So much Pizza dough! (and the recipe)

What could be better than sitting in your garden on a balmy Saturday evening with a big relaxed group of your friends and a cold drink in your hand?  All of that with pizza from the pizza oven of course :)

Having now mastered the skill of churning out yummy pizzas from our oven, we decided to invite friends around to share.  With a mixed bunch of friends around - workmates, belly dance students and local friends - we all got down to the business of making, cooking and eating pizzas, all while downing a few cold ones and enjoying the wonderful company.  The kids were up in the trees and the cubby house, chatting the the chooks and dogs and on the trampoline.  The occasional adult joined in the fun (back flips on the trampoline from one very energetic grown up!) and were delighted with the excellent behaviour of all the children. 

Before our guests arrived, our kids handed out important jobs to each of us.  I was on food preparation, Stu was on fire and cooking duties and they were the entertainment crew!  We all excelled at our jobs, if I do say so myself!  I prepared about three times as much dough as we needed, a stack of snacks and my share of pizza toppings, then, together with our guests who all brought along a contribution of pizza toppings, prepared amazing looking and tasting pizzas.  We handed these to Stu who, bright red and covered in sweat from the heat of his amazingly well prepared pizza oven, cooked them in a few minutes.  The first ones in the oven cooked so quickly that they burnt on one side before he could turn them!  But they all tasted good (and the chooks and dogs appreciated the odd crust that was a bit too charred).  The kids did a great job of entertaining the crowd - sharing and playing with all of the kids and occasionally chatting to the grown ups and giving shoulder massages later in the evening.

Of course, no one had time to take any photos of all of this fun, so I can't share any, but hopefully you get an idea of what a great night it was.

Sunday, we declared a day of rest and recuperation after a busy day and night preparing for and enjoying the party.  But my garden had other ideas.  With the fruit and veg ripening at a cracking rate now, I am having to pick, cook and preserve each day.  I peeled, chopped, minced, dried and bottled for most of the day.  It was hard, hot work, but Stu turned the split system air conditioner back on at the switch for the first time since October.  Air conditioning felt like such an indulgence, but with our solar panels producing more than three times the amount of power we usually use, and with us not yet being paid for any fed into the grid, we figured we deserved the indulgence.

Then, faced with huge quantities of leftover dough and pizza toppings (perhaps I did my job too well), we decided to get the oven going again.  This time, we made a huge quantity of mini pizzas that cooked beautifully!  They are perfect lunchbox size too, so after enjoying a couple for tea, I cooled the rest and put them in the freezer for easy lunches for all of us for the next week (and remembered to take a photo!).  Then, oven still hot, I cooked our first successful loaf of bread in the pizza oven (my secret being - cook it in the cast iron casserole pot to give even, moist heat), closely followed by my second successful loaf!  A dozen muffins and a huge nectarine crumble followed the bread. 

Mini pizzas!

With the store cupboard gaining another 14 jars of preserved food, the freezer full, lunches and desserts sorted for the week, I called it a day and took an early night ready for another day of heat and preserving.

I had a lot of requests for my pizza dough recipe on the weekend, so thought I would share it here.  It's from one of my favourite cook books - both for the recipes and the gorgeous presentation - The Thrifty Kitchen.

Pizza dough (serves 2)

(for our family, I make double which makes enough small pizzas for tea and leftovers)

2 1/4 cups plain flour
7g dry yeast (that's one sachet)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup warm water

Mix all of the ingredients together until a dough forms. 
Knead for about 5 minutes. 
Cover and put in a warm place for an hour. 
( If I'm doing pizza for tea, I make this at lunchtime and put it in a big airtight container in the fridge for the afternoon.  It still rises beautifully.)
Take a handful or two of dough, knead slightly in your hands and then roll out to use for pizza.
(We roll ours out on wooden boards with a good handful of semolina below the dough.  The semolina stops the dough from sticking, allowing it to be transferred to the oven floor or a pizza stone)
Add a small number of toppings and cook on a pizza stone which has been heated in a very hot oven or BBQ for about 10 minutes.
(or on the floor of your stinking hot pizza oven for a few minutes!)
Enjoy!

Back to work

As I sat drinking my cider and eating another of my Christmas chocolates last night, it occurred to me that it was about time for me to go back to work. No, I'm not off to hunt for a new job, I'm sticking with the jobs I have, but as I work from home and for myself, I have the pleasure of taking my time out/holidays when I choose, but the tough task of also deciding when they're over.

Now don't get me wrong, I've still been working over the last couple of weeks- baking our bread and cooking from scratch, watering the garden, caring for the animals and maintaining a level of cleanliness in the house. But I've also been cutting corners and allowing slack time. The house isn't as clean as I like it to be, I haven't planted new food crops in weeks, we've been eating lots of Christmas leftovers, simple meals and the contents of various Christmas hampers and I've spent a lot of time reading, browsing the Internet (Pinterest is seriously addictive!) and chilling out, and not very much time exercising or planning the year for Koroit belly dance.

My zucchini plants haven't been on holidays!
Pickling zucchinis is therefore on the to-do list today.

Stu went back to work last week, and while the kids are still on holidays, I've decided today is my first work day of 2013. I've written the jobs list and have already started tackling it, but there is a lot to do, and like anyone returning to work after summer holidays, I'm struggling to maintain momentum, and am easily distracted (ooh look! A shiny thing!).

I'll get there though as the rewards of a tidy, productive home are worth the effort. And when I feel like slacking off and returning to summer holiday mode, I will remind myself why I prefer these jobs to the alternative and get back to work!

Loving summer

I love summer. I'm a hot weather girl and have always said that if my family would all head to a warmer area, I'd be there in a flash. But sadly for me, much of my nearest and dearest are not big fans of heat, so I'm left to relish the hot months of the year and endure the cold ones (which probably just makes me love the hot times more when they come).

Today was delicious. Hot and sunny. And to make if better, I found time to enjoy the warm weather. What do I love about hot weather? Here's a few things I can think of:

1. Less clothes - give me a floaty skirt, a singlet top, sandals on my feet or bare feet, and I'm much happier than when I'm rugged up.

2. Summer food. All the lovely fresh Mediterranean veg from the garden - zucchinis, tomatoes, eggplant. Yum! Salads and barbecues, quiche and simple pasta dishes. And ice creams of course :)

3. Eating outside. Ok there is sometimes the bug issue, but I love taking my breakfast or lunch into the garden to eat as well as having family meals al fresco - food tastes better outside.

4. The beach. We are lucky enough to live a short drive from a gorgeous beach. So we are able to visit on days like today. We took the kids after school. Grabbing only a towel each, the kids' boogie boards and some sunscreen, we headed off to enjoy an hour in the water. It was fabulous.

5. Exercising outside. I know you can do it in winter, but its just so much nicer on a balmy evening or morning to head outside and go for a good long walk (or run if you're so inclined), or, as I did tonight, take your yoga mat into the garden for a peaceful yoga session surrounded by nature.

6. Cold drinks. This could be anything, but right now, I'm particularly partial to a stubby of our home brewed apple cider at the end of a day working.

7. This last one isn't do much about hot weather as just associated with it for us, but summer also means Christmas and long school holidays which are two of my favourite things.

What do you love about summer? I'm sure there are heaps more things to add to this list, help me out.