Of all recipes, this easy pizza crust recipe is one I essentially have memorized. Growing up, homemade pizza was one of my favorite meals. Even as an adult (wait, really?),  if there was one food I had to eat everyday for the rest of my life, I'd undoubtedly choose pizza. (All other answers to that hypothetical and highly impractical question are hereby proclaimed incorrect ;)

And, although I've enjoyed trying essentially every pizza place in Madison (Salvatore's Tomato Pies newly opened on E. Johnson being my new favorite!) there's something extra special about making the dough from scratch. And, as I always mention, if I can make it, so can you!

Ingredients (for crust)

1 package dry yeast

1 cup warm water

2 ½ cups flour

2 TBS oil

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

A pizza pan with tiny holes (not too big)

Grease for pan

Recommended Ingredients (for toppings)

Tomato Sauce

Garlic, Basil, and Parsley

Shredded Cheese

Any other toppings! (pepperoni, peppers, and onions shown)

What to do:

1 Sprinkle yeast on top of water and sugar in large mixing bowl.  Let sit a few minutes. 

2 Stir in flour, oil and salt.  Beat about 25 strokes. 

3 Cover bowel with towel and let rise in warm place about 15-30 minutes. (You can actually preheat the oven for ~2 minutes, then turn it off, and put covered bowls in the oven while it rises)

After the dough has risen.

4 Preheat oven to 425^oF.

5 With well greased fingers, spread dough on a greased pizza pan.  Prick dough evenly with fork.

6 Bake at 425^oF in lower portion of oven for about 7 minutes, until crust is slightly brown.

7 Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack.

I recommend trying Penzey's Spices if you haven't!

8 Top with tomato sauce, basil, garlic powder, parsley, shredded mozzarella cheese and other toppings.

9 Bake for about 7 more minutes, until cheese is melted. Serve immediately.

I've had multiple dinner parties where I make pizza crusts and guests bring over toppings - this works out really well because there are all kinds of different toppings for pizza, and guests tend to bring over things I would never think to buy: prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, and tomatoes being some of my favorites. Any other pizza toppings (or crust recipes) I should try? Would love to hear! I'm always looking for excuses to indulge in more pizza.

p.s. Another easy recipe I've (almost) memorized.

What Made Me Angry About The Bachelor Episode #1

And now for everyone's favorite sport: love.

The Bachelor Season 348* premiered last night {spoiler alert!} and I actually just accidentally watched it (wasn't planning on it), but now I'm hooked for a number of reasons.

1. What was twitter before The Bachelor?
2. What was The Bachelor before twitter?
3. What came first, twitter or The Bachelor?

The world will never know.

*actually season 19.

More than reignite my love of the 140-character insult, the 2-hour premier last night also did something else: it made me rather angry. It started as a slow, subtle anger, buried beneath usual, shallow thoughts that occur on a show that's literally designed for the national judgment of 30 (desperately-seeking-love) girls.

She wore cowboy boots!
She wore a pig snout!
Look at those tattoos!
Does that dress even cover her butt?

And other profound realizations occurred throughout the show, but it was only today when I was chatting with a friend on the phone re: our favorite Monday night sport post-NFL season that it hit me: last night was a pretty offensive episode when it comes to weight/size of women.

Ok, ok, I know, I know, I know, girls on The Bachelor are ALWAYS skinny. Farmer Chris requested skinny girls. That's his preference. I KNOW.

*image

But, still, let's do some exploring of the show. The show wasn't 100% full of skinny women.

There was a group of women from Chris's home town being interviewed as part of the Live audience. They weren't all skinny. Which was fine, but they seemed to be there as an obvious juxtaposition. As if to say "Oh, and as Chris hangs out with super models in a fantasy suite, let's show you what women look like where he comes from." The (obvious) comparison left a bad taste in my mouth. Did those seemingly nice women get the same stylists, hair, make-up, and budget as all the girls on the show did to prep for the evening? I think not.

Chris also made many comments about how few choices he had in Iowa. How his whole life he had "So much time and so few women; and now he had so many women and so little time." Him dissing his Iowa options of women just added insult to injury. (I did live in Iowa until I was 7 after all ;)

Then there was Bo, the only contestant that wasn't thin, whose job was "Plus-sized Model." Bo got about 15 seconds of face time with Chris where she's talking about (wait for it) eating and said of her modeling career, "I gotta keep my curves."

Bo went home rose-less, unfortunately, but I'd like to think she and Chris in real life talked about something other than food. And, I'd like to think you can be curvy, and have meat on your bones, without having to mention it. Like the elephant in the room is your weight, and you must mention that your career depends on it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming the girl. I'm thinking Bo had plenty of things to say that didn't involve her own curves, but when the show got edited, someone thought their conversation needed to be solely focused on addressing her weight.

And, furthermore, when you're selecting girls for this show, I'd like to think you had plenty to choose from who were a little overweight, and maybe had a job that didn't require them to be as such. And maybe had a job other than "model." It's like the producers were saying "Yes, she's big, but she's a model, so maybe she has a chance on this show."

AND I'd like to think that you didn't need to choose 29 super skinny girls and 1 big girl. Maybe you could have an in-between sized girl. A medium sized girl. A very tall girl. A very short girl. I'm not suggesting there's anything wrong with being skinny (I've always been pretty thin, personally, but extra tall), I'm just suggesting that maybe size could just be a little more diversified on this show so girls who don't fit the mold of "The Bachelor contestant" don't feel unnecessarily pressured into fitting that mold.

I think women of all sizes can "find love." However, right now, I don't think women of all sizes can find love on reality T.V. The good news is, since I believe really hardly anyone can find love on reality T.V., I guess they aren't missing much.

p.s. This post obviously doesn't even address the total and complete lack of racial diversity. But I guess my point is, this show isn't even showing diverse WHITE girls. It's absolutely homogenous, which, in my opinion, is a very bad thing.

A Book in Review: Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Hope you all had great weekends! I spent mine going to yoga on Friday, skiing on Saturday, and going to yoga on Sunday! On a scale of endlessly lying on the couch to running a marathon, this was closer to a marathon weekend for me as far as activity levels! (Though I use "marathon" as a metaphor, as I'm no where close to running anything over 3 miles long.) Despite all the exercise, I still had time to read. I'm almost done with Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail and I'm loving it just as I loved Strayed's Tiny Beautiful Things

My mom has already finished Wild, and actually whipped up a review, so I thought I'd share it here with you all as I wrap up reading. Enjoy!

**

Cheryl Strayed’s solo hiking of the Pacific Crest Trail in Wild takes place “back in the day” when you planned your trip from a guide book and sporadic contact with the outside world was through pay phones and the U.S. postal service.  Having decided to hike the trail so that she could reflect on her mother’s death, her divorce, and her family’s disintegration, she ends up being consumed with just hiking the trail and all of the ensuing physical suffering.  This is no walk in the park.  It’s not even a day hike.  With boots too small and a backpack she dubs “Monster,” every part of her body hurts.  She has to cross rockslides, downed trees, and treacherous patches of ice and snow, and encounters various wildlife including bears and rattlesnakes.  Hiking some stretches with over twenty pounds of water, she still runs out!  No iPod to listen to, she keeps herself entertained by mashing remembered songs together, but often just ends up moaning in pain while she plods along, longing for nothing but food and water and to be able to put her backpack down. 

Definitely plot-driven, her descriptions of the scenery are lacking, but since she has to focus on the uneven trail, she really can’t admire the gorgeous views anyway.  This deficiency in the book will undoubtedly be made up for in the movie.  While on the trail she realizes how extremely limited her choices are and how she simply just has to do what she really doesn’t want to do.  The only two options she has are to either go back in the direction she came from, or to go forward in the direction she intended to go.  There really aren’t any other choices, and without drugs, alcohol, or sex as distractions, at least not for the majority of the time, she finally forgives herself for her past mistakes, learns from them, and moves on.

*image via @reesewitherspoon on instagram

She admits she is lucky to have safely pulled this off (and I don’t mean her toenails), and recognizes her camping experiences and austere lifestyle growing up provided some good preparation.  As an inexperienced hiker, though, I’m amazed she was even able to actually stay on the trail.  Cheryl Strayed, who automatically says “yes” instead of “no” to almost all situations, is the antithesis of me.  She was gutsy to even think of attempting this hike, and I enjoyed reading her experiences, especially since it turned out well.  This book doesn’t prompt me to consider a long trek, but does make me want to see the movie.  I’ll stick with bike riding on well-marked, flat asphalt trails, with the occasional scurrying chipmunk.  I’m resolved to text my daughters daily, and to hopefully plan a trip to Crater Lake.  We can enjoy a nice day hike, and if we meet any trekkers, offer them a shower, wash their clothes, and swap books. 

**

In short, if you're thinking of binge reading before heading to the theaters: do it, do it, do it! The book is addicting and moving. I've adored Reese Witherspoon since her days as Elle Woods, and am looking forward to watching her portray an author I've recently come to admire. But first, got to go finish this mesmerizing memoir!

--

p.s. A post with a collection of inspiring Cheryl Strayed quotes.
p.p.s. Reese Witherspoon is my favorite celebrity instagrammer.
p.p.p.s. I love reading book reviews, and am happy to share guest reviews! Feel free to e-mail me your reviews and we can work together to share them! (Contact info at the bottom of my about page.)

Friday Field Trip: The Phipps Conservatory

I decided to share start sharing things I do out and about around town, since many of us are at the age where our social lives are not planned for us by teachers and dependent upon signed permission slips. But there's no reason I can't go on personal field trips even if I don't board a yellow bus to get there.

When I spent some time in Pittsburgh over the holidays, my mom, her friend, and my middle sister decided to check out Phipps Conservatory! Phipps Conservatory is right next to Carnegie Mellon's campus and Schenley Park, which isn't too far from where I grew up, but I had still never been there.

The building from the outside.

The funny thing about going to conservatories is you get to ask people if they know what a conservatory is - and many don't! This conversation happened between my sister and me when we were literally walking from our car to the conservatory:

Sister: What's a conservatory?
Me: A place to look at plants.
Sister: Oh, I thought it was a place to look at stars.
Me: No, that's an observatory!

But she wasn't the only one! Another friend thought it was a "place you go up high to look at views" and another thought it was something to do with music. Haven't you people ever played Clue? It was Mrs. White in the Conservatory with a Candlestick. Clue is the only reason I previously knew what a conservatory is, but as of now I've actually been in a beautiful one. Enjoy the pictures:

The flowers were just beautiful:

The even had a special holiday display going on including plant-made snowmen:

this snowman bride is kind of hilarious.

and the snowman ring bearer (obviously).

a very festive garden.

A pretty tree outside and me looking awkward!

They had special dedicate rooms to different types of plants:

The dessert room was one of my favorites. Doesn't the huge plant look like it's something out of science fiction? I felt like it was going grab my leg and violently drag me into a ditch. :)

They had an orchid room. I think orchids are often pretty and often really weird looking!

The fern room was one of my favorites - I love all the green!

If you're live in an almost-tundra like me and you're thinking to yourself "I don't know what I'm doing this weekend but it better not involve going outdoors" then I encourage you to look up your local conservatory, wander around the exotic plants, and dream of summer. Have a great weekend!