Homemade Pizzas

I have always enjoyed making pizzas but until about 12 months ago bought my pizza bases, mostly out of convenience. Then I stumbled across a really simple recipe in a magazine (which I now can’t locate) but luckily have committed to memory.

Basic Pizza Dough Recipe (2 bases):

• 1 ⅔ cups of OO Flour
• ¾ cup of luke warm water
• Satchel of dry yeast
• Pinch sugar
• Pinch of table salt
• 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
• Extra flour
  

Method: Put a pinch of sugar (I use raw) in a heat proof jug, then add the water and yeast. Allow it to ferment for 7 minutes. During this time you can add the flour and a pinch of salt to a mixing bowl. After the 7 minutes elapses, add the yeast/water/sugar mixture to the flour along with the olive oil.
Using a fork mix the ingredients until combined. You know it’s ready when it starts to stick together. Don’t worry if it is a little wet or a bit dry just add either flour or water to get the balance right.

Flour the workbench with a little extra flour and start to knead the dough. You do this by folding the sides in on themselves and using the heal of your hands start to stretch the dough. Add extra flour to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands or to the bench. Continue to knead for about 8-10minutes. Consider it your arm work out for the day. I find it therapeutic.

Once done flour the mixing bowl and place the dough back within. Add a little sprinkle of flour to the top of the dough (proofing).  Place a dry, clean tea towel over the bowl and place in a dry warm place. I usually put mine in the microwave. Allow about an hour for the dough to rise.

Now here’s the fun part. Punch the dough. Yep, one good punch in the middle. Then roll the dough back out onto a floured bench. Knead for a further 2 minutes.

It is now ready to cut in equal halves (although lately I have been stretching mine to make 3 bases).  

Roll them out using a rolling pin into 2 circular shapes.

Now I cook my pizzas in the BBQ on pizza trays so the method I use is a small amount of canola spray to oil the trays (whilst they are cold) place the dough on top and then my favourite toppings. Load it onto the BBQ, close the lid and about 15minutes later – presto yummy pizzas.

My favourite toppings at the moment are:

• ham and fresh pineapple from the farm down the road, for the kids
• goats cheese feta, roasted pumpkin and pine nuts
• Prawn, chorizo, garlic and chili – delicious

 

 
 

 

 

 

I often enlist the kids to help with making pizzas and have started to teach my son how to throw them. Not as scary or as messy as it sounds. You toss the rolled out dough a little into the air, catching on the back of your hands increasing their diameter. It was a skill I learnt working in a small pizza shop after school back in the day. To me the bases are a little lighter for it and its fun watching others learn .

Do you have a favourite homemade topping?

Bon appetite

Halloween

Give me a themed event any day and I am in my element. My favourites are Easter and Halloween. Now Australia is not known for its Halloween celebrations but over the years we have slowly been warming to it. You only have to into shopping centres to see we are inundated with spooky themed tableware, ghastly treats and fancy dress attire.

I love it.

So over the weekend the kids and I decorated our little dining and living rooms and set about placing Halloween placards up the driveway. Not to mention the 'caution do not enter' tape we draped across the front fence.

Now I'm not expecting trick or treaters tomorrow night given we are on acreage and it's a fair distance between houses for little legs but I might just leave a bowl of lollies out the front on the gate for any drivers by with sweet toothed littlies.

We are having our family over tonight for a pre-Halloween dinner consisting of green worms (basil pesto pasta) and blood red velvet cupcakes. Yum.

Next year I have plans to make these little ghostly forms and put them in the front paddock. Can imagine how eery they will look at night.

Happy Halloween.

Quick update on the ottoman covers

Just a quick update on the ottomans.  For anyone watching Grow Simple Lovely on Facebook you may have already seen the first images on Sunday and know that I am extremely proud that the ottomans covers are now complete.

I am so happy with them.

It was my first solo attempt at sewing.

With the little left over fabric I am looking to make a couple of small envelope style throw cushions to go on my daughter's bed.
 

 

Have you recently finished a project you were proud of or perhaps was a first for you?

Project...reviving the ottomans

I saw a pin on Pinterest showing a great option to recover a couple of old tan, suede like ottomans we bought many years ago.

Wanting to keep them as additional seating or leg rests which could be used in either the future media room or living area the fabric or print selected needed to be versatile. The living area will be mostly white with blue and hints of yellow and the media lounge is a dark grey.

Now I am not a seamstress by any stretch of the imagination and in the past would call upon the expertise of my mother or sister when the situation called for a needle and thread. But more recently I have wanted to learn. My first sewing project a few months ago was a few envelope style cushion covers for the outdoor setting. I proudly mastered the use of the overlocker. I know… it’s not really sewing but it was a start.
The ottomans are about 45cm x 45cm in length so I headed off to Spotlight to purchase some fabric which would be sturdy enough to withstand a multitude of uses. Some of those being what you would expect such as the putting up of feet after a hard day, or even as extra seating when friends pop in. Some of the other uses, as tested by my son, include fort walls, boxing sparring partner (cubes stacked upon each other to create a worthy opponent) and as a bowling ball cube!

So with a rough idea of how I wanted to proceed I cut the fabric into 6 pieces, to cover 2 cubes. After pinning the fabric together inside out I set about sewing the seams together.

As you can see below they are coming together quite nicely. I am in two minds as to how to finish them off. One idea was to hem the base with elastic but found the fabric gathered more than I was expecting. The second idea and one I am steering more towards is to hem the bottoms and secure them with Velcro.

The plan is to finish them both this Friday. Keep you posted.