Pizza and a Raspberry Tart

Well keeping with the tradition when we have the Missionaries for dinner we had another trat from Masterchef tonight! We made the pizza base from the friday night master class and they were good. We made our own toppings with mozzarella, capsicum, shredded ham, pineapple, chorizo, hot salami and some herbs and spices. The Pizza was good and very filling! Then for desert we had the Raspberry Tart which was REALLY GOOD! I am going to be a little sad when they finish the show in a few weeks as I have come to really learn and enjoy learning new techniques and ways to cook things I haven't tried before. I must say that sometime this week I will be making the date and lemon scones which looked really good from this Fridays just gone master class.

My mum has come to stay with us for a few days, it has been a while as she had a hip replacment earlier in the year and then it took her a while to recover and after everything is right she was able to come and stay. Yesterday we went and did some retail therapy shopping, for Will it was more food therapy as I took him a selection of food to keep him entertained as we looked for good specials. Once we had had enough bargain hunting we decided to go and take Will to Maccas for a play and some lunch. He had heas of fun as their was not many kids their. He even enjoyed a yummy happy meal and then a babycinio. I loved the cute little choccie milk mouth he had from drinking it. Today we did some grocery shopping, boring, and then tomorrow we will get Ryan to look after the kids while we check out the toy sale at Myer and Toyworld, just hoping that some of you girls have left us some toys when we get their!

Pizza Dough Recipe

Hey Bride here is the easy Pizza dough recipe that tastes really good. I must say that until this recipe we would just buy the pizza bases from the shop as it tasted heaps better but this is has changed all that!

1 1/2 cups warm water
7g dry yeast (as they say on Master chef the yeast has to be exact!)
1 1/2 Tbs olive oil
400g plain flour
130g semolina
2 tsp salt
Extra flour for dusting

1. Put water, yeast, and oil in a bowl and whisk to dissolve yeast. Put flour, semolina, and salt on an electric mixer with the dough hook attached and pour in the yeast mixture on medium speed until dough comes together and is wet and silky. Increase speed and mix for 5 minutes.
2. Turn out dough into lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and stand in a warm place until dough has doubled in size. Gently punch down the dough with your fists, then divide into portions required, we usally make 4 pizzas with the mix, but you can make more or less. Lightly dust with flour and punch the dough out to make your base.

The you can add whatever you like, I usally put tomato paste with garlic throug it first, then I add my meat, capsicum, mushrooms, olives, cheese and pineapple.

Our family Saturday

On Saturday we decided to go as a family to the new launceston Aquatic centr. William and I had been but Ryan and the girls hadn't. I made a strict request that we get their early as I found William didn't like it as much when their was too many kids. As a result we got their just after 9 and it was great as their was not many people. William had heaps more fun this time as he even braved the play equpiment that they had! He was still a little unsure about the BIG bucket of water that came down every now and then. The ids had so much of a good time that we actually stayed longer than we were planning. Unfortunately Charlotte couoldn't get in and swim this time as for some unknown reason her big toe nail fell off the other day and as a result it is very touchy and we don't really wnat to get it wet at the moment. Hopefully next time she can enjoy the hydro pool, she did enjoy herself though as she was in a very warm place nad even managed to have a little nap.

After our little swim we went and did some shopping. We ended up at Meadow Mews where the kids got a shake n dog from Wendy as well as ride on the Thomas the Tank Engine that was there. Even Amelia got in on the ride. We love our weekends, the only problem is that they always go far too quick! At least we can look forward to the next one!

Happy Birthday

On Thursday it was Ryan's birthday and apart from having to go to work he did tell me he had a good day! He requested me to make a sponge cake for his birthday cake and this is what he got!

I also asked him what he would like me to make for dinner and he asked for homemade pizza. We have found the best pizza dough and it is so easy! So we gave the kids theirs then later on had our's. I have given him an IOU for a date night out this week as my Mum is coming up to stay for a few days, it will be nice to have her up as well as nice to have a night out with Ryan, as it has been a while!

Lunch with Daddy!

On Monday it was the last day of the school holidays and seeing it was a lovely day I decided that we would take a drive out to Beaconsfield and have lunch with Ryan. Opposite the mine is a little park that we went to. I made some mini chicken quiches and sammies for the kids and we sat in the car and ate them while we enjoyed the lovely sun shine streming through the window. Once we finished we let the kids have a play on the equipment. They had a great time, even though it was a little cool, but we stayed their for about an hour before we got back in the car and drove home, we did do the scenic trip home and went along Rosvears which was really pretty. I really like this time of year, apart from it being sooooo cold, I really like the colours that are around of the landscape. If only we could have some warmth I would be even happier!!!!

Tea with the Missionaries

Well we have had the missionaries from both ward for dinner over the last two night as we can only have them on weekends as our weeks are just so busy. We found out that the guys fro East didn't have a tea appointement when they came over for haircuts on Saturday so we asked if they wanted to come as well and of course they said YES! Maybe it was because we told them what was on the menu. Saturday we had homemade burgers with homemade chips and for desert we had chocolate ecclairs, thanks to Masterchef for the recipe that they showed on Friday in MasterClass. On Sunday we had Pumpkin, Carrot and Corriander Soup, with a slow cooker beef dish and the lemon Diva cupcakes (however I did slightly tweek on the Masterchef recipe) with a lemon curd inside and a cream cheese icing.

So after dinner the boys decided to have an arm wrestle competition and I must say it was pretty funny watching Elder Martin trying to beat Ryan, and then Elder Merryl took him on and then Josh Polley! No wonder the poor guy felt like he had gorilla arms after. Of course we had a few extra missionaries to give the running comentary on the rounds as well as our own live film crew!