Saturday, November 15, 2008

Homemade Pizza

Our family loves to have pizza night every weekend, usually on Saturday nights. When things get too busy we sometimes get take out. Our favourite take-out pizza parlors are Byron Pizza, which we've loved for years, and now Panago, which just opened up right by our house this fall!

But our favourite pizza is homemade, and last night we made a whole pile of pizzas and invited Jeff & Lindsey, Bill, and the missionaries to join us.

Here's our recipe for homemade pizza:

Add the following ingredients to your bread machine in the order listed:

1 cup very warm water
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups of flour (you may need slightly more, depending on where you live - sometimes I use closer to 3 cups)
2 1/4 tsp yeast

Start the dough cycle. When the dough is ready, dump onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to desired size.

This amount of dough will make one extremely large pizza, or 2 smaller (or thin crust) pizzas. I find that if I double the recipe I get three nice round pizza crusts that aren't too thin.

Top with your choice of pizza sauce, toppings, and lotsa mozza cheese.

Hill family favourite combos:

Classic Canadian - pepperoni, mushrooms, bacon
Classic Hawaiian - ham & pineapple
Samantha's Specialty - pepperoni & black olives
Scotty's Deluxe - pepperoni, mushrooms, green olives, red onions, tomatoes, bacon, peppers

Bake at 425 for 15-20 minutes, until bottom is golden and cheese is nice and bubbly.

Enjoy!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Mark Your Calendars... I've Decided to Turn 30 Again Next Week

Thanks to everyone who called, emailed, facebooked, stopped by, sent a card, or sent a gift to wish me a happy birthday yesterday! I am truly blessed to have such wonderful family and friends and I really appreciate all of your kind gestures.

I also want to boast about how incredibly thoughtful and amazing my husband is, and thank him, again, for a fabulous day!

On Monday I received this email from Scott:

Just want to make sure you clear your day on Wednesday.

Here’s our plan for your “very exciting, hard to really believe it, but it is here” 30th Birthday:

I’m taking the whole day off to watch the kids.

9:00am – 1:00pm: You have an appointment at Fayez beauty Spa. Bring your bathing suit.

1:30pm: Meet me downtown for lunch at Blue Ginger (Clara will be with us for this part)

3:00pm: You’ll be heading to Masonville Mall, and/or anywhere else you want to go. All for you, no buying for anyone else. Clara stays with me, I will feed her from the milk in the freezer.

7:45pm: Come home, I’m making dinner, have a quick bite to eat, watch a movie with me, I’ll have the kids in bed and some popcorn ready too.

Now, I ask you, with a day like that, what girl wouldn't love to turn the big 3-0?!

He also picked up a delicious black forest cake so we could have a little celebration with the kids before bedtime.

Speaking of the kids, check out these adorable cards:




(I know it may be obvious to some of you, but for those non-pokemon lovers out there, this is a Pokemon card made by Brett. Yes, my very own Squirtle card, 50 HP no less!)

As it turns out, we postponed the shopping trip, as my Mother-in-law had to get rushed in for another emergency surgery yesterday, and Scott spent the afternoon at the hospital with her. Everything seems to be fine now, although the doctors still aren't sure why her arm started bleeding so much. Thanks to all who have been praying and fasting for Pat. I know that she has felt strengthened by you. Please continue to keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Oh Yeah, the Halloween Pictures

Samantha was a Cowgirl. Brett was Spiderman (again). Jesse was a Spider and twins with his cousin, Jayna. Nathan was a Scarecrow. Clara got to wear some Halloween sleepers that made her look like a boy.

Remembrance Day Update

Yeah, I'm here to post Halloween pictures... on Remembrance Day. But before that, just a quick update on life around here lately.

First, Pat had her surgery, actually 2 surgeries, last week and is recovering in hospital, and doing quite well overall. Here spirits are up and the doctors seem to be pleased with her recovery so far. She's been through so much, and her strength and selflessness is truly inspirational. Thanks to all of you who have kept her in your thoughts and prayers.

Secondly, my little sister flew out here for a visit with her two kids and we had so much fun together! In my dream world, we would be next door neighbours, raising our families together and hanging out every day. In the real world, I'll settle for a whirlwind week with 7 kids, virtually no sleep, but making memories to last a lifetime. Read more about her visit here.

Thirdly, Clara is coming up on 8 weeks and the other day someone told me she doesn't look like a newborn anymore (sniff). My mom emailed me and threatened to do something drastic if I don't send pictures, so here are some recent snapshots.




Sunday, November 9, 2008

I Love Your Blog


I got tagged by my friend Shelley.

For some reason I found it really hard to just come up with ONE word, but I tried.

{ Oh, and I'm tagging all of my friends with blogs because I LOVE THEM ALL! If you want to participate, go ahead and consider yourself tagged. }

Give one word answers with no explanation, then tag five bloggers with the "I love your blog award"...

1. Where is you cell phone ... vest
2. Where is your significant other ... hockey
3. Your hair color ... highlights
4. Your mother ... amazing
5. Your father ... generous
6. Your favorite thing ... family
7. Your dream last night ... short
8. Your dream goal ... happiness
9. Room you're in ... living
10. Your hobby ... 5kids
11. Your fear ... disappointing
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years ... whoknows
13. Where were you last night ... home
14. What you're not ... unloved
15. One of your wish-list items ... house
16. Where you grew up ... traveling
17. The last thing you ate ... cashews
18. What are you wearing ... sweatshirt
19. Your tv ... backyardigans
20. Your pet ...oscar
21. Your computer ... toshiba
22. Your mood ... variable
23. Missing someone ... sisters
24. Your car ... minivan
25. Something you're not wearing ... contacts
26. Favorite store ... jacobconnexion
27. Your summer ... flewby
28. Love someone ... Scotty
29. Your favorite color ... blue
30. Last time you laughed ... tonight
31. Last time you cried ... yesterday