Summer Food Memories

I don't really miss summer because I prefer cool days and time spent bundled up in the house. I do miss the pizza we would make on the grill several times a week. In order to try and pull it off I'm having GR grill out today since it's a balmy -10 with windchill around -35 below.

I'm kidding on making him stand outside so instead I used my standard dough recipe and will try making breadsticks, mini pizzas and calzones in the oven using my pizza stone. If the mini pizzas turn out ok then sometime this week I will try our standard pizza.

I'm actually not kidding about him standing outside but A) He would never do anything I asked and B) I'm not sure the grill could even heat enough to cook a pizza anyway but C) it sure would do him good to suffer just a tad bit!

Here's my famous dough recipe, you simply can't go wrong with this one! I tend to not measure and just gauge things so you might have to work with it a bit your first time.

5 cups flour
1-2 T Active yeast
1-2 T Brown Sugar
2 Cups Hot water
dashes of salt

Mix your dry ingredients together and add the water, mix it all and the knead the dough around so you have all your parts incorporated. Cover and let rise for 1 hr. Punch down and let rise for an additional hour and then start cooking.

This dough is impacted by room temp and humidity so if you don't get a perfect rise don't worry. I will have pics of my creations later.

We took the kids ice skating today and both of them loved it (still). I had planned to get them out on the pond also but we had 14 warms hours (mid 30's) before this cold front hit so the pond was a bit slushy. I don't teach swimming lessons in the winter!

The kids just have school this week and then they are off for 2 solid weeks. I have a couple at home activities planned - Cookie Baking for Santa, Wine Drinking Contest for Mom, Ornament Making (salt dough) and our standard things like play doh, art time, Mom locked in the bathroom alone, and music practice. It should buy me about 37 minutes to try and get my work done!

I can't believe we are 10 days away, my shopping has been done since the summer so I just need to wrap but honestly I don't see that happening anytime soon. It's the 2 kids glued to me constantly that might prohibit. I really wonder if all the crap wasn't wrapped but rather tossed under the tree haphazardly if they would even care. I think that a few less sheets of paper in between the kid and the dream gift might be a good thing.

I will admit even with 1 less week between T-Day and Christmas I'm not sure I can handle anymore Christmas music, we literally have it on 24/7 and its making me a tad bit crazy! When I say crazy I mean I actually wanted a drink about 2 pm today, it's 3:30 and I'm still holding strong but I'm not sure how much longer I can last!