March 1, 2009

nd another month closer to spring. Interesting things happening around here again, I may get into details on it one day. It is above freezing already at 9 am and it actually supposed to be + 10C/50F tomorrow. I am not silly enough to think that it will not get cold again before late April or early May. But man it is windy today, it is what woke me up at 5:50 am.

My peppers are coming up staggered. My 'King of the North' always takes longer than other varieties of peppers. I ought to mark which seedlings come up first to get rid of that trend. All the super hot peppers come up first. Still waiting on the celery, but I knew they would take forever and a half.

Last night the guys were supposed to come over for homemade pizza, but "City Boy" still has the flu, which I am sure he contaminated me with the day prior. So I went ahead and made myself a pizza anyway. I have not made one of those for some time now. At least since I moved here. I have no idea why people order pizza.. other than "I am too tired and can't move to cook dinner" nights. Homemade pizza is so superior to any other pizza except perhaps one place I went to on the islands down south. This one was one of my favorite kinds. Pear, onion and Brie.

tenzicut's pizza

For Crust:

2 cups flour
1 cup hot water
1 1/2 teaspoons yeast
half a handful of sugar
pinch of salt

Make the dough by hand or machine. When it is well kneaded you are ready for the next steps.

Heat oven to 375F. Oil a cast iron frying pan with olive oil.

Cut up whatever you want to put on your pizza. Place your dough into the cast iron pan and press in to fill the pan and partway up the sides. Put the pan in the oven when it is at temperature and bring out when it is slightly brown on the top. Add all of your ingredients. In my case it was sliced fresh pear, green scallion onions as I ran out of bulb onion and added brie cheese. Put back into the oven until cheese is slightly toasted.

Take out of the oven, let cool for 5 minutes or so, cut and enjoy.

(Hands on time was all of about 7 minutes)

Yesterday I went to my 4-H leader interview. I am in line with all these other people who wanted to become 4-H leaders and they never have before. I was the only one who has been one before. One man I asked what kind of leader he was, he said swine.. and I asked him what breed of hog he raised and he said he didn't. It was the same story with most of the new leaders. They are volunteering as there is a huge need.

As I am in a new district, they want to interview to make sure I do not have a criminal background and what I can teach in 4-H. 4-H structure in Canada is vastly different than 4-H in the US, but teaching is mostly the same. I was lined up to judge fairs around here in the summer a week ago, so I needed to do 'all the paperwork'. I am a 'Leader at Large", which we call a 'support leader' in the States, so I can work with many groups instead of having a group of my own. That way I can still judge and when I go to each club, it is on fair footing. Clubs here, are not just beef, or not just sewing or not just gardening. Each club has different 'subjects', each student has to do during the year. So for a month they may do sewing, a month on photography.. very odd.