Salivating Saturday

Some days I am just plain lazy. I don't want to cook and after eating my weight in red vines, I need to make something with a little more nutrition. On days like this, I will make up a quick pizza. Pizza dough is the easiest thing in the world to make and you get to top your pizza with whatever you want. Although, I don't recommend red vines-yeah, not good.

The following is the easiest pizza dough ever! It will make 2 pizzas or one deep dish pizza.

Ingredients
1 teaspoon Instant Or Active Dry Yeast
1-½ cup Warm Water
4 cups All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
⅓ cups Olive Oil

Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water. Let stand for a 5 minutes.

In a mixer, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low speed (with paddle attachment), drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined, and the dough comes together in a sticky mass.

Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and set it aside for 1 to 2 hours, or store in the fridge until you need it.


When you are ready to make the pizza, grab HALF the pizza dough (recipe makes 2 crusts) and squeeze the dough toward the bottom to form a nice, tight, pulled ball. You can roll out the pizza with a rolling pin if you’d like, but sometimes it’s just as easy to throw it around and pull and stretch till it feels right. And when the crust is nice and thin, lay it on an oiled baking sheet or pizza pan. Drizzle a little olive oil on the dough and spread it with your fingers. Very lightly sprinkle some salt on the crust.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Top your crust with your toppings of choice. Then bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and toppings are bubbly.

There ya go! Easy as pie...get it pie...HA! The second dough will last in the fridge for 3-5 days and in the freezer up to 6 months. I usually make a couple of batches, wrap the dough individually and freeze. 

Quit Marshing My Mellow

Okay, so I have rewritten this post about 5 times. At first I was going to write about how negative people invade our lives like those creepy bugs from the Star Trek movie (KAHN!!!!!). I tried writing about pity parties, how to not take things so personal and then it hit me...I know exactly what I should write about.

Let me give you a quick background. I read A LOT of blogs and while I was being self absorbed and trying to avoid writing another report, I read about a woman with severe depression and how she looked past that to help someone else. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Although I have my problems, and I love to sometimes make mountains out of molehills, I am truly happy and blessed. Yes, negative thoughts and people will get to me, they will burrow in my skull like those bugs, lay their little negative eggs and make my head explode...okay, that was a little gross...but in reality, it's how I react to them that's important. It's how I see the BIG picture around me. Not just the past hour of crap.

I guess that's what I'm trying to drive home. People and things will drive you crazy, will try to bring you down but how you react to them is really up to you. I know this is a  constant theme with me, but it's so true and I think everyone needs to have this bug planted in the brain.

Life is too short to dwell on sadness, what if's and negative nancys. It just is not worth it. What is worth it is the smile on your face when you think happy thoughts, the sound of that special someone's voice, the shake of your butt when your favorite song comes on.

Get out there!  Plant those positive vibes. Drive people crazy with your smile!

When life is marshing your mellow, make whoopie pies! And yes I KNOW it's harshing my mellow but I like marshmallows.

Scrappy Dog Sunday!

5 Things I have Learned from My Dogs

Being cute will only get you so far, personality will take you all the way

It's okay to hide out and regroup in order to come back in full force

Laugh till you feel it in your toes

Allow yourself to have some fun

Happiness really is a warm puppy..or two...or three...

Salivating Saturday

I'll admit it, I am a soft pretzel junkie. I LOVE them. The warm bread, a little mustard...I'm in heaven. I have always wanted to make them but thought they were just too much work. Well, they are a little work, but they are worth it and really, it doesn't take that much time. See, I'll show you.

Easy Like a Sunday Morning Soft Pretzels

Ingredients
* 2 1/4 teaspoons dry active yeast
* 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
* 2 teaspoons sugar
* 1 cup warm water
* 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
* 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
* Vegetable oil, for baking sheets
* 3 tablespoons baking soda
* 1 tablespoon coarse salt-again, I used sea salt

Directions:
Mix yeast, coarse salt, sugar, and warm water in a small bowl, whisking until sugar dissolves. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.

Pour flour in a  large bowl. Using a pastry cutter or your fingers, cut butter into flour until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Slowly pour yeast mixture over flour mixture, stirring to combine. Using your hands, gather dough together. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until it is no longer sticky, about 5 minutes.

Cover with plastic, and let rise for 30 minutes.

Cut dough into 12 pieces, and roll each into an 18-inch rope. Form a U shape with 1 rope, and twist ends together twice. Fold twisted portion backward along center of U shape to form a circle, then gently press ends of rope onto dough to seal.

Transfer to an oiled baking sheet, and repeat. Let rise for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and add baking soda. Boil pretzels in batches until puffed and slightly shiny, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Transfer to wire racks to drain. I suggest using chopsticks to navigate your pretzels, I didn't and they didn't come out very pretty.

Return to baking sheet, sprinkle with pretzel salt, and bake until golden brown and cooked through, about 15 minutes.

Pretzels will keep, uncovered, at room temperature for up to 12 hours. Rewarm in a 250-degree oven if desired. Do not put pretzels in tupperware or cover, they will get soggy. Trust me, they will not last longer than 12 hours. You will gobble them all up!


One thing that I did notice is that my pretzels were super thick!  Definitely roll the dough to 18 inches+, unless you want big fatties.  Also, mine didn't turn out the prettiest, but they were mighty tasty.

This is a very basic recipe, so go a little wild and try out different seasonings. Now I just need to find a mug of beer and some mustard.

Feel Good Friday!

 
It feels like it has been so long since I've done a Feel Good Friday! I've been so bad! How dare work take over my fun time. Anyhoo....the weekend is here and I'm starting you off with this...



HA HA HA! I hope I didn't scare you off! Just had to relive my teenager years. Now that you have your air guitars tuned up, let's see what else I have for you.

Have you checked out my friend Becky's Blog? No, well you should. Why, cause she like Mary Tyler Moore and every time I think of her blog I do my best Mary Tyler Moore impression.

 

Do you know Merwing? No? Well you should, and buy her books cause they are rad. 

I really need this mug. The Animal Rescue shop donates a percentage of their profits to help animals in shelters. The site has a lot of great pet and non pet items.

This should make up for the Loverboy video. 

Have an awesome weekend!

Puppies, Puppies Everywhere!

These patterns are just too cute for words! I love the little puppies on TV.

It's a Rockin' Twistin' Good Time

Hey all you hip kids! Time to jump up out of that chair and get to rocking!

I can't not believe that I have not talked about this movie before. I LOVE Rock Around the Clock. A down and out music promoter runs into a pair of dancers and the amazing Bill Haley and the Comets in a small town while on his way to find the next big thing. Enter a shrewd business woman who wants to have it all (how dare her) including the music promoter, the music and the little dancing vixen out of the way. The music is rockin' and the lingo is even better.

Don't Knock the Rock came out at the same time and again includes a small town, a pair of dancing siblings and a promoter trying to let the world know that rock n' roll is here to stay. Once again we see Bill Haley but as an extra bonus we get Little Richard. OOOOOOHHHHH! Don't tell me you didn't just yell that when I said Little Richard.

A few years down the line and guess what? Rock n' roll is out and the Twist is in! Go Chubby, get your twist on. Both Twist Around the Clock and Don't Knock the Twist are exact replicas of their predecessors with one change-everyone is doing the Twist. When I mean that is the only thing that is different, I truly mean it. The dialogue is the exact same, just substitute Twist for Rock n' Roll. I'm not kidding. A few personnel changes and the use of an eraser and you have a new movie.Even though the movies are the exact same, I still watch them when they come on. I just love a good hip shakin'.

So whether you are a rock n' roll greaser or a twisting fool, these movies are the ones for you. They whisk you away to a forgotten time of hot cars, sassy women, and musical dinner clubs. A time when hip shaking was innocent and people were clothed  - and that my friend...isn't so bad.