Pizza, Mangia!!

Cooking, ,

From time to time I like to make homemade pizzas. They are fun because you can make up your own concoctions with whatever you want. My pizza dough recipe makes enough for two pizzas. You can make both at the same time or save the dough in the refrigerator to make the second pizza on another night.

I just use the standard pizza dough recipe that came with my bread machine. If I’m going to be away, I will make the dough in the bread machine so it is ready when I get home. If I’m around the house anyway, I knead the dough by hand. You could also use pizza dough from the freezer section of your grocery store. 

Above is my red pizza before it goes into the oven. This one has fresh mushrooms, black olives, and chicken sausage on half. The cheese is cheddar. I find that the cheese you use doesn’t really matter as long as you don’t mind a non-traditional pizza.

And here is the pizza after baking. My pan has holes to make the pizza crispier and make it cook more evenly. For the sauce I just used jarred spaghetti sauce of your choice. I often use Del Grosso Three Cheese.

This pizza is actually the favorite in our house. It is a white seafood pizza. The crust is brushed with olive oil, then topped with sea stix, shrimp, chopped marinated artichoke hearts, minced fresh garlic, and Old Bay Seasoning. The cheese on this one is a six cheese Italian Blend.

I bake the pizzas at 425 degrees for 15-17 minutes. Let them cool a few minutes, then slice and serve!

New Adventures

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, , , ,

I am enjoying my first week of retirement. This morning I decided to take Zeke and Shelby for a walk down the road and back for some exercise and some training. We walked down to the township park which is about 3/4 of a mile away. On the way we stopped occasionally to practice sits, downs, and stays. The picture above was taken while practicing stays in front of the local church. They had this pretty garland up for Christmas and I thought it made for the perfect photo opportunity while we were working on holding a sit. The pups did very well, especially considering that the recycling truck was emptying dumpsters just a few houses away. Shelby was not a fan of the grinding and banging but she did hold her stay.

We live in a small, rural community and apparently people are active in the morning. I never knew this because I was at work. On our way home a lady opened her front door to greet us as we passed by on the street. When she first saw Shelby, she thought her dog got out because she has a sheltie too. Once she realized it wasn’t her dog, she opened the door anyway to introduce herself and say hello. We talked for several minutes and I’m sure we will talk again as we had lots to say.

The dogs and I walked a short distance farther and another lady driving by in a van stopped to say hello and introduce herself. She said she knew where we lived and that I had visited another nearby homebound neighbor with two of the shelties before. We visited for a couple minutes then went on our separate ways. I learned that she also lives nearby.

What a lovely morning getting to meet two neighbors that I had never encountered before. I think that I am going to like this different life outside of the work environment. It is foreign to me but that just means it is a new adventure.

This is Zeke shortly after we returned from our walk and training. When the lady stopped in the van, he wasn’t sure if this was ok or if he should protect me. I told him it was alright and as the lady and I talked, Zeke relaxed. He was a good boy. This was a relief because he can sometimes be reactive to people or dogs that he does not know. But his response this time was just right. All the activity and decision making apparently wore him out. He needed a nap, so crashed on the living room couch with his head on the pillow.

I can’t wait to see what adventures tomorrow brings!

Kindness

Dogs & Other Animals

On my last day of work before retirement, I was given a couple of precious gifts from my coworkers. These gifts showed that they really did know me and appreciated who I was. One was an oversize mug (yay, lots of coffee and tea) that says Rescue Mom. Along with some kind words saying how she loved that I fostered and rescued dogs and to keep helping those puppies. Never fear, that is my plan! The best part of this gift was that this lady “gets” me and likes me for who I am.

The other mug was from a coworker who had helped me make sure that customers were fulfilling their requirements and doing what they were supposed to do. The words that I was to be missed were greatly appreciated. One of the Bible quotes on the mug he gave me seemed selected for me at this time of change in my life. “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way in which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.” How appropriate, as I enter this new phase of my life and decide where my life will take me after retirement.

I will remember these coworkers and their care and their support of me every time I use these mugs. Their kindness goes far beyond the day and the simple act of giving these gifts. They gave me a bit of themselves to take with me. May you all be blessed with such kind words and acts in your lives.

Zekie’s New Adventures

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, , ,

Zekie’s life just got immeasurably better. I am retired officially as of today. Zekie suffers from severe separation anxiety that we have never been successful in treating. We tried training, behavioral therapy, holistic medicine,  prescription drugs. None of them have made a difference. We have only been able to contain him, and that has not been without extreme challenges.

Now Zekie won’t have to deal with me leaving every morning and being gone all day. At least not unless I get a job sometime down the road. Any time that I go away should only be for relatively brief periods of time. I can also be here to work on more extensive training with him and see if I can get control of some of his other behaviors.

He is an extremely smart dog. This has not always been to his or our benefit. Yesterday I went out to the pasture to bring the dogs back inside. Zeke grabbed the frisbee and was taking it to the house. I asked him, what are you doing? He stopped and looked at me. I told him, leave that outside. He put the frisbee down. I told him, go put that back in the pasture. And so he did. He picked the frisbee up, ran out and put the frisbee down inside the pasture fence, then followed me back to the house.

If a dog is that smart, there must be some way that I can communicate to him that we will always come back, that he is not being abandoned. It is just up to me to be smart enough to figure it out. But while we are working on obedience training and emotional health for Zekie, I get the pleasure and joy of hanging out with him and the other animals everyday.

Life is good. Peace be with you.

 

The Three Amigos

Dogs & Other Animals, ,

Since it gets dark so early now, we never made it for a walk today. So, we took the three boys out to the pasture to play and expend some energy. This helps keep them out of trouble and provides entertainment for them and us.

The girls, Nikki and Shelby, wanted to stay inside.

The boys got to frisbee and play with the jolly ball. Zekie wanted to know if I wanted his frisbee. As you can see, frisbees have a short life here. We keep this one for Zekie because he thinks the goal is to disassemble them. He has become a good catcher though.

Baxter takes things very seriously and would never, ever hurt a frisbee. He will let the other dog have it rather than rip his prized frisbee.

Cassius will often catch the frisbee, but his favorite is to chase and chew his jolly ball.

So, although there was no walk, a fun time was had by all.

A Quiet Weekend

Cooking, Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, ,

This is one of those weekends where I have no plans. Ha! Then why am I so tired?

After the obligatory bathroom cleaning, dusting, vacuuming, and dish washing, I decided to try making my garlic breadstick recipe into dinner rolls in preparation for the upcoming holidays. The rolls came out quite well. They will make a fine addition to this evening’s dinner of cavatelli. At this point, I did stop and read for a while. A girl has to have her priorities.

A bout of insanity struck and I decided to clean some more. I washed the dogs’ bedding from their crates. Then I thought what am I going to do, put Nikki’s freshly laundered bed back in her smelly Vari-kennel? So I hauled it into the bathroom, disassembled, scrubbed, and hosed it down.

Time to sit down now, right? My brain was too busy for this. It thought, you are out of granola, you should make a batch. Homemade granola for breakfast is a delicious thing. But…

since the oven is already heated up, and we are out of dessert, I should make that pumpkin gingerbread coffee cake I have been thinking about. And so I did.

As soon as I finish that load towels and make the pasta for dinner, I am sitting down! Boy, I hope I don’t have another weekend with no plans for a while. They are exhausting.

Soup’s On!

Cooking, Country Life, ,

Hot soup after working outside on a cold afternoon. My husband has been making and installing old-fashioned storm windows for our old-fashioned house. I help a little bit (very little) when I get home from work. So soup hit the spot this evening.

I sautéed some garlic, onions, and celery, then added the rest of the broth that I made a couple weeks ago and put in the freezer. I added some Slovenian sausage, also from the freezer, that we purchased on a trip to Rogers Flea Market back in the summer. Then I threw in some green lentils so I would have some protein as I avoid eating meat and would pick that out, saving it for my husband. Next came cubed sweet potatoes, chopped zucchini, some celery leaves and spinach. For spices I used salt, pepper, basil, oregano, garlic and onion powders.

You may notice that I use fresh garlic and garlic powder in the same recipe. I do this on purpose because each adds a different, unique flavor that complements dishes in a different way.

Everything simmered in a pot on the stove while we finished up a storm window. When we came back inside, the house smelled wonderful and dinner was ready. Bliss.

Jewel of Fall

Country Life,

One of the benefits of fall. This wreath is made with bittersweet berries harvested on our property. The colors are bright and cheerful and the berries last for weeks. We had plenty to share which resulted in a family wreath making session. I could join in because I was participating in a dog event. Go figure. This wreath was made by my husband and sits on one of our mantels.

Etsy Site Coming Soon!

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, ,

I will be retiring from my job of 32+ years at the end of the month. What does this mean for my immediate future? I will soon be opening an Etsy site as well as spending more time on the blog!

I intend to focus the blog a little more on the country lifestyle. Don’t worry, there will still be plenty about dogs. But since my life won’t be tied up with a full time job, at least for a bit, I should have more time to spend on home based endeavors.

The Etsy site will have arts and crafts as pictured, for sale. I also plan to have gourmet dog biscuits available. Other items are still in the planning stage. Perhaps bandanas that slip over dog collars.

I will keep you apprised as the site gets closer to going live. This next chapter in my life promises to be full of change.

I can tell you, Zekie has been waiting and waiting for me to stay home with him. If every dog has his day, Zekie’s is coming soon!

Winter Preparations

Country Life, Gardens, ,

Today was a beautiful fall day. We took the opportunity to do winter preparations. I dug up all my gladiolus bulbs and spread them out to dry before bagging them up. There were also a few dahlia bulbs as well.

After that I helped my husband put storm windows on the house. The storm windows are newly built and should help keep things warmer this winter.

This evening I saw the weather forecast for the next couple of days. It’s a good thing we got those tasks done. Six to ten inches of snow is predicted in our area. I’m glad I didn’t wait for another day to get things done. When summer comes again and we enjoy all the beautiful blooms, I will be doubly glad.