Best Pizza Ever

Behold the perfect homemade pizza.

Despite the fact that we still have some problems with our toppings or flavoring concoctions, we have the art of dough making down pat now.  This recipe works well for us because most pizza doughs require longer rising then we ever plan ahead for.  This quick rise will be ready in thirty minutes which is usually how long it takes us to prep the other toppings that we intend to use.

Quick Rise Pizza Dough
Ingredients
2 cups All Purpose Flour
1/4 ounce fast acting yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
 *optional* we have began to switch out 1 cup of the flour for whole wheat flour, and also started adding oregano, and garlic salt to the dough.  Just some flavoring changes to adapt for a healthier pizza meal.

Directions
In mixer bowl, combine 3/4 cup of the flour, yeast, and sugar. 
With motor running add 2/3 cup of hot water (130 degrees).
Once combined, add the oil, the remaining 1 1/4 cups of flower, and salt.  Mix until ball forms, then switch out for the kneading attachment, and run for at least 2 minutes.
Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
Let rise, in warm location for approximately 30 minutes. 

While the dough is rising we prep the oven fitted with our pizza stone to a nice hot 550 degrees.  We begin to work on our toppings, cooking the meat, slicing the cheese and sauteing the veggies. Once ready, the oven is dropped to 400 degrees, the pizza is moved from our prepping peel onto the pizza stone with the help of corn meal and then 10 - 15 minutes later we have a delicious pizza ready to enjoy.

It's Christmas in Kansas City

Please tell me you get that song reference?!?! : ) In case you don't there is a horrible Christmas song played on the local stations that despite my love of all things Christmas I can't bare to listen to this song in it's entirety.
So here are some snapshots from our Christmas 2011.

2011's tree

Santa! My favorite inflatable. : )

Here is a photo of Kenny enjoying his favorite gift of the year, an RC helicopter. James seems interested in it now, this is only after being buzzed numerous times, however I can see his interest getting him in trouble in the near future.

 My favorite Christmas toy is this Acer tablet, aka a wannabe iPad, but from what I can tell so far so much more cooler than iPad could ever be but still allows very similar function.  It is taking some time to get used to but I can imagine that this baby will soon become physically attached to my left hand. Thanks again Dad & Cheri!

Captain Destructive was at it again. At least it was a toy that was bought for him, too bad my Mom didn't know this poor toy was only going to last mere minutes instead of providing the hours of joy she had intended for him.

The fox immediate after opening.

I kid you not, the fox less than 2 minutes later.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and got everything that they wanted this year (which is peace, love and happiness-- right?)

Begging

I ordered James' Christmas presents from amazon this year. When the gifts arrived and I tried to bring the box into the house but quickly learned that he could smell his favorite toys through the packaging.  I knew I couldn't find a hiding spot good enough to keep him away, so I moved the package into the garage.  James proceeded to spend most of the evening at the garage door begging for his presents. 

Please let me have my presents early!

Advent Calendars

One of my favorite traditions as a child was our advent calendars.  My grandmother created us beautiful cross-stitched calendars and every year would attach small gifts that we would open on each of the days of December leading up to Christmas.  Even now as an adult my calendar is still replenished with gifts from my Grandpa who likes to keep the tradition going just as much as I do.

As you can see Christmas is close!

 Since I loved this tradition so much I made Kenny a calendar of his own.

Was Kenny's calendar.. notice the bones. : )

But as you can see I quickly learned that this calendar doesn't have much room to hold the average gifts I pick for Kenny and would hold up better for James. Kenny's gift now reside in a bag where all his presents are numbered and easy to pick out.  

All three of us open our gifts together each night and celebrate the holiday season. : )

Pioneer Life

As you all know we are huge fans of Silver Dollar City, and even more so of their Christmas lights festival. After having been disappointed with the weather of past December's this year we decided to book ourselves a weekend stay at our favorite campground, The Wilderness, in one of their cabins. 

The cabin

Here is where we stayed for the weekend. : ) A beautiful log cabin, complete with a queen size bed, two small twin beds, a table, and two electrical outlets.  One of those outlets held the plug for our floor lamp and the other for the much needed space heater. Before you get concerned you did hear that we had electricity!!! Two whole outlets, that we carefully selected what needed to be plugged in at all times. For example: if we need to charge our phones we would just opt to not use the light for the time being. Don't question my priorities, it was December after all, heating is way more important then lighting. : )

And yes, if you are wondering, pioneers didn't have bathrooms so we (okay to be honest- it was more I) had to walk up to the check-in office to use the facilities.

We ran into some bad luck with the weather, and just about as soon as I took this photo mother nature decided to rain nonstop for the next 36 hours.  Needless to say we never even made it to SDC to see the light festival.  However, we still did have a great weekend get-a-way pretending we were pioneers.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

It is a good thing that no one visits this blog yet or I would be caught giving out some of my Christmas present secrets early. : ) After seeing many similar projects on Pinterest I decided that I had to attempt this project to give out as a homemade gift this year.   I mean who wouldn't love fresh homemade vanilla extract. 

I started out ordering these bottles and vanilla beans from amazon, and picked up a 1.75 of cheap unflavored vodka from the liquor store.

Vodka and vanilla beans steeping.

To start the project I ran the bottles through the dishwasher and allowed them to dry.  Then I split the vanilla beans in half and again down the center of each bean.  I then placed 2 full beans in each bottle and filled the bottle with 6 ounces of vodka.  And that is it folks. For the next 6 weeks the vodka and vanilla beans will need to steep, and then will be ready for whatever baking adventure you have planned. I am keeping the bottles in a cool, dry spot, but even in the back of your spice cabinet will work. Once you start to run low on vanilla extract you may add more unflavored vodka to the bottle and repeat the steeping process.

To finish my bottles into presents I have created the following labels using Microsoft Word and plan to attach them with ribbon.  Once I actually complete this step I will add the finish product photo.

Labels- need to be cut out and attached to bottles.

Good thing we have 5 more days until Christmas. : )

*** Edited to add finish product photo.

Captain of Destruction

Ever so often James likes to prove that he isn't as good of a boy as I like to brag about. 

James enjoying the new rug.

The poor rug after James got bored with it three days later!

Christmas Cookies

If you haven't started your Christmas baking yet you have to follow this recipe...

from : http://annies-eats.com/2007/12/12/christmas-cookies/
Ella’s White Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup butter softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ t. almond extract
1 t. vanilla (or the seeds of one split vanilla bean)
1 t. salt
2 ½ c. sifted flour

Directions:
Cream butter in mixer attached with paddle.
Add 1 cup of powdered sugar.
Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour.
Chill dough until firm approximately one to two hours.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Roll to ¼” thickness on well-floured surface.
Cut out rolled dough with cookie cutters.
Place cookies on wax papered cookie sheets.
Bake for 8-10 minutes. Pull cookies before browning occurs.
Once cool frost and decorate.

Yields approximately 40 cookies depending on size of cookie cutters used.

For icing I used Wilton's standard recipe

Royal Icing
Ingredients:

4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
3 tbsp. meringue powder
8 tbsp. water (edited from original recipe to make for piping consistency)

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. 
Mix on low speed until the sheen has disappeared and the icing has a matte appearance (about 7-10 minutes).  Transfer the contents of the mixing bowl to an air-tight container for coloring and storage.

If you follow my adapted recipe for royal icing the original consistency should be ready for piping. If you want to color the icing I would do that now by adding in a few drops of your selected color.  I prefer to use AmericColor gel paste which I have found to work better than anything else on accurate coloring and keeping the consistency of icing. With the thickened icing you will need approximately 1/4th of the prepared recipe for outlining.  Place this amount into a piping bag, with a #5 tip, and slowly outline the shape of your cookies. Once completed squeeze out any remaining icing back into the sealed containers.  Allow the cookies at least one hour for the outline to harden.. Slowly add in water a tbsp at a time to the remaining icing until the consisting is now thin enough that it easily slides off your mixing spoon.  Once that is done it is now time to "flood" or fill the interior of your cookie.  I found that toothpicks allow you to reach the tiny corners and crevices of the shape with ease. 

If you want to add any sprinkles I would do that after all cookies are filled in.  Cookies need to sit out at least 24 hours for the icing to set up. Once this is done you can package up your cookies and even stack them. If you want to pipe a decoration onto the cookie you must at least 24 hours for the cookies to harden up and then allow them another 24 hours for piping to set before being able to pack up the cookies. 

I wish I had photos to include with this post but the cookies were just too good that they were gone before I had a chance. : ) Again if you haven't baked cookies yet you must get over your fear and try working with royal icing.  I may never ice a cookie in regular frosting again. 

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