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Easy Handmade Pizza with ABin5 dough

| San

abin5 dough pizza // mono+co abin5 dough pizza // mono+coabin5 dough pizza // mono+coabin5 dough pizza // mono+co

The hunger pang came after watching a pizza ad, showing a pair of pretty hands kneading the floured pizza dough, sprinkling herbs and toppings, before presenting 5 rectangular pizzas, each with a different flavor.

Not too difficult, if you ask me, once you have this bread dough and this tomato pasta sauce ready.  I had to settle with frozen beef meatballs, canned button mushrooms and cheddar cheese as toppings as I do not have much items in my pantry, being a Friday, aka empty fridge day; I make it a point to clear out my groceries by Fridays, and start afresh on Saturdays.  But you can easily “upgrade” with a simple switch of toppings to fresh ingredients such as mozzarella cheese and basil.

*Hint*  Those delivery menus from pizza shops have lotsa great ideas!

RECIPE FOR PIZZA DOUGH
Source

- 3 cups lukewarm water
- 1 tablespoon instant yeast
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2lb or 910g of plain flour*

/ To Make Dough

01. Place water, salt and yeast in a plastic container that is big enough for the dough.  This container preferably with lid (if not, cover with cling wrap will do too) will also be the storage container for the dough to be placed in the fridge.  Make sure your fridge has a space for it.  A 6-quart container is recommended in the book.

02. Add in the flour all at once.  Stir until the dough comes together, it should be a wet and shapeless one.  If yours can be kneaded into a ball, you have probably used too much flour.  You can still save the dough by adding water slowly, till you get the dough to its rightful consistency.

03.  Cover the container loosely, saving a gap for the gases to escape as the dough proof.

04. Allow the dough to rise to double its bulk, anything from 2 hours to 4 hours, depending on the room temperature.

05. Once the dough has risen to its max, it will start to settle down, sink a little and form a flat top.  This dough is now ready to be used, or it can be stored in the fridge when you are ready to bake a bread or pizza.  I prefer keeping it in the chiller for a few hours so that the dough is easier to handle.

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/ To Bake Pizza (Get your choice of topping ready, I used sliced button mushrooms, sliced ikea beef meatballs, and cheddar cheese)

01. When you are ready to make pizza, take out the dough from the fridge, sprinkle some plain flour on top of the dough and grab a handful of it and cut it out with a pair of scissors.

02. Roughly shape it into a ball with floured hands, and press it down on a baking parchment paper placed on a baking tray.  Stretch out the dough to create a really thin crust (the pizza crust will still rise through the baking process, so I am not worried about the dough being too thin).

03. Spread some garlic butter, or this tomato paste over the dough.

04.  Place sliced button mushrooms and meatballs on top of the butter or tomato sauce.  Drizzle with some olive oil.

05.  In a preheated oven 240C (460F), bake for 8 -10 minutes.  When pizza is cooked, placed sliced cheddar cheese on top, and leave it in the warm oven for another 1 minute to melt the cheese.  If you are using mozzarella cheese, you may add it before baking the pizza.  I ran out of mozzarella and didn’t want my cheddar cheese to brown during baking.

06.  Serve immediately.

++ NOTES TO SELF ++
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* I have since drop the “scoop-and-level method” as I am really terrible at scooping consistently! But if you are, feel free to use 6 1/2 cup of plain flour for this recipe.
///

Caramel Sauce for Popcorn

| San

homemade caramel popcorns // mono+co

After knowing how to prepare these easy peasy homemade popcorn, indulge in caramel sauce covered ones once a while!  I chose a recipe that does not use corn syrup, and does not require baking.  Just pour and toss.

++ Notes001 // Make the popcorn first before preparing the caramel sauce. Popcorn instructions here.  Sauce enough for 1/2 cup unpopped corn kernels.

RECIPE : CARAMEL SAUCE
/ Source

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125 grams unsalted butter
3/4 cup white sugar
2 Tablespoons honey

____________

01. Put butter, sugar and honey in a saucepan, stir over medium heat until the sugar has melted completely.
02. Bring to boil, and switch off fire once the mixture turns golden brown.
03. Pour caramel sauce over popcorn, stir until the sauce coat popcorn evenly.
04. Spread popcorn over baking tray to cool.  Serve.

Recycled Exercise Books

| San

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Half-used exercise books are standard fixtures at the end of the school term. It gets kind of messy with a few pages from the spelling test book, to an almost unused stack from the penmanship class. Instead of keeping these used exercise books as it is, I consolidated the unused sheets into 2 DIY bound journals, so that I can write on the the remaining unused pages.

After some tearing, sorting and hole-punching, I turned to my elementary book binding skills and created 2 journal books with the loose sheets.

This project can be easily completed in under 2 hours. Nothing fanciful here, these recycled exercise books are after all just recycled paper being bound. I did not use any glitzy craft paper or tapes. I just grabbed whatever that I could find inside my drawer. However, I still attempted a simple decoration trick with a 3.5″ diskette label, to make it look slightly “old-school”.

Things I used for this project:
– Scissors
– Hole puncher
– Linen thread & needle
– Cover paper
– Masking tape (Optional, for the book spine, if you do not want the stitches to show)

For more on DIY book binding, see here, and here.

Planning For The School Holidays : December 2013 And Beyond

| San

2013 year end holiday planner calendar

Every Friday, I would browse through the “Happenings” listing in the papers to check out places (and cafes) that I can visit with my children (or friends).  I would then text my husband on the details, and he would go: “Where got so many activities one? Where got time to do all?”.  True, some of the events would clash on the same day, mostly during the weekends.  Others have limited seats, and are usually fully taken up by the time I read it in the papers.  The really interesting (& free) ones probably won’t even make it to the papers, and are circulated around via Facebook, or other social sites.  There are many events going on, and even more during this year end period, and sometimes all you need to do is to find them.

For this December school holiday, instead of listing down the activities, I am jotting down some of the sites that I have bookmarked for regular event updates.

National Heritage Board
With a whopping 11 museums and heritage institutions under its wings, you’re bound to find something going on that is interesting for you and your kids throughout the month.
Current Exhibitions
Programmes
Or like me, you might love browsing through a thoughtfully laid out Program Guide (PDF)

National Library
Whenever I step into a library, I like to browse through the activity guides that are placed at the entrance, whereas my kids would pick up a copy of the GoKids guide.  But frankly, this is not the best way to check out the programs, especially the popular ones for the kids.  More often than not, seats to the popular events would have been filled out by the time the brochures or posters are up at the library.  Go to GoLibrary Portal instead, this is where you can browse through activities by categories and book your seats online.

Esplanade
While ticketed events are mainly held there, free programs are also going on throughout the year.  Check out its What’s On page and filter for “Free Programmes” from the search bar.

Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Download their 13/14 season Brochure here, or browse through here for kids-friendly events.  I am interested in their open rehearsals for my family to watch what goes on behind the scenes, but the only one open to public has already taken place last month.  See, I told you too many events right?

Singapore Chinese Orchestra
Just as SSO, SCO already has all ticketed, as well as free events, lined up till July 2014 posted on their site here, including this and this in January next year to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Nature Parks
Now this area is a little bit more tricky.  While NParks takes great care of the parks, I do not rely on its Event Hub page for information, the search engines and layout format have done nothing to interest me and my kids.  The site is, however, great for general park information, and they provide trail routes and guides for DIY trips.

I tend to visit Wild Singapore Happenings instead, its blog format citing events in chronological order makes it a breeze to browse through.  They have already updated events all the way up to 28 December, the final weekend before the school holiday ends, how’s that for planning?

If you are a member of the Nature Society ($75/Year for a family membership), this is another great site to browse though.  If you are not a member, they still have some events line up for the general public, such as this and this, just check if you need to sign up in advance.  I have been wanting to bring my kids explore Bukit Brown, and this 9 Dec public walk event looks perfect.

Sometimes, I still visit the park’s own site (if any) in case some events get missed out, unfortunately, I found only 2:
Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve
Singapore Botanic Gardens

Others
Some venues that I like to check out when I need a day out with my kids:

Gardens By the Bay

  • Public programmes are available on every first weekend of the month, not just during school holidays. For 7 and 8 December, they have a prehistoric theme event held at the Cooled Conservatories (this you have to pay for admission though).
  • If you like to relax at the garden with live music, local acappella group Budak Pantai will be performing this weekend (23-24 November) at the Supertree Grove from 6.45pm. Check out the rest of the events lined up from this Calendar here.

Sentosa

  • Admission to Sentosa is more affordable now, so sometimes I do check out if there are any special events organized worth participating here, other than just idling by the beaches.

Wildlife Reserves Singapore
My children grew up with pretty frequent (almost fortnightly) visits to the Singapore Zoo, as we were ‘Friends of the Zoo’ then.  As they grew ‘older’, we couldn’t make the trips as often as we like.  Soon the membership lapsed, and now I only make a trip when there are special events or offers.  I have posted the links to the event and promo pages below.  Please note that some attractions are going through a “no-event” moment.
Jurong Bird Park
Night Safari
River Safari
Singapore Zoo

Are there any other sites or blogs that you surf for ideas for this coming school holiday?

2013 Year End Holiday Calendar Planner

| San

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3 things that I have done since the exams ended:
01. Put the used textbooks aside till the next donation drive.
02. Dropped the non reusable activity books and exam practice papers in the recycling bins.
03. Cleaned up the study room.

I am currently looking out for activities to do in November and December.  Knowing how much I love planners, I created a monthly version this time, for simple tracking of available events around town and my family’s holiday schedule.

Have you started planning your year end activities?

DIY Popsicle #008 : Cashew Butter Popsicle

| San

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Inspired by the many cashew butter ice-cream all over the web, I decided to try one out for my popsicle project.  According to this recipe from My New Roots, I could team it with any fruit I want : peaches, blackberries, plums, or mangoes.  I went for bananas.

DIY Popsicle Version 00 : Cashew Butter Popiscle
1. Base :  Soaked 70 grams of raw cashew nuts overnight in the fridge.  Next day, blend it on high speed with 2 tablespoons of water and honey(or any other sweetener like agave or maple syrup) until smooth.  Add in 2 large bananas (cut) and continue blending.
2. For some bites : None.  I wanted the the final texture was really smooth, with some nutty taste from the cashews.

Homemade Popcorns for Stay Home Movie Sessions

| San

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One of the things I did with the kids during the second half of the month long school holiday was cooping up at home watching movies.  The haze condition chased most of us indoors, we could only do that many craft projects before the paper/glue/paint mess got too big to be handled.  So I slotted in a few celluloid classics while I do the cleaning or cooking.

A few titles that always get requested are the anime works of Hayao Miyazaki’s (宫崎骏), my kids love them, from the earlier ones like Castle in the Sky, Whisper of the Heart (My Favorite!), Kiki’s Delivery Service, to the recent ones like Spirited Away, The Secret World of Arrietty, etc.

** A Must : When you are done with the movies, and can’t get enough of their beautiful soundtrack, be sure to catch this Studio Ghibli 25 years concert, and relive those favorite moments again.

Made old school popcorns at home for snacking while watching the movies.  I always thought that you’ll need those huge looking corn popping machines seen at the theater snack bar to do the trick.  Turned out that my heavy bottom pan, some butter, and corn kernels would do.  Even your microwave could do it, some made it look even simpler with a brown bag and eating straight out of it after the corns are popped.  Just stay away from those microwave-ready popcorns.

Butter and ghee are my preferred fat for making these popcorns.  I still rely on the stove-top method instead of the microwave version because somehow my microwave seems to burn the popped corns easily.  It was so frustrating picking out the charred ones.  A lower setting did not work either.  Think I am destined to stand by the stove…

HOMEMADE POPCORNS
// Adapted from Creative Simple Life

INGREDIENTS
1 heap tablespoon of ghee
1/3 cup corn kernel

1. Place 3 corn kernels in a covered (preferably glass cover for see-through) pot and heat over medium fire.
2. Once the 3 kernels are popped, remove them from the pot, and add the ghee and rest of corn kernels into the pot, covered with lid.
3. Corns should start popping in a while, shake the pot back and forth intermittently, so that the popped kernels does not get charred below.  Lift the lid slightly to let steam escaped.
4. Once the popping slow down to just 1 per second, turn off fire, and pour the popcorns into a serving bowl.
5. Season according to preference.  I love the convenience of Old Bay or melted dark chocolate.

DIY Popsicle #007 : Yakult Popsicle

| San

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I asked myself this before making these Yakult popsicles: “Does freezing Yakult kill the Shirota strain?” Nope, see answer to question 14 here.  Guess it’s the same as freezing yogurt.  They just go dormant.

Somewhere between the original and the orange flavor, right in the middle, things were not freezing well, all my 4 popsicles broke off at the same place when I tried to unmold them.  But they were still yummy nonetheless.

DIY Popsicle Version 007 : Yakult Popiscle
1. Base : Yakult drink (or other fermented milk drink) in 4 flavors.  Wait for one layer to freeze, before adding the next flavor.
2. For some bites : None.  I am getting lazy here….. 🙂