Dinner and a Tissue

Sick boy # 1.

Sick Boy # 2.

Pizza # 1.

Pizza # 2.

Well we are wrapping up our extended spring break here much the same way we started it. Two boys down for the count and the house in a state of confusion. Only now we have sold our house and are packing for the move. The older boy has had this brutal cough but doesn't cough much when he is sleeping. Which he thankfully is doing now. The youngest sprang into action with a nice fever today but he has been out of sorts for a day or two so we saw it coming.

As for dinner on this last night of freedom I went for pizza again. We used some home made (not by us) maple flavoured elk sausage and though the sausage was great its sweetness didn't really accent the pizza in the way I was hoping for. Then for dough this evening I went with 100% white flour. The Mrs. used up the last of the whole wheat flour making bread a few days ago so we are down to white and seeing as we have a sack and a half left we really should use it up. I mean it still has nutritional value. Just not as much. It also lacks a little in the flavour department but hey.

And finally we have the one picture that was taken from our most recent trip to the coast. Our free fun day which went into the crapper as the boys started to get sick. Funny story but we are standing in line at American Customs waiting to get the wife's visa, we were going to visit my mom and her hubby at their vacation place, and the middle son pukes all over me while I hold him. I catch most of it in a free hand. One of the customs guys let us use the washroom that is not for public use and we ended up just heading back home. You gotta love kids.
This picture was taken in John Lawson Park. Anyone remember that dolphin.

Now here is a coincidence, we just finished watching The Cove. Wow.

Early Start

Well lets start with dinner. After a busy day with early birds arriving to check out garage sale items (two day early, can you believe it -- more on this later), the pizza ended up coming out a little late so the Mrs. made veggies and dip to tide the crowd over. The crowd was pleased as you can see above they were vieing for optimal position in the bowl. Below our youngest diner is enjoying some of natures harvest.
The regular was up for pizza tonight although the Mrs. threw in a nice twist. She got the big green olives from extra foods. The kind you choose yourself and then put in a little plastic container. So salty and meaty. So good.
The kids had the usual ham and pineapple goodness.
This evenings dough is worth mentioning. I used one cup of whole wheat with two cups of white. Then prepared the dough two different ways. Two of the crusts were hand spread using the technique that sister R brought back from Italy with her. The other two were dusted then rolled with rolling pin. The rolled crusts were nice and uniform however the pulled crusts were fluffier and fuller. The rolling pin crusts made larger area pizzas but the thrown ones weren't that much smaller. I think the one whole to two white is the highest whole to white ratio I can do and still manage to throw it. Anything higher and if I throw the dough it ends up with rips. So we are still learning lots. I do need to add a third flavoured pizza to my rotation. I don't really want to cook a meat for it but I am also not a big lover of vegetarian pizza. I think the bacon cheeseburger pizza with ground beef, onions, cheddar and maybe some bacon might be the answer. Or we used to make a bbq chicken pizza which was pretty nice. Then again there is the feta, spinach and tomato pizza which we have done on occasion. I just need to work on one of these so when we have guests and have to make more than four pizzas I can add another flavour into the rotation.

Now we still have the garage sale update. As of close of business today we have sold the trampoline, ping pong table, rototiller, guitar case, tree sprayer, kids john deere tractor, wheel barrow, black couch, one dresser, various kitchen implements, five movies and possibly my golf clubs. Almost managed to sell the bedroom set but the guy backed out at the last minute. Apparently his wife didn't think they were dark enough to match the bed frame. Picky picky.

Did I mention the garage sale doesn't start until Saturday. Early birds have taken a lot of the good stuff but there is still lots to go. If you look at yesterdays blog you can see the difference a day makes. Things are starting to come together in the old garage.

There is still lots of organizing to do tomorrow but at least stuff is mostly in the right spot now and everything is accessible. I sure hope we get enough young families through here as the toys we are getting rid of are pretty awesome. I am definitely going to have my salesmans cap on come Saturday.

What I will not have to sell is our video collection.
Yes they are cassettes but if you double click the image and take a closer look you will see how many true gems there are in the collection. The guy who picked up the ping pong table today actually said, "you wouldn't happen to have adventures in babysitting would you?" and I said no because I recommended it to the people who bought the tiller and tractor this morning. However, as the daughter pointed out they took stuart little 2. So there it was and now it has found a new home. Videos are 2 for a dollar or 5 for two dollars. Can't go wrong at that price and I hope everyon takes home five. I will miss having them but I have to say there is something very cathartic about getting all your worldly belongings down to a 10 x 10 storage area.

Wish us luck for tomorrow.

ps. Does anyone want a set of Encyclopedia Brittanica circa 1980. Beautiful books, almost totally useless today. I wonder if they can be recycled.

Tako Yaki and Pizza (different nights)

So last weekend, while I was away, the family went and had a cultural night and made Tako Yaki. This is basically a doughnut/pancake ball with a piece of octopus inside. Lacking octopus the family went with squid. A fair substitute. I had some leftovers on Sunday. Not restaurant quality but I would come back again. Small video explanation below.



This evening we had a playday and dinner date. I was up for pizza while mom fashioned some veggies and dip. This is a karate pose. There has been lots of quality over exuberance lately. I think if people just paid the kid more attention when he wanted it there would be way less conflict in the house. Unfortunately he has some pretty stiff competition with his little brother and big sister. Good luck kid.
Here is the daughter with the play date friend. Notice the son photo bombing the shot. This kind of sums up the play date. We started at the pool and then came home for pizza and dance show. That is what necessitated the costumes.
Finally we have our dinner. The pizzas shown are pizza number four and five.
I have to say I am losing the thread on blogging about dinner. By my estimation there are two main factors.

1. Life is just too crazy. With trying to get the house ready to sell, finish one semester and start another, worry about being the bargaining chair for my local at a time of great uncertainty as to what that will entail in the next year I am swamped. There is also the huge demand that having three kids who all want personal attention whenever I am home brings. So yeah really busy.

then there is reason number 2.

I think I am gearing up for a mid life crisis. Questioning the meaning of my job and my life. I mean I am good for a bunch of that at the best of times but this is constant. I am really hoping that the trip to Japan proves that a change is as good as a rest. I won't bore you with the details. In any case way too much thinking is happening after 8:00 at night these days. It might just be that with so much in flux in my life I am re-evaluating. The conclusion I have come to recently is that you cannot know what your life is supposed to mean. However, if you eliminate the things you feel you shouldn't be doing then maybe what is left, in a Sherlock Holmesian manner, is what you are meant to do and you shouldn't question it too much. That is where I am at tonight.

Saturday Round Up.

Okay so technically it is Sunday morning but I am still not in bed so I am going with Saturday night. We have had a couple of dinners and some work done around here this weekend so let me catch you up.Friday night I got my pizza on. You can see here in the first photo that the kids were not happy about something. I think there was dissension over which movie should be watched or something along those lines. However, the post pizza politics were much more amicable and the evening went off pretty well. This Mrs and I dined or our classic salami (salsa salami this week) and vegetable pizza. Big chunks of zucchini were the star attraction.

Then this evening we had a plentitude of dishes cooked up for our gustatory pleasure. The first dish below was a noodle soup created by the daughter. We renewed the cook books from last week and she finally got to make something. She was a little disappointed at the lack of heartiness but she didn't fry the onions or mushrooms at the start and we didn't have any soup powder on hand. It was still nice. Very Japanesey in the subtleness of its flavours.

The Mrs. went to town with some panfried salmon in miso. This was a flavour revolution. From the soup to this was like dial up to high speed. Instead of a regular salad we had the family favourite veggies and dip. I am really starting to dig watching the kids with their own bowls of dip just powering down the veggies. The son had big love for the salmon too. The wife also cooked up the last squash from our fall harvest and put on some rice to close the deal. It was outstanding. I thoroughly enjoyed every bite of it. This is the youngest during preparation. He had had a big day crawling around and investigating things in the house. We are already getting ready for the sadness that the end of his crawling baby phase will bring.
However, life must go on. And on it went this weekend. I managed to get two coats of primer down in the entraceway and bathroom. White is bright. Both areas are so so much lighter than they were previously. And being done with the hideous salmon colour in the bathroom is truly a blessing. I only have to paint the bathroom door tomorrow and then phase two of home improvements will be done. For comparison I have brought back the before pictures. The after pictures are only after one coat of primer so things are looking even better now that we have two on. The question is whether to get a tint in the finishing coat or to just get some white and let the next owners decide on their colours. That is a tough call.

Final Supper

... of 2009. We decided to take the year out in style and went for ... can't stand the tension.... drum roll please.... Pizza! (shouted like the greek "Opa"). Yeah to put this year to bed it seemed like the obvious choice. We also had veggies and dip. Finger food or snacky food as the wife likes to call it. The kids enjoyed their final feast while watching a film. Notice the lack of eye contact with the camera.I got some hot chorizo sausage for the adult pizza tonight but the flavour didn't really come through. That said, the green peppers, mushrooms, olives and red onions brought a flavour tsunami crashing into this meal. So the meat was extraneous. Although it does add a nice touch to the picture.
Here is the Mrs. eating her dinner. Note the veggies and dip, a little runny this evening. I would love to add two or three tablespoons of sour cream to the dip but then you have most of a tub of sour cream left and it seems like it would go to waste.

On a blogging note it has been a pretty week couple of months here. Just haven't had the routine going. Weird nights and minimal motivation. I am pretty conflicted of how I will proceed with the blog in the new year. Haven't spent a lot of time thinking about possible options but I have definitely lost the thread on posting about dinner.

Well things are falling apart behind me. I have two kids in tears. As mom used to say, having to watch your kids fight is definitely the worst.

Happy 2010.

Staying in Saturday.

Well it was another pizza night at the local homestead. Bought fresh mozzarella which did not want to be grated however ripped into chunks it did great service covering the pizza. Two kids and two adult pizzas were made. The daughter was on the road at a birthday party so there is lots of kid leftovers for tomorrow. The adults had some pepper salami eventhough I had made the decision to only use the gypsy salami after the last pizza session. However, the pepper salami was great. We made the pizzas in the regular oven tonight for a change. We used the pizza pans and it was pretty good. This is in anticipation of making pizza during the christmas holidays.
Up next is cupid's costume for the christmas production at the elementary school. I bought some iron on interface and then only ironed the hearts onto the interface. So when I sewed them onto the shirts they ended up kind of puffy. I was supposed to iron them together and then sew them, right? Well this was another in a long series of learning events. Second costume in less than a month. I have a weird feeling I want to invest in a good sewing machine. Very weird. Finally it is boys night here. We let mom stay at home. She is pretty important to us.

Friday Night Pizza

Doesn't she look pleased. It must be the pizza. Once again 2 to 1 for white to whole wheat flour in the crust. Standard amounts. Sauce on first, then in the oven, then topped while sitting on the stone. The kids had crushed pineapple tonight. It was harder to put on but I think it still went well. The adults had olives, red pepper, mushrooms, onions and gypsy salami. I think we are going with gypsy salami as our featured processed topping. It has the heat, doesn't have that greasy oily salami feel which I don't like. Not to dry. It feels just about right.
The littlest kid is definitely a going concern. Getting around, eating anything he can find on the floor. He also likes to pull himself up and see what is going on at the higher elevations.As for me I had a pretty full and very satisfying day. Ate breakfast, marked tests, did yoga, ate lunch, went for run, had a dentist visit and made pizza. We are now going to watch the movie, "Caroline." No idea what it is about but the daughter has seen part of it and wants to see the rest. Lots of pizza leftovers. You'll need to be here before lunch to have a shot at them. Breakfast would probably be safer.

Its alive.

So yeah there is lots to talk about costumes and dinner to start with. But the real news is that the littlest is crawling. I was standing in the kitchen doing dishes (an amazing feat in itself) when I notice that the little dude is definitely closer than he was a moment ago. And then there he goes. Right for the little waste paper basket. So yeah its everything off the floor time. That is until he develops enough understanding to be able to determine what he is allowed to do. I figure we have about 17 years give or take. Unfortunately, no crawling video. He won't perform on demand.

As for dinner and costumes it was a pretty good night in that department too. I made pizza for the first time in a while. Home grown tomatoes and garlic in the sauce. It was a little runny but full of that home grown love. 1 to 2 cups of whole wheat to white and the crust was still delish. The kids topped their own individual pizzas. Then they had to share because one came out first. Hey were are not set up for quantity here. Ours was a gypsy salami, orange pepper, mushroom and red onion affair. Very pleased with the over all effect.

Speaking of effects we had a vampire and a zebra roll out of here at about 5:30. Here they are with some buddies who they ended up trick or treating with. I have to say, walking along with the other parents and having the kids run around with their friends definitely increases their staying power. Note to self. If they ever go trick or treating again get more organized about working the friend phone tree.

Feels kind of nice to sit down and blog. Really haven't had much of a moment recently to just sit and catch the breath. Not that I don't have a tonne of stuff to be doing right now. Gonna be another hell raiser of a week and I have yet to start on the stack of stuff I brought home. But it has been a good weekend. Played with kids, raked leaves, gave the lawn a last mow, put away all the yard stuff, gassed up the car, went to the library, fixed the gutters. Yep feeling like a hero and its only Saturday night.

Speaking of Saturday night we just watched How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. That Simon Pegg turns up in the strangest of places. I rather enjoyed it. I was looking for a Romantic comedy to watch with the Mrs and it definitely fit the bill. However, not quite enough of a movie to actually have a conversation about afterwards. Just a nice evening together with the littlest on the couch between us.

17 years or there abouts. That should about get us there.

Slow day yet somewhat fast.

So today was a bit of a slow day. When it comes right down to it all I really did was clean off my desk. Now that was a major piece of filing. All the bills and bank statements that accumulate under my left hand have to be put away regularly. Unfortunately some of them were dated last December. Once the pile starts it is hard to get under control. But anyways we are back in business now. And really I did also do some run training(the fast part of today, although that is really relative), helped with lunch, found a new movie for the kids and made pizza. I do still plan to get some marking done before sack time so it might still work out. This evenings meal was pretty good in a number of senses. The whole wheat infused crust continues to improve. Though it still doesn't hold sauce that well. I really need to dress the pizza's once the crust is in the oven. So that is what I did. Two kids and two grown ups. We had two different types of salami for the grown ups tonight. The garlic salami went with the last of the feta cheese (pictured at top) and the hot hungarian went with the jalapeno's (not shown here). Kids had the usual without fresh basil as the cold nights have started to make an impression on the leafy garden fare. Big plans to harvest the last of it and turn the garden over for the fall. Hopefully it happens tomorrow as we are coming into a big stretch of busy weekends. The days grow short.Look at those excited faces. Has it really been that long since I have made pizza.

Good Day

It was one of those recruiting commercial type days here. You know, we do more by six am than most people do all day. Truth be told I was still happily dozing at six am but I did get up soon there after and go for a run. The two trips to the dump that have been waiting got done. Car washed and vacuumed. Made pizza for dinner and went for the last cheapo Thursday night swim of the summer. So yeah I am feeling pretty accomplished today.

Looking more closely at the pizza the adults had eggplant on theirs. It was a really cool pink and white marbled eggplant that my gardening guru gave me. I have one growing in my garden but I am trying to hold off on picking it.The Mrs. picked up some spicy genoa salami for the adults pie and it was great. Mushrooms, home grown green and banana peppers along with some red onion rounded out the toppings. I went with two cups of unbleached and one cup of whole wheat flour for the dough. I mixed things up and didn't let the yeast sit in the warm water as long as usual. I also added more olive oil than usual. As I kneaded the dough I added about half a cup of unbleached but I ended up with a really nice dough.
Unfortunately the kids were pretty disappointed with their ham, pineapple and basil pizza. Just look at those forlorn little faces. Breaks your heart don't it.