Delish - Pizza Pizza Pizza

I love me some pizza! Just about any pizza will do. Which is why I get so excited when I find funky new pizza recipes to try out. These are three of my favourites.

Pizza Margherita

1 lb (454 g) prepared pizza dough

1 can (28 oz/796 ml) whole tomatoes, drained, seeded and chopped

1/4 tsp salt

3 tbsp olive oil

5 oz mozzarella ball, thinly sliced into about 8 pieces

6 black olives, pitted and halved

9 fresh basil leaves

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 12 inch circle;
transfer to pizza stone or pan.

Spread tomatoes over dough; sprinkle with salt.
Drizzle with 2 tbsp of oil; arrange cheese and olives over top.

Bake in 475 F (240 C) oven until golden brown and bubbly,
15 to 18 minutes.

Sprinkle with basil leaves; drizzle with remaining oil.

Peach and Gorgonzola Chicken Pizza

Cooking Light

1 (10 oz) prebaked thin pizza crust (I love Boboli)
Cooking spray
1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
1 cup shredded cooked chicken breast
1/3 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
1 medium unpeeled peach, thinly sliced
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 F

Place pizza crust on baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Brush 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil evenly over crust. Top evenly with 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, chicken, Gorgonzola cheese, and peach slices. Top with remaining 1/4 cup mozzarella. Bake at 400 F for 11 minutes or until crust browns.

Place vinegar in a small suacepan over medium-high heat; cook until reduced to 2 tablespoons (about 5 minutes); Drizzle balsamic reduction evely over pizza. Cut into 8 wedges.

Mushroom Fontina Pizza

1 lb mushrooms, stemmed
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 prebaked multigrain pizza crust
2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
1 1/2 cups shredded fontina cheese

In food processor, pulse mushrooms until coarse paste; set aside.

In skillet, heat oil over medium heat; fry onion, garlic, salt and pepper, stirring occassionally, until onion is softened, about 5 minutes.

Stir in mushroom paste; cook, stirring, until liquid is evaporated, about 15 minutes. Stir in parsley. (Make ahead: let cool; refrigerate in airtight container for up to 24 hours).

On lightly floured surface, roll out dough into 14-inch round; centre on greased pizza pan. Spread with mushroom paste; sprinkle with thyme and Fontina cheese.

Bake in bottom third of 425 F oven until cheese is bubbly and crust is golden, about 20 minutes.

Bon Appetit!

Saturday Somethin' Somethin'

Hey everyone! I hope you are all loving the colours of autumn, I know I am!

It's a long weekend here in Canada, for our Thanksgiving. I've got TWO huge feasts to attend this year...lucky me!

This weekend's feature are pixel sofas from Zuzunaga. They are funky, I love 'em!

If the sofa is a tad too over the top for you, they also make a line of pixel pillows. These are so fun!



Home Office Inspiration

Mr. Mel and I always planned to have a dedicated home office space. But we figured that we'd wait til the basement was done, then relocate the guest room downstairs and make the upstairs third bedroom into our office/craft space. It all seemed to be going swimmingly...until Mr. Mel decided to work from home!

Mr. Mel is what I like to call a "dabbler". When people ask me what he does for a living, I usually say, "he's a businessman". Truth is, he directs several companies, does financial and corporate consulting, accounting, and real estate investment. He's a busy boy!

So the plan to do the office was sped up. Time to get to work!

This is the room now. Besides plunking the furniture in it when we moved in, we haven't done a thing to it. It's not huge, just over 10' x 10' with a small alcove. It's the guest room but has quickly become the drop zone  for random crap. What...like you've never seen kitty litter boxes and a carpet shampooer before?!

The wall colour will stay as is, Benjamin Moore Limesickle. It's a fairly neutral colour and can look more grey or green depending on the light and accent colours.

Mr. Mel has given me carte blanche with this room. He's happy as long as he has a place to sit and work. Ok by me!

I made a list of what this room needs:

• two workstations/desks.
• desk large enough to use as a sewing table.
• credenza or buffet. The room has a double closet so we have lots of storage space, but I want something that can hold printer, copier, fax, random office supplies.
• chairs.
• desk lamp(s).
• curtain panels.

These are some room schemes that have inspired me and will work with my wall colour:

Kendall Wilkinson Design

Liz Carroll Interiors

Muse Interiors

Photograph by Keith Scott Morton

I hope to have this room together pronto as I need to reclaim my kitchen table!

Paint Booth

I paint in my garage. I prefer to park in my garage. I store stuff in my garage.

I have had a few unfortunate over spray incidents when working in there so I decided I needed some sort of booth to work in that would protect my projects and belongings...and my freshly epoxy'd floors, of course! When I painted my parent's dining set, I rigged up a hideous makeshift booth from tarps, zip ties, and bungee cords. It did the job, but it was dark, ugly, and hard to put together and take down.

I thought I might get creative and build my own out of PVC pipe and poly.

Source

But, seriously, this seemed like too much work for something that I would have to set up and take down each time I wanted to paint something. Not to mention that I needed a good sized booth to accommodate larger furniture pieces.

Ebay to the rescue! I bought this 10x10 pop up gazebo with 4 removable walls for $150 (including shipping).

It's light, bright, sets up quickly, and stores easily in it's own bag. It's perfect. It looks so silly set up inside the garage! ha ha

Time to paint!

Epoxy...Part Deux

Welp, the weekend is here and it's time to tackle the other side of the garage floor. Mr. Mel kindly moved all my junk treasures to the finished side for me so I had a clear area to work. Isn't he sweet?

Okily dokily, so this is pretty much a repeat of the first epoxy application, only this time it's only about half the size...yay.

Here is the before:

Compared to the finished side...yowza!

And here is the after:

Now Mr.Mel and I are headed out to the lake for the last time this summer. The weather here has been amazing and we are gonna soak up all the sunshine we can before the snow flies!

My Epoxy Adventure

It seems that all I've done this year is work in my garage!

A couple more projects and we'll be set for winter. I have already insulated the walls, organized my tools, moved my stairs, and did a major purge of all things unnecessary. Time to tackle the floor.

After much research, I decided to use an epoxy finish on the floors. I wanted them to look clean, and hated the look of the bare concrete. I considered having a pro apply a commercial epoxy but, when I found out that *all* epoxy will wear out eventually, decided that the cost wouldn't make sense, if I was only going to have to do it again in a few years. And that's a key piece of information: epoxy isn't permanent! I know, I know, I thought it was, too. Bottom line, it will wear down to the original surface simply from driving on it. How long that takes will depend in how much you drive on it. For the average homeowner, you'll have to consider touching it up about every three years. On the plus side, it protects your floors from all sorts of staining and pitting.

I picked up four Behr Premium 2 Part Epoxy kits from Home Depot. Each kit comes with everything you need to finish a single car garage, including concrete etcher/cleaner, roller and brush. As luck would have it, the rep from Behr was there at the time and was very helpful, with all sorts of good advice. First thing he recommended was to buy a little extra. I have a three car garage (about 1,000 sq ft) and each epoxy kit should cover a single car garage....buuuuuuuut they don't. Not really. So, he said I should definitely pick up an extra kit so I didn't run out.

Ok, I just have to mention this because it struck me as funny when it dawned on me...my garage is bigger than my first apartment! ha ha

I figured I would do the garage in two parts. The double side and then the single side. That way I can move all my stuff to each side of the garage and wouldn't have to take it outside.

With all the construction going on around us, the garage is always filled with dust so, before I started, I swept, vacuumed and pressure washed the floor.

The first step in the kit is to apply the etcher. Wet the floor, sprinkle it on, brush with a stiff brush, and let it sit for 10 minutes, then rinse the floor. This helps the epoxy bond to the concrete.

Once the floor has completely dried, it's time to apply the epoxy. Mix the epoxy according to the instructions, and then it's basically like painting a wall. Cut in around the edges, then roll on the finish. I am applying the colour chips they've supplied so I'll do my floor in 1 metre square areas so I can make the finish as consistent as possible.

Wait about 24 hours before you move anything back onto the finished floor, four days before you drive on it. The Behr rep recommended laying down cardboard where car tires will be driving, for the first few weeks. And here's my finished floor (well, half of it, at least)!

I hope to tackle the other side next weekend, as long as the weather Gods keep being good to me.

Delish - Camp Food

Since I was a kid, I have been going camping with my family. I've always loved it. Mr. Mel and I have made camping a *huge* part of our summer, also. It's so nice to get out of the city, sit at the lake, go fishing, and have late night campfires and marshmallow roasts.

There is the standard camp food fare: burgers, weenies, beans, etc. and I have no problem with that. But, I like to stir things up a bit and often plan meals ahead that can be thrown into Ziploc bags and tossed into the cooler. Not all simple food has to taste simple!

This weekend, I brought a few of my favourite recipes...and I thought I'd share with you.

Easy Steak Marinade

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 cloves minced garlic

2 tbsp dijon mustard

1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp of dried rosemary or thyme

Place 4 steaks (I use sirloin) ina large Ziploc bag. Wisk all ingredients together and pour into bag. Close the bag, getting rid of the air, and mush the steaks around a bit so they are all well coated in the marinade. Refrigerate for up to 2 days. 

Grilled Asparagus

1 bunch (10-12) asparagus spears

dash of salt and pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

Cut or break off the woody ends of the asparagus spears. Toss all ingredients together in plastic bag. Cook in disposable aluminum container (covered in tin foil) on BBQ set to "high", for 20-25 minutes.