PIZZA, PIZZA, PIZZA!!(and house update)....

We LOVE homemade pizza here at Casa Sonier, especially Ryan. In the past we've used store-bought pre-baked crusts or english muffins, a homemade sauce, veggies, olives, cheese and turkey pepperoni. This time, I had the muffins but wasn't keen on having to top 2 dozen of them so I looked for a quick crust recipe. I found one in an old vegetarian cookbook procured on our vacation a few weeks ago at a thrift shop. The title of the book is The Quick and Easy Vegetarian Cookbook by Ruth Ann and William Manners. The recipe is thus: my increases in (~~).

LAZY DAY PIZZA CRUST

2(3) cups whole wheat flour(I use a mix of regular and whole wheat)
1(1.5) tablespoons dry active yeast
3/4(1) teaspoon salt

Combine dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Stir in:

1(1.5 + 1 tablespoon) cup very warm tap water
1(1) tablespoons olive oil
1(2) teaspoons honey

Mix vigorously by hand for a few minutes, until well blended. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 10 minutes in a warm place. I heat the oven while I'm mixing the dough, then put the bowl in and turn oven off. Take out halfway through rising so you can preheat the oven to 425F.

Punch down the dough and spread onto cookie sheet(use rolling pin and extra flour if you want), about 1/4-1/3 inch thick. I divided my recipe into 2 equal sections, giving 1 half for one bunch of toppings(for the guys) and then dividing the other half again for two smaller pizzas(one for the girls and one for me). Top with tomato sauce, veggies, cheese, whatever you like. I cook the mushrooms to get most of the water out of them beforehand, and did onions too for mine. Bake for about 15-20 minutes.

It was an excellent crust! And so, so easy! I've been avoiding making my own crusts because I thought it was so labor intensive to let the dough rise, etc. My sauce is easy too, a can of no-salt-added tomato sauce, can of NSA diced tomatoes, shakes of Italian seasoning, oregano, garlic and onion powder, a drip of honey and a drip of olive oil, this doesn't even have to be heated. Yuuuummm!

Today, the day after our 17th wedding anniversary, was spent in leisure... to a point. We moved furniture around in the living room for part of the day and here's what we have now(you can scroll down to the icky pictures of its former self). There's still a lot to do but we've got a good bit behind us by getting things moved.

We moved the entertainment center to the smaller wall. You can see a tiny slice of the dining room to the left.


Here is my glider chair where I plan to work on many yarny and quilty projects. You can see the beautiful needlework owls that my grandmother did ever so long ago. I remember admiring them in her house when I was just a toddler so they are "antique", as is the craft stasher to the right of the chair.


Here is a shot of the wide wall. I haven't got all my art(quilts) up yet. If you look down in front you can see Moonshine, our little white boar piggie running across the room. Yes that is a terrier dog and a cat on the couch-they totally ignore the pigs! The pigs had a blast running in the big room finally. We have been making a corral for them for the past several months but now that we don't have cords hanging they can have the run of the room.