Leap Day

Happy Leap Day! (or if you prefer, Sadie Hawkins Day)

While mine was fairly calm compared to other years, it was still fun and I approve of the google cartoon.

So in keeping with their theme: Hop you had a froggy nice 29th!

-r

Last Friday night...

I made homemade pizza!!!

(and you thought I was gonna sing Katie Perry)

It was amazingly good (both hubby and bro-in-law said so...and I didn't bribe them - promise!) Don't ask how I came up with the crazy idea of making my own sauce, and my own dough, and then the topping to top it off... although the fact that the cookbook had all 3 recipes didn't hurt... and it was Friday night and I had two hungry boys to feed. Love of cooking/food means doing crazy things!

Incidentally, I recommend making this pizza next Friday - you can go the total homemade route (like insane people whose hobbies include cooking) or you can simply make the topping yourself and use a frozen dough and your favourite sauce. Either way, it'll be a Friday night to remember!

Wise Guy Pizzia Pie - Italian Sausage pizza with mushrooms and red onions

(courtesy of The Looneyspoons Collections by Janet and Greta Podleski)

227g/8 oz of mild Italian sausage

3/4 cup thinly sliced red onions

2 cups thinly sliced mushrooms

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 cup pizza sauce

1 12-inch prebaked thin crust pizza dough or homemade dough (if you use homemade dough, you can put everything on the fresh dough and bake for 15 minutes total, or prebake your homemade dough first and keep to the same 10 minutes recommended below)

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

1 cup of your favourite cheese, packed & shredded

- Preheat oven to 425 F

- Add a bit of olive oil to a large stir-fry pan. Remove and discard the casing from sausage. Break or cut sausage into small pieces and add to pan with the red onion. Cook while stirring on medium-high heat until sausage is cooked through and onions are softened, about 3 minutes.

- Stir in mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes. Add oregano, mix well and remove from heat.

- Spread pizza sauce evenly over crust. Top with Parmesan cheese if using. Spoon sausage mixture evenly over dough and sauce. Sprinkle shredded cheese evenly over sausage mixture.
- Place pizza directly on middle oven rack and bake for about 10 minutes until cheese is completed melted and edges are lightly browned.

- Eat (you made need a fork and knife depending on how much topping you put on!)

Happy Eating!

-r

Celebrating by not celebrating

I start this post off with a serious note that I want you all to know I sincerely hope you've had a wonderful Valentine's day, and that you were loved and spoiled a least a little today.

Now I promise I'm not going to bore you all with my soapbox speech on the merits of a day dedicated to celebrating romantic love in a certain kind of way (for those of you who know my views on this particular day of the year, you follow; for those of you who don't - I'll summarize and say it's the opposite of my favourite). However, I also refuse to ignore acknowledging it's existence today, because it was just too good of a topic or I'm too lazy (you pick!)

The first year I was dating my hubby he was very sweetly quite excited to celebrate Valentine's day. And while we did exchange gifts (in part because it was our two month anniversary as well), I had to break it to him eventually that Valentine's day wasn't my thing and I couldn't be bothered to have him buy me flowers and chocolates on Feb 14th (plus I argued the price of those items was so much more during that time of year that he could get me flowers and chocolate 3 times throughout the year for the same amount).

Our first Valentine's Day as a married couple is turning out to be quite the experience. We're in our sweats and pj's, watching Big Bang Theory reruns, and knitting/fixing computers. But as I write this, I realize that I've never loved him more. 5 and a half years after meeting him, I'm blessed to be married to my best friend in the whole world, and I wouldn't trade a night like this for anything.

Happy Valentine's Day! No matter how or who you celebrate it with, know that you're loved.

-r