It's What's For Dinner

Well, OK, it was what was for dinner on Thursday, but I just now got around to getting the photos off my camera.

I like to make my own pizza. It's a lot cheaper than ordering out, and is super easy to do. I use my bread maker for the dough, and wing it on the sauce. Here we go:

Bread Maker Pizza Dough

3 cups all-purpose flour
8 oz. warm water
2 tbl olive oil (or vegetable oil)
1-1/2 tsp dry active yeast
1/2 tsp salt


Place all liquids in the bread maker. Throw in the salt. Slowly pour in the flour. Create a small well in the center for the yeast. Add yeast. Set bread maker to the dough cycle (should take about 1.5 hours.) When cycle is complete, preheat oven to 400 deg. Spray a 9x13 cookie sheet with cooking spray. Dump dough out on the cookie sheet. Flatten and spread out to fit the pan, making an edge with the dough (see photo.) Pop into the oven for 2-3 minutes.



Remove crust from oven and top with pizza sauce, about 12-16 oz. of cheese (I personally love all mozzarella with a sprinkling of fresh parmesan), plus any other toppings you like such as sausage, peppers, onions, olives, bacon, mushrooms, chicken, etc. Here I put 1/2 Italian sausage and 1/2 meatball (both precooked - had some odds and ends leftover in the freezer.) Bake for about 15-18 minutes till brown around the edges and all the cheese in the center is melted.

*****************************

As for my pizza sauce, here's one I use frequently:

1 8 oz can of tomato sauce
seasonings to taste (e.g., Italian seasoning, garlic powder or minced garlic, onion powder/diced onion, basil, pepper, and a bit of sugar to take the tartness out.)


Also, since there is a nice crusty edge on this pizza, you can dip the crusts in either leftover marinara, pizza sauce, olive oil, or my kids' favorite: melted butter with some garlic powder.

*****************************

Then for dessert I tried a new recipe out called S'more Muffins. Relatively easy to make, but does require buttermilk. If you don't have any on hand (like who does?) or don't remember to pick it up at the store, you can take regular milk and add a splash of vinegar or lemon juice to it, let it sit for a few minutes, and that'll turn it into "substitute buttermilk".

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup ground graham cracker crumbs (I threw whole crackers into the blender and hit pulse!)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1-1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1-1/4 cup miniature marshmallows, divided

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. In another bowl, combine the egg, milk, and oil. Mix well. Stir wet stuff into the dry ingredients just until moistened (i.e., it will be lumpy). Fold in chocolate chips and 1 cup marshmallows. Line muffin cups with paper liners or go daring and go without. Either way, spray with cooking spray. Fill cups 3/4 of the way full, top each with 2 miniature marshmallows, and pop into oven for 14 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes before removing from the pan. Serve warm if possible. Yummy!!

The $152 Tooth

Eric has been losing his 3rd baby tooth (top center) for at least 6 weeks. It started getting loose in late September, but not loose enough to yank out, and then as the permanent tooth started coming in, it crowded out the baby tooth and pushed it to the front. A regular snaggle tooth it was. I constantly reminded him to wiggle that thing to loosen it up, but it was no use. That thing just didn't want to come out, despite the fact that his permanent tooth is over half way in! So I reluctantly called the dentist to have him do the deed. I had so many of my baby teeth yanked out as a child. I hated going to the dentist because it seemed every time I did, there was unpleasantness involved. I was trying to avoid this with Eric, but unfortunately he may have inherited my stubborn baby teeth.

So off to the dentist we went. The dentist did get the tooth out, but even he said it was stubborn and didn't want to come out. Eric was brave and did great, although he couldn't wait for the numbness to wear off! So we're checking out and the woman behind the counter tells me it'll be $70. I asked her if she was going to submit it to the insurance company first. She looked at me kind of funny, then printed out the statement, showing that the insurance would be billed, and the $70 was my portion of the bill. Eeek! $150 to pull a tooth out?? That 'ole Tom & Jerry method with the string and door is looking mighty appealing. Then we had to leave Eric a couple bucks from the Tooth Fairy (figured he'd earned an extra buck, ya know? Which got me to thinking that maybe I'm due some extra money for all the teeth I had pulled out the hard way. Mom?? Dad???)

Anyway, $152 later, he has a more normal looking smile, the snaggle tooth is gone, and he can eat normally again.....at least till the next tooth gets loose.

Don't Mess With The Arm

Charlotte went in yesterday for her 5 year wellness appointment and to get a few immunization shots (four to be exact.) She weighs about 40 lbs. and is 43.75" tall (she weighs about as much as Eric, lol.) A couple of the shots really hurt, making her arm very sore. Poor kid.....she was hoping they wouldn't have to go outside for recess today at school, but I suggested she could stay home with me instead. She was all over that. :-) I asked her if her arm was too sore to play a game. I was thinking a good ole fashioned board game, like Trouble, Go Fish.....Charlotte assured me that the aching arm wasn't the one she needed to bowl (on the Wii). Well, what a relief it is to know her immunizations didn't put a dent in her video gaming.

My Next Car

If money weren't an issue, and I never had to haul more than a few bags of groceries at a time, and of course if Mike or I had a job (minor details, right?) my next car would be the Mini Cooper in British Racing Green (although the oxygen blue and nightfire red are pretty cool too). It gets some great gas mileage as well (37/hwy, and 28/city, which is double what I get now.)

Only problem is the lack of rear doors, so the kids would be complaining about getting in and out of the thing, especially as they get older and bigger. "Welcome to the hardships of my own childhood", I'd say. Followed by, "Get over it." The Mini Clubman has one small rear door on the passenger side, but then the car loses the cuteness factor by looking like a midget station wagon, so what's the point?

Cute little bugger isn't it?

Not-As-Cute

Strange Website

A while back I stumbled upon a site that has an interesting concept: People take photos of things on vacation or where they live that seem to "Fail" logic, their purpose, the English language, etc. Here are a few that had me laughing (I have a strange sense of humor):

What were they thinking?!

Cinderacula

This is the first year Eric opted for a "scary" costume, and of course, Charlotte wanted to be a princess. Kudos to me for finding it this summer at a garage sale for a few bucks, lol! They sure are in stark contrast to each other.

The kids hauled in boat loads of candy last night. It'll be July 4th, 587 sugar highs, and several cavities later before they get through it all.