I just realized that I hadn't written about cooking/food in a while, and well, this blog wouldn't truely be all 'me' without some comments about food now and again.
First things first, I made my very own pizza crust (complete with yeast, kneading, etc) on Sunday. As usual, I used my go-to website, the Smitten Kitchen to come up with the recipe.
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Really Simple Pizza Dough
Makes enough for one small, thin crust pizza. Double it if you like your pizza thick and bready.
1 1/2 cups flour (can replace up to half of this with whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water (may need up to 1 or 2 tablespoons more)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Stir dry ingredients, including yeast, in a large bowl. Add water and olive oil, stirring mixture into as close to a ball as you can. Dump all clumps and floury bits onto a lightly floured surface and knead everything into a homogeneous ball.
If you are finding this step difficult, one of the best tricks I picked up from my bread-making class is to simply pause. Leave the dough in a lightly-floured spot, put the empty bowl upside-down on top of it and come back in 2 to 5 minutes, at which point you will find the dough a lot more lovable.
Knead it for just a minute or two. Lightly oil the bowl (a spritz of cooking spray perfectly does the trick) where you had mixed it — one-bowl recipe! — dump the dough in, turn it over so all sides are coated, cover it in plastic wrap and leave it undisturbed for an hour or two, until it has doubled in size.
Dump it back on the floured counter (yup, I leave mine messy), and gently press the air out of the dough with the palm of your hands. Fold the piece into an approximate ball shape, and let it sit under that plastic wrap for 20 more minutes.
Sprinkle a pizza stone or baking sheet with cornmeal and preheat your oven to its top temperature. Roll out the pizza, toss on whatever topping and seasonings you like. (I always err on the side of skimpy with toppings so to not weight down the dough too much, or if I have multiple toppings, to keep them very thinly sliced.)
Bake it for about 10 minutes until it’s lightly blistered and impossible to resist.
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Let me say here that I was a bit nervous. I mean, I'm not exactly familiar with yeast and rising and all of that stuff. But the recipe took about 10 minutes to make, about 2.5 hours of rising and what-not, and (when doubled) made a nice thick crust pizza that tasted oh-so American (yay!) that my toes curled when I ate it.
That was a good thing! But I'll move on to my big flop... I've been wanting to cook with parsnips ever since I figured out what those strange white things were at the farmers market. So, following advice from someone at church, I peeled a parsnip, cut it into pieces, sprinkled some olive oil and salt on the pieces, and put said pieces into the oven. I baked this conglomeration until each piece was slightly brown on top (and a bit shriveled).
We were so excited. The parsnips looked a bit like very white french fry pieces. Yay! French Fries!!! I gleefully took a first bite, and not-so-gleefully spit out the same. Oh my! So bitter, so foul!
Of course, I've never had a parsnip before, but I heard that they taste sweet! Almost like a sweet potato. So, the question is... did I do something wrong, was the parsnip rotten, or am I just rotten at following directions?
To keep this post really long, I also decided to give a small product review. I had heard about the nursing pads called LilyPadz from the Pregtastic podcast. The ladies went on and on about how wonderful they were. Basically the theory is that these silicone pads actually prevent you from leaking, instead of just catching the milk when it leaks. Amazing! After walking around the Tazewell County 4-H fair with a large wet spot under my chest, I decided that these leak-proof pads were the thing for me.
I purchased and began using them while on vacation in the States. At first, I thought they were terrific. Sure, a bit of milk was still leaking, but it wasn't leaking through to my clothes (the important thing!). Now and again when I'd take the pads off, some milk would fall out of the pad, but I figured that wasn't a big deal.
UNTIL. Until, I developed a case of thrush. I won't go into details on what thrush is, other than to say that it is an incrediblely itchy, uncomfortable fungal infection. I had to go to the urgent care to get ointment to treat myself, and to treat Elena, as the thrush had spread into her mouth.
If you are thinking about using the Lilypadz, I have a word of advice. If you start using the pads, and after a few days they are NOT stopping the leak entirely (as promised in the packaging), then I would not use them as your only nursing pad. Perhaps only use them if you want to go swimming, wear a strapless dress or tight shirt, or other special occasions.
Enough said. I'm headed to bed. Rest my head.
Argh.
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