Pizza Pockets

Every weekend I make pizza and this weekend I wanted it two days in a row. That seemed a little excessive though so I made pizza pockets the second night instead. I've never thought of making these before and I don't know why because they were fantastic. I had the leftover one for lunch today and it was amazing cold too. A great way to take a sandwhich along.

Anyway... here's the recipe with some photo instructions for wrapping it too!

Dough:

1 cup warm water
1 tbsp. sugar
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp. italian seasoning

Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Add olive oil then the flour and salt. Mix together with a dough hook (or by hand) at medium speed until well incorporated. Set aside.

Fillings:

Pasta sauce
Grated cheese (mozza or cheddar)
Grated Parmesan
Chopped meat, I used chopped up deli meat (turkey, ham, and beef)
Chopped Green Peppers
Chopped Onions
any other veggies or mushrooms you might want to add


Take your dough out and knead it 10-15 times. Divide it into 6 peices. Take one peice, shape into a ball and then roll out nice and thin. (thin enough that you can fit the fillings in but not so thin it will just split open)
Spoon on some pasta sauce, then some meat, peppers, onions, and top with the cheeses.

Pick up the dough on two sides and pinch together.

Do the same with the other two sides.

The take the 4 "open" corners and pinch them up too.

Make sure it's all pinched together really well so it won't break open while cooking.

Do the same with the remaining 5 peices of dough. Place on cookie sheet (lining it with parchment paper would make for much easier clean up then I had)

Bake at 325 farenheit for approximately 30 minutes. I kept peeking in at mine every 5 minutes after the initial 15 just to keep an eye on it. When the top is golden brown they are ready!

Then... Eat it!!

MMMM I want more!

new apron

My mother in law wanted me to make her an apron out of some black and white bird print fabric a while ago. She's coming to visit this weekend so I thought I'd better get it done!

I really love it... it's reversible and the pattern is from Simple Sewing by Lotta Jansdotter. It was a fairly easy pattern to make, although time consuming.

where it all goes down...

Most of the things I blog about are done in two rooms in my house; the kitchen and my craft/sewing/guest room. We recently had a lot of guests coming and going during the week of my sister's wedding so I did a good spring clean and took some pictures. Believe me, it doesn't look this good all the time and to some of you I'm sure this is still a bit too cluttered, but hey, it's me!

The Kitchen:

Okay the cupboard that has no door? Yah it's been that way for well over a year now. Those cabinet doors are solid oak underneath all that paint so my husband took one of to see if he could strip the paint off enough to get it back to the original oak but sadly there are just too many coats of paint on them. We decided instead to paint them a dark brown until we get the time and money for Trav to build new ones. As you can see we still haven't gotten around to the painting!

My Kitchen Aid mixer lives in the corner there as it gets used every day (sometimes even 2 or 3 times a day!). I love having pictures of friends and family on my fridge and because Kaed loves to pull them off often I just have them randomly thrown on there. No point in making it look all fancy when I'd have to redo it every day.

The backsplash and counter tops were redone by Travis almost 2 years ago now (where does the time go!!). The counter tops were a terrible arbrite before and the backsplash was just painted white so we did a major overhaul when Kaed was just a few months old. We then painted the walls that dark rusty red color. I love it.

Just a part of my heritage. The plate and "wooden shoes" are Delftware from Holland, both of them are from my parents. I also have some beautiful kitchen tiles painted the same way but I haven't figured out how to hang them yet.

I realize the lighting in this picture is considered bad, but gosh this is my favorite part of my kitchen, the way the sun shines through a huge sliding glass door. It also happens to be my dogs favorite place to lay and a great place for the boys and I to just sit in the sun on those long winter days. This is my coffee and tea area. This corner used to be empty but my handy dandy husband once again saved the day by building me a cabinet and microwave hutch. It is now a very well used corner.

The Craft/Sewing/Guest Room:

We have this huge room in our basement that used to be used to store all our, well, junk to be honest. However, since we now have two kids who take up both of our rooms upstairs, we turned this one into a useful space.

This is my corner. The desk was also built by Travis when we first got married. It was supposed to just be a tide me over desk so it never got stained or finished off nicely which is actually perfect for me because I can spill on it or paint on it or anything and not have to worry about wrecking it. Funny how the things you build to be temporary always seem to stick around forever. The Lord of the Rings poster still has to get moved... Travis and I are both huge fans but it doesn't exactly fit the mood of my craft corner!

I got this bright idea for storing all my embellishments. Canadian Tire had them on sale for $10 and I saw them in the flyer one day and thought it would be perfect. I even labeled a bunch of the drawers so it would be easier to keep organized.

That bulletin board was made for me by my sister in law Kara for Christmas. It's my inspiration board and all the projects I want to make in the near future get put up there. I love it!

This is in the far corner, our "guest room" corner. There's just a double bed there wedged against the wall. Not exactly high class hotel room but hey, at least it's a bed! Notice the other Legolas poster in the top right corner? It's actually a drawing that Trav's sister made. Amazing hey? She did it all in pencil crayon. I'll have to take a better picture one day and share it with you all because you really can't see it in this pic. Oh and the book shelf on the right hand side was also built by Travis... I'm starting to think I should start another blog just about his handiwork... one of these days I'll show you all the amazing traditional bows he's made.

The craft corner for the boys. Trav just made this table for Kaed (and one day Brayer) to craft at while I'm busy with my stuff. I got the trucks border from my Mom and I think it looks great, Kaed LOVES it. He thinks it's the best thing ever that there are trucks stuck to the wall.

Well there you go! Now you have seen where it all goes down....

favorite toys

I love these toys. My boys have a couple of them and they got them from their Auntie in Toronto. They are made by Animalz and you can buy this little pig here. I can't seem to find a website for the actual company so if you know of it let me know! We also have the hippo who is just as adorable, but I can't seem to find him right now to take a picture.

gotta write these things down

I keep on getting these great ideas of things to blog about and then I don't write them down and I forget and then when I have the time to blog I sit here at the computer thinking "what the heck was I going to say?"

Anyway, my sister in law Shelly took some great photos of my dog when she was here last weekend and it reminded me that weeks ago, I wanted to do a post on her! So here you go... this is Fable.

Fable is approximately 4 years old. I wish I knew her birthday but we adopted her and there's just no way to find those things out unless they were born at the shelter. At the time that we adopted her, I was working a few hours a week at the shelter and meanwhile keeping my eyes open for a dog to take home. One day this scrawny, meek, obviously abused, yet beautiful dog came in. She was nothing like I had ever seen before and as soon as I got home from work I phoned Travis to tell him about her. That night he came down to the shelter with me and we took her out for a walk. She was terrified of everything and we were really worried she just might be damaged beyond repair. We prevailed though and continued to take her out for an hour or two every evening and for the day on a couple of saturdays. Every time we saw her she got better and after a couple weeks we decided she was definately coming home with us. That was 3 years ago this month and she is most definately a member of the family now.

In case you care, Fable is an Australian Kelpie. We believe she is purebred but have no idea where she came from. How someone gave her up we have no idea!

I have to say I am very in favor of adopting dogs and cats. There are so many out there that need a good home and if you can find the right fit for your family, why not? Puppies may be cute, and often they are hard to find at shelters, but a dog who needs to be loved is just as cute, and well usually a lot less work!

We got Fable from the Estevan Humane Soceity but if you want to see some dogs up for adoption in your area check out The Humane Society of Canada to find a shelter in your area.

busy busy!

It's been busy! My big sis got married this weekend and she was beautiful! The weekend was busy but a lot of fun, the only thing I would have changed was my boys getting croup just before. A couple of sick kids doesn't go well with constant running around and days spent outside of the home. Anyway the bride and groom are on their way to Greece right now for a couple of weeks and I wish them both a wonderful honeymoon, even if I am slightly jealous of their destination!

and the winner is.....

#1 The Gifford's!

I used a random number generator, it came up with number ONE and The Gifford's is the winner! If you email me your mailing address I'll pop it in the mail for you this week! (handmadetherapy@gmail.com)

Thanks everyone for your comments.

100 Posts!!

Well folks it's blog post number 100! Wow! I can't even believe it myself. I'm celebrating in style... can you tell? Check out my new banner! It seriously pays to have two sister in laws who are graphic designers, so a HUGE thank you to you two for putting together so many ideas and making it so pretty! I absolutely love it.

Also, to celebrate 100 posts I'm doing my first giveaway! So what you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me what you like about my blog, or any suggestions you have to improve it. On Monday, March 16th I'll use a random number generator or something similar to pick the winner. And the winner will receive this bag!

Now I had better go take it out of my shop. Happy commenting!

**Note, I will ship to Canada or the US only. Thanks!

Buttercup Bag

I saw a pattern for an adorable bag the other day and just had to make it. So I did. You can make it too, for free at Made By Rae Go here for the link to the pattern.


Here's my version of it!

Refashioned Dress

My little sister came over last night to change up a dress she has for my big sister's wedding. It was a plain strapless black dress that she had bought a couple years ago when we went to go see Phantom of the Opera. The plan was to add some straps and some color. What do you think?

Before, front and back

After!

after!

after!

We sure had fun doing this and now I want to refashion more things in my closet!

in the makings

I started my very first dress a couple days ago. So far it's going pretty good. I have it all cut out and just started piecing it together. I really hope it turns out as I'm sure it will determine whether or not I attempt any more clothing in the next while.

The pattern is Newlook and it is one of the kinds where you pick and choose different peices to make your own dress. I picked basically the one in the picture with slightly different straps.

quick! before it's over!

Spring is nearly sprung (yes I am crossing my fingers as I type this) and that means that soon hot chocolate won't be part of my daily consumption, so to hold on to that fact, here's my recipe for hot cocoa.

Hot Cocoa

1 tbsp. cocoa (preferably dutch processed, but any will work)

1 tbsp. organic cane sugar

1 1/2 cups hot milk

I like to mix the cocoa and sugar together, then add about a tbsp of cold milk to the mixture and stir it into a paste before I add the hot milk. That way there's not lumps. Add more sugar or cocoa to adjust it to your preference. I don't like my hot chocolate to be very sweet so you may want to change it up.

i wonder what he'll name him?

I made a new toy for my nephew, he turns one soon and I wanted to make him something boyish yet cute. Then I found a new blog... Revoluz3za and went straight to the "for boys" label. There I found such a cute little robot plushie, and although she didn't have a tutorial I thought I'd try out anyway. The first one I made I wasn't a fan of so it is currently residing in the boys' toy bin and once Brayer grows tired of it I'm sure the dog will have a go at it. The second I liked much better (especially how his arms come out of his legs... only a robot could do that) and decided, while stuffing him, to put in a music box so he makes some noise. I sure hope he likes it! Kaed and Brayer have both been reaching for it so I'm guessing Michael will too.

Robot #1

Robot #2 - for my nephew

He Rolled!

Well I've been sitting in front of the computer for the past 10 minutes wanting to blog but having nothing to blog about when... Brayer rolled over for the first time! Now for him it's a pretty big feat being 7 months old and not having rolled yet, so needless to say I'm pretty excited.

Master K. Turns Two

Kaed's Oer Pake (great grandpa) sent him a card in the mail and titled him Master. K and I decided it fit him quite well. He does often seem to be the master around here!

He turned two yesterday. Where did the time go? Around this time two years ago I was bringing this tiny bundle home from the hospital and now he's running around yelling at the top of his lungs and still over excited about his ridiculously huge hoard of Thomas the Tank Engine stuff he got yesterday.

Needless to say it was a great day filled with lot's of cookies, cake, balloons, toys, and friends. Kaed had such a good time and got so overwhelmed he skipped his nap all together and just played trains all day. I'm glad he had fun.

A few more pics of my baby over the past couple of years....