We had a hard frost last night/this morning. 27 degrees Fahrenheit. The backyard looked like the a scene out of Dr. Zhivago.
No clouds in sight and a relatively warm sun though, so I was able to get out to the garden for the second day in a row - my goodness is this becoming a habit?
The new half barrel pond is holding water finally, thanks to the rain swelling the wood slats closed, and the weeds are pulling up with great ease.
So now is the time to think about what to plant and where. I will have all my perennial artichokes of course, and parsley, also a perennial. Looks like the strawberries and oregano will be back in force too.
Towards the bottom left I have a link list of online seed shops that I'll be visiting.
Do you have a favorite online shop to buy garden seeds?
Pages
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Two Different Pizza Dough Recipes & My First Book Review for the Food Book Challenge
Has it been a year since I promised to find that pizza dough recipe that I adapted? Almost.
Here it is.
From the smitten kitchen, a very nice food blog.
I didn't really expect to be cooking pizza on a cloudy and cool February Friday a week ago, but The Mister didn't want to explore a new pizzeria in town and heck, I was jonesing for pepperoni pie.
I bought the ingredients a while back, basically stuff that keeps for a couple months or longer: A jar of really good pizza sauce, dry moisture motz, and pepperoni. The only thing I had to make was the crust. By the way, I've tried many pre-made pizza crusts and they have all been pretty awful, but if you know of something that works for you, please share. I'm always on the look-out for an easy dinner.
In today's rendition I doubled the pizza dough recipe except for the salt. I also used white wine not sake like I have in the past, and I used more wine than usual. I used my KitchenAid with a dough hook to kneed the dough, and I cook the pizza at a lower temperature for a longer time.
There is no product picture this time around and the crust was at once too hard and too bread-y. My mistake may have been rushing the rising process or the fact that the house was too cold for a good rise.
This Sunday I thought I'd try again only this time use Ree's Basic Pizza Dough recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks.
The cookbook is my first book in the food book challenge. As a good read and selection of recipes, I rate this book very high, maybe just a half a star short of perfect. The reason for the down grade is that although the pizza came out looking gorgeous, it didn't taste all that wonderful. Maybe had I kept the dough for a day or two, the flavors would have developed more. Sigh.
Here's a picture of one of the pies.
Here it is.
From the smitten kitchen, a very nice food blog.
I didn't really expect to be cooking pizza on a cloudy and cool February Friday a week ago, but The Mister didn't want to explore a new pizzeria in town and heck, I was jonesing for pepperoni pie.
I bought the ingredients a while back, basically stuff that keeps for a couple months or longer: A jar of really good pizza sauce, dry moisture motz, and pepperoni. The only thing I had to make was the crust. By the way, I've tried many pre-made pizza crusts and they have all been pretty awful, but if you know of something that works for you, please share. I'm always on the look-out for an easy dinner.
In today's rendition I doubled the pizza dough recipe except for the salt. I also used white wine not sake like I have in the past, and I used more wine than usual. I used my KitchenAid with a dough hook to kneed the dough, and I cook the pizza at a lower temperature for a longer time.
There is no product picture this time around and the crust was at once too hard and too bread-y. My mistake may have been rushing the rising process or the fact that the house was too cold for a good rise.
This Sunday I thought I'd try again only this time use Ree's Basic Pizza Dough recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks.
The cookbook is my first book in the food book challenge. As a good read and selection of recipes, I rate this book very high, maybe just a half a star short of perfect. The reason for the down grade is that although the pizza came out looking gorgeous, it didn't taste all that wonderful. Maybe had I kept the dough for a day or two, the flavors would have developed more. Sigh.
Here's a picture of one of the pies.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Vanilla Vodka
While the Skittles Vodka experiment wasn't nearly as successful as I hoped, the Vanilla Vodka has proven to be a wowzer. Wowie!
No I'm not drunk. Hah! I tried a sip of a shot last Friday. Straight.
Yikes! I think my nose hairs burnt off.
So then I mixed that with two shots of Dr. Pepper. And drank it with a straw.
I caught a buzz. I was all Buzz.Buzz.Buzzy. I think the straw was the key.
And good for cooking too. Not the straw but the vanilla bean wodka. gurgle.
No I'm not drunk. Hah! I tried a sip of a shot last Friday. Straight.
Yikes! I think my nose hairs burnt off.
So then I mixed that with two shots of Dr. Pepper. And drank it with a straw.
I caught a buzz. I was all Buzz.Buzz.Buzzy. I think the straw was the key.
And good for cooking too. Not the straw but the vanilla bean wodka. gurgle.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Skittles Vodka
This is an experiment. Separate the colors and add vodka and wait. The problem is the colors are so neon and artificial, that I'm afraid.
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