Weekly Recipe: Pizza

Yay for pizza! This week I made two, one "Italian" and one "Argentinian. The dough was whipped up in my bread maker with 1 teaspoon of yeast, 475 g of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of powdered milk, 1 3/4 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 300 ml of water. The same feat could be achieved by kneading, but I'm lazy.

This was enough for two pizzas - I made square-ish pizzas and pricked them with a fork.

The Italian-ish pizza had a squashed tomato, basil and oregano base, layered with very thinly sliced potato, tomato, ham and capsicum and then covered with cheese.

But the Argentinian onion pizza (fugazzeta) was more interesting. I sliced three onions thinly and cooked them in a little olive oil in the frying pan until soft.

Then put them over the base which had been scattered with grated cheese (a mix of mozzarella and provolone works well) and oregano. I put olives on half of the pizza, since Darren doesn't like them.

Bake in an oven at 210 degrees for about half an hour and yum-o. Enough for two nights!

Toddler Play: Driveway Alphabet

We are "blessed" with an extensive amount of concrete at our house. The driveway, which runs the whole length of the property, is two car widths at the top end. Plenty of room for drawing with chalk. I covered the driveway with the alphabet, in upper and lower case. Miss 2.5 is very fond of the alphabet at the moment and Miss 2 is very fond of alphabet puzzles.

We did hunts for letters. Miss 2.5 was right into it. We had long negotiations over what letter certain words begin with.
Me: "Where is M for Daddy Marc?"
Miss 2.5: "No! D is for Daddy Marc!"
Me: "Well, D is for Daddy, but M is for Marc."
Miss 2.5: "No! D is for Marc."
Me: "Um... well, D is for Daddy Darren."
Miss 2.5: "No! D is for Marc."
Apparently I had similar stubbornness levels as a child. Who would have imagined it? I'm *so* biddable now...

Miss 2 thought that finding letters was okay to start with...

 

... but quickly decided that riding her bicycle over the letters was more fun. Not a problem!

New Canvases For May

May.

This month, as well as embossing my canvases, I have been incorporating paper cut-out words into a lot of my work. I like the effect.

My favourite new additions for May are these little square canvases. You can purchase them as one canvas with a personalised name on it, or as a pair of decorated canvases in matching colours. Or mix and match.

Pop over to my Madeit and Etsy stores to see the details for each canvas as they are listed.

Two Years On Etsy

On 26 May 2011, 'kaetoo' Canvas Photo Boards joined Etsy. It wasn't actually until early June that I started listing items for sale, but in my head May is still 'kaetoo's Etsy birthday.

Hurrah!

In celebration of 'kaetoo's 2nd birthday, I'm running a 10% off sale. Click this link to pop over to the Etsy store and at checkout simply enter the coupon code BIRTHDAY2013 for 10% off non-clearance stock (that stuff is already on sale). This applies to any custom orders taken through the Etsy store before 1 June as well.

Enjoy.

Weekly Recipe: Bombay-inspired Fish

The Dory fillets that I bought at the market this week were much larger than I thought, so they made two meals instead of one. For the second meal, I made a Bombay-inspired dinner. I marinated the fish overnight in 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric, a couple of cloves, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 tablespoon tamarind pulp and a tin of coconut milk overnight. The next day I threw in some chopped mushrooms and gently cooked the curry in a frying pan for about 5 minutes, breaking up the fish as it cooked with a spoon.

For sides I cooked basmatic rice, sprinkled a little dessicated coconut on bananas, microwaved a few poppadoms, stirred plain yoghurt through cucumber, and steamed vegetables (yeah, they don't really fit...).

  

Throw it all together with some lime and some mango chutney and there you are. Delicious!

Toddler Play: Shop in the Park

Parks often have a little window and door arrangement and we play shop at these. It's a great place for pretend play and I pay the girls in tanbark pieces. I love the insight into their minds that I get when they are the shop keeper.

Me: "Hello. What is in your shop today?"
Miss 2: "Cake!"
Me: "Oh yum, what kind of cake?"
Miss 2: "Chocolate cake!"
Me: "Great, can I please have a piece? How much?"
Miss 2: "Two monies."

Me: "Hello. What does your shop sell?"
Miss 2.5: "Soap!"
Me: "Lovely. I'll be so clean. Can I please have some? How much?"
Miss 2.5: "Five."

This continues for some time. Miss 2.5 is the more practical one. Miss 2 has a one track mind...

Me: "Hello. What can I buy from your shop?"
Miss 2: "Cake!"
... Miss 2.5: "City!"...
... Miss 2: "Cake!"...
... Miss 2.5: "Safety!"...
... Miss 2: "Cake!"...
... Miss 2.5: "Butter!"...
... Miss 2: "Cake!"...
... Miss 2.5: "Carrots!"...
... Miss 2: "Cake!"...
... Miss 2.5: "Mummy Kate sized clothes."...

Weekly recipe: Potato and herb bread

My sister gave me a breadmaker for my 30th birthday and I haven't looked back. We make all our own bread now, as well as pizza dough and hot cross buns (so far). But earlier this year, that breadmaker broke, so we purchased a new one and have been busy getting to know it. Over the years, I've learned that you have to be very careful to weigh out the ingredients carefully on scales and that humidity has a big effect on bread quality - it's a fine line before you get a rubbish loaf. The extensive recipe book that came with this new breadmaker has been so reliable that I haven't wanted to get too creative. But today I made the first loaf of bread that wasn't directly from the book - a potato and herb loaf.

This is the kind of breadmaker where you add the dry ingredients first (the opposite from our old one), so I started by adding the 1 1/2 teaspoons of yeast, 520 g of flour (oh gluten, where would I be without you?), 2 teaspoons of salt, 1 1/2 tablespoons of milk powder and 20 g of butter (the old machine didn't suggest using butter, but the results are much softer).

I picked 3 tablespoons of chives and thyme from the garden and cut them up and then also added 1/2 a cup of boiled potato chunks.

Next was 340 g of water (yeah, I weigh my water. Short of stealing a measuring cylinder from work, this is the most accurate way of getting the right amount.) and then GO!

Our breadmaker takes about 4 hours, which includes a resting period at the beginning, then the kneading , rising and baking.

Lunch for me! Worked out well.