Homemade Pizza

This is the second time my husband and I have made homemade pizza. The first time, a few weeks ago, wasn't worth posting about! But this time it turned out quite well. Hopefully we'll improve even more with practice. I made the dough in the breadmaker when I got home from work. I had made a lot of sauce the last time and froze the leftovers, so it was easy to warm some up for tonight's pizza.

Homemade is ideal for us since I'm a vegetarian and he's not. We can make our own seperate pizzas with anything we want! My pizza (in the foreground) is topped with spinach, slivers of blanched asparagus, and chopped garlic. His has pepperoni, ham, green pepper, and chopped garlic. Now we just need to get another round pan, because that size was more ideal for the amount of dough. (Thanks, Brenda, for the dough recipe!)

Recipe Recommendation: Ten-Minute Chilaquiles

I don't know why this is called Ten-Minute Chilaquiles. Be forwarned, it does take less than 10 minutes to prepare, but then it needs to bake for 30-35 minutes.

I really love this recipe because the prep part is so fast and easy. It's basically a casserole of tortilla chips, cheese, beans, tomato sauce, salsa, and sour cream. Very cheesy and tomato-y. I don't have a photo of my own because we ate it already, and it wasn't very picturesque anyway!

Here's the link to the recipe on FoodNetwork.com.

Recipe Recommendation: Carrot Kinpira

Tonight I tried a recipe for Carrot Kinpira from JustBento.com and it turned out well. Mine isn't as picturesque as the photo on Just Bento, so I'll just link to the recipe here! It was a little bit of a pain to cut the carrots into matchsticks, but the result was worth it.

Origami Centerpieces from our Wedding

The wedding is finally over and done -- and what a wonderful day it was! We had a holiday themed wedding in December. Here are the centerpieces that I made for the reception dinner tables. My sister and two friends helped make the origami flowers. We also made boutonnieres and corsages for family members, and bouquets for my sister and myself. It was all very down to the wire -- my sister and I worked until 4am every morning in the days leading up to the wedding. We assembled the bouquets the morning of the wedding! Scary!

Anyway, here are the results...sometimes lopsided, but made with love. The flowers are made from gift wrap paper and scrapbooking paper. The leaves and "berry" picks are from a craft shop. The bowls are milkglass - found cheap at an antiques market. (Click the photos to see enlargements at Flickr.)

Nana's Pecan Pie Recipe

Nana Lois sent us her recipe for Pecan Pie! It's from Mother Jane's cookbook.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Beat slightly:
3 eggs

Sift together and add to eggs:
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
1/4 Tsp. salt

Add and mix well:
1 cup Dark Karo Syrup
1 cup Griffin's Waffle Syrup or any waffle syrup
1 Tsp. vanilla extract
1 large lump of melted butter

Brush a 10 inch unbaked pastry shell with egg whites.
Spread evenly in the shell:
1 1/2 cups to 2 cups of pecans, broken or whole

Pour custard over nuts. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and cook for about 30 minutes or until pie is slightly firm. Cool on rack.

First Ever Pecan Pie Made by Tina

The wedding was December 15th, and what a wonderful day it was! I feel very lucky in love. :) I'll post photos of the origami flower arrangements soon (and the origami boutonnieres and corsages made by my sister!). In the meantime, here are two lovely pies made by Tina and Brenda. I love the decorations on the blueberry pie! Their comments below the photos...

"I need Nana Lois' recipe, I forgot to write it down when we were in Baltimore for the wedding. She said it was the best ever Pecan Pie recipe. So Nana Lois, you need to Blog us and give us this famous family heirloom recipe. We will look forward to it being on the blog site....you go girl.......And the Christmas blueberry pie. Note Rudolf's red nose. Needless to say the Blueberry pie was delicious, we have to wait for Christmas to eat the Pecan one, but I bet it will be yummy. It was nice to just supervise the cooking this year.
Much love to all,
Brenda and Tina."