Pizza

 My son in law makes pizza every Friday night.  For his September birthday we gave him a pizza stone which he says works great.  I asked him to share his crust recipe and he did.  It comes from Mark Bittman but I don't know which of his cookbooks.

To read these you'll probably want to click on these photos.

Tuesday night I tried it and it was good.  I used the variation where you substitute 1/2 cup cornmeal for 1/2 cup flour.  I also used my Kitchenaide mixer with the dough hook.

Above is the dough ready to rise in the oven set on bread proof.

I topped it with sauce, sauteed onions, peppers, mushrooms, and bacon crumbles.  I sliced fresh mozzarella and 3 minutes before removing from oven tossed on some parmesan cheese.

It was very good.  The recipe makes two so the other is in the refrigerator for another day.

We have two slices left for lunch.

By the way I did not preheat my pizza stone because I never have much luck sliding my assembled pizza on to the hot stone.  Something always gets folded or slides off the sides. It baked fine without doing that.

Do you have a favorite pizza crust recipe to share?

Birdfeeders

 

I've put up the bird feeders again. They came down in the spring because of the bear warnings.

Tuesday morning I dug out an old camera (Canon PowerShot SX 530 HS) that I've had trouble with in the past with not focusing and decided to capture some bird visitors.

There were many more than I got decent photos of.

Below is a nuthatch,

a chickadee,

a blue jay,

Also visiting were a harry woodpecker, tufted titmouse, and juncoes.

The robins appeared too at my neighbors crabapple tree and came to visit in my yard.  You can see some frost on the grass. 

I've always enjoyed watching and feeding the birds.  I remember my brother and I keeping a log of the birds we saw when I was in elementary school. I wonder what new ones I will see here in NH?

Halloween 2021

Our first Halloween in this house.

We have not had trick or treaters since we lived in our house in Columbia, MD.  We moved from there in June 2003 to an apartment while we built a house, The Lodge, in the woods in Baltimore County.

We never had trick or treaters at the Lodge nor at Vantage House, the retirement community, once we moved there in 2016.

This fall I purchased three pumpkins to carve - one for each granddaughter.  They drew faces on paper for me to follow.

Below is granddaughter #1's.

Granddaughter #2's,

Granddaughter #3's (who will be trick or treating in Buffalo).

I'm told there will be lots of children coming by as where we live has the highest concentration of houses. The local school even collects candy that is then distributed to those who will be answering their doors tonight between 5 & 7pm.  We bought two extra large bags just in case.

We also signed up to be a Teal Pumpkin house, distributing non-food treats.  The PTO provided that too!

I think we're ready to welcome trick or treaters for the first time in 19 years!

From White to Yellow

 

 Above photo taken Oct 31, 2020 when we had the house inspection before settlement in December.

Below is photo taken today, Oct 29, 2021.

Here is move in day December 15, 2020.

Today.

A snowy day last February.

June of this year.

Backyard this summer after deck completed and new flower beds made..

The barn before renovations.

and in progress.

Now.

We are hoping the barn whisperer sees that the painting is complete and will come to put doors on the barn.