Tomato Basil Pizza

So, when I was 14 I wanted to be a chef. But here's the problem: I watched Emeril and thought that only self-respecting cooks would cook just like him. For a girl who lives in the West/South/whatever we're considered to be here in Oklahoma, I did not have access to saffron, octopus, chives, leeks, fresh scallops or shark. This did not deter me, however, from thinking that to be a good chef one must always 1) cook everything from scratch, or you weren't a chef 2) cook everything EXACTLY like it is in the recipe and 3) Be really, really picky.

I remember one of my first from-scratch meals I made for my family. I wanted to make pizza. The only part of the recipe I did not do was toss the crust in the air but I was tempted. I assumed that tossing it gave it, I don't know, an airy quality or something. I made the dough and sauce from scratch. The recipe seemed simple enough. It wasn't. Especially since the power went out and we had an electric stove. Not good. I also made Caesar salad from scratch that night (it tasted fishy and I never did use up that can of anchovies) with homemade croutons and dressing. Luckily my grandmother who lived next door had power. We used her oven and I found out the hard way that if the pan is very, very hot, rain splatters and gets very steamy. Ouch. (Note: I also have the knack of turning a 30-minute recipe into a 3-hour recipe.)

So! Here I am foraying into the world of making pizza again. This time I come to the kitchen with a little more experience, a little better judgment and the courage to try something new without panicking about the details. (If your husband is like mine, he loves the adventure, even if it doesn't turn out quite right - to him it's all research)

Here's my tomato basil pizza recipe:

1 can of refrigerate pizza dough. (yes, it's worth it)
3 roma tomatoes (delicious, firm and meaty - perfect for cooking)
4 oz. of fresh mozzarella
a bit of fresh basil (one of the two plants that didn't die a slow, agonizing death in my garden :)
a bit of marinara sauce (I just used pasta sauce I had on hand)
butter (real butter, people, none of that margarine crap)
garlic salt

Chop and whatnot. (that's the dough on the left. Scared the dickens out of me when it popped out of the can. I'm such a wuss)
Spread the dough (I had to spray my hand with a little cooking spray to avoid sticking to the dough.
Put on some sauce (to taste).
Top with mozzarella slices, then tomatoes.
Put in the oven.
Cook to dough specifications (on the can of dough)
Isn't she a beaut?

Isn't it delicious looking? Now here is the best part.
After it's done baking, take a stick of butter and shmear (come on spell check, stick with me here) it on the crust, then sprinkle garlic salt, not too lightly, not too heavily. So delicious.
Then take your chopped basil and put on top. (It's a light and subtle flavor and I loved it!)
Try it! Super easy and only cost around $5.00 to make. Amazing. Seriously fancy, but easy, pizza.

Harry Potter

I can't believe it never occurred to me before now, but I decided to finally knit a Harry Potter scarf. They are so iconic! This pattern calls for the scarf to be knitted in the round, so it's a tube, so that when it's blocked, it's stockinette stitch all the way around. (And of course there are tassels at the ends.) The hardest part so far was finding the right colors. (I find it hard picking colors on the internet.) But I found a pretty good representation of scarlet and gold. (Knitpicks Swish Worsted in Fired Brick and Gold).

I hope to have it finished by November when Deathly Hallows part 1 comes out. A friend of mine said I should be careful letting people know I can knit Harry Potter scarves, because everyone will want one. :) Hey, if they pay, I'd be happy to! :) I can't promise I'd have it done before DH 1, though. Hah!

You know what I love?

1. You know what I love? Wood floors. I swore them off after our last dusty house with wood floors two years ago, but after thinking about all the crap that gets caught in the carpet that you can never vacuum or clean out I changed my mind. Sure you have to sweep more, but you don't have a crap-ton of allergens hanging out, either. And with Hubs's and my allergies, wood floors are fine by me.

Aren't these pretty?

source

source

2. You know what I love? Big kitchens. It's been real great pirouetting and dancing around in the kitchen every night to cook dinner, but I think it'd be nice not to have to scootch closer to the counter every time Hubs wants to open the fridge. It's silly, don't you think? Galley kitchens are for the birds.

*drool* I want a big modern kitchen.

source

3. You know what I love? Babies. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE at church is preggers right now. I am very bummed I can't be preggers, too. *sad face* My heart aches to have another bean to love on. Hubs and I will have another after we get through our credit card debt. Stupid debt. I hate you sooooo much.

Here's some babies. Adorbz!

source

source

source

Have a great weekend! We're celebrating Pint-size's birthday tomorrow. Hope to have some great pictures.

Boston Goggies

So, when I first met my in-laws' Boston Terrier Macy, I was skeptical. I'd never owned a dog. I was fascinated by the idea of having a dog, but I hated the jumping, barking, licking, pooping and general mayhem and messiness that came with a dog. When I had my son, I spent many months yelling at Macy to not come near the baby, would never leave her alone with the baby, etc. Several years passed and Macy knew never to mess with me. I had conditioned her to not even look at Caleb. She acted as though we didn't exist at that point, which was fine with me. Then my sister-in-law got another Boston. Ellie is not a typical Boston. She is the most hyperactive and disobedient Boston I've ever met. At that point I realized how bad a dog could be. I began to appreciate Macy. When I was mean to her before, it was when she heard the baby cry and she'd come to check on him which was kind of sweet in retrospect. She always obeyed me even if I was hurtful in the way I spoke to her (I never hit her or anything, I just would be mean in voice only, which dogs read really well). I saw the older, more mature Macy in a different light. I elected to give her pets when she would let me come near, but she was, like I said, standoffish. She was keeping with the training I had given her, which was, "Morgan BAD!" :) Well, after months of kind words and pets and cuddles, she elected to lick/kiss me on my face. My sister-in-law was shocked. (Licks/kisses are a sign of submission and love). :D It took around three years for me to get past my prejudice with dogs. I still don't like dogs jumping on me and I don't like them barking, and if it came between my brood and a dog, it would be my kiddo every time. But I've grown in my appreciation of dogs. In fact, I want a Boston. As long as you get a good one, they're playful, love to fetch, obedient, eager to please and fantastic with kids.

Who couldn't love this face!?





Baroo?

Resolutions

I want to change some things around here.

I am obsessive about keeping the house nice, yet don't do it often enough not to go into a rampage and hurt my family while I'm doing it. I don't like being interrupted when I clean, I don't like being told, "Don't do that now" when I'm cleaning. But my son won't remember how clean the house was. He'll remember me. I don't want to be a mean mom. I want to be able to pause whatever I'm doing and pay attention to him. I have no idea how to balance all of those things, but I have to try.

Hubs and I have a lot of debt. I'm tired of it weighing me down. I get a sinking feeling every time I hear about someone paying off their debt. We've barely made it month to month on my full-time salary, but now we're able to pay all our bills on time. Now that Hubs has some part-time work, we need to start paying off that debt. Because if we can some of it now, imagine how easy it'll be when Hubs has a full-time job! I did a debt calculator online and I set the goal to be 2 years and 6 months. The monthly debt payments are totally doable! If everything stays steady, we'll be debt free by New Year's 2013. :D

I have gained 30 pounds since high school. :( I was always skinny and able to eat whatever I wanted. I used to be a little smug about it, but it's come back to bite me in the butt. The big fat butt. So, my goal is to lose about 20 pounds.

I'm embarking on a journey to teach art/art history to a home-school co-op and some public school kids. :) I have one student already and I'll have a booth for the local home school fair coming up in a couple of weeks. It'll be pretty straight forward this semester because I don't know what I'm doing. :) The money I make from that will roll into the debt, as well! Hooray!

A friend is giving me an old sewing machine so I can learn how to sew. I'm so excited to get into it!! There are so many times that I think, wow, I could sew something like that! And then I realize, I don't have a sewing machine. Nor do I know how to sew. I picked up knitting last September. So, why not learn sewing this year!?

I usually don't make resolutions. But here we go anyway.

1. Lose 20 pounds


2. Learn how to sew


3. Teach an art/art history class for a co-op of home school and public school kids.

4. Pay off debt


5. Read the Bible more


6. Be a better mom


OK. Now that I've gone public I have to stick to it. ;)

Pierce Nez

So after years of saying, "Ooooooh, I so wanna do that!" My hubby bought me this:

We went to 23rd Street in Oklahoma City. Fantastic shop. I cannot praise it enough. Extremely clean (probably cleaner than a doctor's office, seriously) and very cool atmosphere. It was right down the street from a restaurant called Cheezers. I am not kidding you, Cheezers is a fancy place! It was all waiters in black, serving wine, everyone was wearing cocktail dresses and slacks. Very classy. I think they just got stuck on the name. Probably the conversation went like this:

"Hey, what should we name this fancy pants restaurant?"

"Well, I don't know..."

"I don't know either!! Pick something!"

"OK, Cheezers, don't get your panties in a wad."

"Cheezers?"

"Yeah, I promised my grandma I wouldn't cuss anymore. Cheezers came to mind."

"Cheezers..."

"What?"

"Cheezers..."

"NO."

"....Yes."

There are people who swear off cussing because of their grandmas, right?

So, back to my piercing. When I went to knitting the other night someone looked at me said, "You look....different." Then someone else said, "Did you highlight your hair?"

HAHA. I think it looks pretty good. I'm really pleased with it and it doesn't hurt. Really! It hurt like the dickens when he was piercing, but right after and to this day it doesn't hurt.

Speaking of knitting: I should be receiving my alpaca fleece in time for "Zimmermania" (the Payne County Knitters celebration of Elizabeth Zimmerman's birthday) so I can wash and card it. I ordered 5 ounces of Bebo's fleece. I'm so excited to start working with paca. :D

I also have some Swish worsted coming in from Knitpicks to knit my Gryffindor scarf for the Deathly Hallows. I have about 4 months to get it knitted. If I haven't finished it, I'm sure I'll knit it while I'm in line at the theatre. :)

Hogwarts Note: after taking some (actually pretty good) personality tests my scoring for Hogwarts houses (Yes, I know I'm too old for that, but still) I found out I would be Hufflepuff. They are very loyal and hardworking. Next up was Ravenclaw :) and then Gryffindor and Slytherin was last. Just in case you were wondering. Ha!