Skillet Pizza

Last night we made Skillet Pizza. I got the recipe from Rachael Ray's magazine, and it looked really really easy and good. So I made the dough. What I didn't know was that you could actually split the dough, cause it rises when you put it in the pan. Note to self, next time split the dough. LO

And never EVER listen to your hubby when he says, "The Pizza Parlor cooks it at 500 degrees for half the cooking time." Or: "You don't have to prebake it, the Pizza Parlor doesn't do that."So it came out a little toasty at the edges, but the crust was pretty good. Just thick cause mine was a thicker dough. LOL I'll have to try it again without the extra input from the peanut gallery! ;)

Here's the recipe if you are interested from Racheal Ray's magazine:

Skillet Pizza Dough:
Ingredients for just the dough:
3/4 c lukewarm water
1 tbsp Active Dry Yeast
1 tsp Sugar
2 1/4 c Flour
1 tsp Salt
3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1. In a small bowl, stir together the lukewarm water, yeast, and sugar. Let stand until foamy, 3 to 5 minutes.
2. Using a standing mixer, mix the flour and salt at low speed. Mix in the yeast mixture and olive oil until a shaggy dough forms. Change to the dough hook attachment and mix at medium speed until smooth, about 6 minutes.
3. Transfer the dough to a greased, large mixing bowl, turning to coat; cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Punch dough down before using.


To make the pizza:
1. Press the Pizza dough into a greased 9- to 10- inch cast-iron skillet and let rise until doubled in size (about 20-30 minutes).
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
3. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil over the dough, spoon Marinara Sauce on top, leaving a 1/2 inch border. Bake until golden and bubbly, about 25 mins.
4. Sprinkle the cheese and crushed red pepper on top and bake until cheese is melted, about 5 mins.
5. Let cool in pan for 20 minutes before serving.


For Pizza ingredients, we used Boboli Pizza sauce and lots of cheese. We also sliced some salami and onions too. I think you can put these on at the end as well, so it doesn't all get burned.

The Millenium Falcon

So, while waiting for my dad at the VA hospital, I read The Millenium Falcon. It's new Star Wars book. And I loved it. I now have to go back and read the books that I'm missing in between the last one I read in the Star Wars Universe.

I love the fact that Han, Leia, and their granddaughter are researching the history of the Millenium Falcon. And I also love how they incorporate different characters from all the movies and books into this one.

It's fun reading the stories of the previous owners of the Falcon, and just how special she is to each person. She is a very special ship, and has always been my favorite in the series. I don't know why, but whenever you see her on screen or read about her in other books, you just wish you were on her with the characters. And you tend to care about her too. Well, I do anyway. LOL

If you love the Star Wars Universe, this is a must read. :)

This week's update...

Hello everyone!

This week has been a bit of a busy one for me. Sorry that there are no pictures. I've been spending the week helping my folks out a bit. My dad needed to go into SF Tuesday for a doctor's appointment. So I took him there on Tuesday. OMG, it was such a beautiful day in the city! Normally when I take him, it's foggy and you can't see very far past the coastline. But that day the sun was out, and it was so clear, you could see that the shoreline actually curved out, and you could see the tops of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was amazing. And yes, I could kick myself for not bringing my camera with me!

And today we started to help them with the cleaning of their yard. I'm learning that my packrat issues stem from my folks. LOL It's going to be a lot of work, but it's fun to see different things from our childhood unearthed.

The days in between have been for errand running. The darn birds didn't like the fancy finch birdseed mix we bought the other night, so we had to go to the feed store to pick up their regular food. If you've never been to a feed store, you should stop by one. Lots of really interesting stuff. And the one we go to usually has a chicken or a rabbit in a cage outside.

Hope that you all are going to have a good weekend!

Caramel Corn Recipe

I got this recipe from my older sister who actually got it from tupperware a long long time ago. She made it for us and OMG, we totally had to have the recipe.

Caramel Corn Recipe:

8 c. Popped Popcorn (1/3 c unpopped) Popped in air popper, not
microwaved.
3/4 c. Packed Brown Sugar
6 T Butter
3 T Light Corn Syrup
1/4 tsp Salt

Pop popcorn with an air popper.



Spread out popcorn on baking pan


Combine Brown Sugar, butter, Corn Syrup, and salt in saucepan.

I stir constantly until it starts getting to the boiling stage.

Cook on Medium heat until starts to boil, and cook for 5 minutes.


Remove from heat and pour on popcorn.
Toss quickly to coat.


Bake 300 degrees F in oven for 15 minutes.
Stir to coat popcorn
Bake 5-10 minutes more.
Put popcorn on foil. Cool and break into pieces.

Hint: Don't leave it on the foil for too long. When you leave it on there for too long the caramel corn tends to get sticky. We like crispy caramel corn! :)

Slumber Party

This weekend my friend Debi had a slumber party at her beautiful home in Scotts Valley. We had such a great time. We haven't all been together since we went to see Mamma Mia a few months ago. So it was a really big treat for us.
At the slumber party we all had show and tell. Here the girls are looking at the heart box Karan made for Lori. Instead of candy in the inside, she put scrapbook embellishments in the cups where the candy would go. It was very cool.
Here we are, the giggly girls sleeping in the living room. Pat, Joanne, and I slept in the living room. And we stayed up pretty late talking and giggling watching TV. It was so slumber party-ish. I felt like the teens that would always come to our house when Ashley and Philip were kids.

Here's a shot of all of us. Joanne, Karan, Lori, Pat, Debi, and me.

And we're enjoying a delicious breakfast of Cremé Brulee French Toast. Very yummy. The night before Karan made her Paella that was so very good. We had a great time talking, eating, and sharing scrapbook tips and techiques. I can't wait to do it again!

They Dryer's fixed!

I'm so excited, the dryer is finally fixed! It lost its heat a couple of months ago. I would have to say in about November. And so we've been doing a mixture of hanging clothes out to dry, or traveling to the laundromat to dry our clothes.

Well, Phil finally took it apart and took different parts to a local Appliance part place in Fremont. He finally got to the part that needed fixing today, and yay, we have a working dryer!! :)

But having to dry clothes the old fashioned way sure did bring back a lot of memories. We didn't have a dryer at home when I was younger, we put things out to dry or went to the laundromat when it rained. Boy, have things changed from when I was a kid.

You see lots of interesting people at the laundromat. And I actually found one that was really clean and quiet. And OMG, they use electronic money cards for the machines. You fill up your cash card at the cash machine, and then put it in the slot on the dryer. I should have brought my camera to take pictures. LOL It was amazing. No change needed. And there are TV's in there now, so you can watch Judge Judy or whatever soap opera they have on at the time.

For me, it was a great time to do some reading. It was a little inconvenient to not have a dryer at home to do laundry whenever I wanted. But it was very convenient to do 3 loads at once. LOL

I am very lucky that Phil can actually figure out how to fix things so that we don't have to call a repair man. I think he should have a second career as a handyman. LOL Like Beau Bridges on Desperate Housewives. ;)

Things that I've been sewing...

I've been busy sewing a few things for a slumber party this weekend. My scrapping girlfriends and I are going to be at a slumber party, and one of the things we're doing is bringing a bag of stuff that we have around our house that we don't use anymore and then we'll do a white elephant giveaway. Well, I am in between crafts right now, and I'm not sure what I want to keep and what I want to give away. So I decided to make a few things to go with some things I could find to give away.
I found a pattern for a purse organizer on the internet. I thought it would be cool to make it a little bigger for the different tools you take with you when you scrap. So I adjusted it to be 26" x 11.25" instead of 26" x 8" I think I might make it a little taller though, maybe 13" x 26".
And I also made this little pouch from this tutorial. I did a bit of embroidery on it, but think I messed up the corners a bit. Will do better the next time. :) It works really well, and looks cute. I think I'll try more next week. It's the first time I've ever sewn a zipper. :)

Reading...

Today I finished Dark Tort. It's number 12 in the culinary mystery series by Diane Mott Davidson. I actually have already read #13 Double Shot, and #14 Sweet Revenge. :) Wow, I still can't believe I've finished 14 books in about a month. They are so fun to read.

I haven't had the time to read this much in about 5 years. I would always read the latest Harry Potter book that was out, or maybe another randomy book. But not as many as I have so far. I just love to read and I've missed it so much.

I can remember always reading some book, comic book, or magazine. I just love having all this new information, or new story. And I'm always very sad when the book is done, not necessarily because the ending is sad, but just because the story is over. Especially when I come to really love the characters in the book. I can't wait till the next book by Diane Mott Davidson comes out in a few months. :)

Anyway, next up is Tales of Beedle the Bard. If I can get up early enough to pick it up from the library before the parking lot fills up. LOL

Domo's Done!

Domo is finished! I have his other arm sewn on, stuffed his feet with Walnut shells so he's weighted down a bit. He can stand on his own and his arms move! :)



So of course I had to do what every person with a domo does with their domo. Take a picture of him terrorizing something. Although Oreo wasn't very afraid. LOL

The funny thing, while I was sewing up the hole in domo's bottom, Oreo decided that Domo would make a really great cat pillow. LOL So Philip had better make sure it's not lying around anywhere. He's gonna use it as a cat bed. LOL

Quiet day...

I'm enjoying a quiet day at home. Although I did have to go to the library. I finished Chopping Spree today. And since I was reminded that Monday is a Holiday, I thought I'd trek on out to the library for the last book in the series...Dark Tort.

I was able to find that one, plus they had the new Star Wars book: The Millenium Falcon. I was excited because I just saw the book in Borders a few weeks ago. And eventhough I haven't caught up to all the books in between that one and the one that I last read, I thought I'd better borrow it. LOL The Millenium Falcon is my favorite Star Wars ship of them all, so I think I'm really going to like this one. I still have to catch up with the books in between. Am not looking forward to reading the book where Chewbacca dies. I even forget which one that is, but I'm not going to like reading that one. I can tell already. ;)

I'm going to arrange things around the house, finish up a few sewing projects, and hopefully start up some new ones.

It's still gorgeous outside. At the library they were making bird feeders out of pine cones and peanut butter. How fun is that? I think I'm gonna find some peanut butter and bird seed....

Have a great Saturday!

Working on a Domo

I'm working on a Domo for Philip. Now, if you don't know what a domo is, it's the mascot for Japan TV. And he's been in a ton of stuff, this past Halloween he was a mascot for Target.

Anyway, Philip's always wanted one, so I thought I would make one for him. I found instructions on the Cut Out + Keep website. But then I just made my own pattern.

I did hand sew him all together. And Phil had the idea to make him bendy arms. So we put a piece of bailing wire that he bent together into a rod inside of him. So, this is what he looks like. I was working on the flag, so I misplaced the arm pattern I was using. Philip says he looks like Terminator Domo. ROFL.

I'll post a photo of the final version tomorrow or Sunday.

Jolt Flag

The past few days I've been working on a Flag for the boys. Their paintball team is called Jolt, and they wanted a flag with a lightning bolt on it (for whatever reason).

Of course it had to be done for Saturday's last game at the place they normally go to play. And of course they gave the assignment to me on Sunday. Cause we need to work under pressure. LOL

What I did was cut a lightning bolt out of yellow material. Sewed it onto the red material, using a satin stitch. Then on the back, cut out part of the red so that the yellow would show through.

I then made the flag out of black cotton material, it's about 3' x 5'. I made sure to quadruple stitch the short ends, and double stitched the long ends.

Then we figured out where the lightning bolt would go, satin stitched it onto the black flag. And then I cut out part of the black so the lightning bolt would show through. I'll put fray check on it tomorrow, and also the grommets so they can hang it from the pole.

I'll have them take a photo however they use the flag. LOL Boy, I'm getting a lot of experience on sewing so many different things that I never thought I'd do. It's a ton of fun!

Star Wars...Retold by someone who hasn't seen it.

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

I just had to giggle when I saw this video. It reminds me of a time a few years ago when Ngoc and I were talking about Star Wars. She had just seen it on DVD, and I had to explain to her some of the things that happened cause she didn't get it. LOL The conversation wasn't exactly like that one above, but it was similar. LOL

Enjoy!

PIcasa

I downloaded Picasa the other day, and I just started it up today to see how it works. To my surprise it has a button on the bottom to load photos to Blogger blogs. YAY! How fun is that? So of course I had to check it out to see how it works, geek girl that I am.

I didn't realize how many photos were on my computer and my external drive. And it's really neat that you can see what photos are in what folder right away. And you can see what was uploaded on what date. I have to check it out some more, but I really like it!

And here's a photo of Oreo on his favorite chair. He's so happy to have his own chair. LOL

Old Photos and old friends...

Me and my Dad way back in the 80's.
Phil, Ashley, Me, and Velcro in our backyard quite a few years ago.

At Great America with my cousin Tina, my Aunty Helen, and my sister Eydie.

So, this week we got back in touch with some old friends through facebook. They were our next door neighbors back when we were kids. And it was so neat to get back in touch with them. I figure I haven't seen them since they moved away about 20 years ago.

It's been so neat going through memories of our lives. We all would do so much together. I remember playing in each others backyards. Football in the street, volleyball over the chain link fence. We would all play till it got dark, and I remember after we all ate dinner and then took our showers, we would open the living room windows and watch TV together. LOL Yep, the houses were pretty close together, so we could talk to each other through the window.

What great memories. I think I need to scrapbook them. :)

Sense and Sensibility

Today I watched the BBC 3 part miniseries of Sense and Sensibility. It's one of my favorite Jane Austen books. I missed it when Masterpiece theatre played it on PBS, so I borrowed it from the library. And let me tell you, if you like the book and the movie, you'll love this.

I loved the film Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. And wondered how I'd like the miniseries compared to it. I LOVED the miniseries. Since it was a 3 part miniseries, they were able to add more parts from the book (well, and not from the book) in the series. There were scenes that the movie didn't cover, and of course, scenes that didn't make it from the movie or book.

I loved their choices of characters. I thought that Hattie Morahan made a wonderful Elinor. And Charity Wakefield was a perfect choice for Marianne. Dan Stevens' portrayal as Edward was an excellent choice. In the movie I felt Hugh Grant was a little out of place as Edward. But Dan Stevens gave the character a little more depth. You could see why Elinor has fallen in love with him.

I also loved their choice of Dominic Cooper as Willoughby. You could see that his character really did love Marianne. Where you really weren't quite sure in the movie version.

And of course I love the Colonel Brandon character, and eventhough I loved Alan Rickman, I mean how can you not? I thought that David Morrissey did a fine job as well.

Anyway, I could go more into depth with the miniseries, but if you love Jane Austen, just go out and rent it (or borrow from the library). You'll love it! :)

Save Handmade Toys & Children's Products from the CPSIA



My friend Kay gave me the heads up on this act. I can't believe that they want to pass something like this, so I hope that you'll check out the link and sign the petition.


Journey's Reveleation CD

So, my mom actually bought the new Journey CD. I haven't listened to any post Steve Perry Journey because I'm such a big Steve Perry fan that it just hasn't ever sounded the same to me. Kind of like how Van Halen is only Van Halen to me if David Lee Roth is singing. I mean I love Sammy, but it's just not the same. LOL

Anyway, I only listened to the CD because I've heard their new lead singer sounds "Just Like Steve Perry." And I thought I would see if this was true. Well, his voice sounds like Steve Perry, but the way he sings some of the songs is like listening to a tribute band sing his songs. It's just not the same. I'm sorry.

When you're used to a certain singer singing the songs a certain way, even subtle changes in pitch or even that he can pronounce the actual word so you'd understand it makes the whole song different.

I haven't given the new stuff a try yet. I'll save that for tomorrow. LOL

One funny thing, when my mom actually bought the CD, after listening to it, she thought she got ripped off. She thought it was a whole different group of guys singing Journey's songs. Cause she thought all the songs would be new ones. And she didn't recognize any of the guys. Man, that's bad when my mom can figure out that it's just not the same. LOL

I do give them kudos for finding a guy that sounds more like Steve than the last guy. ;)

The Library

I just got back from the Library. And I haven't been to one in years. My friend Kristen got me started on Diane Mott Davidson's books. She's a mystery writer whose main character is a caterer. And she's always finding someone murdered on her jobs. Ok, not all of her jobs, but you'd think that if you're a caterer, you'd see a dead body 1 out of 5 jobs you're doing! LOL

And while you're reading, you'll come across a recipe of something that she's cooking for dinner or for one of her catering jobs. I really want to try some of her recipes. :)

Anyway, I've been going through her books rather quickly, and realized that I'm running out of books. And instead of buying more books to have in the house, I figured that maybe I should go to the library to check them out instead. Then I don't have to buy the books, and then have them filling up my shelves. Cause really, I have so many books, I couldn't read them all again in my lifetime.

So it was an experience for me. Gone are the old card catalogs (See, told you it's been a long time). They've been replaced by computers. And now they have self-service scanners to check the books out for you. How cool is that?? I'm usually not big on the self-scanners because I figure that it's putting someone out of a job. But I have to admit, these are very cool. and with the amount of people in the library, you do need to have something like that, especially when there isn't the money in the budget to hire a whole lot of staff.

I love that there are CD's and DVD's there now, and I still have to explore the non-fiction section.

if you haven't gone to your public library, go check it out! You'll be pleasantly surprised. :)

Gran Torino

We saw Gran Torino tonight, and I thought it was a great movie. From the previews of the movie, you weren't really sure where the movie was headed. You know that Clint Eastwood was a grumpy old man who does not like his new neighbors.

But as the movie progresses, you see a little change in him. I felt sorry for his character in the beginning. Because his family doesn't like being with him, they're disrespectful to him. Pretty much only call him when they want something.

And as the movie goes along, you see how his character really isn't a bad guy. He does make some unkind remarks to different people's races in the beginning. And you'd think he's racist, but he's not racist cause he's not singling anyone out, he says things about EVERYONE. LOL And it's pretty much in the era of when he was raised. It's not like today where everything is so PC. He was like an Archie Bunker.

And you see how he begins to warm up to his neighbors, and how they respected him, and how he really defended them. He really did so much for them, and really his neighborhood.

There are some really funny moments where you're thinking, "Did he really say that??" LOL

And he has his classic Clint "Do you feel lucky, Punk?" looks throughout the movie. OMG, if I were those kids, his just looking at me like that would scare ME away!!

I won't spoil the ending for anyone, but it's really something you didn't expect from a Clint Eastwood movie. It really made you respect him as a person, and want to really be friends with him.

Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone had a safe and Happy New Year! We had a low key New Year's Eve. We just stayed at home, watched TV. Nothing exciting, but always nice just to be home without a crowd around.

I've spent the last few days kind of under the weather. Not feeling too hot, and resting up. Think I caught my dad's cold. Hope I feel more like myself tomorrow. :)

I'm going to get up and try to make a domo. What is a domo? Well, it's the mascot for Japanese TV. Target used him as their mascot for Halloween. I'll post it when I get it done, or at least I'll show you the steps. LOL

And I've been watching movies and TV shows. Loved Lipstick Jungle tonight. I really hope they don't cancel the show cause I really love it a lot.

Happy New Year!!