Friday is for pizza tips

I got home from the hospital early today and decided to make a pizza. All I could find as toppings were mozzarella, mushroom, green pepper and some home grown origanum (oregano). Being the daring-in-the-kitchen type of guy I am, I thought some rocket (arugula) and watercress leaves would finish it off perfectly. Trust me, I have seen rocket as a pizza ingredient before. Maybe not watercress, but it was worth a shot.
I didn’t want the leaves to burn, so I put the vegetables and greens down on the base first, and then the mozzarella. Into the oven it went and… out it came, not as planned. The mushrooms and peppers were medium rare and the leaves were burnt and crispy.

Drat!

So, for our Friday pizza tips, what do we learn from this story?
1. Mushrooms and peppers do better on top of the cheese; and,
2. If you want to add green leaves to a pizza, do it after you have baked the pizza.
Unless, or course, small carcinogenic crispy leaves with watery mushrooms are your thing.

And I bet you never thought you would learn that today?

tea time

Tomorrow there is a special "international students" coffee hour in the refectory at 10. They have asked us to address the student body and say how our year has been here, and what we find peculiar about US culture. Should be interesting! BUT, more importantly, they asked us (the internationals) to bring a dessert from our country. Yummy! There will be desserts from Korea, Mexico, England, Czech Republic, Kenya, Hungary and... yes! you guessed it - South Africa!

Koeksusters were just way out of my league, so... I got all patriotic (and Afrikaans) and, armed with a recipe from Allrecipes.com, I stayed up past midnight to create...
...two big, fat, tasty Melkterts! (That's 'Milktart' for all the English folks.) Aren't you proud of me? I have a headache from licking two bowls clean. Good night. (oh, and these are real live pictures from our kitchen an hour ago.)

lights

I will be getting a camera this week - there's not a chance i'm going to New Mexico without one. Tonight however I borrowed Elizabeth's to get a pic of the 12 Days disc and tee-shirt (below). While i was clicking away, i remembered my 'light creations' by my bed. Some guy left a great big Vodka bottle here after a party, so i kept it, bought some christmas lights, and stuffed them inside (sans the liquid, obviously). I found another bottle later, got some more lights, and now my bedside table looks rather arty. They make great ambient lighting. I'm not really sure why i need that in my room, but it is pretty! Try this one at home yourself! I'm still thinking of ways to hang them from a light fitting.