Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Wordless Wednesday - Farming in the Buff

Evenings at our house mean spending time in the backyard, checking our garden. Our youngest farmer has discovered how much fun it is to pick red tomatoes. As you can see clothes are optional.


Yes he's naked and yes nudity is almost always inappropriate but when you are only 16 months old its adorable! Wouldn't you agree? I'm saving this one for the high school yearbook. 

What do you do for fun as a family? 
Thanks for reading! ~mrs. c

Friday, July 26, 2013

Cast Iron Skillet Pork Pork Pork Pizza

My husband asked me the other night what was dinner. I replied enthusiastically, leftovers. This was clearly not the right answer to the question given his facial expression so I headed to the refrigerator to examine the situation. What was I going to prepare (and not reheat) for dinner? I discovered I had the makings of what could be a great pizza - cheese, pork products and a few veggie's. I will warn you now, this is not gourmet and it really is not a recipe. It is "what was in the refrigerator."  

I needed pizza dough first so I immediately went to The Pioneer Woman's pizza dough recipe. You can find it here . It's really easy and makes a great crust. This recipe fills my 14" cast iron skillet perfectly. 

Next up, ingredients. 
From the refrigerator I pulled bacon, Italian sausage and linguicia. Get it? Pork, pork, pork? Three kinds of pig products? Oh well, I tried. I cooked each of these pork delicacy's individually in my cast iron skillet. Why the skillet? I didn't want to get another pan dirty. After all I am the chief dishwasher in my household. 

Cheese, shredded mozzarella and a ball of the fresh stuff too.
Zucchini from the garden
Tomatoes from the garden
And a jar of sauce and a can of sliced olives from the pantry.
That is it!


After the dough did its thing (it needed to rise for an hour) I rolled it out into the pan which by the way I had washed after the pork product cooking and added a small layer of olive oil to the surface. 

I used this handy Pampered Chef rolling pin to assist in my efforts.  Again not the prettiest dough but clearly edible and homemade. Sssshhh! Please don't tell The Pioneer Woman. Her rolled out dough was much more attractive. 




Before I start to layer the ingredients, I turn on the gas burner to medium and let it begin to cook the dough from the bottom. Let's top the pizza! I added about a cup of my favorite brand of jarred marinara sauce. 



After the sauce, a layer of the sliced mozzarella and then add the meat. Here is the linguicia. What is linguicia you ask? It's a smoked Portuguese sausage and its yummy!


I then add the crumbled bacon, crumbled Italian sausage and one thinly sliced garden zucchini. 
Then I topped it all off with the shredded mozzarella. 



 Finally, a can of sliced olives and a handful of yellow tomatoes sliced in half. 


Remove it from the stove top and place it directly into a 350 F oven for 15 minutes or until it is cooked all the way through and bubbly. Pizza cooking times will vary depending on how many toppings you have put on the pizza. 

And here it is! 
Bubbly and slightly brown on top and the perfect combination and crispy and chewy on the bottom. 


I removed it from the skillet and cut it up for dinner. Where is a picture of just a slice you ask? The pizza was loved by my family and I forgot to take the single slice picture. Oh well, you get the idea. 


Let's recap.

a jar of sauce
cheese
meat
veggies
more cheese 

A fresh, homemade dinner is served. What are you making for dinner tonight?
Thanks for reading! ~mrs. c


Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Wordless Wednesday - Bath Time, Clothes Required

Yes, it has been a loooooong time since I have posted anything. My excuse? I'm a busy mom with a full time job and dinner on the table each night is much more important than blogging. I didn't say it was a good excuse.

Along with slacking on blogging, I also found a media card from my camera that had not been downloaded to my computer, until today.

Allow me to present my youngest child. The baby. When these photos were taken, he was only 10 months old! Today he is already 15 months old. I can still remember this evening and I am so excited I captured it. Here is the set-up. Big brother is in the tub. Little brother crawls into the bathroom and pulls himself up the side of the tub. Big brother engages little brother and gets him excited about being in the water. Little brother leans over to get one of the many bath toys and in he goes! Clothes and all, head first. SPLASH! Where was mom and dad you ask? Right outside the bathroom door. No harm done. He was a little scared but as you can see below that lasted all of 5 seconds and he was happy to be in the tub...clothes and all.



Come on, you know this made you smile.
Thanks for reading. ~ mrs. c

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