The best pizza

From the March 2012 Bon Appetit

No-Knead Pizza Dough

7 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

4 tsp. sea salt

1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

whisk dry ingredients and gradually add 3 cups water; stir well until well incorporated. Mix dough gently with your hands to bring it together and form into a rough ball. Transfer to a large clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let dough rise at room temperature in a draft free area until surface is covered with tiny bubbles and dough has more than doubled in size, about 18 hours.

Transfer dough to a floured surface Gently shape dough into a rough triangle. Divide into 6 equal portions. Working with 1 portion at a time, gather 4 corners to center to create 4 folds. Turn seam side down and mold gently into a ball. Dust dough with flour; set aside onwork surface or a floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining portions. Let dough rest, covered with plastic until soft and pliable, about 1 hour.

To make the pizzas during the last hour of dough’s resting, prepare oven. If you use a pizza stone, make sure you check and see how hot it can get-ours broke in half because it go too hot! Preheat oven to hottest setting for 1 hour (500-550 degrees). Using one portion at a time, dust dough generously with flour and gently shape dough into a 10-12 inch disc. You can use the fist and toss maneuver like they do in the pizzerias to stretch the dough a bit.  Then put toppings on. You can put the pizza directly onto the stone-it’s difficult to maneuver, and bake under the broiler 5-7 minutes, rotating half-way through. Or cook it on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes on bake at 500-550 degrees. Bake each pizza seperately. You can refrigerate the dough up to 3 days. Take it out and let it rest until it gets to room temp, then form as usual.

suggested toppings:  stewed canned tomatoes, soft cheeses like fresh mozzarella, goat cheese, and also a hard cheese like parmesan, carmelized onions, garlic, rep pepper flakes, sea salt, artichoke hearts, pepperoni or bacon.

Our little diva

She loves to pull all the clothes out of her drawers and dress herself. She’s very opinionated about what she wears and often will refuse to let me get her dressed unless she picks out the clothes.

Her new favorite words/sayings: That’s my spot!  Where’d Daddy/Lucia/Marco/Sylvia/Grama/Babak (grandpa)/Uncle B go? I want ____________. Shoes off! Shoes on! I poopoo (patting her diaper), No go ni-night! I’m stuck!  She knows all her animal sounds and body parts. If you ask her how old she is, she’ll say 1. She’s just suddenly started talking a lot.

She’s getting to be our little sassy girl, but she’s so cute-you can’t help but just hug and kiss her all the time.

Jelly Belly Factory

Last month-during our President’s Day week off, we went to the Jelly Belly Factory. Grandma came with us. It’s kind of a tradition now that we go in February every year. Love getting the free Jelly Belly’s and getting on that sugar high before crashing when we get home. We got stuck in traffic for 2 hours (it usually only takes 1 hour to get home.) Other than that, we had a good time trying new flavors at the tasting bar and doing the tour of the factory-it was actually up and running this time. Until next year Mr. Jelly Belly!

A day getaway

Julio was subpoenaed to the State Bar Court in San Francisco the day after Valentine’s Day. He had to go testify against a former crooked co-worker who might lose his license. So, we decided to make it a day trip for just the two of us. The first time we’ve ever been without any kids for a whole day since Lucia was born almost 9 years ago!  Luckily, my dad and brother were available to get Marco to school and watch the girls. With everything arranged, we left early, but still got to court 1/2 hour late. So we had to wait-that really cut into our day, but we got to sit and read and talk for an hour before Julio had to testify. It was kinda fun watching him be questioned. I gave him the full run-down of all his little quirks when we left. It was pretty funny watching him cock his head to the side, scratch his chin, knit his eyebrows together and ask, “Could you clarify that?” I don’t remember. and he used the sentence “I had already divorced myself from those responsibilities.” twice.

Anyway, after we were done, we walked from the Financial District about a mile to Little Italy. We ate lunch at the Stinking Rose restaurant. Garlic is their specialty and we ate a lot of garlic! It was really good. Then we walked all the way back (got a good work-out) to Embarcadero and went to the Ferry Building and walked around the pier, took lots of pictures and then relaxed and watched the boats come in and out of the bay, the seagulls fly by and listened to the hum of the city. It was so relaxing. Then it was time to head back. We stopped and got ice cream on the way and then got stuck in traffic for at least an hour. It was a good day. We got to spend it together!

Outside the stinking rosewhat is he doing?The Ferry BuildingSome interesting sculpturesNear the Ferry Building

Valentine’s Day

The kids got up early to see their little treat bags. It wasn’t much-I went major budget. But they were excited anyway. It was plenty since they also got treats from Aunt Tami and Grandma stopped by and brought treat bags as well. Julio got me tickets to see Juanes (a Spanish singer) in May. I am soooo excited! He also brought me some flowers and chocolate. Aww, what a sweet guy. I’ m go lucky. I love ALL my Valentine’s!

We had red smoothies for dinner. Easy to please.

Old pictures from Julio’s phone

Precious!Ikea last New Year’sHow I miss that squishy  little baby face!

Wild turkeys in our neighborhood.

Driving to LA last April.Last Easter in Santa Monica at Grandma and Grandpa Cole’s graves.

Sylvie’s very first day of  headstart. April 2012

Tessa and me at the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica last April. Julio, Tessa and I went down for the funeral of one of Julio’s friends.

Time flies when you’re having fun!

Well, January has passed already! I remember a few years ago, when I was homeschooling Lucia, it was the longest, slowest month ever! I was dreading it again back in December, but January went by pretty quickly this year. Probably because I’m so busy. Looking at my calendar, there is something written on most days: Activity Days for Lucia, Occupational therapy for Sylvie, Recorder Class for Lucia, book club, feed the missionaries, Policy Committee meeting for Head Start, Stake Leadership meeting, watch my friend’s kids, visiting teaching, visit less-actives, Activity planning meeting and Julio and I even got a date to the temple and out to dinner. I have also been going to the gym every morning after I drop Marco off at school. I love going and Tessa loves the daycare there. I do zumba on Mondays, Group Strength Training on Tuesdays, yoga on Wednesdays, and kick-boxing on Thursdays. I’m feeling stronger and have more energy and it puts me in a better mood when I have that total-me time. I guess (I’m) pretty busy! It’s good though.

Marco got an award at school in January for Self-Discipline. His teacher and I figured out a system to help him improve his reading. It’s accountability and trying his best everyday-he gets a good note to bring home and a sticker on his chart if he does all his reading. Lucia did a performance of Gangnam Style with her class at the awards assembly. It was funny. I’ll have to post the video to You Tube.

Marco our ladies man who has a major widow’s peak and needs a haircut. One day I went to pick the kids up at school and as we were walking through the quad, a girl said, “HIII Marco!” and another girl said, “No! He’s mine!”  I just gasped and kept walking. I don’t think Marco heard them, and if he did, he ignored them. Good for him.