Pizza and Flowers! May 26, 2009

I have been super domestic the past few weeks – I’ve been spending my time cooking, baking, gardening, and spinning. I actually have two super delicious pizza recipes that I want to share with you.

1.) Homemade pizza! This is seriously one of the most delicious things I’ve ever made. I like to top it with roasted garlic, olive oil, spinach, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese (no tomato sauce!). I also made a version with pepperoni and green peppers in place of the spinach and mushrooms that was really good too. The recipe is really simple – it just takes a few minutes to mix up the dough. Then you leave it alone to rise for an hour or two and roll it out and add toppings, and bake it for just 10 minutes! I have a feeling I’ll be making this a lot in the future – I LOVE pizza!

Recipe from foodjunta.

2.) Vegetable pizza. This isn’t really pizza in the traditional sense. It’s actually a base of croissant dough, which is topped with ranch-flavored cream cheese, chopped veggies, and shredded cheese. It is really simple to make, and amazingly yummy. I ate it for the first time when the cook in my sorority house made it for dinner, and I had to look up the recipe so I could make it at home!

Recipe here.

In other news, I have successfully kept a plant alive for over six weeks! My aunt gave me a potted pansy for Easter, and I have taken such good care of it that not only is it alive, but it is actually blooming! This might not seem so impressive to some, but I have a horrible black thumb that keeps me from ever successfully growing anything. Plants wither and die as soon as I look at them. This flower is a triumph for me, and it makes me smile every time I walk past.

As far as spinning goes, I have been working on a new yarn series that I have big plans for. There is more information to come later about this project, but for now I’ll leave you with this hint…

Back! February 16, 2009

It’s true, I’m back! I’ve actually been doing a lot lately, both fiber-related and otherwise, but I’ve been too busy to post about any of it! Don’t worry though, because I’m back now, and hopefully I’m here to stay!

I dyed some of the most gorgeous roving ever the other day. Here’s a picture I took of it, even though it looks much much better in real life. The colors are just so rich and deep – gold, royal purple, and navy. I’m planning to start spinning it up tonight – I can’t wait!

I also bought some roasting pans from Target to use for dyeing roving. They were $11 each, but in the long run they are going to be so much cheaper (and more eco-friendly!) than using disposable aluminum pans. Plus, for some reason I find them really cute!

This weekend I celebrated Valentine’s Day, which is one of my very favorite holidays. One of my pet peeves is when people claim that they don’t like Valentine’s Day because it’s a “Hallmark Holiday”. Sure, it commercialized and a little bit silly. But it’s fun, and a perfect day to celebrate love in all of its forms.

As a Valentine’s Day treat for my boyfriend, I whipped up a batch of these White Chocolate Oreo Balls, otherwise known as the easiest and most delicious dessert ever! Here’s the exterior view, which is not particularly impressive:

And the interior view. Mmmmm:

Here’s the super-simple recipe:

White Chocolate Oreo Balls

Ingredients:
1 package of Oreo cookies, crushed
1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened
2 bags of white chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Mix Oreos and cream cheese.
2. Form mixture into balls about 1 inch in diameter, chill.
3. Melt white chocolate.
4. Roll Oreo/cream cheese balls in white chocolate.
5. Place finished balls on waxed paper, chill.
6. Eat! Yum.