Homemade Pizza Night!

We love pizza in our house. Only thing is Maggie does not like cheese. She used to. She used to LOVE cheese. But for some reason, the last couple months she protests and says she doesn't like it. So that makes pizza hard if you want to order it in. If she sees cheese on the pizza at all, she wont eat it. So, we have been making our own. Which is WAY more fun anyway!

I found a great recipe for dough on AllRecipes. It's super easy and super quick for those nights when you don't have a lot of time!

Pizza Dough

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 (.25 ounce) package
active dry yeast
2 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 cup warm water (110
degrees F/45 degrees C)

Combine flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. Mix in oil and warm water. Spread out on a large pizza pan. Top as desired.
2. Bake at 375 degrees C (190 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes

A great thing about this dough is once you make it, it's done. You don't need to let it rise. You can if you want to, but you don't have to. We did let ours sit for about 20-30 minutes though.

Maggie had a great time putting on our homemade sauce.

She strategically placed her pepperoni, bell pepper and tomatoes.


And, the finished project


Daddy made a yummy calzone


Although we have a small kitchen we still had fun being together creating our meal. Everyone got to make their own meal their own way.

Please help find this missing person

Before I got pregnant with Maggie I worked for the company that Bryan Scobey worked for. I worked in the Termite Dept and he was in Pest Control. I didn't stay at the job long as I was put on strict bedrest and never returned to work, so I never got to know Bryan well. But what I do know is he was always smiling, always seemed happy and was an all around nice guy. Sadly he went missing on January 13th. Nobody has seen him or his work truck. He has just vanished.

Even if you don't live in our immediate area, please take a look at his picture and what his truck looks like. You just never know what you might see.

If you click here you can see a little more information as well as a truck that is very similar to the one Bryan was driving. Help bring this man back to his wife and children safely.

Bring Bryan Home


Thank you!

A is for Apple

Chris had gone to the gas station and I was getting ready so we could go meet Maggie's friend to go bowling. It was pretty quiet in the living room. That could mean one of two things. So I walked down the hallway wondering what I was going to see and I was pleasantly surprised. My baby girl was sitting on the floor practicing her alphabet writing and drawing!

She makes pretty good "A's" but I was surprised at how well her apple came out, leaves and all.



-Bobbi

She's official!

Maggie finally made it to her first official "big" 4-H meeting yesterday. I was so proud of her to sit thru the hour long meeting, which I am sure was totally boring to her. But, she sat there, quiet and patient, watching and taking in what was going on around her. I honestly thought sitting there for so long would be hard for her, but she was a trooper! Plus she was thrilled that her friend Clara was there, sitting right next to her. Clara is an older girl, I think she is 11. They made friends at the chicken meeting last month.

Maggie got her hat and T-shirt yesterday. She looks so stinkin' cute in them. She tried them on and had specific orders that she wanted her hair in two braids. Last night she was laying in bed and she told her dad that she wont be "ficial" (official) until she gets a gold pin on her hat. So she clearly has a goal set for herself already!

So far she is signed up for the Cloverbud class as well as Chickens and Rabbits. I think she is going to absolutely love this, she seems so excited.
Right now she is in her "uniform" she has a notebook in front of her and she is practicing a "presentation" in front of her mirror. This kid is so cute. I'm so proud of her!

Fantastic Rosemary Focaccia Bread

Bread. What would we do without it? I don't know about you, but I love it! Not only do I enjoy eating it, but I love to make it. There is something about getting all the ingredients together, preparing the dough, smelling it bake. That smell is like no other. I love it! I am always looking for a good recipe so when I stumbled upon this one I thought it would be good to try. I had everything I needed in my pantry so why not?



Here is what you need to make this wonderful bread!

1 c. warm (105-115 degrees Fahrenheit) water
1 Tbsp. yeast
1 Tbsp. white sugar
1 tsp. Kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling
2 Tbsp. butter, divided
2 Tbsp. crushed dry rosemary

2 1/4-2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

In a large mixing bowl, combine warm water, yeast, and sugar. Allow to stand for 10 minutes or until bubbly. While the yeast is getting bubbly, combine 2 C of the flour, salt, 1 Tbsp. rosemary.

Add flour mixture to yeast mixture along with 1 Tbsp. melted butter. Mix well. (I put it in my stand mixer with the dough hook on). Slowly add remaining flour to make a very soft dough--try and resist the urge to add too much flour. You probably won't use the entire extra 1/2 c. of flour. I usually only use about 1/4 cup. You want a soft, wet dough.

Cover and allow to rise 1 hour.

Lightly flour work surface and transfer dough onto this surface. Divide in half. Shape each half into a round loaf and place on a greased cookie sheet or pizza stone. Cover and allow to rise another 45 minutes.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Melt remaining tablespoon of butter and mix with remaining tablespoon of rosemary. Brush on loaves and sprinkle lightly with Kosher salt.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until very lightly golden-brown. Serve immediately (if you can) with olive oil and balsamic vinegar (if you want). It's absolutely *delicious*.




We have two very large Rosemary bushes in our yard so instead of using dry rosemary I used fresh and cut it up fairly small. I also used a little more inside the bread than the recipe called for. Honestly, I didn't measure it when I put it in, just eyeballed what looked good to me.

This recipe makes 2 loaves. I cooked the first one around lunch time. Maggie, Chris and I ate it down quickly. The second one I cooked right before dinner. I knew if I baked them both at the same time they wouldn't have survived until dinner!

-Bobbi

Testing, Testing, Is this thing on?

Oh my goodness! It has been so long since I have been here. I don't really have an excuse. So off my lazy butt I go and here I am!

We had been blessed this week with some wonderful Spring weather! Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and Winter seems to be coming back. It was sure nice and motivating though while we had a taste of the weather to come!

Chris build a new compost box. So excited to get that started. It's in a nice sunny spot, close to our garden and away from any windows by the house! I have missed composting. We haven't done it since we moved up here. Looking forward to seeing what we get out of it.

We planned out our garden. I think we are going to try out Square Foot and Vertical gardening. We definitely have the space for a large garden, but this looks so interesting. And, the way I see it, we can have even MORE than if we planted in our current boxes!
We got a great book at the library called All New Square Foot Gardening. We haven't been able to keep our noses out of it. Definitely a book we are going to buy for our shelves!
It looks like our garden will include:

Eggplant
Bell Peppers (red, green, orange)
Tomatoes
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Green Beans
Cucumber
Corn
Broccoli
Lettuce
Swiss Chard
Radish
Carrot
Beets
Spinach
Jalapenos
Parsley
Chives
Mint
Cilantro
Basil
Oregano
Sage

I'm pretty convinced we are missing a few things, so I will be adding to the list I'm sure! LOL I am so excited. Our winter garden did pretty well, so I'm hoping that our next go-round will provide us with nearly all, if not all of our veggies for Spring/Summer.

The girls are getting big. They have started figuring out their "pecking order". Cocobelle is the definite leader with Dora coming in a close second. I can see where this may be a problem. LOL Ellen, the biggest chicken of the group is the very last in line. I think she prefers it that way. She isn't very brave at all and has the loudest squawk when you pick her up. Cocobelle has found her voice. She sits up on the perches and clucks and talks away. I could just sit and watch them for hours. They really are a fun bunch.
Here are a couple pictures from earlier this week:

Cocobelle enjoying a meal worm treat:

Ellen DeHENeres:


And, Mary Virginia. This must be where the expression "chicken legs" comes from:


It's amazing how quickly they are growing. Soon we will have eggs!

Since the last time I wrote we got a new family member. A new Dutch bunny (5 mo old) named Peter. He is absolutely adorable and so, so sweet. And a contributor to the compost pile as well!
Maggie really wants to do rabbits in 4-H so Peter is a good starter bunny!

Speaking of Maggie, she is doing great with school. She is really into reading, spelling, writing right now. So we have been focused on that. I'm really proud how she has been catching on. Tonight Chris was cooking dinner and I could hear her in the kitchen practicing her spelling to her dad. I love being able to sit back and hear it. Sometimes it's really hard for me to believe she is 5 years old. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. She is such a treasure and so fun to have. I am truly blessed.

I am going to leave you with a couple of pictures from earlier in the week when the weather was so beautiful!






See ya soon!

-Bobbi