Finally Have Time!

After 8 months of law school, I'm finally free!!! Even in the first weekend, we have accomplished a ton! I got a full mowing of the yard, front and back, even under the brush pile! The brush pile is now two smaller "needs chainsaw" piles, and the chainsaw just needs to be cleaned out and refueled to get all the gunky old gas out of it. We had a good, but very fast and hot bonfire to get rid of the rest of the brush, and may have a smaller one to get the remnants of the chainsaw pile later on.

The garden is looking good! We're already getting tomatoes, tomatillos, and eggplant growth, so we'll see if they stay. Only one strawberry plant has survived so far, but I may try to plant some more dormant ones and see if the late planting will survive the heat of the summer. The berry patch is producing like wild! There are hundreds of blackberries ready to start ripening, most from the plants that came with the house! The new raspberries are too young to fruit, but I'm hoping for a good fall season with a few berries from those plants. My transplanted thornless blackberry was cut way back on transplant, and thus only has one flower on it. I'm looking forward to seeing how that one tastes! Finally, blueberries may form on the blueberry bush, but not too many, as the bush is still tiny.

The orchard is looking pretty good. The nectarine tree got scorched by the bonfire, but not badly enough do to permanent damage, just a little leaf wilting. It should be fine within a few days (especially with the rain we've gotten this week). The only tree without ample leaves at this point is the peach tree, but the tree is alive, and must be growing the roots out this year. We may see some foliage by fall, but my hopes of that aren't super high.

I've got an experiment growing in 3 glass cups in the kitchen. I bought the saddest, most wrinkly little organic sweet potato, and am trying to get a root ball growing out of 3 segments of it. I will then plant those segments in a cylinder like the red and yellow potatoes, and see if we can get a good crop this summer! Hopefully, if all these plants grow to fruition, we'll have too much food come July!

Beyond that, we did some major cleaning, inside and out, preparing for a Mother's Day lunch, which was a fun time! We're going to start focusing on the entryway and interior work again very soon! The next step is to tear out the 1/4" drywall that is currently up on the reframed opening in the entryway, and redo it with 1/2" sheets. Further, we'll tear out the bad drywall in the formal dining area, do any termite repairs that are necessary, and redrywall that area with 5/8" drywall.

I also need to spread more fire ant killer, and spray the house for bugs next weekend, so that hopefully we can keep any future insect damage to a minimum. Also, we've been getting some pretty big garden spiders (half dollar size and bigger) up near the house, so spraying for them is a high priority. Thankfully, the frequent mowing has seemed to cut down on the snake problems, so nothing further needs to be done at this point.

We also got a housewarming gift from one of the neighbors, a cover for the attic entry ladder! That looks like it will be a simple install, and hopefully it helps keep the house cooler through the summer here!

All the work last weekend made for some tired people and tired pets!

It was also quite hot! The shade was the only place to get cooled off!

It rained a ton last week! 3-4" worth of much needed rain!

The kitten, however, hasn't quite learned the lesson to look where you leap.

HOW TO: Make homemade pizza dough

Homemade pizza is a great treat to make without having to spend $20 to have somebody deliver a couple boring dough frisbees in a cardboard box. 

Even after saying that, I do love me some delivery pizza, or even better, Papa Murphy's! However, all of those pale in comparison to homemade, from scratch pizza.

Ingredients:

- Whole wheat flour ~3 cups

- White flour ~4 cups

- 1 Tbsp sugar (I usually use brown sugar)

- 1 Tbsp salt

- 2 Tbsp olive oil (I usually use extra virgin, but the flavor doesn't really come out in the dough very much)

- 0.25 Oz (1 packet) active dry yeast

- 2.5 cups warm water (110 degrees or so)

- Small amount of corn meal

Tools:

- Pizza Stone

- Rolling pin (Optional)

- Non-stick pastry paper/silicone mat (Optional)

- Stand mixer or large prep bowl

- Large mixing bowl

- Damp Cloth

Instructions:

NOTE: You can adjust the balance of white and whole wheat flour to suit your tastes. The recipe this is derived from uses only 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour and the rest white, whereas you can probably do mostly whole wheat flour as well. I find it a little difficult to work with the dough if I use only whole wheat flour. 

1. In the stand mixer or large prep bowl, stir the yeast, the sugar, and the water together.




2. Let the yeast mixture sit for 10 minutes (until yeast activates)
3. Add 4 cups of flour (white and/or whole wheat), the olive oil, and salt to the yeast mixture, stirring it to a sticky consistency. (You may want to coat anything you're using to stir in oil to keep the sticking down)
   







4. Keep adding flour slowly and stirring until the dough pulls together into a ball and becomes more manageable.
   
   
   
   
5. Knead the dough (either by hand or by mixer) for 5 minutes or so, allowing the ball to become smooth. If you need to add some more flour because it's still too sticky, go ahead.
6. Oil the large mixing bowl, and roll the dough around in the bowl (to coat it in a light sheen of oil)
7. Cover the mixing bowl with a damp cloth and leave it in a warm place for 1hr
   
   

8. After an hour, punch down the dough on a lightly floured and cornmealed silicone mat (or any surface)
9. Divide the dough into 2 or 3 pieces. I find that 3 equal pieces of dough are just slightly too small for what we want, so I think that 2 large pieces and a third small one would be perfect for 2 pizzas and a side of breadsticks.
   
10. At this point you can either freeze the dough for later or roll it out to eat now
11. Preheat the oven to 425F, heating the pizza stone
    I find pizza stones to be mandatory to having a decent pizza crust. It cooks the crust from the bottom, which is much better.
12. Using a lightly floured rolling pin (or your hands) form the dough into a pizza crust. It should be thin, but not so thin that it won't support the toppings
13. Roll the edges over into a crust
14. Add toppings as you like.
    I find that too much sauce leaves a mushy dough that doesn't quite cook right. You may want to go easy on the sauce until you get a feel for how much is too much
15. Place the dough on the pizza stone and let it cook for 15-20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and crust is browned