An update and a recipe

If you're wondering why there has been little activity on here regarding our house (I know I know, there's been little activity at all) the reason is because we hit a bit of a snag on the house momentum. There are lots of boring details, but summation would be that the basement and foundation was trickier than it should have been. We have finally gotten things underway. The basement walls have been poured and the slab is being poured this week. (for those of you who have no idea what slab means, think basement floor) This weekend we

tore off the back porch and sunroom so the framing can begin in the next week. If all goes according to plan (yea right) in about four weeks we wi

ll have a new roof, new doors and windows, basement finished, and framing finished or at least close to finished. Here's to hoping.

Inside of the basement walls

Addition where the stairs will go down into the basement

Used to be the back of the house, will now be a sunroom and Pearce's room. (See last blog for a picture of what the back of the house used to look like)

And now for the recipe. Every now and then I throw a little recipe action up on this mug. I posted a picture on facebook and instagram of a pizza we made last night and there have been a few requests for the recipe. So in the interest of consolidating communication I'm putting it on the blog.

BBQ Chicken Pizza with caramalized onions and arugala

We made our pizza dough from scratch bc I'm a little nuts about whole wheat and I didn't feel like driving to Trader Joes for their dough. So you can either make your own too, or just buy an already made crust or dough.

Here's our whole wheat dough recipe if you care

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup white flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbs yeast

3/4 cup very hot water

combine all dry ingredients add water until it forms a doughy ball. Knead for one minute and then let rest for a few minutes. Roll out on a floured surface to whatever thickness you prefer. If you like a crispier crust throw it in 450 degree oven for 3-5 mins before you put toppings on it. After you put your toppings on bake it for 10-15 mins

You can really top this however you want, but all we did was throw on some caramelize onions (if you've never done this I'll explain in a minute) cooked chicken, spread bbq sauce in place of marinara, and top with cheese. Mozzarella on Shawn's half and goat cheese on my half (thank you Loah for at least tolerating goat cheese.) Then after it's out of the oven cover with some arugala for a peppery bite. Seriously. Delicious. Shawn was skeptical bc there were leafy greens on his pizza and boys are weird about leafy greens in general, but especially if it's on pizza. But he ate the whole thing so I think that speaks for itself.

The caramelized onion situation:

This part makes the pizza making process much longer than some of you might want. But I have to say it MAKES the pizza. If you have to skip this step go for some thinly sliced raw red onion. But I really can't emphasize enough that you should do the caramelized. I really don't love onions in general, but I could eat a pile of caramelized onions with a spoon. Is this convincing you yet? (p.s. how many times can I say caramelized onions in this blog?)

Here's how you do it. Thinly slice an onion, heat a tablespoon ish of olive oil in a pan on medium low add the onions. You will probably need to adjust the heat so the onions don't brown and then burn. This is the slow and low concept. You cook them on a very low temperature... slowly. Stir them every ten or fifteen mins and keep cooking them until they become a beautiful, caramelized brown. They are soft and mushy and amaaaazing. It takes about 45 minutes give or take. You won't be sorry folks.

I hope you all make this. I really do.