Could making pizza "from scratch" be any simpler?

Each time I think to myself, "I deserve pizza tonight", instead of narrowing down which pizzeria I want to order from, I open up my pantry to ensure I have flour and a can of tomatoes and then move on to the check the fridge to assess my cheese and assorted veggies supply. With those few ingredients, and a shockingly small amount of time, I can make my own pizza from scratch for a fraction of the cost of a pizza from a pizzeria.

Along with being an equally tasty yet inexpensive alternative to pizza from a pizza place,  you can be as creative as you like when you make your own pizza and use up whatever ingredients you have on hand as toppings! This time we went totally vegetarian, however, the time before we had some leftover sausages that we BBQ'd the day before so I cut those up and tossed them on.

I'll share with you my sauce recipe as well as my yeast-less, no-rise dough recipe, but if you're crunched for time or feeling especially lazy, a store bought sauce would work just fine!

Sauce

You will need:
- 1 can (28 oz) of tomatoes (I find whole taste the most fresh...if you can even say that about canned tomatoes, however, if you don't have an immersion blender crushed will work just fine)
- 3 cloves of freshly grated garlic
- 1/4 cup of finely chopped onions
- 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/4 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. If you're using whole or diced tomatoes, blend them until slightly chunky using an immersion blender.
2. In a sauce pan, heat the olive oil, onion, garlic, and spices over medium heat for 3-4 minutes.
3. Add the tomatoes to the pan, mixing all of the ingredients together. Turn the heat down to low and allow the sauce to simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Yeast-Less No-Rise Dough
You will need:
- 2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon banking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup of milk
- 1/4 cup of melted butter

Directions:
1. Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Slowly add the milk and melted butter, mixing with a dough hook or by hand until the ingredients create a ball.
2. Sprinkle flour onto your rolling surface and rolling pin. Roll out the dough to about a 1/4 of an inch thick.

Putting it all together:
- On a pizza stone/pan or a cookie sheet, lay out your freshly rolled dough. Cover the dough with your desired amount of sauce.
- Toss on your toppings of choice (we usually go with mushrooms, onions, peppers, sliced tomatoes, spinach and possibly some kind of meat)
- Cover with cheese! Of course mozzarella is the most popular pizza cheese, but we usually use marble since that's what we always have kicking around.
- Bake at 450F for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Enjoy!

DIY Wedding Prep - Removing Labels from Bottles

You know, I don't think many DIY brides have any idea how much work their totally-DIY wedding is actually going to be until they are up to their necks in it. This was most certainly the case for me; it was all fun and games pinning adorable photos to my Pinterest board, but the fun began to fade a little when it came time to execute many of these tedious DIY projects.

A lot of our wedding decor involves wine bottles (good thing we love wine!), but leaving the labels on the bottles just wasn't an option for us. While staring at a giant box filled with over 40 wine bottles with labels on, I began to wonder how I would get them off without damaging the bottles, or my hands.

I came across this recipe and how-to-guide that I altered a little and hoooly did it ever work well! For that reason, I am passing along this how-to-guide to all of you!

What you will need:
White vinegar
Baking soda
Dish soap
Lots of warm water
An old butter knife
Rubber gloves
A scouring pad or brush

How-To:
1. Depending on how many bottles you have, fill your sink or tub (I used my tub) with warm water.
2. While the water is running, place all of your bottles into the warm water, submerging them so they fill with water and stay under the surface.
3. While the water is still running, add 2 tablespoons of dish soap to the tub (1 tablespoon if you're using your sink).
4. When your sink or tub is full, turn off the water and add 2 cups of vinegar and 1/2 cup of baking soda (half these measurements if you're using your sink).
5. Let the bottles soak in the mixture for at least 2 hours, longer if you can.
6. Remove the labels. Some will just fall off, others will need a little help from a knife or scratch pad/brush, but for the most part this should be an easy task.

Let me know how it goes, or if you have any other DIY hacks to share! 

The BEST Quiche EVER!

Quiche has always been somewhat of a cop-out meal in my world; it's something that I make when I'm feeling lazy or I'm crunched for time. I whisk together some eggs and milk and throw whatever veggies and cheese I have in my fridge into a pre-made piecrust with the eggs. It always tastes fine and Maeghan loves it (mostly since she can coat it in ketchup...). But! As of last weekend, my quiche cooking has been forever changed, and all thanks to my sister! 

"Family Day" (a relatively new holiday here in Canada), is an important holiday for my family. Despite all of us living in various cities across the province, we try our best to all make it home to Mom and Dad's to spend the day together. This past family day fell on one of the coldest weekends we have had all winter, with temperatures reaching -45C with the windchill...you honestly felt the water in your eyes freezing when you stepped outside...For this reason, my family decided to skip the outdoor activities and spend the weekend doing what we do best: cooking and eating.

See, I come from a half Italian family so I'm sure you can understand our deep love of home-cooked food. The weekend was full of delicious meals such as hand-made gnocchi with fresh sugo (Italian pasta sauce), gourmet home-made Italian pizza (of course on from-scratch secret recipe dough), and to finish the weekend off, a DELICIOUS quiche made solely by my sister. 

When I entered the kitchen and noticed her thinly slicing raw sweet potato into the bottom of the pan, I'll be honest, I was a little concerned about the fate of my lunch. However, what she created out of random ingredients from my parent's fridge turned out the be the BEST quiche I have EVER had. No word of a lie.

She was kind enough to remind me of the ingredients and the process to make this mouth-watering meal, and I am so happy to be able to share it with all of you!

Ingredients:
1 whole sweet potato, peeled and sliced thinly (about 1/8 of an inch)
5 eggs

1/3 cup of milk

Your choice of chopped veggies (we used spinach, tomatoes, onions, peppers, left over roasted veggies such as zucchini and mushrooms, and olives) but you can add to or omit from this list to suit your taste buds!

Your choice of cheese (we used feta, but cheddar or another type of mild cheese would be delicious!)

Your choice of meat (optional, but we added Italian sausage on half)
Fresh ground salt and pepper

Cooking Instructions:

1. Place the thinly sliced sweet potato coating the bottom and edges of a well-greased pie plate (this acts as the crust, so keep this in mind while laying down the potato slices)
2. Bake the sweet potato crust at 400F for 15 minutes or until the potatoes have softened a bit.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk, adding in the salt and pepper as you whisk.
4. Mix the chopped veggies and cheese into the egg mixture. If you wish, keep some of the veggies, cheese, and meat to lay on top (shown in the photo with the sausage and tomato slices).

5. Pour the entire mixture into the pie pan with the sweet potato crust.

6. Bake at 375F for 30 minutes or until a knife comes out clean from the center.
7. Let the quiche rest for 10 minutes before serving.

8. ENJOY! 

Getting Crafty and Sentimental

I'm back! It's been a while and things in my world have been super hectic but I'm back! Maeghan and I are up to our necks in wedding planning; our apartment's wedding "corner" is now beginning to take over our entire apartment and there are to-do lists everywhere. Although stressful and hectic at times, we are having so much fun with it all and are still remembering what this day we are planning is all about.

For all holidays and celebrations between our engagement and our wedding, Maeghan and I decided to spend little-to-no money on one another and put the cash towards our wedding and honeymoon. So for Valentine's Day I had to get creative and crafty in order to come up with a gift that was thoughtful, not too cheesy, but really showed Maeghan that I love her.

I'm sure most of you are familiar with the "52 (or) 365 Reasons Why I Love You" gift (52 usually being written on playing cards and representing the number of weeks in a year, and 365 for the number of days). For my Valentine's gift I used this idea and put a wedding spin on it.

February 14th marked 182 days until Maeghan and I's wedding, and with the chaos of wedding planning filling our every day, I thought giving Maeghan a jar full of reasons why I want to marry her would be the perfect gift. So for the next (now) 174 days, Maeghan gets to read one reason why I can't wait to marry her and be reminded why we are planning this huge party in the first place!

Do you and yours skip V-Day altogether, go for material gifts, or try to cheese-it up as much as possible?

On Thursdays I'm Thankful

Do you ever just sit back, take a look at your life and think to yourself "holy crap I am so lucky"? My birthday just passed and once the celebrations winded down (and I recovered from my hangover), I took a few moments to reflect on the amazing life I live. Today I've decided to share with you a bit of what I'm most thankful for. As the holidays approach, maybe some of you will take some time to reflect on what you're thankful for in your own life.

1. I am blessed with the world's greatest and most generous friends.
The neat thing about true friends is that even though you may not speak every day or even every month, and even though you live hours, provinces, even countries apart you always know that you have a friend in them. Since leaving behind my hometown friends to move to university, and then parting ways with my university friends when school finished, I now have friends all over the world who each hold a special place in my heart (you all know who you are and I am so thankful for all of you!) This weekend the girls who got me through 4 years of university, who did my hair before the bar just to hold it back for me after the bar, made a 7 hour trip (one on a plane!) to visit me for less than 24 hours on my birthday. My heart is so full! This is something I am incredibly thankful for; friends like this don't come that easily. These girls are forever friends and I am so lucky to have them in my life.

Four summers ago a wonderful new person joined my life by sheer chance. Today, I call that same person my best friend (and maid of honour!). She's the kind of friend who leaves behind their big city life to hop on a bus for 5 hours to visit you for a weekend in your freezing cold, tiny little Northern town, and sends you flowers (no matter where you are) every year on your birthday. A year and a half ago, I moved to her big city and since then she has become my rock; I have no idea what I would do without her and I am thankful for her every single day.

2. My family means the world to me.
There is no love greater than the love between family members and I am so grateful to have the fantastic and loving family that I do. When you're a bratty 16 year old your biggest dream is to move out on your own. Now, after 6 years of living on my own, I yearn for the days when my brother, sister, and I all slept in single beds under my parents roof. I miss the constant chaos, I miss family dinners every night, I miss trips to blockbuster to rent a movie for the weekend, I miss stealing my sisters clothes and annoying my older brother; I really miss my family and I am so thankful for their unconditional love and constant support. See you all on the beach so soon!

Next year, my family will grow even bigger when Maeghan and I say I do! However, these wonderful people have been part of my family for the past 3 years, since the day Maeghan and I met. They are some of the kindest, warmest, and most loving people I have met in my entire life and I am so grateful that they will soon be my in-laws.

3. I found my soulmate. 

The past three years of my life spent with this beautiful creature by my side have hands down been the best three years of my entire life. I laugh until it hurts everyday, I smile constantly, I'm never bored, and I'm spoiled far too often. Next summer I am vowing to spend the rest of my life with someone; with my best friend and my soulmate...I don't think many people get that lucky. I will forever be the most thankful for my partner and all of the joy she brings me.

What are you thankful for?

December is the prettiest month

Welcome to Maeghan and I's pad! This apartment, which initially felt a little like a place for us to squat for a few months, sort of "happened" by accident. Our first place, a gorgeous 7th floor condo in a brand new building over looking the backside of Parliament and the river, was becoming more hassle than the glass-walled shower, granite counter tops, and walk-in closet could make up for so we had to move. However, finding a new place that could live up to the old one while still in our budget and in the downtown core proved to be quite the task. This place was not on our radar at all and we only visited it (I only visited it to humour Maeghan) to fill time before another viewing. But surprise surprise, the location, the unbeatable price, and the square footage won us over. 

The place more than fulfills our needs and we're slowly starting to add bits and pieces of decor that make it feel more like "us" and home. Luckily, December came quickly for us this year (luckily because December makes having a cute apartment easy). 

About a week back, I came out of the elevator and heard classic Christmas music in the hallway. As I opened the door to our unit, I realized that beautiful sound (can you tell I love Christmas??) was coming from in there. Maeghan had done the cutest thing; she had spent the afternoon searching for the perfect apartment-sized tree and brought it home along with some eggnog, candy canes, and Christmas chocolates. Now it wouldn't be an Emma and Meaghan event if there wasn't a bump in the road. It turns out, our perfect little tree had travelled on a truck all the way from Wisconsin and was refusing to let it's branches fall after being tied up for so long. This meant that we couldn't decorate it yet. So there it sat, for nearly a week, naked (...undecorated).  

This weekend while I did some christmas shopping, Maeghan finished the decorating. How beautiful it was to come home to an apartment lit only by Christmas lights and flickering candle flames...it almost made me forget about the parquet floors that drive me wild! 

In another effort to pretty-up our place and prepare for the holidays, I baked and decorated 2 dozen gingerbread cookies. While waiting for Maeghan to come home from work, I thought I would get ahead of the game and bake enough cookies to freeze for Christmas. For those of you who know my fiancée, you know this freezing thing wasn't going to happen. The day after I baked the cookies, Maeghan and I both took a few in our lunches. The difference, however, is that I ate one and shared the rest with my coworkers while Maeghan ate all of them herself. So of course, the cookies are already gone. At least its a testament to my baking skills, right?

For the next few weeks, we'll stick to sipping hot chocolate and eggnog while enjoying our beautifully decorated apartment...and I'll save my baking until the last minute so at least a few treats make it to our families. 

Say "Maybe" to the Dress?

You can bet the second my left hand had a shiny rock on it I was calling up bridal shops and making appointments to try on wedding dresses; why waste any time right? Before even setting foot in a shop, I had a Pinterest board totally dedicated to wedding dresses. Majority of the dresses on my board were little lace numbers with revealing backs, no straps, and a figure-flattering shape. So, naturally, when I arrived at the bridal salon on day one of wedding dress shopping I pulled out my iPhone, hopped on my Pinterest board and showed the attendant all of my hopes and dreams. She was great; she hurried off and found 4 or 5 dresses very similar to the ones in my photos. However, what happened when I put the first one on I could have never predicted.

With my MOH, and the 16 year-old attendant (okay fine she was like 18) waiting outside the fitting room, I struggled to climb into a $2,000 dress made of nearly 50 pounds of thick lace. Once the dress was on, I stood alone in front of the 360 mirrors before opening the door and let my eyes fill with tears. I looked hideous. Was this what I looked like in a wedding dress? Maybe I'm not supposed to get married if this is what I look like in a wedding dress? The awful thoughts kept growing and bouncing around in my head until I opened the door, stepped out of the fitting room, and heard my MOH burst out laughing. It was the dress, the dress was hideous and I was not. What a horrible first wedding dress experience, but I'm so glad it happened since it really helped me with the rest of my shop.

The second dress I put on had a trumpet shape to it with a sweetheart neckline and a chapel length train. The dress was stunning and I looked great in it. It became a "maybe"...however, so did the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 13th...you get the point. Some of these maybe's fell closer to yes's and some closer to no's, but still, there were a lot of maybe's after 4 trips to dress shops and over 50 dresses were tried on, and none felt quite right.

Disappointed and confused, I took the the internet, and reached out to some of the previous brides I knew to find an answer to the daunting question, "how will I know when I've found the one"? The consensus was exactly what I didn't want to hear; responses along the lines of "you will just know, something inside of you will tell you, and you will just know". How aggravating for someone who has tried on so many dresses of so many different styles and known nothing except that 50 pounds of lace is too much and makes me cry.

(my wedding dress is in that pile somewhere!)

With this new information in mind, I continued to shop. With my MOH, with my mom and mom-in-law-to-be, with some of my other bridesmaids, heck at this point I would have taken input from my mailman. Then, in a bridal shop I'd never heard of until a few days before my appointment in a town I'd never really visited before, it happened. 

I tried on a few dresses with huge puffy skirts and glitter all over them to make my guests laugh, and some other dresses became maybe's (including one named Emma!). Then, my longest and dearest friend asked me to try on a dress so different than any of the 50 I'd previously tried. Reluctantly, I climbed into the dress. Holy moly! What a comfortable dress; so light, so moveable, no itching from the material, and it fit me like a glove right off the rack. Without even looking in the mirror I walked slowly out of the fitting room. That same friend, my childhood best friend who knows me better than anyone, smiled from ear to ear and started to tear up. I turned around to face the mirror and my heart nearly jumped out of chest. With my hair in a messy bun, bare feet, and in the middle of a bridal salon, I felt more beautiful than I have ever felt. This dress, the one I didn't want to try on, this was my dress. 

After a FaceTime with my momma, who made sure that I scrunched the material to see if it will wrinkle when I sit down (such a practical lady), I had made up my mind. As I would recommend to everyone, I slept on it. Which meant I travelled back to Ottawa and went to work the next day. Over 24 hours later I couldn't stop thinking about the dress. So, I did what us thrifters do best; I called around to bridal shops in the Ottawa area to find out who had the dress and who had it for the best price. Two weeks after the initial try-on, my dress was ordered from a shop here in Ottawa, and for $200 less than the first shop! 

So I guess the moral of the story here is to be open; of course try on your dream dress that you've had on your Pinterest board for years, or that's been folded up in your wallet since you cut it out of a magazine when you were a kid, but also try on that dress at the back of the rack that's so far from what you imagined you'd wear on your big day. When there are thousands of different dresses, you never know which one is going to look stunning on you!

Happy shopping, or happy dreaming!