Maker Monday: "Mommy Pizza"

At some point about a year ago, I got it into my head to conquer pizza. I'd tried making dough a dozen years ago and ended up with a long-standing fear of yeast. I'd made a big mess in my kitchen and then discovered that you could buy ready-made dough from the store. 

For whatever reason I finally decided to face my fears and researched a lot. The interwebs told me I could make a dough without a lot of kneading (and Cook's Illustrated helped) and could roll it out without everything getting coated in dough bits - not quite as much fun as tossing it in the air, but just as tasty (and feasible for me). Cook's also started me in my sauce path, though the addition of basil into the sauce via the crushed tomatoes was my own genius (I wanted the flavor but knew the kids would object to big green leaves on the pizza plus finding nice basil all year round just isn't in the cards. The internet also gave me the idea to incorporate the broiler. 

The pesto pizza came late to the game but is now a necessary component for me and Nick. Just be careful! I set a blind-baked crust on fire one night when the oven rack was one rung higher than usual. Oh, was that dramatic! I ended up covering it with a baking sheet and letting it smother. The good thing is that the oven is the safest place for a small fire :)

Anyway, the best thing is how forgiving the dough is. No specialized equipment needed! No Kitchenaid, Cuisinart, or laborious kneading. I think you could even get away without pizza tiles and peel, just using a couple of baking sheets (one in the oven to heat up and a second to get the pies into and out of the oven). Mix up that dough and leave it alone. It only requires a tiny bit of planning to have your own scrumptious pizza!

Pizza dough

3 cups bread flour plus more for counter

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 packet dry yeast

1 3/4 cups hot water plus up to another tablespoon depending upon humidity

2 tablespoons olive oil plus more for bowl 

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Cornmeal for sprinkling

Whisk flours and yeast together in large bowl. Whisk water, salt, oil, and honey together in two-cup liquid measure (or small bowl). Pour liquid into flour mixture and mix together with rubber spatula. If mixture is dry, add 1-3 teaspoons of water. Dough should come together into a shaggy ball at this point. Drizzle oil into bowl and roll ball to coat it and sides of bowl. Cover bowl and set aside to rise for at least an hour. If you won't be proceeding for more than four hours, refrigerate for up to eight hours. 

Preheat oven with pizza stone or tiles set on middle rack to 500 degrees 1 hour beforehand. 

Uncover, punch down dough, and reform into a ball. Sprinkle clean counter with flour and divide ball into four. Sprinkle balls with flour and cover with plastic wrap for approximately 30 minutes. 

Sprinkle a handful of cornmeal onto a sheet of parchment paper and place one piece of dough in center. Cover with plastic wrap and press dough to flatten. Repeat with remaining three pieces of dough. Roll out dough allowing it to rest for a few minutes at a time until you have an oval approximately 10 x 14". 

All the ingredients

Just-mixed dough

Risen dough

Divided and resting dough

Tomato sauce

28 ounce can crushed tomatoes (with basil for preference)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 cloves minced garlic

Heat olive oil in saucepan. Add garlic and tomato paste and heat for 1 minute. Add crushed tomatoes and simmer for 30 minutes. Set aside until ready to use. 

Simmered tomato sauce

Pizza assembly

Dough

Olive oil

Sauce

Mozzarella (sliced from a 1 pound fresh cheese for preference, though you could use shredded)

Pesto (optional)

Remove plastic wrap carefully from dough. Spread 1 teaspoon olive oil over prepared dough "round". Spread 3-4 tablespoons tomato sauce over dough (a thin layer is best or crust will be soggy). Place 1/4 of the cheese evenly over sauce. 

Slide pizza onto preheated stone and bake for 6 minutes. Switch to broiler for 2 minutes. Remove from oven, switching back to 500 degrees and allowing oven to return to temperature. Slice pizza and serve. 

Repeat with remaining dough. 

I usually blind bake one pizza round with just olive oil and then spread pesto over it after it comes out of the oven. 

Remaining sauce and cheese may be frozen for future use. Dough balls may also be frozen, but I always make four pizzas. 

Prepared pizza ready for the oven

Baked pizza

Pesto pizza (there is a danger of burning the blank crust, so be careful!)

In our house it's called "Mommy Pizza" to distinguish it from delivery. The crust is thin and crisp and the sauce quite tasty. 

Let me know if you give it a go, and thanks for stopping by!

xoxo, Kathleen 

Sweaters of the last week (Instagram posts)

The weather is a bit warm now that we are back home, so the sweater posting has slowed down (if you follow me in Instagram, you've already seen these). I'm ok with wearing a button down today but do look forward to more sweater wearing soon. 

Friday in Wavelette 

Saturday in Herring Lassie (an as-yet-unpublished design based on gansey stitch patterns and EZ's nalgar construction)

Sunday in Wavelette again (can't bring 'em all in the suitcase)

Monday in a striped mariniere with this great boiled wool coat I found many moons ago at Marshall's. It's knee length and closes with hooks and eyes and has these embroidered flowers on the cuffs and along the front edges. Isobel wasn't with me at the time or I would have been able to give you a full length shot

I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving and stayed away from the mall and big box stores. I spent some time browsing etsy and making plans for some last minute knits and worked on that simple stole. It's very good comfort knitting. 

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!

xoxo, Kathleen 

Today's Sweater: Sotherton

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from me and mine :)

I am grateful for my family and friends. For wool and inspiration. For Boreas not being as bad as predicted for me and my traveling brood. For you sharing in my adventures. 

Gobble gobble, and thanks for stopping by!

xoxo, Kathleen 

Today's Sweater: Mermaid's Cardigan

Some of you may think in just coming to selfies late, but really I want to share how much knits are a part of my life. I now have a decent-sized sweater wardrobe (and constantly have plans for more) and put it to use in my private life. 

Today's sweater is my Mermaid's Cardigan, which started out as a vague notion of putting lace sleeves together with a stockinette body. The raglan yoke style seemed the perfect way to meld the two, and the subtle I-cord edging tidied things up nicely (and gave a great starting point to the slight puffs on the sleeve cuffs). 

Tomorrow is a travel day, so we shall see if I am feeling handknit or like I should wear something that can just be thrown in the wash when we arrive (something about air travel these days makes me want a two-liter bottle of water and a long shower when I reach my destination - I think it's taking off my shoes to go through security and, of course, the Petri dish of an airplane). I've got a simple stole to knit en route (very little thinking required) and a cardigan sample to work on while there. Looking forward to some Wooly Wonka yarn knitting time. 

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!

xoxo, Kathleen 

Today's Sweater: Bloc

It's still cold here in New York, so today I chose my original Bloc pullover, which I designed and knit last year during Hurricane Sandy. There is a lot of sympathy knitted into this sweater, as I worked around and around on those stitches while watching television coverage of the hurricane and it's aftermath (and being so grateful to live on high ground). This one is in Harrisville Shetland (colorway: Midnight, which has a subtle variation of blues that you only truly appreciate close up) and Madeline Tosh tosh sock (colorway: Tomato, a vibrant maple tree orange with flickers of gold). The two yarns, both their colors and textures, play off of each other perfectly. And I had such fun figuring out the short-row garter stitch stuff for the cuffs. What I particularly love about the Shetland is that it's woolen-spun and so provides warmth without being bulky. 

I don't have a Maker Monday today because I didn't make pizza this weekend and was in too much of a hurry when making my granola to take pictures (I also had to make a cake, cupcakes, cookies, and a batch of caramels for a birthday girl who got her braces off). So, now you have homemade pizza and granola to look forward to next month. Aren't you lucky!

In addition to my usual stuff, I'm winding up yarn for two new designs. The yarn is from the wonderful Wooly Wonka, and I'm really looking forward to knitting it up. Sorry that you'll have to wait a bit for the designs, but I think they'll be worth it ;)

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!

xoxo, Kathleen 

Today's Sweater: An Aran for Frederick

Is there anything better on a cold November day than wrapping up in a cozy Aran sweater? XOXO, twin waves, and a Celtic flourish tell the story of love on the Cobb in Lyme. 

And Brooklyn Tweed Shelter is surprisingly soft next to the skin (short sleeve t underneath, since I do live in an overheated NYC apartment). 

What are you wearing this Sunday?

(I plan to post more of these, since I really do live in my handknits.)

Happy knitting, and thanks for stopping by!

xoxo, Kathleen 

Maker Monday: laundry supplies

In addition to being a knitter and designer, I like to make other stuff, too. I bet I'm not the only one! So, I thought I would share some of the other things I make with you. I'd love to hear about what you make, too :)

Some time back in my crazy homemaker phase (it's probably not a phase, if I'm still doing it, huh, maybe more of a "thing"?), I decided to try making my own laundry detergent. The dirt in NYC is particularly dirty (all the car exhaust, methinks, perhaps adds a greasiness to the dirt and makes it really stick), and I had been dissatisfied with all the commercial detergents I had tried. Add to that Isobel's full-body rash after wearing some clothes washed at a relative's house, and it became clear that I needed to find a better solution. 

After exhaustive research on the interwebs (as we all know you can lose days of your lives thanks to google and, now, Pinterest), I found a powdered detergent recipe with potential. (I discounted liquid recipes pretty quickly, as they seemed messy, some required "curing" time, and it seemed counterintuitive to spend extra time dissolving the stuff in the cooking phase only to disperse it in water later.). Powdered bar soap, washing soda, and borax were the ingredients in most recipes, and I ended up with a 1-1-1 ratio. There are recipes out there with different proportions, but this works for me (and is pleasantly easy to remember). 

At first I could get all the ingredients at my corner deli and used Octagon soap. It worked pretty well, but the soap had a high moisture content, so I would have to microwave it (it would puff up like mille feulle pastry, which was fun) before pulverization in the food processor. Then good, old Appletree stopped carrying the soap, and it looks like Palmolive may have discontinued it completely. Time for another soap option. 

While on the soap search, I went back to an organic liquid detergent. After homemade detergent, this stuff was awful! Our clothes were stinky. Never again. (I had tried Charlie's Soap at one point, too, back in the cloth diapering days, but I didn't really like mail ordering detergent.)

Enter Fels-Naptha, which is available at Amazon (as an add-on) and drugstore.com, as well as many grocery stores (with the other laundry supplies). I had trouble finding it in NYC but discovered I could stock up at the local market up in Maine, so every time I make more detergent, I think of being up there, which is an added bonus for me. It's a drier soap, so no microwave time, which I like, but it is hard, so it didn't work too well in the cuisinart. Now we are getting really old-fashioned: I grate the soap by hand with a micro plane zester! Turns out the zester makes the perfect teeny soap flakes. 

So, I grate one cup of soap, then add a cup each of washing soda and borax. Stir and store in a cleaned-out yogurt tub with a 1Tbsp measure from Ikea (an old coffee scoop would work, too, if you are low on measuring spoons). 

To wash clothes, I put 1-2Tbsp in the empty washer, start the water and swish the dasher back and forth a few times to dissolve, then add in the clothes as the tub fills the rest of the way. If you generally wash in cold, you may want to start with a little hot water to make sure the detergent dissolves, then switch to cold to fill up the tub. Due to the aforementioned dirt (and three school-age kiddos), I wash most of our clothes in warm to help lift out the dirt. If things are really dirty, you can follow the instrux on the borax or washing soda and add a bit more of either to your wash. For stubborn stains, I wet the bar of soap and rub it on the stain like a stain stick. Some people put vinegar in one of those Downy balls for the final rinse, but I haven't found that necessary (vinegar cuts through the soap scum that can result when soap meets hard/soft water - I can never remember which is which, but NYC water isn't a problem).

The Fels Naptha smells nice and clean and gets out any odors but does not leave a scent, which I prefer. The other soap recommended on the web is Zote, which has the added charm of being bright pink. 

The other tool in my laundry arsenal is the humble dryer ball. Throw them in the dryer with your wet clothes, and they fluff things up, eliminate static, and reduce drying time. Plus, they're made out of wool. What's not to love?! I wound eight balls of yarn from a skein of Lion Brand's Fisherman Wool, then ran them through a hot wash/cold rinse cycle a few times in some wash bags (many people use nylons, making a knot between each ball, but I didn't have any handy, so made do). One ball came apart and felted into blobs, so I cut them off and let the cats play with them. The others felted nicely and would make great toys for the cats and the kids, if I didn't keep them safe on top of the machine. 

Some folks like to scent their laundry, and I've read that you can put a drop of essential oil on the balls, but I don't bother with that. Just throw them in the dryer and let them bounce around. Generally, I just toss them back in the dryer after taking out the laundry, but I do keep that little blue basket handy to corral them as necessary. 

So, there you have it. Turns out to be natural-ish, and hopefully has less of an impact on the environment. Bonus of clean, fluffy clothes and no rashes. 

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo, Kathleen