Pan Pizza!

A couple months ago I decided to try my hand at making pan pizzas in my large cast iron frying pans.  They turned out fabulous!  And I have it on good authority that some of you want to make pan pizza too!

I made my favorite whole wheat pizza dough in my bread machine:

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp. yeast

1 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 Tbs. olive oil

1 cup hot water

Place ingredients into bread machine.  Run the dough cycle until ingredients form a smooth round ball.  If dough is sticky add a little flour, dry add water a few drops at a time.  Once dough is formed unplug the machine and allow it to rest for 10 minutes.

You can totally make this without a bread machine.  Just mix it up in a bowl by hand or your mixer with a dough hook.

Thrifty Pizza Sauce

1 8 oz. can tomato sauce

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. dried basil

In a small bowl mix together until smooth.

Even thriftier?  Next time you make pasta sauce take out a cup and set aside.  I do this all the time.

To make the pizzas gather your favorite toppings and some grated cheese.

Oil your cast iron skillet liberally with olive oil.  Divide dough in half.  Pat out a nice sized circle and then press into the pan and up the sides.  Spread sauce in the bottom of the crust.  Top with cheese and toppings.

Bake in a preheated 425° oven for 15 to 18 minutes until crust puffs up and turns golden and cheese is bubbly.  Removed from oven, allow to sit about ten minutes, cut and serve.

You can make this as simple or gourmet as you like.  A new family favorite at our house, let me tell you.  Less greasy, much healthier and certainly a whole lot less expensive than the local pizzeria.

Christmas Prep 2017 - Only 5 Months To Go!

Outdoor projects and loads of company have kept me plenty busy, however I did manage to get a couple Christmas things done.  I did get a start on our annual letter because I know if I wait too long I'll likely forget most of what has happened in the past six months.  As it gets closer to Christmas I'll finish it up and then print it off to tuck inside the cards I'll be sending out.

Speaking of Christmas cards, I had hoped to get those made, but that didn't happen.  Maybe in the next month I'll tackle that one.

Isn't this cute?  Yeah, I didn't make it. Thanks Pinterest.

I did make two items to use as stocking stuffers for my girls.  I'll be sharing a tutorial on that particular item soon.  Until then you'll just have to wait to find out what it is.  I promise it will be thrifty, easy to make, useful and pretty cute too!

I have another project I'm hoping to get started on here soon.  I have all my supplies gathered up and ready to go.  The trick will be to work on this without my girls catching wind of what I am doing.  They are really good about giving me space and allowing me to work on holiday projects, but sometimes I forget and leave stuff out.  I don't want to blow any surprises and this one is definitely going to surprise them.

That pretty much covers it.  How about you?  Did you get anything done?  Buy or make any gifts?  Do any planning?  Still too early to even begin thinking about it?

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Sunday was much cooler than it has been so I decided to tackle some much needed yard work.  But not until I made a quick trip to Home Depot first to pick up a few items on my list.  One of which was a weed eater.

After much debating (in my head) I came to the conclusion that I need the extra assistance.  Despite my best efforts I have not been able to stay on top of the weeds and they had really taken over the backyard.  It looked horrible back there.  Embarrassingly so.  But now it looks so much nicer and I feel a lot better about it.  In what would have taken hours and hours I was able to knock out in about 45 minutes, including raking up my mess.  $30 well spent!

We had company all week long.  I kept expenses to a minimum by cooking the majority of our meals at home and even reinvented some leftovers to create a brand new meal.

A bit of a reprieve in our hot weather last week meant fewer hours running the A/C.  I set the box fan at the back door for a couple hours each morning and managed to keep the house nice and cool the remainder of the day.  We turned the A/C on in the late afternoon or the evening for a few hours to cool it down upstairs for sleeping and that was pretty much it.  Hopefully the electric bill for the month won't be too terrifying.

Surprisingly, even with company here, I did not grocery shop last week.  My big shopping haul the week before provided plenty to keep everyone going.  I perused the ads and found nothing in them to compel me to go to the store and it was really nice to have that reprieve.

Teaching her how to use a drill

Saturday morning the youngest and I got up early and headed out to the backyard to finish up one of the chicken coop projects before the heat of the day hit.  Stay tuned for that post later in the week.  Then we got busy and "planted" a new fence post to replace one that broke over the winter.  So nice to no longer have a 2 X 4 in the yard holding up the fence.

Best helper ever!

We fed our kitchen scraps to the hens.  They in turn kept us well supplied with eggs.  I also sold two dozen eggs to a friend.  Good job ladies!

I worked a small amount of overtime.

I found another sock with a tiny hole in it.  I grabbed a needle and thread and fixed it.  And yes, it was on my foot while I darned it.

All done!

We washed and reused several Ziploc bags.

I composted egg shells, banana peels, onion skins, coffee grounds, tea bags and yard debris.

How was your thrifty week?

What's With All The Haters?

I don't know how much time you spend on Facebook or Youtube, but have you ever noticed the some of the comments people will leave?  Downright mean.  And not just a snide comment here or there, but tear you down, chew you up and spit you out.  What inspires people to want to post nasty comments on a public forum like that?

I used to follow the Food Network 's page on Facebook.  I'm always looking for meal ideas and while I no longer have access to that channel since we gave up satellite I thought this would be an excellent alternative.  But the onslaught of hateful comments made it so unpleasant, despite my best efforts to ignore them, that I decided to unsubscribe.  Sad, really.

But the people that rip into bloggers and vloggers really bothers me the most.  I know how hard it can be to put yourself out there in the first place and how much work goes into posting blogs.  And I'd imagine video blogs are ten times that much work plus the vlogger has the expense of cameras and drones and editing software.

So for someone to rip apart and demean someone else after that much effort and hard work really floors me.  Why?  Are you truly that miserable and insensitive?  And there are a lot of them out there posting these cruel remarks.

I'm a firm believer in that if you have nothing nice to say, then keep your mouth shut.  If you can't be positive, then go away.  If you don't like someone's content then don't read or view it and move on.  And if you disagree, it is okay to keep your opinions to yourself.

When did kindness and courtesy become the exception and not the norm?  Don't even get me started on good manners and class.

P.S.  I love my readers.  They are positively the nicest, classiest, well mannered, kind people out there.  Thank you!

How I Plan To Power This Girl Up

When I bought Laverne the generator was long gone, which was really no surprise to me.  She's thirty years old, after all.  It probably broke down or was sold, who knows?  The generator compartment was being used as storage for the old sewer hose and some junk, which came with her at no additional charge.  I cleared all that out and decided to revamp it inside to make a better and much cleaner storage area.

Some of you have inquired as to what my plans are for various things, including the generator.  Can I just tell you it thrills me to death how much interest you all seem to have in Laverne, my plans with her and the improvement projects I've been doing?  I love sharing all of this with you and I am so happy you enjoy hearing about it.

I like simple systems.  Things that are easy enough to work on and maintain as well as to use work really well for me.  On board generators are great and if Laverne still had hers I'd work with it, but since she doesn't I have no desire to seek out a replacement.  They are expensive and have to be hooked up to the motorhomes's engine fuel system.  I've heard of people running their generators so much they didn't have enough fuel to make it back to town and I don't want to have worry about that.  Instead I'll be outfitting her with a portable generator and a gas can.

Whenever I'm boondocking or dry camping, whichever you prefer, I'll be able to use the generator to run the A/C or a vacuum cleaner, or even my sewing machine.  Laverne is very well equipped to run on 12 volt power and propane so I won't need much electricity, but if I want it, it would be nice to have.  So a smaller generator with enough guts to run the A/C will be all I'll need.  Laverne came with a receiver hitch and one possible scenario is to add a cargo tray to the back to hold a tool box, gas can and the generator.  I have a few ideas in my head and that is one of them.

I am not going to put in any type of elaborate solar setup.  I do not want to put solar panels on the roof and I don't want to give up precious cargo space to store a bank of batteries and all the equipment that is required to run everything.  I do have my eye on a Yeti generator with a portable solar panel that will work for charging electronics and run my little Crockpot or a toaster.  That is as elaborate as I want to get.

There is room in my current coach battery bay to add more deep cycle batteries and more than likely I will.  I believe I have enough room to add two more in there to extend my 12 volt systems to run longer between charges.  I can charge those batteries using the generator, shore power or by flipping a switch while the engine is running and I drive down the road.

My current plan will be to alternate between dry camping and RV parks.  I figure I'll be out in the wilds, so to speak, about a week at a time and then head to an RV park for some civilization, a long hot shower and to dump my holding tanks and refill with fresh water.  Then back out I'll go.

So that is the plan so far.  Always subject to change, of course.  You will just have to hang in there with me to see how it all turns out.

What We've Been Eating Lately #5

It has been really hot lately and that often means getting into the mood to cook, let alone eat, can be a little iffy.  But I think we managed it fairly well in spite of that.  I mean, much as we'd like to, we can't eat ice cream for dinner every night, right?

Grilled chicken & avocado sandwich
on homemade whole wheat bread

Sliced turkey sandwich

My daughters made pan pizzas

Black bean enchiladas ready for the oven

Chinese chicken salad

Veggie cheddar quiche

Teryaki sirloin steak & asian coleslaw

Vanilla ice cream & sliced strawberries

Blueberry muffins & coffee for breakfast

Shredded wheat with sliced banana & strawberries

Garlic shrimp & cabbage salad with artichoke hearts

My daughter's version of Mongolian noodles

Salmon & spinach salad

Sirloin steak & sauteed green beans

Mushroom & red pepper omelet

Egg salad on dill rye bread

Fruit salad

Oatmeal with dried fruit, sliced almonds & vanilla almond milk

Tomato & avocado sandwich with fruit salad

Salads and sandwich played a key role in a lot of our meals lately.  What are some of your go-to meals during the dog days of summer?

Spare Bed

We've had a lot of company this summer and I love it!  As many of you know our home is rather small so to accommodate overnight guests we have to get a bit creative.  Lately, my oldest has been graciously giving up her room to our guests while bunking with little sister and it is working out quite well.

I decided big sister needed a better sleeping set up than her sleeping bag and camp pad on the floor so I perused my options.  A foam mattress that would roll up or a roll-a-way bed were both high on the list, however storing them seemed problematic.  We really don't have much space available for that.

In the end I opted for a twin air bed with a built in pump.  This one was on Amazon for about $30 and had great ratings.  I had spent a lot more money on a full sized bed several years ago and we got three good years of heavy use out of it.  In fact, that was what I slept on for a couple of months when we first moved back into our house.  I'm hoping this one lasts us awhile too, but if not I don't feel like I have made a huge investment.

My daughter says it is surprisingly comfortable.  We like that it inflates quickly and it sits higher off the ground than most making it easy to get on and off.  It fits regular sheets too.

The bed came with a carry tote for storage and when not in use deflates, folds up and tucks right inside.  We are able to keep it on a shelf in my youngest's bedroom closet and it takes up very little space.  Much better than trying to store a roll-a-way bed or even a foam mattress.

The girls have mentioned taking it with us next time we stay in a hotel.  Pretty good idea really.  All in all, air beds are not a bad way to go.