Double Digits

J turned 10 on Sunday. We had scheduled a slumber party over break but the flu canceled it. Since his party was canceled, he requested green egg pizza for this birthday. No way I could say no to that.

I got up early to get started in the kitchen.

First up, pizza dough for 14. I wasn't sure how much I had made the last time we made pizza for a crowd. I ended up with 3 double batches of dough.


It ended up that SIL & family were sick so we only made pizza for 11. I had 13 individual balls of dough left over. Two double batches would have been fine either way. I need to remember that for next time.

After dough was left to rise, I churned a batch of chocolate almond ice cream. I made the vanilla ice cream the night before.

Finally, I started on the vanilla-vanilla cake he requested. I picked a recipe that I tore out of the December Southern Living magazine, mostly because it called for whipped egg whites and I would get to use my copper bowl.






I put some thought into the pizza making process. I used a couple of cookie sheets that have no lip plus some parchment paper so I could have 5-6 piece of dough pre-rolled. I bought more corn meal and used it liberally to stop the dough from sticking. DH got a wooden pizza peel for Christmas that greatly improved the process of getting the pizza off the grill.


Over all, it was much less hectic than our last pizza party.

J got cash for his birthday. We went to the Apple store on New Year's Eve and he purchased a new iPod touch. He's hardly put it down since he got it.

A Big Birthday

My baby sister (S#5, Mims, Mimi, Mairz, Mary, etc) turned 30 yesterday. I remember the day well. My sister woke me up that Saturday morning to let me know Mom went to have the baby. Mrs. Schaffler was going to take me to my soccer game. About halfway through the game, they pulled me out and told me that I had a baby sister. I said something to the effect of, "Great, but you could have yelled it from the sidelines, you didn't have to take me out of the game."

I can't imagine what our lives would be like without our Mims. She wasn't planning on celebrating, just another birthday, just another day. We couldn't let her do that, so we had a birthday dinner for her.

Here she is leaving a message for S#1 thanking her for her chocolates. She is now old enough to get a fancy box of caramels and could deny all children a piece of candy, because they are too precious for children.  She's holding the lamb pillow we gave her. Her nickname as a preschooler was "Mary had a Little Lamb" and she still gets lamb/sheep stuff. Our mother loves collections!


For dinner we made green egg pizza. I decided to pre-roll the dough. I used every single sheet pan I own.


It worked okay for the most part, but I was running low on corn meal and was stingy. It's not good to be stingy with cornmeal when your pre-rolling pizza dough. I learned that lesson and we worked around it. We also learned that the $10 pizza stone from the grocery store won't make it through two sessions of pizza making. At least, the break left about 2/3 of the stone intact and we were still able to finish cooking the pizzas. Now, I know what to get DH for Christmas this year, that and a pizza peel.




Everyone had fun making and eating their pizzas. The kids and DH ate the regular stuff: sausage, pepperoni, bacon, mushrooms, onions, and cheese. The women had fancy ingredients, prosciutto and arugula. Yum!




I debated making a cake for her. There is another celebration planned for Friday, so I decided, cake for Friday, ice cream for the actual birthday dessert.


It was delicious!

It was a great celebration of 30 years of Mary. Here's to another 30!

green egg pizza

DH said he wanted to use the green egg for dinner tonight. The kids voted for pizza. We weren't sure what we were doing but we gave it a go.






It was a lot of work but well worth it. YUM!

The first supper

Last night we had a free night and DH took advantage of it. He cooked his first meal on the Big Green Egg.

Jalapeno poppers were definitely the first thing he was going to make, no question. He asked me what he should cook for the rest of the meal. I requested hamburgers, but not frozed pre-formed patties bought from Costco. Yes, they are convenient and easy and not bad, but I wanted a real burger. I got my wish.









It was a very good dinner. We spent the meal passing around the catalog looking at all of the accessories you can buy to go with the egg. The kids want a pizza stone for pizzas on the grill. I think we need a cast iron grill and plan a steak dinner. DH wants to smoke a pork butt. I can't wait to try them all.

since the weekend

We've been busy.  Of course, we've been busy. We're always busy. I checked, I have 66 blog posts with the word "busy".

Here's what's been happening since the weekend.

Friday night, J played baseball and I got to go watch. Here he is at bat and taking his walk.




Saturday night, A baked a cake to celebrate DH's birthday with the family.


The crazy cousin dog Chinook ate part of it. We ate around the dog slobber while enjoying the ND/MichSt game with the cousins and friends.

Today was Big Green Egg Day!


DH is excited. Wowa is excited. I don't know who is more excited. Of course, we were too busy to try it out today but I think we're going to make something on Friday.

While picking up the big green egg, I bought myself an anniversary present.


Yes, we got married 14 years ago today. Of course, we were too busy to celebrate tonight. J had a baseball game and I had a meeting at school for 7th grade parents regarding high school. I thought it was too early for that meeting. I think I was right. DH & I did celebrate with a nice lunch out and then the 'pick up the big green egg' errand.

While photographing the big green egg, I noticed my serious neglect of the garden.


I really need to clean it up. I've been avoiding it with the excuse of avoiding west nile. Too many mosquitos and too hot. Well, the heat has cool off so I think I need to get back too it.  Speaking of west nile.


I had the garden trifecta of a hummingbird, a butterfly and a bee all at the same time on my turk's cap. I can only see the butterfly but you have to believe me when I say the others were there too. I haven't seen too many bees since they sprayed for west nile. I'm glad to see they are back. We had a discussing with my mom on Sunday about hummingbirds so it was cool to see one.