Elsja Down Under

Yumdiddly # 4- Homemade Pizza July 28, 2009

So who knew… but my Yumdiddly series is going to continue!

Last week I made some yumlicious homemade pizza and I thought I’d share my tips and tricks with you.

First I made the dough using this recipe:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (.25 ounce/7g) 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)

If you are in the US, you could just go to Trader Joes and buy some pre-made dough, but I don’t have that luxury here- I only have the option of buying a crapier version of a Boboli or I can make my own. Of course I choose to make my own.

So I mixed  all this up together to form the dough (if you have an electric mixer with a dough hook, that really helps- but it can definitely be done by hand). 

Then I let it sit in a bowl covered with a warm, wet towel for about an hour. You actually don’t have to do this, but I find that it makes the dough much easier to roll out.

While rolling the dough, I had my pizza stone heating up in the oven. Now, everyone raves about amazing pizza stones and how they make your pizza so much tastier. I’m not sold on this. I still have to modify my pizza after it’s cooked (ill discuss that later). If you don’t have a stone, just use a cookie sheet of some sort to make a rectangle pizza.

I rolled the dough out so it was pretty big and thin and it covered the entire stone. I trimmed off the excess around the edge of the stone and saved it to make another mini pizza the next day.

Then I covered it in the following (in this order):

• My favorite pasta sauce that I use for pretty much every recipe
• Chopped garlic
• Chopped fresh basil
• Chopped sun dried tomatoes
• Chopped red and green bell peppers/capsicum
• Chopped onions
• Low-fat mozzarella cheese

I didn’t go light on the toppings… this thing was COVERED. I learned prior to making this that you should add toppings UNDER the cheese so that 1) the toppings don’t burn before the cheese cooks and 2) the cheese will get nice and golden. This trick REALLY made the pizza better! I love golden crispy cheese!!

I baked it on 410f/210c  for about 20 minutes until the cheese was nice and brown on top

**Now here’s my special trick **

When I sliced some pizza, I threw it on our sandwich grill thing (or you could just use a pan on your stove top). I let it sit there for about 2-4 minutes until the bottom of the crust started to brown and get crunchy. I do this because even with the pizza stone, I still find that the dough is a bit too soft and flimsy in the middle of the pizza (this is precisely why I’m not quite sold on the benefits of the stone). I like it the crust a bit crispier so placing the pizza on a grill for a few extra minutes before eating makes it even better!! If you like soft, chewy pizza- then just skip this step

Andrew said it was the best homemade pizza he’s ever had and I actually have to agree with him on that one!!!

I promise to start taking more pictures of my yummy creations now that I have full intentions of blogging about them more frequently! I think next I’ll attempt a Hawaiian BBQ chicken pizza. Mmm can’t wait!

Join the Club

We’ve started up this awesome new club… a social club.

It takes place on our balcony all day every day and you must be a bird to join. Here are the membership rules and benefits:

1. Fly over whenever you feel like it and enjoy free grapes

2. Sit around squacking and making copious amounts of noise  for hours on end when the club leaders run out of grapes

3. Crap all over the place 

4. Feel free to invite the non-regulars, even though they are a bit retarded and try to fly INTO windows (twice).

Don’t you wish you could join?

Wine Snobs? July 23, 2009

You’ve all heard the term “wine snobs” before right? You know… the people who are SUPER picky about their wine and will only drink from a particular year, brand or region? Well I am definitely NOT a wine snob. I like most any type of wine and of course have my favorites as well as a few that I’ll stay away from simply because I do not like the taste. I’m more likely to choose a wine based on how cool the label looks as opposed to the description on the back of the bottle.  Clearly I’m not picky.

Well I learned a lesson the other day… animals in nature can be pretty snobby too.

Like our birds.

Our birds came back to us even after we deserted them for 3 weeks while we were away. I was so happy to see them but I wasn’t prepared for their return. I thought for sure they would never be back after we were gone for so long. Since I had no food for them I just had to ignore them and sadly, they flew away hungry. That day I went to the store and bought some grapes- their cuisine of choice. They LOVE grapes! Red grapes were way cheaper than the green ones on this particular day so I bought the red variety. Grapes are grapes. I paid for my little bunch of grapes and was very happy that I could now feed the birdies the next time they returned.

So they came back and I was all excited and I grabbed 4 or 5 grapes and went out and placed them on their plate (yes they have their own plate that sits on our balcony).

Well they just looked at the plate  like it was displaying poison and wouldn’t go near it!! WTF?

I was so confused… they LOVE grapes! So I tried hand feeding them. They did make a minor attempt to act interested but as soon as their little beaks simply touched the outer skin they backed off. I thought hmm… maybe they don’t like the skin. SO i actually bit one in half and tried to feed them the inside of the grape.

Nah… they weren’t having it. They refused to eat the red grapes.

The birds are TOTALLY grape snobs! Spoiled spoiled snobby birds. Today they feasted on green grapes and they were happy.

Yumdiddly – #3 Strawberry Pocket Pies

This is the ONLY kind of broken heart I ever want in life…

For edition 3 of my Yumdiddly series I am going to tell you about my sweet little pies.

I made these strawberry pocket pies with great success on the weekend! I didn’t think they were going to be a great success at first because the dough kept sticking to the wonderful Williams-Sonoma Pocket Pie mold. Then I had an “A-ha” moment when I realized I should flour the outside of the dough to prevent it from sticking to the mold but keep the insides clean so they stick to each other… duh.

I even went all out and made my own strawberry filling instead of getting some boring pre-made pie filling in a can (shh… don’t tell… but the only reason I made my own filling is because I couldn’t FIND pie filling in a can)!

I bought layers of shortcrust pastry (pie dough) from the shop and just cut the hearts out with the mold. Then I had all these leftover dough scraps that were too small for hearts. Bummer. But then I had another brilliant idea and I got some cookie cutters and made my very own little flower shaped pocket pies as well. They turned out just lovely. See… 

So if you would like to make these delectable little pies for yourself- here is what you do…

1. Go to Williams Sonoma and buy the mold. Or, if you have cookie cutters that are big enough you could just use those.
2. Buy some dough or make it yourself… I bought mine so I can’t help you if you need to make your own
3. Use the mold or cutter to cut shapes
4. Make your strawberry filling

For the filling, follow this recipe:

• 2 cups finely chopped strawberries
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp white sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp corn starch

1. Mix it all up and it will get kinda goopey.
2. Then put about 2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon of filling into the center of the dough depending on the size of your shape.
3. If you have the mold, read the instructions on the box. If you cut your own dough, put a 2nd shape on top of the first and gently press down the edges of the dough so it seals around the filling. If you put too much filling in, this will be difficult.
4. Once it’s sealed, poke a few little holes in the top.
5. Brush some egg yolk over the top of the pies or if you don’t have egg, you could use some milk.
6. Bake for about 15 minutes until the dough is golden brown and the filling is probably starting to ooze out.

I had enough to make about 3 decent heart shaped pies, 1 hideous wonky heart shaped pie (first attempt), 2 flower pies and then I took the leftover dough, smashed it into a small baking dish, filled it with the rest of the strawberries and made a cute little mini pie open faced pie out of that.

Scrumptious!

Yumdiddly- #2 Chicken Pasta Bake July 20, 2009

And now for my 2nd installment in the Yumdiddly series…

Chicken Pasta Bake

Now, this is nothing phenomenal, but it’s quick and easy (and most of all tasty) so I thought I’d share my recipe with you.

• 3 cups of spiral pasta (or any fat, short pasta)
• 1 large chicken breast, cut into small pieces (2 inches or so)
• 1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce (roughly 24 oz)
• Ricotta cheese (about 6 oz or 3/4 cup)
• 1 carrot
• 1 small zucchini
• olive oil
• Lots of shredded cheese (we mostly used Parmesan and some cheddar)

Optional:

• Chili paste/flakes
• garlic
• oregano
• 1 bottle of red wine

1. Peel and slice zucchini and carrot

2. Cook pasta and drain (oh and throw the carrot slices in with the pasta so they softens up a bit)

3. While pasta is cooking, sautee the chicken pieces in the olive oil, garlic and chili. Sprinkled on some oregano to make it look fancy (I guess it doesn’t taste bad either). I don’t measure stuff… just throw in what you like.

4. Cook chicken until it’s nearly done (it can still be a little pink). Andrew hates overcooked chicken… since you’ll be baking this- you don’t want to cook it too much at the beginning.

5. Mix the pasta sauce and the ricotta cheese in your favorite mixing bowl. Mine happens to be my green melamine bowl from Williams Sonoma. Kinda sad these bowls now come in a 4 pack and I only have 3!!!

6. Add chicken, veggies and pasta to the sauce and cheese. Mix it all up. Feel free to sing some Italian opera if you are so inclined.

7. Dump it into a baking dish that has been sprayed with some sort of cooking spray.

8. Cover the whole dish with mounds  of shredded cheese

9. Bake uncovered at some random temperature until the cheese is a crispy, golden, melty dream come true. (I think I had this on about 200 C or 400F  for about 10-12 minutes).

Oh… and the wine doesn’t actually go into this dish, I just like to drink it while I cook and eat!!

Andrew thought there was too much ricotta but overall he really liked it… I thought it was perfect- there can never be too much cheese, right?

Up Next:

Strawberry pocket pies

Yumdiddly #1- Grapelberry Fizz

This weekend was full of yummy drinks and dinners and treats so I thought I’d tell you about them in a series of Yumdiddly blog posts.

Here comes post number 1- Friday Game Night

Kristin hosted a game night and 10 of us gathered in Northbridge to play some Cranium and Apples to Apples… games = good times. Not only was it fun, it was a tasty night as well. The takeout Thai was good and  so was the phenomenal brie and sweet chili dip- I really need to buy some of that stuff!! Kristin even made a nice little dessert of fresh strawberries and ice cream. On top of all the great food, I also finally got to try my dream drink. By “dream drink” I don’t mean that it’s the best drink I’ve ever had or anything. I literally mean I had a dream about this. A few months ago I invented it in my head as I slept and therefore decided to try it out to see how it tastes. Well I think my nifty new drink concoction was pretty good and a little too easy to drink.   I like to call it “Grapleberry Fizz.” It’s not the classiest of names, but it’s fun to say and describes all aspects of the drink- so here’s the recipe in case you want to try some Grapleberry Fizz for yourself!

 (Measurements aren’t precise since I made it  using about 5 different ratios throughout the night)

• 1 short/lowball glass
• grape vodka (I did about 2 shots)
• soda water (filled ’til glass was about 3/4 full)
• cranberry juice (topped up)
• fresh squeezed lime juice (to taste)

So the review?? It was good- sweet but not TOO sweet and reminded me of a grape sucker. Andrew thought it was disgusting and Kris thought it tasted like grape Hubba Bubba.

Coming up on the next Yumdiddly…

Chicken Pasta Bake

Tsunami?? July 15, 2009

From the Bureau of Meteorology:

TSUNAMI WARNING NUMBER 3 FOR PARTS OF NEW SOUTH WALES
Issued by the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre [JATWC] at
09:25 PM EST on Wednesday 15 July 2009

For latest and further information call 1300 TSUNAMI [1300 878 6264] or visit
www.bom.gov.au

**********************************

In the words of Michael Doig…

High Class and Low Class Bars July 12, 2009

Saturday night Andrew, Kris, Tess and I enjoyed a few hours in a cool wine bar near our house- Firefly. I had been wanting to go there for dinner for awhile and we finally made it! So here is a quick little review in case any of you are interested:

The wine was good (also pretty expensive… but I guess it IS a wine bar). We got 3 bottles- a special pinot noir (not on the menu so I can’t remember what it was called), a 2006 Whitebox shiraz/viognier and a Bethany 2006 cab/merlot blend. I have to say the cab/merlot was my favorite. The pinot was a little woody and rough for me.

We ordered the zucchini frites (highly recommended), a mediterranean dip plate that had this wonderful pumpkin and pine nut dip… yum!, chicken chorizo, margherita pizza and lamb skewers. I ate everything except the lamb and it was all really good! It doesn’t seem a like enough food between 4 people but since it’s tapas you can just keep ordering more as the night goes on- plus the 3 bottles of wine really fill you up

Decor: 9 – I really love this decor. The layout, furniture, wall of wine, barrels and lighting is just classy and comfortable and they had nice music playing all night too.

Value: 6 – It was about $270 for the 4 of us. When you think about the fact that we only got some dip, pizza and other little finger foods- that’s pretty excessive. It could be that the wine alone was probably $150 for the 3 bottles though. It’s definitely a “special occasion” place. Not somewhere I could afford to go on a weekly basis!

Service: 9 – I’d say nothing was lacking with the service. They were quick and friendly and gave good recommendations on food and wine. I’m not giving a 10 because I had to wait a LITTLE too long to get some chili flakes

Taste: 7 – it was really good, but not the most spectacular food I’ve ever eaten. Although those zucchini frites do tempt me to give a higher score

***

After a nice dinner we went to a super ghetto, creepy bar in Neutral Bay. The median age of the crowd was about 55-60 years old. I particularly liked the 60-65 year old woman with long bleach blond hair and True Religion jeans.

The bartenders scoop ice out of a cooler/esky and there are no fountains for the soda… it comes out of 2 liter bottles. SO sketchy!! But they had karaoke which made it pretty fun. The song choices were limited (mostly geared towards the 50-60 year old crowds) but I decided to sing a song. I chose “Son of a Preacher Man” pretty much because it was the only song I could find that I’ve done karaoke to in the past. Usually it was always as backup for Shannon (who CAN actually sing). Well, they were taking forever so I decided to go tell the guy that we were leaving and he could cancel my song. I walked up there and first decided to just ask how much longer it would be (I knew it would be awhile because I put in the request about 15 minutes after Tess and she JUST had her turn).

Sooo annnyways… When I asked how much longer the guy just looked at me and said “Do you want to go next?” I was a little caught off guard, but said sure. I was NOT prepared to go right at that moment… I just figured I’d miss out that night since we were about to leave. About 2 seconds later the music started and I just gave it my all.

Evidently Andrew said to Kris “this girl is good” and Kris had to tell him it was me- Andrew had no clue!!  So I guess that means I wasn’t half bad. That was the first time in my life I’ve ever sang a solo karaoke song- I’ve ALWAYS done it with friends…. so I was pretty proud of myself that I got up there and went for it

Yogaaargh July 10, 2009

Yesterday was my first day back doing power yoga and I wanted to punch the teacher in the face. Now, that’s not a bad thing per se, that just means it was tough- which is what I needed.

My few sessions of  yoga in the states were great for bits of nice stretching and relaxing and I even was a little sore after- but seriously, yesterday I thought I was going to die. After doing power yoga regularly for a few months, I got to the point where I didn’t really need much water during the whole class. I’d sweat a lot but I wouldn’t feel like I was vomit. Well yesterday I was guzzling the water, sweating my ass off and I got to the point where I just could not do one more single chaturanga (kinda like a reverse push-up). I had to take “water breaks” just to try and get some blood to flow back to my brain so I wouldn’t fall over when doing balancing poses. At one point, when the teacher said “ok one more time on the right side” I actually yelled obscene profanities at her (in my head). Once on each side is enough… no need to repeat people!!

But even after all that  agony… even with the pain that has taken over my back, sides and arms… even after losing pretty much all of my body fluids… I still want to go back.

I’m so glad I’ve found one miserable form of exercise that I actually enjoy.

Random Thoughts July 7, 2009

After seeing the preview for “My Sister’s Keeper,” I decided to read the book, so I bought it and could barely put it down. I finished it in a few days and then waited patiently for the movie to come out. I went and saw the movie with my mom and sister and it sucked. Well, I shouldn’t say it sucked- it wasn’t a bad movie, it was just terribly depressing and totally different from the book. People bitched about Twilight being different from the book- but that was a heck of a lot closer than this movie was!! I’m glad I read the book but sad the movie did not live up to it AT ALL.  So… after seeing the preview for “Time Traveler’s Wife” I’m hoping it will be a bit better in it’s movie form. Upon seeing the preview, I ran out and bought this book as well and I’m looking forward to reading it after finishing the one I’m currently reading.

I was watching “60 Minutes” the other night with Andrew. There was a special on about kids with Autism and animal therapy. We watched for about 20 minutes and it had this reoccurring background song that played throughout the whole story. Do you know what that song was? It was Bella’s Lullaby from the Twilight soundtrack. Random right? Andrew thought it was pretty strange that I even recognized it, but it’s a really nice song so how would I NOT recognize it?? I didn’t even really want to watch the special that was on, but I couldn’t change the station because the beautiful song hypnotized me

I haven’t gone to bed later than 8:30pm since I got home. With that said, I also haven’t woken up earlier than 8am. That means I’ve averaged about 11-11.5 hours of sleep the last two nights. How am I still tired? I’m guessing it has something to do with the fact that I’ve woken up each night at 1:30, 3:30, 4:30 and 5:30 to pee and stare at the ceiling for 10 minutes. Luckily I have a great ability to fall back asleep when I wake at odd hours of the night!!

My favorite song of the moment is “Sometime Around Midnight” by The Airborne Toxic Event. I had heard the song a bunch of times but finally decided to actually listen to the words one day and it’s really sad!!  I went and downloaded some other songs by the band and they’re pretty good- but I do have to say that I like their slower/deeper stuff more than the fun happy sounding stuff. Maybe that’s just the type of mood I’m in lately.

I don’t like it when it is 48 degrees outside. It is much too cold. Currently it’s 53 degrees and raining and my nose is frozen. Not fun.

I DO like my new Ugg boots. I totally see why people wear them everywhere even though they look retarded. They are super comfy and warm and when I have to leave the house and put on actual real shoes I get kinda sad that my feet have to be cold for a few moments and I have to go through the effort of putting on socks and tying laces. So today I decided to walk all the way to the bank in my Uggs. I’m sure I looked dreadful but my feet were happy.

Ok… those are my random thoughts for the night- now time to take off my Uggs so I can go sit in a hot bath in hopes of defrosting my nose while reading another book that might be a lot better than the movie (The Kite Runner). I’ll get out just in time to hit the sack at 8:30 on the dot.

Time Travel July 6, 2009

I completely skipped the 4th of July this year. I left LA on the 3rd and didn’t arrive in Sydney until July 5th. The 4th just did not exist for me. Do you want to know how I missed the 4th? Apart from crossing the International Dateline over the pacific, I think it also had something to do with the fact that I was traveling in a space ship.

I swear, the silver space pod looking seats in the WONDERFUL new A380 business class were so cool and high tech that it didn’t even feel like I was on an airplane. There was a massager on the chair, and the head rest was super cushy and cozy and check out how much room is between each seat!! The TVs were ginormous touch screens, the lights in the morning come on slowly- getting brighter and brighter over time – just like the sun. This is definitely a nice way to travel!

This is what I looked like for about 8 of the 14.5 hours of flying: