Homemade Heaven

So the other night Dave and I attempted to make a pizza completely from scratch for the first time...now we've made pizza before but never with homemade dough and sauce. Delicious doesn't even begin to describe how good it turned out! We will definitely be doing this again soon. I had some people ask for the recipe so here it is...

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 package active dry yeast or instant yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup hot tap water (120 - 125°F)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (canola or olive oil work well too)
1 tablespoon honey

Description: Some people prefer to "pre-bake" the crust for about 3 minutes before adding the toppings. (We accidentally pre-baked ours a bit by having it on top of the hot oven while we finished other things- turned out great this way) Crust will be "crispier" than if not pre-baked.

Directions: Preheat oven to 425°F

In large mixing bowl, combine whole wheat flour, yeast and salt. Blend in water, oil and honey. Stir by hand vigorously until all ingredients are well mixed; about 3 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise to desired size.

Place dough in greased pan. Press dough to cover bottom of pan and up sides to form a rim (to have more of a crust, we opted to do more of a thin crust, dominoes style pizza, so we just rolled ours out really flat)

Add pizza sauce of your choice and your favorite pizza toppings; bake in oven 15 to 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown and toppings are done.
Servings: Provides 8 servings

Nutrition: One slice of crust only provides approximately: 146 calories, 5 g protein, 27 g carbohydrates, 4 g fiber, 2 g fat (0 g saturated), 0 mg cholesterol, 37 mcg folate, 2 mg iron and 219 mg sodium.

Source: Wheat Foods Council

For the sauce we used a 29oz can of tomato paste...makes a TON of sauce, but we loved it because now we have tomato soup :) Or you could always freeze it to save for next time you decide to make pizza! Here are the herbs/spices we used, but make it your own...we like things spicy so ours might be too hot for you if you don't care for spicy things...just play with it and make sure to taste as you go!

Ingredients:
29oz tomato paste
Half can water
Honey (2tbsp)
Pepper
Red pepper
cayenne pepper
Bay leaves
Italian seasoning
Garlic salt
Minced garlic
Parsley
Majoram

Like it says you can add whatever toppings, but in case your wondering...we added green peppers, onions, a mix of Italian and Mexican cheese, and cucumbers on top...I know what you're thinking, CUCUMBERS ON A PIZZA?! But hey, don't knock it 'till you try it, it was delish!

We also made margaritas in our new Ninja we got for Christmas (thanks Dad!) We just followed Bethenny's SkinnyGirl Margarita recipe in the book Naturally Thin (you can also find it on her website www.bethenny.com) Dave made these and they are so much better than pre-made margarita mix, those are way too sugary for me! He just cut out the inside of the limes and put them in the Ninja, along with the tequila, triple sec, ice, and some water (without the water ours was too limey)

Hope you all enjoy it! ~Mal

Birthdays, Valentines, and parties...oh my!

So February is a very busy month for Dave and I- we have both of our birthdays (3 days apart), my Dad's birthday, my step-sis' birthday, Dave's great-aunt and both of his grandma's birthdays, my aunt Cheryl's birthday...and of course Valentine's Day! Whew! What a month...between the celebrations, preparing for Dave's album to come out, and planning our next steps in the crazy thing called the music business...I think it's safe to say it's been a whirlwind, but so much fun!

This year for my birthday Dave planned a dinner in Kansas City the Friday before we drove up and met two of my best friends (Jen and Lindsey) at Cheesecake Factory on the plaza (plus Lin's bf Jeff)...it was a fun night and some great food! I highly recommend the avocado egg rolls, SO GOOD! And the cheesecake of course was fabulous...

On my actual birthday Dave woke me up with chocolate chip pancakes in bed- they were fabulous! I did my yoga DVD (Body by Bethenny, I'm obsessed) and then we went to lunch with my Dad, Grandma, and cousin Jenny at Granite City...later we stopped by my Mom's house to get my present from them (a chocolate facial- yes please!)...we then headed home and had a marathon of old Grey's Anatomy episodes on Netflix. I had the perfect relaxing day :)

3 days later it was Dave's birthday! His birthday was on a Wed. this year and Mon-Wed that week WSU had snow days (lucky!) I brought him chocolate chip banana muffins in bed. For lunch he wanted to go to Adrian's (a Mediterranean restaurant here in Wichita), but sadly they were closed...so we tried the new Cafe Maurice and it was fab.

When we got home Dave played Call of Duty (he was super excited because he never gets to play) and I freaked out while waiting for the mail...to back track a little bit, for those of you that don't know, I did a "card shower" for Dave this year. I asked friends/family to send cards/letters with their fav memories/pics/etc. I had been obsessively checking the mail every day for weeks leading up to his birthday and hiding away cards. Since our mailman doesn't come until later in the afternoon and I knew some more cards would be coming that day I was trying to wait until then to give him the stack, but like I said I spent part of the afternoon freaking out and obsessively checking all social medias to make sure no one spoiled the surprise...so it was a relief when the mailman came and Dave still had NO idea what I was up to.

Thanks again to everyone who sent a card and pics, he loved it and was so surprised! For dinner we made ahi tuna and veggies...I let Dave pick any movie he wanted to watch (there are a few he's been begging me to watch for awhile now and I'm never quite ready) and he chose Superman (Christopher Reeves style.) Besides being uber cheesy in some parts (hey it was the 70's), it was really good, and I agree that Christopher Reeves made the best Superman...

 

For Valentine's Day we had lunch at Zen Vegetarian, one of our favs here in town, to avoid the dinner rush. Dave and I ended up getting the same card for each other, haha! Guess great minds DO think alike ;) ...we even underlined most of the same words.

For dinner we wanted to make something together, our new twitter friend @Maria_Manning had posted a picture of a nacho casserole she made the night before and it looked so yummy I had to get the recipe...we ended up making that for our Valentine's Day meal and I made mock-a-mole from Bethenny Frankel's book "Naturally Thin" (LOVE her!) They both ended up tasting great and were easy to make. Then I surprised Dave and made a brownie in a heart pan my Mom had let me borrow, MMM! I used Ghiradelli dark chocolate brownie mix and I definitely recommend it...to die for...

The card my Mom made us :)

On the 23rd Dave got to sing the National Anthem at the new Intrust Bank Arena for the Thunder hockey game. They had a middle school color guard go out with him and post the flag (they were so cute), and we got to go up and check out the sound booth (good thing I'm not afraid of heights)...we had fun and are excited he gets the opportunity to do it again the 25th of March!

February was a lot of fun, but it's been nice to have more time to relax these past few weeks, and beat Dave at chinese checkers ;) Especially since we know that in a week or two things are going to get crazy again...

Life in the studio...

So as most of you know, Dave and I were in the studio for 2 weeks in January recording his new album!  Thanks to everyone who pledged to Kickstarter, he was able to raise enough funds to make this happen...we are so appreciative of everyone's help.  The recording process was long (we were in the studio 10-10 Monday-Friday each week), but so much fun!  Dave and I are both ecstatic about this album and can't wait to share it with everyone, I know you're going to love it :D  We recorded the album here in Wichita at Brick House Studio, Craig Beebe is the owner and sound engineer and he did a fantastic job!  We brought in Ed Macey to do the drums and he brought his own vibe to the songs and really brought them all to life.  Here's a sneak peek at a few pics from our 10 days at Brick House...

So as we (anxiously) await the album's release many of you might be wondering what you can do to help get the word out about Dave's music and the new album, if that happens to be you here are a few ideas on ways you can help out!

-"Like" Dave's reverbnation page and tell your friends to do the same, also you can join as a fan and become a fan of Dave's page and post a comment on why you love his music (please?!) AND the more song plays and video views he has the better so when you're just browsing the internet you could put his music on in the backround www.reverbnation.com/daveowens

-"Like" Dave's facebook musician page and send the link out on facebook, twitter, etc. www.facebook.com/daveowenspage

-Many of you already follow Dave on twitter, but if you don't make sure you do! And of course, tell your friends :) He is @daveowensmusic

-Watch videos on youtube and "like" them, post them to your facebook (or wherever) so friends that may not have heard of him before can check it out www.youtube.com/daveowens

-And last but not least, I know as a social networking site myspace is pretty much dead, but as far as music goes it is still a big tool in helping musicians getting their stuff out there so make sure if you have a myspace to friend Dave www.myspace.com/daveowens

I just want to say for the millionth (but definitely not the last) time THANK YOU all so much for all of the love and support you give to both Dave and I as we try to share his music with the world...you all are WONDERFUL and I don't know what we'd do with out you! Love ya ~Mal

New Year, New Me?

Since tonight is New Years Eve I thought I'd talk about resolutions and why I don't care for them...now don't get me wrong I make goals for myself all the time and I think it's important to do so, but resolutions are a whole different thing. For one thing, the resolutions people make for themselves tend to be way too big, they end up feeling daunting and overwhelming and then people find excuses of why not to do it. Like when people say they are going to workout 6 times a week this year...if you don't workout at all right now it usually works better (at least for me) to start with a goal to workout say twice a week and then when I have managed that goal for a few weeks move it up, until eventually you are working out 6 times a week! That's the difference, goals can be assessed and reevaluated, unlike resolutions. If you say you're going to read 10 books this year and then you hit your mark 6 months in do you stop reading? I hope not! But for me a resolution seems like an end point so I'd rather make a goal to read 10 books by the end of the year, then if I make my mark I can reevaluate my goal and make it 20...

...I guess my point is that people put way too much emphasis on the resolutions and expect themselves to change into this person they're not and then they get upset when they don't. Change happens over time! If you slowly make goals for yourself throughout the year you will see little changes along the way within yourself that will inspire you to keep moving forward until you see the big changes :)

So what are my current goals? Well for one, and probably whoever is reading this will appreciate this one, I am making a goal for myself to blog at least once every week...if I do it more than once, great! If I only do it once a week, great (at least for now). Another goal of mine is to keep up with my yoga/workout practice. I started a steady routine mid November and I have been working out an average of 3 times a week, but I have already been seeing a difference in my body, my stress levels, my strength, and flexibility. I plan on continuing and eventually making a goal to do more than what I have been. I am also working on cooking and reading more...no specific goals for those though, just a conscious effort to do them more often. And since I made hummus and read a few chapters of my new book yesterday I'd say I'm doing well! :P

How do you all feel about resolutions? And if you make them what are yours for 2011? If not, what are some goals you are working on?

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."
~C. S. Lewis