Just finished blocking this thing last night and got some pictures of it.
Recipes for our Independence Day menu: barbecued pizza, spicy cole slaw, and chocolate mousse.
Barbecued Pizza
The biggest thing about barbecued pizza, in my opinion, is the dough. Too often I find that a lot of pizza doughs don't have enough yeast in them, and they come out far too dense and chewy for my taste. I really like this recipe from allrecipes.com because it comes out nice and fluffy and makes enough dough for several nights.
Dough
Sauce
I'm pretty easy when it comes to pizza sauce, but there are certain things I prefer to do with mine. I usually take a can of tomato paste and thin it out with water and balsamic vinegar until it's a consistency I like. Tomato sauce is too runny, and canned pizza sauces aren't quite right either. Usually goes something like:
Small can tomato paste
2 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp Water
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
Rosemary to taste
Sugar to taste (doesn't take much)
Toppings, I'm sure, are self-explanatory, but my boyfriend and I typically do some type of squash (butternut, usually), baby bella mushrooms, yellow onions, and low fat mozzarella.
Cooking
We have a coal barbecue - it's small and a pain in the butt, but the pizza always comes out delicious. Separate the dough into however many pieces you like (the recipe is for 10 servings) and place them on the barbecue. The side you cook now is going to end up being the side on which you put your toppings. Cook for about 10 minutes or until it's the consistency you prefer.
Flip the dough and let the bottom cook until it's almost completely done the way you like it. Take the crusts inside. Top it. Cut a few pieces of tin foil and place them down on the grill so that the crust doesn't burn, and let the pizzas cook for another 10-15 minutes (until the cheese is melted and the toppings are the way you like them).
Mousse
Best chocolate mousse recipe that I've found that's both delicious and easy is Bon Appetit's Phyllo Cups with Chocolate Mousse recipe from 2002. I've never made these little tarts before (I only jacked the mousse recipe), but they look quite scrumpdiddlyumptious.
My only modification is to add slightly more sugar to the beaten egg whites (because I have a crap blender) and I whip them up into ribbons rather than peaks. I prefer a softer set to my mousse - more like a pot de creme, perhaps - but peaks would obviously be more suitable for the tarts. There's a reason it's written that way, after all.
Cole Slaw
1/2 head red cabbage, chopped*
1/2 head green cabbage, chopped
2 carrots, shredded
8 oz. Gorgonzola (added after dressing)
*Some people insist on chopping by hand. I prefer it to a box shredder because it's faster and my shredder just makes cabbage mush. Do what you like. A food processor or a mandoline would work too.
Dressing
My boyfriend's biggest complaint about cole slaw, and I'm sure he's not alone, is that it's often too goopy, so I made just the right amount of dressing to give it a decent, light coating but not be drowned. I also added quite a bit of spice to it. That's something you've got to gauge for yourself. It's sweet and tangy with a hefty spicy finish. Adding gorgonzola to this kind of happened on a whim, but damn it's good.
1/2 cup Daisy Lowfat Sour Cream
1/4 Light mayo (yes, I'm one of those)
2 tsp. Prepared horseradish
4 tbsp. Red chili flakes
2 tsp Soy sauce
3 tbsp. Apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp. Black pepper
1/4 cup Sugar
Info:
Needles: Size 6 and 9
Yarn: Vanna's Choice Baby; Goldfish; 1.5 skeins
Bernat Satin Solids; Black; 0.5 skeins
Time: Approximately 15 hours over 10 days
Size: 6-12 months
Changes: Did 3x3 garter at the top rather than true alternating garter. Also randomly added the black stripe for fun.
Decided to go down from size 7's to size 6's to give the top a little more shaping. I may switch to the smaller size further back in order to give it even more shaping next time. Have to be careful of mods because I don't have any little ones available to try these things on.
Overall, I liked this pattern - it's simple and a great intro to colorwork, but I didn't like the way that the straps were grafted together. I'll have to find a better method the next time I make one.
Pattern: Skull Jumper (Ravelry Link)
Skull Jumper (Non-Rav Link)
Image was taken before I washed/lightly blocked it (as much as acrylic can be "blocked), so the puckering is still apparent. Even if the stitches don't loosen up much, a bit of puckering won't hurt anything.
Born at 9:08 am, Oct 3, 2009
7.7 pounds, 21.25 inches long
I can totally see the resemblance from both Ryan and Kellie. And if I zoom in on the picture, she's got totally long fingers and fingernails.
I'm an aunt. I'm stoked. First baby of the new generation in our family. Very exciting.
This is my current project, courtesy of Storm Moon Knits
The color is horribly represented (whatever - it's a hideous sage color anyway), but you can see the nice pattern. Eventually, I'm going to put some big hideous buttons on it. Haven't decided what kind though.
I may use this Celtic cable for other projects for Christmas. Hand warmers, leg warmers... who knows. It's a pretty cool design, and I don't know if the girl at Storm Moon Knits actually invented the Celtic cable or not, but it's something I really enjoy doing.
The pattern is super intricate though, which makes it a bit of a pain in the ass for lazy knitting. After tearing it out multiple times, I decided it was best to color code the chart. It was too difficult trying to remember that dots are knits on one side and purls on the other and which side I was on etc. etc., all while sitting in front of the telly.
Pink = knit is much better, and it gave me a chance to channel my inner child while I colored.
As of today, after months of putting off finishing up the little hat, all of the gifts for Abigail have been completed and will be headed for Seattle tomorrow. She should be making her appearance very soon.
Note: these were my first knitting projects ever, and the crocheted flower on the hat was about the only thing I've ever successfully crocheted in my life. I know they're not amazing, but I'm proud of them.
Aaron and I have been talking a lot about weddings lately, as it seems that everyone I know is tying the knot this year. I am truly convinced now of the absolute absurdity of the whole business of having a wedding.
Reality shows, such as Bridezillas, thrive on showcasing the downright craziness of it all, and we all laugh and scoff, thinking to ourselves, “Oh, I would never do that.” But the reality (wait, a reality show that’s real? Holy cow!) is that a large number of women will act like that to some extent when planning their big day.
What I fail to understand is why? Ok, maybe it’s not a total fail – I partially understand spending copious amounts of time planning something, going out of your way to clarify over and over again that you want something a certain way, and then being grievously disappointed when you see that the outcome isn’t quite what you’d hoped.
What I truly don’t understand is the extreme that women will go to make a wedding day happen just the way they want it, and why “that way” is so… over the top. It seems that, because I don’t want a wedding at all, I’m among a huge minority of women who didn’t grow up dreaming of a fairy tale wedding. Women have put their wedding day onto a huge pedestal, as if it is the only moment in their life worth caring about – and end up spending exorbitant amounts of money in the process.
Call me crazy, but I don’t need to spend $20,000 to get up in front of a crowd of people (who already know that I love this man) and tell Aaron how I adore him. The wedding isn’t for them. So that’s really the first thing... why so many people? Let’s be realistic – weddings are boring as hell, for the most part. Especially when you’re sober. So you can go ahead and cut that list down from 200 guests to 10 – the 10 people who won’t want to stab you with a fork for making them sit through your wedding sans alcohol.
And then there’s a matter of the dress. Ho-lee-shit. Brings me back to memories of the prom and working in retail, hearing 16 year olds crying in the fitting room because the perfect dress just wasn’t there. Give me a break.
All of this was brought on initially by a show on BBC called Don’t Tell The Bride. Dear lord. Basically, the groom is responsible for planning the entire wedding (right down to the dress), and the bride has zero input or knowledge. As I sat there watching this train wreck take place, I kept thinking to myself what a crazy heifer this woman was. Her poor fiancé picked out a lovely dress for her, and she downright refused to wear it, after it had already been altered, paid for, etc. She complained that it was showing too much of her shoulders, demanded to be bought a new dress, and then ended up wearing another strapless dress that was almost the same style. What is that?
I muttered to myself over and over again, “This can only end badly for this man.” And this poor man wedding planned his heart out, trying his best on 14,000 pounds (which is about 22,000 American – more than enough, I’d say). That’s more money than I make every year. And his fiancée still wasn’t pleased.
I ended up talking to one of my girlfriends about this show (one of the ones that’s getting married this year), and upon hearing that the groom was in charge of picking out the bride’s dress, she all but had a conniption fit in the middle of Starbucks – which just drove home my feelings on the subject that much more. What the hell is the big deal?
Did you know that you can't even have a wedding on a beach without paying out the nose for it? You can't just walk out onto a public beach with your JOP and your witness, say your 20 minute "I do"s and go on about your business. No - you have to pay to have somebody who is authorized to be on the beach with you. What?!
“It’s a once in a life time experience” - right. With the divorce rates we see every year, it’s more likely to be a “twice in a life time experience.”
“What about the memories?” Oh, you mean the dress you can never wear again and the wedding video that your husband will probably tape over with his favorite Girls Gone Wild? Sure, those memories are worth it.
“It’s the one day you get to feel like a princess” – hunny, if he doesn’t make you feel like a princess every day of your life, then he is never going to be your prince.
One day of pretty white dresses and tuxedos isn’t anything next to a lifetime spent with the person I love.
Aaron and I went to the grocery last week and headed to the deli counter to buy our usual Swiss cheese and honey-cured turkey.
As we listened to an older woman complain to us about how poor the service was (big fat lie), I started reading signs in an attempt to ignore her.
I came face to face with this:
I'm still not really sure what it's supposed to say beyond, "This cheese is damn good, yo!"
Fail.
Aaron and I just got back from the zoo. Took a ton of pictures on both the Nikon (digital) and the Canon (film).
One of the unfortunate things about the Sacramento Zoo is that it is rather small in comparison to somewhere like the San Francisco zoo. But, there are a ton of things to see! I just wish they had more open-air enclosures so that I could take better pictures.
Here are some of my favorites. I'll get the whole set up on Flickr here soon - I just want to watermark them first.
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