Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Forty-two years ago, after dating for six months, my parents married in a San Francisco courtroom on Friday, September the 13th. Yes, really. I'm not making this up!  You can imagine we didn't put much faith in old superstitions at our house growing up.  Mom has always said she had to say yes if she ever wanted to see her belongings again...they were already on a truck being moved to Alabama where my Dad had been transferred. He proposed so Bechtel would move her stuff, too! Thanks for showing me that marriage means getting up every morning and deciding to make it work. You've always shown me that marriage is like anything else in life...hard work, well rewarded.

Happy Anniversary! I love you both.

Champagne Cage Chairs

Over at Design Sponge, I stumbled across this cool post on how to turn the wire cage that holds the corks in champagne bottles into a cute little chair with just a snip and a few twists. How incredibly cute would these be with a seating direction card slipped into them for a wedding or another big affair?  I almost wish I'd seen these before my wedding, though my straw labels were awfully cute too! I think these would be easier for guests to see, though. And since they're chairs, self-explanatory. :)

See? Just slide the card behind the little loop and off they go! Bonus, they're free! Double bonus, they're an excuse to drink champagne! (As if I ever need one!)  Check out the instructions here at Design Sponge.

Now if only I had enough space to grow pumpkins next year...

Yep, you're seeing that right. That pumkpin grew the word "Welcome" on it's skin!  You know how sometimes when you buy pumpkins, they have those thick brown scaly calloused areas?  Over at Not Just a Housewife, the cleverest lady on earth realized that we can manipulate those scars to form whatever pumpkin art we want! By scratching the desired design onto the pumpkin's skin just as it turns orange, it scars over and makes cool words! It can make pictures, too, of course. Whatever you want to scratch in! Thanks to her I just might finally win the yearly 'coolest pumpkin contest' with my sister-in-law next year! 

How neat would it be if every family on your block had one with "the Whoever's" on their porch for the autumn season?  Now if only I had enough space for a garden to grow them all!  Oh, well. I have a year. I'm sure I can con beg someone to loan me some a ton of garden space. I don't think I could stop with just one of these!

Homemade fruit rollups

Okay, I grew up begging for fruit roll-ups and very rarely getting them because they were so full of sugar. As an adult, I indulged until I discovered they're mostly full of corn syrup...something I can't tolerate. Literally, it makes me ill!  So I've been exploring the idea of making my own from excess fruit laying around. Having found these homemade polka-dot ones over at Fix Me A Snack means I might just be borrowing a dehydrator in the near future!  I wonder how low my oven temp goes....?

In the meantime, enjoy the eye candy!

Thank heavens it's September!

Unlike most of the world, September is a breath of calm in my world. After two months of crazy sales at my job, things return to their normal level of insanity every September! Which means I can go back to my kitchen, my sewing machine and all those other great blog ideas I've missed in the last two months. Sigh It's good to be back!

Homemade Pizza dough!

First, I've been a very bad blogger. It's the crazy-busy time of year at work as schools are starting up again. At least, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

In the meantime, here's that recipe I've promised people for pizza dough. I tried a half-dozen online recipes before settling this tweaked version. It's kinda a conglomeration of all the ones I tried...but without the difficult, time consuming parts. With this recipe, I can have homemade pizza on the table in about the time it takes for delivery...but at a cost of $4.06 rather than the $20+ delivery runs around here.

Ingredient Cost breakdown:
Yeast: $0.02 (bought a giant freeze dried package at Costco for $5.47)
Olive oil:  $0.17 (and I use organic, so it's pricey)
Salt: $0.02
Flour:  $0.24
Sugar: $0.03

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp active yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 cup warm water (about 110 degrees, or shower temperature)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp garlic or Italian herb mix (basil, oregeno, etc)

How to:

• So the basic process is easy. Turn the tap on hot and let it warm up to the highest temp you get. (maybe fill the sink for dishes while you're at it?) 
• Grab a big bowl and add 1 tsp sugar and 2 tsp yeast to the bottom.
• Pour 1 cup of that really hot water over the yeast and sugar, stir and set it aside for 5-10 minutes, until it's foamy all across the top of the water. (At this point, I load the dishwasher with all that hot water in the sink)
• When the yeast has risen, add in 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp salt, and 2 1/2 cups flour. I also add either 1tsp garlic or 1 tsp Italian seasoning- sometimes both! 
• Mix these together with a wooden spoon until it forms a big sticky ball, then let it rise until doubled in size...between ten minutes and an hour depending on the room temperature. To speed it up in winter, I set the bowl in the aformentioned sink of warm water. (this cleverly gets you out of dish duty, too!)
• Once dough has risen, drop it into a puddle of flour on the counter and stretch it out into whatever shape you need it to be. We don't have a pizza tray, so it's rectanglar pizza for us!
• Grease the pizza baking sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal. THIS keeps the pizza dough from sticking!
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Spoon on your canned spagetti pizza sauce and spread into a light layer on the dough.
• Sprinkle a layer of mozarella cheese and add toppings. (We like pepperoni, olive and peppers)
• Bake at

EEEP, a FOURTH chance!

Amy over at The Idea Room is giving away a Silhoutte cutter! And I want one sooooooooooo badly I can taste it! Those big glass jars of flour and sugar don't stand a chance if I win this one...

Anyway, I'm gonna go enter whilst I wipe the drool off my chin. Fingers, toes, arms, legs and any other part I can manage crossed that I might be the lucky winner this time!!!