Pizza Night and Kitchen Company

Grown-up pizza: onions, peppers, mushroom, pepperoni

I made some nice sourdough pizza tonight, just me and the kids again. Husband works the swing shift (2pm-10pm) a lot, which is hard on the family. I tried to sneak some kale into the sauce tonight and it was a dismal failure. Jack sniffed it out in a trice and whined and cried over supper. Sigh. Eventually I persuaded him that it would serve him well to eat his supper and stop whining. Meanwhile Andy of course scarfed up whatever I put in front of him with giggles and happy noises. Naturally 1/2-3/4s ended up in the highchair or decorating the floor, but he enjoys the experience.

Kids pizza: extra cheese and pepperoni with cheese stuffed crust

 I thoughtlessly added cheese to both pizzas, which was so careless of me and very indicative of the kind of day I had. I have been avoiding dairy for many months, ever since I linked it with digestive upset for Andy when he was newborn, and eczema in myself. So tonight I did go ahead and have the pizza, though I know it will make my eczema flair, but at least Andy doesn't seem to be bothered by it any more.

My second batch of broth from Thursday's bones. They were mostly mush so no 3rd batch.

I was talking to my sister this evening, and she was making 800 appetizers for a friend's wedding, while I was playing with my new toy chopping carrots and making brine. A friend arranged a special price for a bulk order of the Pickle-Pro fermenting lids, and I received them yesterday. Tonight I made my favorite lacto-fermented veggie, carrots. Tomorrow I'm hoping to give these fermented french fries from Cooking Traditional Foods blog.

Lacto-fermented carrot slices with airlock

 Anyhow, my sister kept making these funny noises while she was working. It was somewhat alarming at first. Apparently she has developed the funny habit of making sound effects when she works in the house. I find this amusing, because I have the somewhat disconcerting habit of talking to myself. I do it in the kitchen most often, although I have been the recipient of more than a few bemused glances in the grocery store so I'm pretty sure I'm muttering to the zucchini before they ever cross my threshold. 

From left to right: sourdough sponge  for bread (bowl), Harvey

, p

ineapple vinegar, Beverly (water kefir), and carrots

It was this habit of talking to myself that inspired the name Harvey for my sourdough. The original Harvey was an invisible 6 foot tall rabbit and best friend of Elwood P. Dowd (played by Jimmy Stewart). If you're a fan of screwball comedy (in the same vein as Bringin' Up Baby and Arsenic and Old Lace), this is a great movie for you. If you are on the Science fiction side of the nerd scale, Harvey is also an "imaginary" (complicated) character in the stellar series Farscape. It is my favorite series of all time. Hence, Harvey, my invisible audience.

The usual mess. I really do mean to clean this up tomorrow.