Here finally are some pictures of the house!  It is a tiny little house, but our lot is a 1/4 acre so we have a huge yard, and lots of room to expand.  We have been busily working on home improvement projects and trying to find storage solutions.  We have no closets, and a lot of junk.  The biggest project so far has been replacing the water heater -the Mr. has documented this on flickr.  We have also pulled out about 30 dead arbor vitae.  (Truthfully, my contribution was sipping wine in the hammock, but I am sure I was very helpful!)  I am stalking my bird feeder trying to get a photo of the one chickadee who has started nibbling at it, but I have had little success.  The yard is a blank slate, which while exciting is very daunting too.  We have plans to put in a garden and build a deck.  I'm going to get some shots of the kitten up here soon too.  She is insane, and we have named her Chan, after Jackie Chan.   

Wow!  It has been a really long time since I have updated.  I have had a lot going one lately, but it is really sunny outside and I don't want to be indoors any more than I need to, so here is a short list of the biggest events in my life (more, better updates to follow):

 

1.  I got a job, and started going to it, and even though I really, really want to sometimes, I haven't quit yet!

 

2.  We got a new kitten!

 

3.  We are buying a house.  Our offer was approved, the inspection was today, mortgage is on its way!

So, in my home we have all manner of pet and person, both good and bad.  We take in dogs that piss themselves when they know they were bad, cats that slowly lick their owners to death while they sleep, and grown people that say "a bloo bloo blooooo" when they get hysterical.  Notwithstanding this wide range of faults and feats, we are what might be considered a highly-functioning multi-critteral household.  However, at times we encounter certain behaviours which require reparations in one form or another.  Those members of the household who have so grossly violated the laws of harmony are punished by the majority in a manner and degree deemed appropriate to the crime.  Thus the following public shaming has been approved by the group. 

Cat Licker!

 

Butter Fiend!

 

Secret Pooper!

I got a job!  Yay! 

I am testing out librarything.com.  It's a website where you can track the books you read and get suggestions for other books.  Very cool.  Here's a link to my catalog.

The mom-in-law recently returned from a long trip to Southern California.  She returned with lemons and dates which she very generously shared with us.  I love lemons, they are always a good thing to have on hand.  Dates, I really hadn't had a chance to play with much.  After two weeks and nearly two pounds of dates, I can now say that I love dates almost as much as I love lemons.  Dates are great on their own, with a little sliver of dark chocolate, or even in an omelet.  Yes!  Here is my current favorite omelet filling:

 

Saute mushrooms with a little wine, a little garlic, and a little olive oil until soft and delicious.  Add 4 to 5 medium sized dates (pits removed).  Toss in a little meat such as cooked bacon or left-over ham if you feel like it.   Use this with a little cheese to fill an omelet.  Before you fold up your omelet add a little bit of fresh basil.  Mmmm-yum!

 

I had a review before but I am starting anew and calling this part one of the pizza quest.

 

After much talk, my pizza quest took a shocking turn last weekend when I actually made pizza.  For this run I went with the Napoletana pizza dough recipe from my current favorite food blog which I think I have mentioned here before.  The recipe is from a cookbook by Peter Reinhart, and here is a link to the post about it.  I had all of the ingredients assembled by the middle of the week but because this recipe takes some planning, I didn't get around to actually testing it until the weekend.  This was torture for Dan because I kept saying we were having pizza for dinner and then I kept putting it off!

 

I should say that at this point in time the Pizza Quest is focused mainly on dough, because dough is, I think, the part of pizza making that is most challenging. 

 

This recipe was interesting in that the dough is made using cold flour and cold water, and rather than rising in a warm place, like your average bread dough, it is kept refrigerated until two hours before it is used.  It was a simple dough to assemble.  The ingredients were very basic and came together nicely.  

 

In the past I have been frustrated by pizza doughs which are so springy that they won't stretch, and tend to pull back into a ball shape, but this dough was easy to spread out.  The best method of stretching the dough out was to just softly push it with my bare hands.  I did have to be careful while stretching it that it didn't get too thin.  It was very resistant to tearing and held together well.  

 

I cooked on a pizza stone that I pre-heated in the oven.  This required that I slide the dough with toppings onto the stone while it was in the oven.  We don't have a pizza peel so did this using a baking sheet and a lot of cornmeal.  It actually proved to be easier than I had anticipated (it's all in the wrists.)  The cooking times from the recipe were right on. 

 

I am trying to come up with criteria for evaluating the doughs.  These categories may change and adapt, so don't get too attached to them. 

 

Texture:  Excellent.  Chewy but not tough.  Thin and bendy. 

 

Flavor:  So-so.  I found this dough to be fairly bland.  It wasn't bad, it just wasn't great either.  Because I prefer to be fairly minimalistic with my toppings, a bland dough is a sad dough.  I think I may want to try adding different flavoring elements to this dough. 

 

Difficulty:  This was a really easy dough to assemble but because it has to be made the night before I think this was a fairly difficult recipe.  There is an element of planning required here that I find in direct conflict with my pizza whims.  Pizza is fast.  I can call the guy and the guy brings me pizza.  It might be disgusting but it is fast.  So when I make it at home I want this pizza to be fast as well.  There may be a hidden factor here: this dough can be frozen.  I had originally planned to freeze half of this recipe, but lack of freezer bags, and my husband's appetite caused me to make the whole batch (it was way too much.)  I think I will have to re-evaluate this dough at a future date and force myself to freeze some of it for further investigation. 

 

Joie De Vivre:  Again because of the planning element this dough is not really what I would call carefree.  It was really easy to make and extremely fun to spread out.  Beyond my planning issues this was a great dough.

 

Overall:  I'm giving it an B.  I feel like I am going to be friends with this dough, we are both just a little shy right now.  There has to be more flavor, and I have to get over the planning element.  I'll keep you posted on our progress. 

Wow.  I was checking my blog, and then I looked down at myself and I looked back at the screen, then back at myself . . . I match my blog.  I match my blog today!  I don't even . . words are not.

 

 

I think I'm a little embarrased. 

Man, there is nothing like a stomach flu to derail a good pizza quest!  I am finally able to eat food without fear again.  The quest will continue soon. 

 

Oh, and in other food news, the Dan works for these really nice folks who have a huge St. Patrick's Day party.  It was yesterday.  These people are so serious they not only made their own beer (and some of it was green), but they also corned their own beef!  They corned their own beef!  It was fantastic.  I don't know if I will ever be an ambitious enough to do that, but if there is anyone out there who gets into making their own corned beef, I am begging you to have me over when you do!  Wow!

I am launching a pizza quest.  The pizza dough I made last week was edible, but I was not completely satisfied.  As it is now five days later and I am still thinking about it, I can see I am now going to be haunted by great pizza until I can make it myself.  I am going to limit myself to one pizza a week.  I can't eat pizza constantly and still stick to the diet, but I think a once a week goal is completely attainable.  Last week's pizza was not perfect for several reasons, the most obvious being that I used whole wheat flower, instead of white or unbleached.  The dough came out a little too bread-like.  The recipe was the basic pizza dough at ciaoitalia.com.  Very, very simple.  I think this week I am going to try this one from 101cookbooks.com.  I'll let you know how it turns out. 

 

 

What else is going on?  Well, I have been looking for a job.  I've had a few interviews, but no bites yet.  I think I am about to settle for a call center job again.  I can't decide if this is a huge mistake or not.  I know it is something I can do, but I don't know if it is something I want to do.  I want money.  To get money I need a job.  I might need to take a job that will get me through and give me some money until I find something better.

 

What else?  The Mr. loves his job.  We really like Silverton.  It's cold outside.  I am experimenting with pizza making for dinner.  I can make bread, so I must be able to make pizza dough, right? 

 

What else?  We have an incoming British person.  He's mathy, and we like him.  He should arrive sometime tonight. 

 

Yep.

Last week was a bad one for my little family unit.  In November we got a great little kitten.  He was wonderful and he got along with all of our other pets.  He unfortunately also really liked to eat things.  About two weeks ago he ate some yarn and it was more than his little body could take.  After a long week of nursing Basil we ended up having to put him to sleep.  It was terrible and we really miss him.  We are back down to two people, two dogs, and one cat, and I think we will stay that way for a while now.

The seasons will change soon, so I am going to take another stab at blogging regularly.  Kate and Ella, I am rejoining your spaces-world - so lookout!