So I get home from work the other day and as I'm getting out of my car I start to notice this strange whirring/buzzing sound. I didn't think too much of it and just figured one of my neighbors was out with some sort of tool getting a head start on yard work (despite the cold weather and soggy yards). However, as I'm walking across the street to the mailbox, I look up and see this on the neighbor's roof:
All those black spots you see? Birds. All birds. No joke. So of course, I start looking around the whole neighborhood to see if there are birds on any other roofs or just that one. I notice a few birds on one of the houses behind mine, so once I get inside I decide to step onto my deck for a better look. And find this:
More birds. All along the fences, all over the empty lot next to our house, all up on rooftops. There had to be hundreds of them. It was unreal. I took a picture with my cell and sent it to Darrell and his response was "What the hell? Why us?" I certainly echo those sentiments.
But you know what? Less than ten minutes later they were gone. All of them. Not a trace left in the neighborhood. And I've not seen another one in the days since. Definitely added to the weirdness of the whole thing. Plus, I'm convinced the birds were a harbinger of strange things to come, because later that night I'm baking some bars and this happens:
Yes, that is a stainless steel measuring cup, and yes, that is the broken handle sitting next to it. Busted off while I was scooping oatmeal. Oatmeal! So bizarre. And since this is the second set of measuring cups that Darrell and I have managed to bust in the eleven months that we've been married (the first set cracked in half!), we decided to step it up a notch a bought the heaviest-duty set we could find. I'm going to be majorly disappointed if something happens to one of them--for what we paid for them they'd better come with a lifetime warranty!
This book review is loooong overdue. I've actually finished another book since this one, and I'm well on my way to finishing another. So I figured that I'd better get this one posted before I had three books queued up and ready to be blogged about. You'll also notice a slight trend between these next three books, although I swear it wasn't intentional. Anyway, on to The Book Thief
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I looooved this book. At one time, when I went to pick it up to read it, I actually had the thought "maybe I should do something else instead of read, because if I read this some more now I'll be closer to finishing it and I don't want it to end". Or something along those lines. But seriously, the book was amazing. It's set in Nazi Germany (which is an era that I love to read about--and also the common link between the most recent books I've read), but told from an unusual perspective: Death. Although Death is the primary narrator of the story, it follows the journey of a young German girl and how the war affects her life and the lives of those around her. Death comes upon this story because of a journal the girl kept, which he happens to pick up while collecting souls (but I won't say whose...). Despite being told by Death, the story isn't all dark sad and gloomy. Not only does Death have a dry sense of humor at times, but since it's also the story of the young girl, it details the highs and lows, comedies and tragedies, of her life. Which I think is what I love most about this book. I've read quite a few books on Nazi Germany, but this was the first one I've read that shows the war through such unique eyes: the eyes of a young German girl--what the war means to her, her slow understanding of the issues, the tragedy of coming of age during such an awful time--and the eyes of Death.
Even though I'm sure not everyone enjoys reading war literature like I do, I still think that everyone should read this book. It's not the blood and guts of many war novels, but merely the everyday life of a young girl who just happens to be living during that time period. And if for no other reason, everyone should read this book just because of the incredibly unique literary style and voice. I've read my fair share of books, and I've never seen one that has a "format" like this. I certainly had a hard time putting the book down, that's for sure!
Oh, and PS: I borrowed this book from a friend, so if anyone out there is ever looking for a gift for me this book would definitely be on the list. Even just thinking about picking it up and reading it again makes me excited!
So our dinner last night wasn't quite like Olive Garden's soup, salad, and breadsticks because we didn't have any salad--but it was delicious nonetheless! We were already planning on cooking up a batch of pasta fagioli (unseasonably cold temperatures in April = soup weather), and then I (surprisingly!) got off work early, so I decided to use the time to my advantage to whip up a batch of homemade breadsticks. For those of you afraid of working with yeast--don't be! It really isn't super terrible. I've only had one yeast-disaster, and that was because I didn't let the bread rise as much as it was supposed to. But I've learned a trick that almost always guarantees a perfectly risen loaf!
Here's our final meal (recipes to follow)--next time I'll try to remember to "stage" the picture so I get both dishes in one shot and it doesn't look quite so haphazard!
Pasta Fagioli
(originally found here)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 15 oz can Great Northern (or other white) beans, drained
15 oz can tomato sauce (or crushed tomatoes if you like things a little chunkier)
1 large bay leaf
1 tbsp basil
1 tbsp parsley
1 tsp oregano
2 14 oz cans chicken broth
1 cup water, plus one can full
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups (6 oz) dry Ditalini pasta (or other small pasta--we used mini shells)
Grated Parmesan or Romano (optional)
In a deep pot, saute onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat. Meanwhile, blend the can of beans with one can water in a food processor until almost smooth. Add blended beans to pan, followed by the remaining ingredients except for pasta and grated cheese. Bring to a slow boil. Let simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add pasta and cook uncovered until pasta is al dente, according to package directions. Ladle soup into bowls and top with freshly grated cheese.
Like any soup, it takes a little bit of time on the stove (and makes the house smell fantastic while doing so!), but it's the perfect amount of time to whip up a batch of breadsticks!
Parmesan Breadsticks
(I think it's from a Taste of Home magazine from years ago? I've had this one for awhile, but have modified the directions to include my fail-proof method for getting the bread to rise)
2 packages active dry yeast (1/4 oz each)
1 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup warm milk
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp butter plus 1/4 cup, softened and divided
1 tsp salt
4 1/2 to 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp garlic salt
In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Add the milk, sugar, 3 tbsp of the butter, salt, and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. At this point, turn the oven on to it's lowest heat setting. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth, about 6-8 minutes. Once the oven has preheated, turn it off and prop the door open slightly to let some of the heat escape. Place the dough into a greased bowl and turn it once to coat the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. I usually keep the oven door propped open for the first twenty minutes or so, then close it for the remaining time. Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 36 pieces and shape each piece into a six-inch rope. Place two-inches apart on greased baking sheets. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 25 minutes. At this point I either slightly preheat the oven to stick the breadsticks back into the warm oven, or if it's sunny out I'll find a spot in the sun for them to rise for the short period of time. Melt the remaining butter and brush over the dough; sprinkle with Parmesan and garlic salt. Bake at 400* for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
I hope my notes made sense; Darrell and I don't keep our house nearly warm enough to allow dough to rise properly, so finding this suggestion was a lifesaver. Because nothing beats the satisfaction of kneading bread dough or the smell of freshly made bread in the oven. We also always halve this recipe; as it is we eat the eighteen that a half recipe makes in less than 24 hours, so we certainly don't need more temptation sitting around the house!
So I have an amazingly delicious dinner from last night to post about (think Olive Garden's soup, salad, and breadsticks), but I'll get to that later today if I have time, if not tomorrow for sure. But for now I'll quickly show you this exciting development:
We have herbs! I don't have a clue which one is growing because Darrell told me not to label the herbs because "once they grow I'll which ones are which". Now, I totally believe that once they get full-grown, but as of right now we're totally just hanging in suspense as to which one has sprouted. I'm hoping it's basil because that's one of my favorites, but chances are it's something else since we have two basil pots planted and only one pot has sprouted. But you never know!
Dear Spring:
Where have you gone? We all miss you. Please come back soon. I am really starting to worry about the morale of my residents--I hear complaints daily about how much they hate me and where they want to move instead. I've been trying to convince myself that they are just lashing out because of the lack of sun, but I'm beginning to think that some people might mean it. I already have one of the lowest populations; I can't afford to lose more residents. And I definitely can't stand all of these comparisons to stupid ol' Canada.
I know that Old Man Winter is a mean old guy, and I'm sure that his refusal to leave is probably frustrating you, but please remain calm about it. Some of those poor people in the South and Southeast never saw all those tornadoes coming. I think that if you just relax and allow your warmth and sunshine to pour through, Old Man Winter will have no choice but to leave for good--and I know those storm-struck states would enjoy the sunshine during their mourning and cleanup.
Anyway, I just wanted to make a plea for your return. I know that darn groundhog caught you off-guard when he predicted that you were going to come six weeks early, but that doesn't mean you get to disappear six weeks early as well.
Thanks for your consideration; I hope to see you back here soon!
Love, South Dakota
I don't remember exactly when Darrell and I started favoring homemade pizza to frozen pizza, but it started sometime after we discovered a recipe for Barbeque Chicken Pizza and pre-made pizza crusts. And we've been sold on them ever since. However, we've never quite been brave enough to attempt making a crust from scratch, so instead we continued to shell out nearly $2.50 for a pre-made crust.
Well, those days are over! I (all by myself!) tackled a pizza crust from scratch last night, and it was no where near as difficult as I thought it would be! As you'll see at the end there are still a few kinks to work out, but I'm definitely excited to do it again. We didn't top the crust with our go-to barbeque chicken, but rather just mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil since this was our meatless entree for the week. There wasn't anything too thought-provoking that went into the topping, so I'll focus on the crust. I don't have a good picture of just the crust, so I'll jump right to the recipe and throw in some pictures at the end.
Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
(found here)
1 pkg active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp honey
In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about ten minutes. In a large bowl, combine flour, wheat germ, and salt. Make a well in the middle and add honey and yeast mixture. Stir until well-mixed. Cover and set in a warm place to rise for a few minutes (I let mine rise for about ten minutes). Roll dough on a floured pizza pan, poke a few holes in it with a fork, and top with your favorite ingredients. Bake in a 350* preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.
For fun, I took a few pictures along the way to show the process--which, in retrospect, I'm really glad I did instead of just relying on a picture of the final product!
Getting ready to roll out the dough. As you can see, I wrapped the dough in some plastic wrap (sprayed with oil) during its rising stage. I stole this trick from a friend (who also helped me realize that homemade crust isn't so frightening!)--just don't wrap the dough so tightly that it doesn't have any room to rise!
Doesn't it look so pretty all ready for the oven?
This is about where things started to go downhill. As you can see, the pizza is currently rolled out on a pizza pan--an upside down one at that. You see, Darrell and I love baking pizzas on a pizza stone, which we pre-heat so that the crust gets a nice crisp to it. Well, I was really uncertain about rolling out the pizza crust on a hot pizza stone, so Darrell had the not so brilliant idea to build the pizza on a separate pan and then just slide it onto the pre-heated pizza stone. So here I am, happily putting my toppings on my pizza, while, unbeknownst to me, my crust is adhering itself to the pan. After momentarily basking in the glory of my creation, I began the process of moving it onto the stone. Foolishly optimistic, I slid a pancake turner under one side of it to help coax it off.... But nothing budged. Thinking that I could just loosen the whole thing before moving it, I began sliding the turner all the way around the crust. Things were going fine until "riiiip!" a huge chunk of the crust stuck to my pancake turner and ripped a gaping whole in the bottom of my beautiful crust as I tried to pull the turner away. Devastated, I tried to fix the hole as best I could, but soon realized that my mission was futile--the other areas that I had "loosened" were already starting to stick again, and the toppings kept getting in the way of sealing the hole. So finally, I mashed it together, scooped it up to move it to the pizza stone, and did my best unfold it into something closely marginally resembling a pizza. Are you ready for this? It's pretty bad. Don't judge this whole experience based on this final picture.
Don't say I didn't warn you. That's about as far from a pizza as you can get. The bright side? It still tasted fantastic. Sure, some parts were significantly doughier than others because of the unevenness of the crust, but we Darrell didn't seem to mind at all. The crust definitely has a little bit of sweetness to it, but I thoroughly enjoyed the uniqueness of it. I'm anxious to try it again with some different toppings--and hopefully a more pizza-like end product.
How awesome is that?!?! Our little seeds are actually growing into something! You have no idea how excited I was the day I came home and saw the first little green sprout. I instantly took a picture with my phone and sent it to Darrell, despite the fact that he'd be coming home in less than two hours. Of course, being the ever down-to-earth and level-headed guy that he is, his response was: Don't get too excited... We still have a long ways to go
Well I say phooey to that! I'm going to get excited by every little milestone along the way because it makes me happy (yes, cue the "simple pleasures for simple minds"; I've heard it all before). And truthfully, I was mostly just excited that our setup was actually working--it's a biodegradable Menards planter filled with plant starter soil and covered with a greenhouse-esque dome that's just sitting on a chair in our kitchen. Apparently, though, that's good enough for these guys! The sprouts you see are broccoli in the foreground and tomato in the background; the green onion was just starting to peek up and we're still waiting to see anything from the squash and peppers (and all of the herbs). But I'm convinced that if these little guys can make it, then the rest of them can too!
