Pita Pockets

2 Mar 2008

I know that my pizza dough recipe makes good pizza crust but Joseph suggested that it also might make good pita pockets. I baked three pizza crusts in a row and they all poofed up like balloons. I think Joseph might be right. I got the recipe from my new favorite cookbook "The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook." It quite litterally is the perfect cook book. Though the recipies are not for the faint of heart, they make the best food I've ever tasted. Here is the pizza dough recipe:

4 c. flour

2 & 1/4 tsp. rapid-rise yeast

1 & 1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbl. olive oil

1 & 3/4 c. very warm (almost hot) water

Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixer with the dough hook attachment and all the wet ingredients in a large measuring cup. Turn on the mixer and drizzle in the wet ingredients. Knead in the mixer for 5 minutes - add flour 1 Tbl at a time if needed. The dough should stick to the bottom of the bowl but not the sides. Make the dough into a ball and put back in the bowl with plastic wrap on the top. I turn on the oven to 350 and let the dough rise on the top of the stove for 1 hour. Turn the oven up to 500 and make sure you have a baking stone inside. Divide the dough into balls and roll out about 1/4 inch thick. To make a pizza crust make sure to poke a lot of holes in the dough with a fork or put on the toppings before you bake. For the pitas, just plop it in on the stone as is (no holes). Sprinkle the baking stone with corn meal - flour will burn - the corn meal does too but not as much as flour. Bake for about 5 min.

Welcome RALPHIE!

1 Mar 2008

Yesterday we picked up our new puppy Ralphie. He is a Bichon Frise and he is such a good dog! He came already paper trained and is starting to like is crate more and more and care about his new collar less and less - and after only 1 day. He and Derek are pretty much soul mates and take turns leading each other all around the house. Earlier today, I saw them each chewing on different corners of Derek's favorite blanket. Tyler likes to organize all of Ralphie's toys and make sure that he gets to play with each and every one. Here are some photos:

This is Ralphie.

Tyler and Derek are so excited to have a dog!

More excitement.

Dad was not so much excited as he was sleepy.

Cute little video of our cute little dog.

Here Are Some Videos

26 Feb 2008

I don't have Joseph's litterary prowess and probably won't ever create anything like the Emilyusaurus Rex (or what ever it was) even if I could. But I can post videos to my blog. Yay!

We're Going to TEXAS!

25 Feb 2008

It has been quite awhile since my last post. On the 11th I started working full time and the extra 15 hours a week has really cut into my blogging time! Oh well, the extra money is super nice. Good news - Jared received his acceptance letter from the Air Force psychology residency program in San Antonio. I am so relieved. Jared will report to COT (commissioned officer's training) in Alabama on June 30th. He will stay there for 5 weeks and then report to the Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland AFB (air force base) in San Antonio. We can't go with him to Alabama but we will for sure be there in Texas. I don't know if we'll move before Jared's training or after, but either way it will be sometime this summer (we'll see how long it takes to sell our house). And, yes, Lisa and Rachel and Cory and all the little Maughan kids, you are more than welcome to come visit anytime. As they say, "everything's bigger in Texas" including the houses. I can't find anything with 4 bedrooms that's less than 35,000 sq ft. After one year of residency, Jared will be assigned to a base somewhere in in the US for the next 3 years.

Here is a picture of what Jared might look like in a military uniform. (Note: You might recognize the expression on Jared face. It was featured in the Valentines Day blog 2 weeks ago :)

Here is a picture of the base in Texas.

Here is a picture of the Alamo - located in San Antonio.

Here is a picture of the Riverwalk - also located in San Antonio.

Here is a picture of the puppy we will be getting on Saturday. His name is Ralphie.

This post was published by Suzie - not by Jared like it says below!

Valentines Day

15 Feb 2008

Happy Birthday Brian (Feb 14th) and Kay Lynn (Feb 16th)! We love you guys!

Yesterday was Valentine's Day and it was such a good day. Jared had roses delivered to my office and all the ladies (all 2 of them) were jealous. They made my office smell so nice. We went out to lunch at Cafe Rio and then Tyler and I made chicken enchiladas and heart shaped sugar cookies for dinner. Tyler got me a cute little kitty (purple stuffed kitty - not a real cat!) for a valentine present and I got him the Ratatoullie DVD. Derek got Thomas the Tank Engine DVDs. Jared got a gift card to Pet Smart which he used to set up his fish tank and 4 gold fish. All in all, it was a pretty great day!

No Churros?!?

13 Feb 2008

This is a picture of what happens to the family when the Costco snack bar runs out of churros and it will be 5 minutes until the next batch is done cooking.

Sick Baby

10 Feb 2008

Tyler was sick with a pretty bad cold and cough last week. This week it's Derek's turn. He's pretty sick. This is a picture of Jared and Tyler trying their best to stave off a crying fit by showing Derek how to play "Simpsons Hit and Run." Jared says that Derek smells really bad.

Tyler's Lost A Tooth!

7 Feb 2008

Tyler lost his first tooth last night! It has been wiggley for about a week now, but yesterday he finially had the guts to let me help him pull it out. He was super excited to put the tooth under his pillow and to see how much money the tooth fairy would bring him. He said that he was hoping for $60. Unfortunatly the tooth fairy is just as big a cheap skate as I remember and only brought him $1.25. However, the dollar was folded into a cool oragmai shirt.

Sledding

6 Feb 2008

A few weeks ago we went sledding at Grandma and Grandpa James' house. They have a cute little hill in their front yard that is just PERFECT for litttle kids to sled on. Tyler took to it right away though he hated pulling his sled back up the hill and usually got Mom or Grandpa to do it for him.

Derek was nervous at first but seemed okay after going down with Mom and Tyler. On one run, he fell out of the sled at the bottom of the hill and got his hands all snowey. This made him pretty upset so we put some socks on his hands to keep them kinda warm. Now he puts socks on his hands all the time as a joke. I love his face in the picture right before they go down the hill. (You might have to click on the picture in order to enlarge it so that you can see his expression better.)

William really didn't want to sled down the hill but he was cool with sitting on the sled on the porch. In the first picture it looks like William is saying, "Yeah right! Look at those fools at the bottom of the hill. If you think I'm going down there, you're crazy!"

After all the sledding was done, Grandpa made a fire in the fire pit on the deck and he and Tyler sat out there to warm up. All in all, I think that the boys had a really good time.

Derek Dressing Himself

6 Feb 2008

This is Derek trying to get himself dressed in the morning. He never really gets it quite right. The whole video was shot on Jared's cell phone so the quality isn't the best but it doesn't really matter cause Derek is just so darn cute!