Sunday, December 4, 2011

Photo #334/365: The American Revolution, A New Approach



We are working on our American Revolution unit for Core Knowledge.  This year I'm using a new approach.   I moved my webquest onto our Explore Earth Wiki, and I am using a book that Mr. Pugh gave me.  It is called Hands On History:  The American Revolution, and it is chock full of hands on activities that hopefully will keep the kids more engaged. We created a Domino Time Line that we add events to each day.  So far we started a vocabulary display with a battlefield scene, and we made a French and Indian War lockbook.  It was an adventure getting the pages together.  I'll let you know how this works.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Photo #333/365: Pizza



For a long time now, I have been looking for a recipe for a really good homemade pizza crust.  My cousin, Angela, gave me one that I like, but it wasn't quite what I wanted.  I saw this recipe on Pinterest.  It is from a blog called Lauren's Latest.  Tonight is the first time I every used my dough hook on my stand mixer.  It was easy, and worked very well.   Here is Lauren's recipe.


Fail-Proof Pizza Dough and Cheesy Garlic Bread Sticks 

Basic Pizza Dough
yield: 2-12 inch pizzas, approximately 1 lb. of dough
Ingredients:
1 cup warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey {or sugar}
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
3 cups bread flour

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, preferably that of a stand mixer, stir yeast and honey into warm water. Sit for 5-10 minutes or until bubbles form and mixture starts to foam. Pour in salt, oil and half the flour and mix.

Once that flour is incorporated, start adding flour in bit by bit until you get the pizza dough to the consistency you want: slightly tacky, but when you touch it it doesn’t stick to your hands.

Turn the mixer on high to knead for 6 minutes. Make sure to let it go the whole 6 minutes.

The dough should be smooth and easy to work with. And the bowl should be clean!

Lightly grease the bowl and the dough so it doesn’t dry out, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise 1-2 hours.



I baked it at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes.

Go to her blog to see the step by step tutorial and her recipe for Cheesy Garlic Bread Sticks.  You'll find it at:  Lauren's Latest


This is absolutely the best pizza I ever made!  I used some of my homemade pasta sauce, sweet Italian sausage, pepperoni, and a mixture of Italian cheeses.  Give it a try!

Photo #332/365: An Afternoon at Smokey Row





I'm not really a coffee drinker, but I love the atmosphere of a good coffee shop.  I have two that I particularly like; Smokey Row and the Caribou Coffee on Ingersoll.  I spend a lot of time at both of these places during the summer, but I usually don't have much time to hang out there during the school year.  On Friday, Jacci and I got together at Smokey Row.  I love the vintage look of the interior, and it wasn't that many years ago that this building was the book drop and warehouse for Planned Parenthood.  Mom and I have been to the Smokey Row in Pella, which has a similar decor.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Photo #331/365: Michael





I was really glad to have Michael with us for Thanksgiving this year.  We missed Lisa.  She is running a marathon in Seattle this weekend.

Photo #330/365: Cat Thanksgiving


The cats were not invited in, but they had their own Thanksgiving dinner.

Photo #329/365: After Dinner Conversation





Mom prepared dinner for Lauren's family, but she joined us in the evening for some after dinner conversation.  I just love this area with the comfortable arm chairs.  Those are my feet on the ottoman.  Jacci was setting up her Kindle for Mom to take with her to Arizona.

Photo #328/365: Thanksgiving Dinner




We had an earlier dinner than usual, because my nephew, Torin had to work in the evening.  His roommate, Jonathan, joined us for Thanksgiving dinner.  We had many things to be thankful for today.