about preparing meals with and for your loved ones. It feels like an extension of her blog, In Jennie’s Kitchen, which tells a story about her life through food.

As part of a “Virtual Potluck,” I got Jennie’s book (it was right there on the “Cookbooks” shelf at Barnes & Noble, which made me a little bit teary-eyed with pride for her!) and tried some of the recipes so I could share my experience with you.

The introduction of the book is actually worth sitting down and reading. I love the new trend in cookbooks and meal planning services that tells you what you should keep handy in your pantry and why. Jennie’s personal story – including the recent death of her husband who was the love of her life – plays a big part in her love of food and her reliance on the hand-crafting of delicious meals to get her through some really hard times. The way she tells these stories in her book makes you connect with her through the pages, and when I used the recipes, I found myself marveling that I was doing the same thing that my friend in Brooklyn has done countless times. (Of course, surely her efforts yield perfect results every time, while I am still in the bumbling stages.)

I started with the simplest of recipes: hard-boiled eggs.

I know, you probably just laughed out loud, but I bought the book right before Easter, and while I’ve boiled eggs a million times, I had seen Jennie’s recipe and thought, why not? Her method is different from mine, so I tried it. And they were delicious.

Next, on Easter morning, I whipped up a batch of Fluffy Drop Biscuits. I am accustomed to making things like pancakes and biscuits with Bisquick or Jiffy Mix, but Jennie reveals that the secret ingredients in those pre-made baking mixes are the preservatives that increase their shelf lives. In fact, you can just make a big batch of your own all-purpose baking mix with flour, cane sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. For families like ours that consume a lot of bready things, we will go through it quickly, so it’s okay to make a batch that will only be fresh for 2 months. The biscuits are made of this mix, plus butter and buttermilk. They tasted wonderful, warm and steamy right from the oven.

My big project was Jennie’s homemade pizza. I’ve been making homemade pizza for years, but I use my breadmaker to make the dough, and jarred sauce and pre-shredded, packaged mozzarella cheese. For a week I plotted my attack: purchase bread flour instead of all-purpose for the higher gluten content. Set aside enough time for the two dough-rising stages. Make the marinara sauce. Pick up fresh mozzarella on Pizza Day.

Finally, a day with enough time opened up and I set to work. The marinara sauce was simple enough because it uses canned tomatoes – fancy expensive canned tomatoes but I can see why. They just taste better!

Then the dough. This was the part that made me nervous, because, well, homemade dough just makes me nervous. There are so many variables and doughs that involve yeast can be finicky.

My dough did not seem to double in volume after the first 90 minute rising time, but I didn’t have time to let it sit longer, so I just gave it another knead and put it back in the bowl for the prescribed 30 more minutes. After that time passed, it seemed fine enough, so I made a pizza.

Jennie says this amount of dough will make 2 thin crust pies, but I was unsure of my dough’s elasticity so I tried one deep-dish thick crust pizza.

And…omg.

This pizza made me emotional. I grew up in the New Haven, CT area, where pizza is a Big Freaking Deal for my family and friends. I have never come close to making anything like it, and I haven’t even found a pizza place in Los Angeles that comes close. There is certainly good pizza to be found around here (cough cough Fresh Brothers cough cough) but nothing that I bite into that brings me back home.

The crust was light and springy (like fried dough pizza, for those of you who know what I’m talking about), and bubbled up just like a Zuppardi’s pizza. The sauce was watery and made the crust soggy in some places, which is not a bad thing. The fresh diced mozzarella melted just so and was a far cry from the prepacked shredded cheese I usually get. Creamy and delicious.

My kids ate every last morsel of their pieces, which is remarkable because they usually don’t eat their crusts, and Kyle often turns his nose up at the sauce. My husband, never a die-hard pizza connoisseur like I am, said “Yeah, it’s good!” and that was it. He said he prefers thinner crust, and I must say this definitely was thicker as the recipe indicated. Next time I will trust myself a bit more and try making two pizzas with this amount of dough.

I sigh with satisfaction just thinking about it. There is a leftover piece in the fridge and as soon as I finish this post I’m gonna go snarf it down. Thank you, Jennie.

I know, I know, I’m a little excited about this pizza. Here is the recipe for the dough for you to try for yourself, and then you will understand!

Homemade Pizza Dough (reprinted with permission from Jennifer  Perillo and Running Press)

3 cups unbleached bread flour

1.5 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon natural cane sugar

1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon olive oil

In a deep bowl whisk together 2 cups of the flour with the yeast, salt, and sugar. Add the water and olive oil. Using a wooden spoon, stir it together to form a wet, sticky dough. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the remaining flour on to a clean counter or large cutting board. Scrape the dough out onto the board and knead in the flour until the dough is smooth and soft but not tacky or sticky (you may need more or less).

Lightly oil a deep glass or ceramic bowl. Place the dough in the bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and place in a warm spot until doubled in volume (about 90 mins).

Once the dough has risen, sprinkle some of the remaining flour, about 2 tablespoons, on your work surface. Turn the dough out and gently knead it once or twice to deflate. If you’re making one thick-crust (or deep-dish) pizza, place the dough back in the bowl, cover it tightly with plastic wrap again, and place back in a warm spot until doubled in volume once more (about 30 mins). For two thin-crust pizzas, divide dough in half and let rise in separate oiled bowls.

Someday I’ll make those doughnuts!

For pizza (page 128):

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Press the dough out to the edges of your pan. Brush the outer edges of the dough with olive oil using a pastry brush. Spread marinara sauce (page 27) over the crust just up to the olive oil border. Scatter diced fresh mozzarella over the sauce, and sprinkle freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese on top. Season with salt and pepper, and back until the crust is a deep golden color and the cheese is bubbly, about 10 minutes.

Homemade With Love is on sale now. I already have two friends in mind who will be getting this book as gifts!

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Here are other features and recipes from Jennie’s Virtual Potluck:

Chickpea, Parmesan, and Fennel Salad from Gina from Bowl Licker
Flexing my Mussels in Jennie’s Kitchen from Ilina from Dirt and Noise
Food and Friends from Selfish MomBaking with my Kids from Homemade with Love from Selfish Mom
Easy and Delicious from Homemade with Love from Selfish Mom
Bruschetta with Homemade Ricotta and Slow Roasted Tomatoes from Chefdruck: French Foodie Mom
Dude, I Made the Best Pizza Last Night from Kim of House of Prince