Homemade pizza...that even I can do!

We McCullochs love pizza, and I just found two great recipes for
making homemade whole wheat pizza crust as well as homemade pizza sauce. Thank goodness for allrecipes.com! Bon appetit!



"Amazing Whole Wheat Pizza Crust"

INGREDIENTS
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
Stir the olive oil and salt into the yeast mixture, then mix in the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a surface floured with the remaining all-purpose flour, and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 2 pieces for 2 thin crust, or leave whole to make one thick crust. Form into a tight ball. Let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Roll a ball of dough with a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. Then, drape it over both of your fists, and gently pull the edges outward, while rotating the crust. When the circle has reached the desired size, place on a well oiled pizza pan. Top pizza with your favorite toppings, such as sauce, cheese, meats, or vegetables.
Bake for 16 to 20 minutes (depending on thickness) in the preheated oven, until the crust is crisp and golden at the edges, and cheese is melted on the top.

"PIZZA SAUCE III" (with a few changes by me)

Ingredients
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 tsp ground oregano
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp basil
1 1/2 tsp white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dried minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground paprika
Dash of salt

DIRECTIONS
Mix together tomato sauce and tomato paste until smooth. Stir in other ingredients and use on your favorite pizza crust.

Do you like to travel?

Adam and I like to travel. A lot. That's why we were really excited when we found out that instead of booking through one of the big name online travel vendors we could purchase our own booking website and pay ourselves to travel! So, we purchased our own travel website (http://www.everycitytravel.com/) and thus joined a company that will likely become the largest online travel company by 2011.

Here's how it works: if you book a flight/hotel/car/cruise through our website, you get the same price (sometimes better) as you would on Expedia or Orbitz. The only difference is that instead of a huge corporate entity getting the commission, your friends the McCullochs get it! Pretty great!

So why am I blogging about this? Is this merely blatant self-promotion? Only partially. Here's what all this has to do with you--

You can help us out by checking out our website whenever you need a flight or hotel (you can also purchase events tickets like concerts/games/plays through our site as well). If the price is comparable, book through us! And pass the word along to all the people you know.

(That's the shameless self-promotion part.)

The other option you have is to buy a travel website for yourself! Not only could you then receive the commission from all your travel (instead of handing it to Expedia), but you'd also become eligible for incredible tax deductions and receive all the rights and privileges of being a certified travel agent. How would you like to write off your next trip as a tax deduction? How would you like to get the same deep discounts often offered to travel agents at hotels and resorts?

If any of this interests you, by all means, contact me (or check out http://www.everycitytravel.biz/). If it sounds too good to be true, you're in good company because I thought the same thing. I was bona fide skeptic, until I learned more and talked to people who actually do this.

Adam and I are the last people who would do something like this, but we are really excited about it and want to share it with you as well. So, don't forget---http://www.everycitytravel.com/ to book travel, http://www.everycitytravel.biz/ to find out how to get your own, or simply talk to me if you're interested in learning more.

New Katie video!

Forgot to post this one a month ago:

Just wanted to share with you Katie's latest developmental milestone. She finally figured out how to build with blocks!

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Happy Father's Day!

A photographic tribute to the dads in the life of our family

Adam's dad

my Dad

Adam's grandfather

My granddad

Last but not least....Katie's daddy

The Lord's Day

When I started this blog, one of my intentions was to write about ways I've grown and changed since college, as a way of "catching up" with friends with whom I've lost contact. One of the ways my thinking has changed the most is in my understanding of the importance of the local church in the life of a Christian. I'm *hoping* to flesh that out more in some blogs this week, but for today I thought I would post this great prayer from Valley of Vision:

The Lord's Day

O Lord my Lord,
this is thy day,
the heavenly ordinance of rest,
the open door of worship,
the record of Jesus’ resurrection,
the seal of the sabbath to come,
the day when saints militant and triumphant unite in endless song.

I bless thee for the throne of grace,
that here free favor reigns;
that open access to it is through the blood of Jesus;
that the veil is torn aside and I can enter the holiest
and find thee ready to hear,
waiting to be gracious,
inviting me to pour out my needs,
encouraging my desires,
promising to give more than I ask or think.

But while I bless thee, shame and confusion are mine:
I remember my past misuse of sacred things,
my irreverent worship,
my base ingratitude,
my cold, dull praise.
Sprinkle all my past Sabbaths with the cleansing blood of Jesus,
and may this day witness deep improvement in me.

Give me in rich abundance
the blessings the Lord’s Day was designed to impart;
May my heart be fast bound against worldly thoughts or cares;
Flood my mind with peace beyond understanding;
may my meditations be sweet,
my acts of worship life, liberty, joy,
my drink the streams the flow from they throne,
my food the precious Word,
my defence the shield of faith,
and may my heart be more knit to Jesus.

Beautiful truth

Psalm 130

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.

I wait for the Lord,
my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

A lesson learned

This weekend we went up to Sandusky, OH to meet up with Adam's brother's family and Adam's grandparents. What's in Sandusky, Ohio, you ask?

CedarPoint: "home to the most rides (69) and roller coasters (17) on Earth."

Very exciting...especially for someone who hasn't been on a roller coaster in over 10 years (i.e. me).

So what lesson did I learn? Parents of small children should not expect to ride any roller coasters when at the roller coaster capital of the world.

That's right..6 hours, 17 roller coasters, and not a single ride on any of them (Adam did at least attempt to ride two...one broke right as he got in line, the other had an hour long wait). I did, however, get to ride several, thrilling rides in Camp Snoopy and Kiddie Kingdom: the Lolli swings, the Ballon Race, and Sir Rub a Dub's Tubs. (For the sake of full disclosure, I actually got nauseous on the Balloon Race...pictured on right).

I was amazed at how disappointed--even angry--I was when I realized that I was not going to get to go on a "real" ride! Yet another example of how I seriously underestimate the strength of my sinful nature.

While my selfishness and greed almost robbed me of the joy that could've been mine, God in his grace has reminded me of some of the day's more lasting joys:

Big Girl Katie

Not much to report here, except that Katie is 18 months old today, and her vocabulary has suddenly started expanding exponentially. Here's a sampling of some of her more regularly occuring words:

Random things: ball, airplane, baby, Elmo (at first she called anything cartoonish "elmo" but since we got a new Sesame Street book she's starting to distinguish between Big Bird and Ernie too), booboo, knee, apple (sounds like "appy), cookie ("coogook"), broccoli (surprisingly sounds like "broccoli"), banana ("nana"), water ("wawa"), all done, please ("mee"), more (Mo'), night night (which she uses both when she's tired and when she wants her blanket), obey (part of the disciplining dialogue), no (of course), byebye, hi, bear, bird

Names of people: Mama/Mommy, Daddy, JJ (she says this as clear as a whistle), Bobby (Adam's stepdad, although I think she just likes the way it sounds so she calls many things "Bobby"), Miah (friend from church, sounds like "mommy"), Natalie (friend from church, sounds like "nanny"), Grammy (which also sounds like "mommy)

Also, here's a link to our pictures from our latest trip to TX, and another of random photos throughout May. Enjoy!