Hearts a Flutter Necklace for Valentines Day

Gorgeous heart beads, ruby red crystals, and sparkly silver embellishments shine in this one of a kind pendant necklace. Available at Simply Sheryls

Tasty Tuesday - Latin Lover's Pizza

We had half the pizza gone by the time I realized I wanted to share this recipe. Yes, often times I don't plan to share, unless it's so good I would be stingy not to.

We've been trying to eat what we have on hand rather than run to the store ten times a week for this or that. Saves us money and we don't let things go to waste. Nature Guy wanted pizza so pizza he was going to get. I didn't have the usual ingredients on hand that we always put on, well at least not all. I did have canned mushrooms, onions and olives so that was a start. I also had frozen grape tomatoes so I used those diced for the fresh tomatoes.

What makes this pizza Latin is the dry salami instead of pepperoni, pepper jack cheese instead of mozzarella provolone, and green olives. So we figured we covered Italy, Mexico and Spain and thus the Latin. Anyhew, let's get to the recipe. I hope you give it a try, it was so good we are doing this again soon.

Latin Lover's Pizza     Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Crust
1/12 cups warm water
2 scant T. yeast or 2 packets
1 t. sugar
1 1/2 t. salt
3 T. olive oil
4 c. flour
1/4 c. each flaxseed meal, oats and cornmeal

In a large bowl or mixing bowl combine the yeast, water and sugar. Let sit for 5 minutes until the water gets foamy.  Add the oil, salt and 2 cups of flour, along with the other dry ingredients. stir or mix until well combined. Continue to add the flour 1/2 cup at a time. Once you have a nice ball of dough you can knead on a well floured board until smooth and elastic. Or let your mixer do it for you while you work on other ingredients. Once the dough is ready cut in half for thin crust, ***(see below),or use the whole thing for thick crust, and roll out on floured surface to the size of your pan. Sprinkle the baking pan with cornmeal to help keep the crust from sticking. Place rolled out crust on pan.

Sauce
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 1/2 cups diced fresh tomatoes
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 t. each Italian herb blend, and basil

Combine all ingredients in medium bowl and spread on crust.

Toppings
1 can whole or sliced black olives
1 small jar stuffed green olives
1 4 oz can mushrooms
2 cups pepper jack cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup chopped onion
20 slices of dry salami, chopped

I like to sprinkle the sauce with the Parmesan cheese before adding any other toppings. Then I add the onion, meat and cheese, then the mushrooms, and olives. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Turn the oven down to 425 and continue to bake for another 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and golden. Slice and enjoy!

***I make a small loaf of bread with the other half of the dough by forming a loaf and putting it in a well oiled bread pan or small cookie sheet and letting it rise until doubled. This can be baked at 375 for 35 minutes.

A Red Letter Day For Our Little Farmette!

 I opened the back hatch to the coop prepared to clean out several days of yuck, and perhaps find one brown egg, as I had already found two this morning. Much to my surprise and joy I spy a pretty blue egg as well as a brown one! My Daisy has finally come into her own, and can hang with the rest of the mother hens now, whoohoo!

Slow she and Bella have been, with us waiting still on Bella. I kept telling Nature Guy they would not be heading to the soup pot any time soon as I knew that they were a little behind on the uptake. Their combs hadn't popped until just this last week, which I've read was an indicator of their being mature enough to start laying. They won't have the regular combs the other girls do, just a pea comb, but they are such pretty birds. We officially hit a milestone, and got four eggs today.

I guess I'm officially a chicken nerd now. Our five hens have been so much fun to have around, and yes, there is some mess involved, but it's all good as they give back to us in eggs.

Pretties for Your Precious.... Boho in Color

 After the holiday decor comes down, and winter sets in with vigor, the color of life seems a bit drab and in need of a spot of new color. The pretty blue pendant choker above, is an easy fix for those days, when just a touch of color will do, nothing too fancy, but pretty is as pretty does.

For a little more sparkle and pizazz, this multi-layered necklace is just the ticket. Both this necklace and the choker above are hand crafted by me. Add a bit of color to your wardrobe today by visiting my etsy shop: SIMPLY SHERYL'S

Away Go the Mangers....

 I have been moping around the house, trying to put away Christmas decorations and fighting a touch of sadness. Not really sure why as Christmas was nice and peaceful. Maybe it's the sugar blues, but whatever it is, I'm sure this too shall pass. I have been playing around with display ideas for my smaller manger scenes. I haven't finalized my idea on the one above, but I tried displaying this one in a covered cake pedestal, with tea lights underneath to show off the iridescent color of the pieces. You can't really tell in this photo how pretty the scene really looked. I may leave the top off next year. It was a fun experiment though.

This little set is displayed in a butter dish or pickle tray, I haven't determined which. I wanted to permanently glue these pieces to the glass, but it was recommended by a friend that I not do that. I also want to turn this into a pedestal style display, but that will  have to wait until next year, as everything has been tucked away now. I do know that my dining room will be my manger room. I would love to find a pretty tinsel tree in sky blue or turquoise to sit on my tea cart in front of the bay window area. I saw a gorgeous retro looking turquoise tinsel tree at BeeCrowBee, a local hand crafted soap and body care shop here in Joseph. I wonder if I will still be on the look out next season. Time tends to change things. It's been fun to decorate my home the way I want, and I look forward to next Christmas, as I will already know where things go, and be able to get these projects finished. Who knows, I may stumble upon an even better idea! Happy New Year!