Meat Lovers

For those of you who voted for the Meat Lovers Pizza (and were disappointed that Taco Pizza won), we decided to appease you and make the pizza after all. It was really good, even though it was only 2nd place! The meats that we decided to "love" for this pizza were pepperoni, sausage, bacon, and ham. Delicious! I have no idea what kind of pizza we'll make next week, maybe we'll go with the 3rd place winner: pepperoni.

Pepperoni

Sausage
Bacon

Ham

the finished product: we LOVE meat!

Steak

We are leaving Rome on July 17 (yay!). We've already started planning and preparing. One of our preparations is to eat all the food in our apartment. It takes longer than you think to eat all the cans of soup and beans and to eat all the frozen food. So, in an attempt to eat everything we picked some meat out of the freezer last night. Tonight's dinner was steak (marinated in Italian Roasted Red Pepper dressing with Parmesan), mashed potatoes, and green beans (also with the Red Pepper dressing). It was so tasty and it was also very delicious looking so I had to take pictures. It was a very good dinner!

Movie Marathon

Yesterday we decided to be ultra lazy and watch movies ALL day. So, we planned a movie marathon. What we did was pick an actor and then picked movies from various times in his career and from different genre. This time, we picked Johnny Depp. There are a lot of movies to choose from and some good ones that we didn't pick, but we managed to watch 5 Johnny Depp movies yesterday (that's a lot of Johnny). We watched our movies in chronological order. The movies were: Ed Wood, Nick of Time, Pirates of the Caribbean (1), Finding Neverland, and The Corpse Bride. I think we both enjoyed Finding Neverland the best. It was a lot of fun to relax and watch movies...a very good thing to do on a 3-day weekend. We are planning to do another movie marathon next month. We're thinking about picking an actress to feature this time. Any suggestions??

And The Winner Is...

After a week of exciting polls, the votes are in. And the winner is...Taco Pizza. That's right, you voted and we listened (Taco Pizza = 6; Meat Lovers Pizza = 5; Pepperoni Pizza = 2). So, last night we had Saturday Night Pizza with Taco Pizza. I even experimented and used a new crust recipe. In the end, we had a wonderful pizza. It was really much tastier than I expected it to be. We might even make it again sometime, it was that good. But, next week, we plan to make the #2 choice. It was a close vote and Meat Lovers Pizza lost by just one. So, we'll be loving meat next for Saturday Night Pizza.

throwing the crust in the air, just like a real Italian

a layer of refried beans mixed with salsa
a layer of tomato paste with taco seasoning

a layer of taco seasoned hamburger

a layer of cheese

all the pretty layers

fresh from the oven

adding a layer of lettuce

and a layer of tomatoes

and another layer of cheese

looks just like a taco, doesn't it? (so yummy)

and Rachael made brownies

so delicious, I want more!

New & Improved

In case you didn't already notice, my blog is different!! Yup, Bill helped me update my header and background. I feel it more accurately portrays my thoughts and feelings about this blog. And, its just plain fun. And cool! Yes, its very cool. I have the bestest husband in the whole world. He worked hard at making it just right...and getting it to look exactly the way I wanted. So, now I have the very coolest blog - well, at least the coolest looking blog. The text is still up to me and its only sometimes cool. But, I can handle that: cool looking and sometimes cool sounding. So, thank you Bill for making my blog fancy and fun (and cool)!

When Bill gets his camera back, I have some more ideas for blog posts. I'm trying to come up with a few themes that I can write a series about, like I did with the 30 Day of Food. If you have any suggestions, they're always welcome. Have a happy 3-day weekend, if you get one. And if not, then have a happy 2-day weekend!

Meatballs

Tonight I made meatballs. Not just regular meatballs, but Swedish meatballs. They were yummy. I was doubtful in the beginning, I wasn't sure they would turn out right, but they did. And, in the end, they were very delicious. Tasty!

Don't forget...just a few more days left to vote for your favorite pizza choice. Meat Lovers, Taco, or Pepperoni Pizza. They are all yummy choices but only one can win.

Our Next Pizza Flavor

I've added something to my blog. It probably won't be a permanent addition, but from time to time, I'm going to ask for YOUR input. That's right, I want to hear from you....if you're out there. (I may hear only silence, but I'm hoping someone is actually at the other end of all this blogging.)

My friend Rachael introduced me to a very cool blog about cupcakes. The author asks her loyal readers to vote on a flavor of cupcake to bake each week. Well, I could never make that many cupcakes, but I do make a lot of pizza. And, I like to be creative with my pizza toppings, so this week I'm asking for help. Bill and I have randomly selected three pizza flavors that we haven't had for Saturday Night Pizza yet. We'll be making the pizza that receives the most votes.

So, if you're out there, VOTE. But, please vote only once...otherwise our results will be skewed and no one wants that! You should see the poll with three pizza choices at the top of the left sidebar. Let your voice be heard...vote, Vote, VOTE!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

For Christmas, Alexis (my niece) received an Easy Bake Oven. Who doesn't love the Easy Bake Oven. I never had one when I was little, but I sure wanted one. I decided that if she was going to have the oven, she needed a cookbook, so I made a small Easy Bake Oven Cookbook for her. She was very excited to start baking and over the weekend she made her first cookies. Since she doesn't have her own food blog, I thought I'd help share her success with Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. They look scrumptious, Alexis...keep baking!

the recipe

the finished product
yummy cookies

don't they look tasty?

Easy Bake Oven oatmeal raisin cookies

successful baking experience

More Pizza

Last Saturday, we had pizza again (imagine that). But, more exciting than the pizza was the company! We had tons of fun. Rachael, Sarah, Alex, and Mike all came for SNP. While we ate, we watched the finale of The Amazing Race (which I love and I made everyone love it with me). After the show, we played games. I really like playing games and we had a lot of fun. First we played Pictionary, which Sarah and I totally dominated. Next, we played Outburst, which is a lot of fun. And then, we played Apples to Apples. We also enjoyed cupcakes that Rachael made...super yummy. It was so much fun...I want to do it again. We stayed up really late but I didn't mind at all because we were having so much fun. I didn't take any pictures, but Rachael did (thanks Ray-Ray). Here is proof that we had a great Saturday night!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you! I trust everyone had a fun and safe New Year's Eve. We spent ours watching the nearby fireworks from our patio. We also did sparklers while we drank our sparkling cider. It doesn't get any better than that!

Today we slept in and now we're planning to watch Bowl games and eat chili. The crock pot is full of our traditional New Year's Day chili and the TV is on. I hope everyone has a wonderful day and is looking forward to a splendid 2009!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!!