Pizza

As anyone who knows me knows I love pizza.  And regardless of what they call pizza here in this country, or in New York, or in California, or in Italy, etc. etc. etc.  Real Pizza is made in Chicago.

Well a long time ago I mastered a reasonable facsimile of the Chicago Deep Dish Pizza.  And I have made it for many a friend and catered a few parties.  However the Chicago thin crust pizza (notice the lack of capitals) has always eluded me ... until recently.

The trouble I had had is with the crust and for some reason it took so long for me to figure out what was going on.  Too much water.  Basically I was running 60-66% hydration.  Once I dropped it down to 50-55% it seems to have hit the mark.  Now I have a great crust that makes the pizza.

Lean mean peddling machine ...

Yeah for the Chicago Blackhawks

During the last few weeks, we have been watching the Stanley Cup games at a friend's house.  The games were on  NZ television which our Canadian hockey-fan friends recorded.  When the news was about to announce the results of the final game, all of us started shouting because we didn't want to know before we watched it.

While eating fish and chips, red velvet cake and ice cream, we cheered for the Blackhawks and enjoyed the company of wonderful friends.

Christmas a historical perspective

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TM1XusYVqNY

Taekwondo

Photo taken on 3 November 2012.  Here Tom and I are with our new black belts.  Dennis already has a junior black belt and he wasn't in uniform.  A few weeks after our testing we were interviewed by the local community newspaper.  The write up was a good plug for our taekwondo club.  We even saw ourselves on the front page.  I started taekwondo to get some exercise.  I keep going for fitness, fun and friends.

This Year's Quilt

This isn't the completed quilt.  It's missing the borders.

Now it's completed with borders.

It's called Cut Loose Sampler and the squares are based on instructions from Jan Mullen's book Cut Loose Squares.  I exhibited this at the Wellington Quilter's Guild exhibition in September.

Ever Heard of Copha?

Dennis picked up a cookbook at an Op Shop.  It's entitled The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits by The Australian Women's Weekly.  Most of the recipes are sweet but there are also some savories.  Dennis baked the chocolate chip biscuits (aka cookies) and shared them with his friends and family.

While perusing this book, I noticed an ingredient called Copha.  I had no idea what was meant by it so I did a google search to find out.  It's a hydrogenated coconut fat/shortening and it's known as Kremelta in New Zealand.  So now I know what to buy to make White Christmas and Chocolate Crackles.

You learn something new every day.  So that's what I learned today!