I blew that one...

For the last couple of weeks, I have been working up to my 100th post.  I can't believe I have had enough to talk about for 100 posts.  I was planning on doing something fun and different for my 100th.  Well, I miss that.  This morning I was thinking again about what I was going to do, and thought I would check to see how close I was getting.  This is what I saw...

DAMN IT!

I guess vegetable fritters are my big ta do 100th post.  Good thing they were tasty!  For everyone that has been reading along, thank you much!  I'm looking forward to the next 100...

Changing the subject, a few months ago, Kam's winter fur needed to be come off!!!  So we thought it would be funny to photograph it.  I had intended on making this animated gif of the process a long time ago, but never got around to it finishing it.  Then yesterday I came across gickr that does all the work for you.  Granted I have all the necessary programs to put an animated gif together, and I did actually attempt it at one point, but got frustrated from files sizes and left it for another day.  So gickr is my new favorite for today.  Try it out sometime!  Here is the gif of me sheering Kam. 

Not the best animated gif out there, but it's something!  I made a salad with some of the left over flank steak last night, but didn't think it would want to blog it.  Wrong.  Rats.  Guess I will have to make it again.  But I do have something yummy to share soon for all you coffee lovers out there.  Do something fun today!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the dad who never gives up....

on the big fish or the ol' mower!

I am the queen of loosing my fishing gear.  I can get that stuff caught on a log in 500 deep water where there are no logs.  I'm pretty sure he has re-rigged or re-baited my pole more times than anyone should ever have to touch those sticky fish.  Thanks dad for keeping my hands not stinky!

And we must mention my dad's dedication to his 25+ year old John Deere mower.  He will never give up on this mower.  More cuss words have been shed over this thing not starting that could teach any kid how to throw a good string of profanity.  I learned from the best!

And I can't forget my soon to be father-in-law Larry!  He is always up for something goofy.  This is my favorite favorite video to watch when I need a laugh.  Pay attention for the drool.

Happy Fathers day to two great dads!!!  

it's a...

MOOSE, as he slams on the brakes, throws the car into reverse, and everything in the back seat goes flying.  We were on a country gravel road somewhere outside of Cheney early Monday evening, so there was no one around.  We were driving around looking for a nice little spot to take a few couples photos for our wedding invites when we came across this young moose fellow.  Luckily the camera was in arms reach so Kam got a few good shots of the him.  We seem to see moose around this area once or twice a summer, which is really cool, me thinks.

As for the photo, we found 2 great spots but didn't get one photo.  The first spot that we had planned to go to was all fenced in and 100 no trespassing signs all over.  And the second we came across was this beautiful field with all these wild sun flowers and some sort of purple flower.  We were going to get into the middle of the field and take the pics.  When we got out to the perfect spot, we were standing there for a whole 30 seconds when we realized we were being full on attacked by vicious hungry mosquitoes.  I literally grabbed my camera and tripod and RAN back to the car.  Mosquitoes love me more than the average person.  A few summers ago, we were camping and I had sprayed so much Deep Woods Off on my feet (I know this is bad, but I was desperate) that they were sticky, and those evil bugs were biting me through the thick Off.  I had so many bites that my feet swelled up so much that they didn't fit into any of my shoes, even flip flops were too tight.  Bad memory, not sure why I just shared all that.

Anyways, moose are cool...and so are you!

Sausage Mushroom Pizza

I don't know if I will ever go out for pizza again.  I think you can make better than most restaurant pizza at home, and its quick and easy!  One by one I am checking off places that I will go out to eat.  If we go to a place now that servers food that is pre portioned or comes of the the freezer and is simply heated, I feel like we wasted $30.  For instance, a few months ago we went to this place down town Spokane called Rock City Grill.  Seemed solid. I ordered fish tacos, my staple if its on any menu, and Kam wanted to try one of their pizzas.  My tacos we bland and everything was mushy, like it came from the freezer, but it "looked" pretty and Kam's pizza was, well, the California Pizza Kitchen frozen BBQ Chicken would have won a blue ribbon compared to what he was chewing on.  There are so few places that actually make their food, or at least some of it, and the more I keep exploring new ideas and things to make at home for blog posts, the choosier I get.  Like pizza.  Its so simple to make your own curst, and if you cook it on your barbeque, its so deliciously wonderful, that I don't think I will ever be without pizza dough on hand again.  


Is anyone else going through this with me?  Getting tired of paying out the nose for something you can make better at home.  I guess I just needed to rant.


Now about this pizza.  Sausage, Mushroom and Olive has been my favorite pizza as long as I can remember.  Sure, there are others that I love love, but this will always be my A-One!  So, we made it.


What you'll need:


Pizza Dough
1 packet dry active yeast or 1 1/2 tablespoons
1 cup warm water
4 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons of olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (oh yes!)


In a larger bowl stir together sugar and warm water and sprinkle yeast over top.  Let sit for 10 minutes.  Add oil, salt, vinegar and 2 cups of the flour and mix until well combined and not lumpy.  Add remaining 2 cups flour and begin to kneed.  It will seem too dry, but just keep working it with your hands.  Remove from bowl and kneed on the counter for about 2 minutes.  Place dough ball into a greased bowl (I just used olive oil cooking spray) and cover.  Allow to rise for 90 minutes.  Dough will double in size.  Once doubled, punch center (best part!). Divide into 3 parts and form into balls. If you want a larger pizza divide into 2.  Roll and stretch dough into desired thickness.  Mine was about 14".  You can wrap the other dough balls in cling wrap and freeze for another day. 


Pizza

1 chunk mozzarella cheese (I'm finding that I don't buy the pre shredded anymore, but rather the ball and slice it.  The cheese is so much moister, but if you prefer pre shredded, go for it!)

1 sausage (I bought a smoked link out of the meat case at our grocery store, and barbecued it before slicing it into rounds.  You could use anything from your favorite brat to bulk sausage.  Just make sure what ever you use, you cook it first!)

1/2 cup onion diced

1 cup black olives sliced

4 or 5 button mushrooms sliced

Olive oil

Pizza sauce (I had some store bought left over from another pizza adventure, sometime I will make my own)

Cook sausage.  While your sausage is cooking, place a piece of tin foil in your bbq, on the upper rack if you have it, or off to the side. Lay your sliced mushrooms onto the foil.  This will dry them out and cook them slightly.  If you skip this step, your mushrooms with be almost completely uncooked by the time your crust is done.  Once sausage is done, allow to cool enough to slice.  Leave mushrooms on foil until ready to place them onto pizza.


Place a little olive oil in a small pan and saute your onions until translucent.  Set onions aside.  Slice your cheese, as much as you like, I used about a third of the chunk, set aside. Slice olives. Gather pizza sauce, and about 1/4 cup olive oil and a brush. Take everything out to the bbq.


Stretch dough into a 12-14 inch circle.  Brush one side with olive oil and place oil side down onto bbq on medium heat.  Rotate half a turn once half way. Keep your eye on it, once it begins to brown, bush top side with oil and flip.  Add sauce, toppings and cheese.  Move away from heat and allow cheese to melt.  Once cheese is melted (about 5 minutes) move back over heat.  It will take just a few more minutes to brown the bottom.  Gently slide onto a cutting board.  Turn off bbq.

I really like Kam's cutting action in this shot.

It was lovely.  We made a BBQ chicken pizza not to long ago too and used the peanut butter barbeque sauce, that turned out excellent.  Not sure why I didn't photograph it for a post.  Another day.  I do have to say that there is one place in Spokane I will go to for pizza. South Perry Pizza.  Its yummy!  And we went to this place called Waddell's last weekend, best wings we've ever had.  No lie. So there are good places, I guess I just have to find them.


Also, I'm sick right now, so if the posts seem a little infrequent, I'm still here.  Kam and I are nursing colds.  But I have cooked up an idea for a new series of posts, so stay tuned for that.  Enjoy! 

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to our wonderful moms and all the other great mommies out there. 

We love you today and the other 364 days a year.  

Happy Birthday Cathy!

It's Kam's mommy's birthday!  Hope you have a great day that's full of cake!

Committed....

This post will be the "to be continued" from my very first on January 7th (if you've read that far back). I started this blog thing with no expectations.  I knew that I wasn't going to tell anyone, even Kam for a little while, that I was trying out blogging.  Before I was going to tell anyone, I wanted to have a good variety and number of posts built up, so I was going to be my own critic for a while.  I wanted to blog about things that could be useful to people, not so much about me, myself and I.  I had to see if I would I have enough ideas and time to post something new and interesting 3 or 4 days a week.  My plan was to cook and craft.  If I was any good at either of these things, or should I say, if what I created was interesting enough for people to want to read about, then I would begin to let people in on my little secret.

Eventually, Kam became my first real critic.  After not to long he started bugging me to show people.  He even started telling me that if I didn't show someone, he was going to, which made me feel pretty good about the whole thing.  After a few weeks of that, I finally told my ginny pig Mandee Jo.  Then my mom, Kam's family and a few more people.  Good reviews all around.  I had read a post about "10 things I wish I knew about blogging" and the one that stuck out was about how at some point every blogger hates their blog.  Like delete it now kind of hate.  You will go through the feeling that you are wasting your time, and why would anyone want to spend their time reading this stuff.  No matter what, you will feel this way a some point. After reading that I thought to myself, I don't think I will feel that way.  People seem to really enjoy what I have to share, and I was super careful about how I felt about it before I even shared with anyone.  So, the post said to step away for a few days and refrain from that Delete button.  You will come back around.  So, sure enough, it hit me.  And I took the advice from the seasoned blogger, stepped away and came back refreshed.

So what am I rambling about?  I finally hit 50 posts.  I was really surprised it had already been that many.  And I am really enjoying this whole thing.  So, I made a commitment.  Don't get your dress dirty is officially a dot com.  I bought the domain name last night.  So for any of you that are enjoying Brenna's variety show (Mom and Mandee) then your in luck, starting April 26th, I will be blogging for one year (not counting the 5 months that have already gone by).  I'm still not sure where it will go, and I hope I can keep it interesting.  Feel free to share with anyone if you'd like!  We are now dontgetyourdressdirty.com.

Wish me luck!  Once again, to be continued...

Goat...

yuck.  I don't like goat cheese.  It tastes like creamy lamb.  And I don't like lamb.  Tonight we went to this great pizza place called South Perry Pizza on the South Hill.  The pizza we tried had sun dried tomatoes,  asparagus, grilled chicken, and goat cheese.  I really want to like it, I've tried to like it, just like I've tried to like venison.  The more I eat, the different ways I try to cook with it, the more I know, I don't like it.  And I don't like not liking something.  Humph.  Now I want to eat more pizza really bad.  Something with sausage and mushrooms and massive amounts of real cheese.

With that pizza thought, have a great weekend everyone!

*Picture from http://reddogreport.com/2010/08/will-freedomworks-dick-armey-run-in-2012/

This is how your dress gets dirty...

you come home from work to this.  A four legged mud pie.

And the funny part about it, this dog hates baths. 

Update April 1st

Mandee made the comment about how its funny that the dog that hates baths will sit in a cooler full of water.  I had sent her a picture a long time ago of Dex, and I just found it on my work computer.  This is Dex in all his prime...taken somewhere around August last summer.

Same look on his face. What a nut!

This is why....

I'm not having attendants at our wedding.  Ok, this really isn't why, but its a good reason.  Look at the faces on these 3 groomsmen.  Bored.  At least the groom looks happy!

It really is a beautiful wedding.  I found the photo here http://ruffledblog.com/technicolor-mexican-wedding/ if you want to check out the rest of the photos! and...

IT'S FRIDAY!!!!! Whoop!

Comfort Food thought...

Have you ever thought that Comfort food, which is the most tasty and wonderful to cook, isn't actually comforting food but Guilt food. Ohhhhhh life...I just came across a recipe that provoked that thought.  I'll share....


Beer Bread Caramelized Onion Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Just the beer bread alone is enough for me.  You can get the recipe here, at this great food blog!!  

Tomorrow is friday and today is sunny.  Have a great thursday!!!

Snowy Day

We had a feeling we were going to get one more snow storm for this winter.  And last night it came.  We just went out and snapped a few pictures with Dex so I thought I would post a few sense I haven't shared anything in a while.

I just dumped my camera from the past few weeks, lots of good recipe photos on there.  New posts soon to come!!!!

and so it begins...

"Don't get your dress dirty!" basically sums up my life.  As a kid, all of my neighborhood playmates were boys, and with boys came mud and creeks and capture the flag and squishing bugs, which could all be accomplished wearing a pretty dress.  I remember yelling to my mom "Going to play with Jake" as I ran out the door, and hearing her call back as quick as she could "Brenna, don't come back all dirty" or "Stay OUTTA that creek!"  Which every time I proceeded to return dripping wet with some story how Jake had pushed me into the 6 inch deep creek, then held me down while the raging water rushed over my entire body soaking me from head to toe. 


Now that I'm 27, not much has changed. It may not be mud stains all over my dresses these days, but more a combination of tomato sauce, blue paint, Mod Podge, dog slime, and chocolate. These stains are the reason for the creation of this blog...cooking, baking, crafting, and just making anything.  At least thats my plan as of right now, while I type my first post.  By episode 25, we'll see.


To be continued.