The dough boy!

He's so proud of his pizza!

Chicago Style Pizza Crust

Tonight was Elijah's night to cook and because he was excited about the meal, he actually helped make it! My goal with assigning each child a dinner night is for me to give them basic cooking skills so they don't starve when they leave home! My older kids are doing pretty well. They have a handful of favorites they make regularly without help and they are willing to pull out the recipe book and try things that I've never made! Today Elijah chose pizza. Since I told him we're not going to spend the money on buying pizza, he was all for making it!

A couple years ago I found this pizza crust recipe online and we've been loving it ever since! While helping Elijah measure the ingredients, he asked me if he could take this recipe with him when he grows up and leaves home. What a great compliment! Of course I told him yes and then thought about how cool it would be to give each of my kids a family cookbook of our favorite recipes as they leave home. We'll see if that actually happens. Then again, maybe if I get all the favorites on the blog I can simply print the pages for them.

Chicago Style Pizza Crust:

1 cup warm water

2 1/3 tsp yeast (1 packet)

2 tsp sugar

Whisk together and let the yeast sit for about 10 minutes, then mix together all of the following ingredients until soft:

3 cups flour

2 TBSP olive oil

2 large eggs

1 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp salt

Once dough is soft, knead for 5 minutes, then place it in a well oiled bowl and let it rise 2-3 hours. Punch it down and roll out onto pizza sheets and let it rise again for about 10 minutes. Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes. Makes 2 large crusts.

(I never let it rise for 2-3 hours, only long enough to prepare the other ingredients for the pizza. I also typically add some oregano or italian seasonings to the crust.)

Defining Moments

It's been somewhat of a shocking day for me today. Once in awhile life provides moments that define who you are, but today, it happened over and over again.

My boys are off track, which is always a challenge for me. I agreed to take a dear friend to an appointment this morning since she can't drive herself. She has become my best friend and I enjoy every moment I can with her. On our way home, we stopped at the Water Mart in Riverton for some Gelato. It is my fault that my friend Jenn is hooked on gelato! Now we must stop to get some each time we go somewhere together. My boys were SO excited about this. The store had just opened, and the gelato was not defrosted enough to scoop yet, so we waited a few minutes. In the meantime, Jenn and I visited while the boys put the chairs down around the little tables in the cafe portion of the store. I was so glad there was something to keep them busy and even more grateful that they offered to help in that way.

After taking Jenn home, we continued to run other errands. Matt fixed my light and light cover on the van this morning, which was the last of the laundry list for the van to finally pass inspection. After verifying this at the Tunex (they have taken great care of us) we headed down to Draper at the point of the mountain to register the van. Thus far it has been a very blustery day, but at the point of the mountain, the winds seemed so much worse. I opened my van door and the wind took the door right out of my hands and SLAMMED it against the Cadillac Escalade next to me. Holy CraP! Just what we need, another vehicle repair bill. We climbed back in the van while I took out a business card, circled my phone number and email and wrote a note on the back apologizing. I felt SO bad. My vehicle is nearly ten years old and has plenty of dings. What's one more? Except that the rail across her doors actually helped protect her vehicle from being dented worse and actually left a huge dent in my door.

On our way into the building, I felt like the wind was so bad it might blow away one of the boys. Craziness! The nice thing about this particular DMV is that there is never a line. You walk in, get your number, wait maybe a minute and your number is called. I paid my registration, made polite small talk with the lady behind the desk and we left. The Escalade was still there, but I felt the need to rush to see if the driver was there, too. She was. I knocked on her window and told her what happened. She hadn't seen my note tucked under her wiper yet so I handed it to her and apologized profusely. She felt bad that it had happened to me and said she'd look at it later and give me a call. I told her it was bad and to not loose my number. I don't know if she had someplace to be or what, but she didn't even look at the dent. UGH.

On our way out of the parking lot I explained to the boys the importance of being honest in all your dealings, even if it means you have to spend money on something you didn't mean to do. We also talked about how that lady might have felt if she came across that dent without knowing it had happened and then had to pay for it herself. Teach by example, right?

After picking Sara up from school, Elijah and I started on the pizza, which was Elijah's choice since it's his dinner night. Dinner was planned to be part of our FHE, so we were excited. Then Matt brings me my phone. It's the receptionist at the dentist office. I thought that a little odd. Then she told me she quit her job last week because my dentist, Dr. Daniel R. Dowdle (4019 W. 12600 S. Suite 100), is not being honest in his dealings with his patients, including me. She told me that he should have sent back the crown and had it remade last August, but instead he shoved it on my tooth and then did a filling around the extra space the crown didn't take up around my gums. WOW. I wasn't sure how to take this news, or really what to do about it, but I visited with this lady for awhile about it. She said it's been eating at her for months and she has watched Dr. Dowdle do procedures that are not necessary and bill insurance companies and patients for things that he didn't even do. Of course when the insurance company sees he's billing for things that are not necessary then the patient has to pay for it.

I'm on overload. This receptionist and I have become good friends over the years since we've moved here and I asked her to please keep in touch and let me know where she decides to work as well as keep me posted as to how she's doing and what I might do as an abused patient. She agreed. I told her how grateful I am for her honesty in telling me what happened and how proud I am of her for confronting him about his dishonesty. I told her about my incident this morning and how I used it as a lesson to teach my boys about being honest in all our dealings and how I feel that she is bringing this full circle. What goes around comes around. Her honesty will save me a lot of grief in the future and I appreciate it so very much. That's a true friend.

By this time, Elijah is frustrated with me that I'm on the phone and not helping him with the pizza crust. I didn't feel like I could cut the conversation short. So finally we're working on the pizza crust and I get another phone call. My loft bed is still advertised on ksl.com and a lady wants to know if I'll give it to her for free because they need it badly but can't afford it. I told her I'd discuss it with my husband and call her back. Just two days ago, a guy in one of the RC clubs GAVE Matt a FREE RC airplane. I told Matt I feel like this could be our way of paying it forward. Once again, what goes around, comes around. I called the lady back and told her we'd be glad to give it to her, as long as they can come get it. Hopefully they'll haul it away tomorrow.

Right now I'm simply beside myself with amazement at the events of this day. Even though we had a double dose of bad news, I'm filled with the Spirit of Christ testifying to me that the relationships I have in my life are good. I try to be honest in all my dealings and the Lord makes sure I'm being watched over, even by my fellow mankind.

We sat down in front of the TV as a family to watch Glee together while eating homemade pizza and breadsticks. I know it's not a Spiritual lesson, but it's family time, together. I believe the lessons came to us earlier in the day. What a beautiful family I have, and how fortunate we are.