This Sounds Strange, but It Did Work

I was a little short on cheese for Tuesday night's pizza-making. So, I improvised just a tad. Those white blobs are not mozzarella, in case you were thinking along those lines. Those lumps are cream cheese. I had no idea how this was going turn out, or taste. It wasn't just for 1 pizza, either. I was making pizza for two dinners. You could say that it was a bit of a gamble. However, my family is a group of risk-takers, when it comes to my cooking.

The cream cheese did not melt into the rest of the cheese; but it did taste great. After baking, I topped the whole thing with lots of dried, crumbled garden basil, which maybe hid the whiteness of the cream cheese a little.

Part of this package of cream cheese had some dried out portions. those would normally get tossed. The other night, though, I just added them to the pizza. No one noticed. Anyway, sounds strange, but cream cheese on a pizza did work.

Storing the Big Bags of Yeast

I buy active dry yeast for baking in 2 lb bags. It takes us about a year to use this much yeast. When I open a new bag, I pour about 4 ounces into a small glass jar (it's actually a really old yeast jar. The expiration date is something like 1998). This is the yeast that I access on a regular basis. I keep it in the refrigerator.

With the rest of the bag of yeast, I fold down the top and secure with a rubber band, then put the opened bag into a gallon ziploc. I keep this yeast in the refrigerator, as well. It still works, even a little over a year later.

I made pizza last night with the tail end of my last bag. It still turned out nicely with a puffy crust.
I have also read that you can store active dry yeast in the freezer, for up to 2 years with success. Just an FYI if you don't go through yeast quickly enough.

Where do you store your yeast?