THURSDAY ALREADY?

Is it just that I'm getting older - or are the days just flying past? I think it's a bit of both.

This week seems to have gone so quickly - Thursday already! It's probably because I've had lots to do this week. DH celebrates a very special birthday tomorrow so I've been out shopping on a couple of occasions gathering little nick nacks to use for baking his birthday cake.

The family are going out for a meal together tomorrow night to celebrate and birthday cake will be on the menu for dessert. I think it will be 'Devil's Food Cake' - at least I'm hoping it will be! Yesterday I made an old favourite's - banana cake - a very old recipe from a very old recipe book - one most Kiwi's will be very familiar with ' Edmonds'. My copy is a 1959 publication but it hit the book shelves earlier than that in NZ. It is still my favourite recipe book and has some lovely recipes that 'mother used to make'. You know the ones like Overnight pudding, Aotea biscuits and Afghans!

Tomorrow just happens to be E18's boyfriend's birthday as well so another cake will be made to celebrate that special day. I'm planning to be busy baking most of the day!

A couple of years ago I planted a tiny camellia shrub in a little corner at the front of the house. I already had several japonica variety in another part of the garden but this one is a sasanqua. Named "Volcano" the picture on the tag looked fabulous - bright red/pink and large. The first year it managed a few little buds and the flowers were puny and the next summer it almost got taken out completely by the heat. Half of it died off and I did a trim job on it. It hasn't grown all that much but this year it has a few buds, the first of which has turned out just gloriously. It is large and showy. I'm hopeful the other buds will bloom just as beautifully. Next time I'll report on the birthday bash and hopefully will have some photos to post as well. In the meantime -

Blessings!

THE BEST PIZZA EVER!

Pizza is on the menu in our household fairly irregularly now, but when we lived in Zambia for 3 years, I managed to make one that was quite acceptable to most who came to eat at our place - considering, that is, that there were no pizza parlours to buy the 'take away' kind until the last few months before returning to Australia. I've attempted to make them infrequently in the past few years, including home made dough and ready made base, but none of them really tasted like 'the real thing' until recently when I attempted another 'base' recipe. This one uses both yeast and semolina and gives a great tasting, crispy edged base. Just throw whatever topping on that takes your fancy. Within reason that is - ham and pineapple for him, mushrooms for me, but no anchovies or capsicum for either.

Anyway if you'd like to have a go, here's what I did:

200gr plain flour, 70gr semolina, pinch of salt, 190ml warm water, 1 tablespoon of oil, 3.5gr dry yeast (I would estimate this to be about 3/4 teaspoon).

Mix all ingredients together and knead till soft and pliable and mixture leaves the sides of the bowl. (I cheated and did this for about 5 minutes in a bread making machine). Lightly grease a clean bowl and place the mixture into this, leaving it in a warm place to rise for about an hour. When well risen, remove from bowl and knead gently before rolling out to the size and thickness needed for your pizza. Place on a pizza tray and top as desired. Bake in very hot oven for about 15 minutes.

Delicious!