Lena's Homemade Pizza

Hey Gentle Readers, we made Pizza tonight...well Lena made Pizza and Robert and I just got in the way.

It was very tasty though. Heres what she did.

Ingredients

Pizza base dough.
Ham
Pepperoni slices
Red paprika
Spring Onion
White Onion
Red chilli
Mozzarella cheese
Grated cheddar cheese
Tomato Ketchup
Olive oil
Salt
Flour

Method
Make the dough including 40ml of olive oil.
Roll out the dough onto greaseproof paper.
Cover the dough in a thin layer of quality ketchup and cover the ketchup with nice dollops of mozzarella.

Chop up all the other ingredients and spread generously over the top of the pizza.
Finally sprinkle a couple of handfulls of cheddar on the top.

Place into a hot over gas mark 7 or 8 and cook for approximately 25 minutes.

Robert was very excited at the thought of home-made pizza as you can see in this picture.

#recipes #homemadepizza

Accomodation in China(C-35)

Hello gentle readers we just found out our apartment in China is going to be on the 36th floor.

Yikes!

#china #36thfloor #scaredofheights

Happy Anniversary

Hello Gentle readers.

2 years ago today Lena and I got married. It has been an amazing journey and there are a lot more adventures to come.

I love my wife very much.

#anniversary #ilovelena

Babushka's Sweet pastry

Hello again Gentle Reader. After yesterdays savoury treats its time for something sweet.
Lena used some left over pastry from yesterday and the jam we made last week as well as sugar and cinnamon to create a variety of different pastries that her Grandmother used to make.

Lena made a few different styles of pastry as you can see in the photos.

Ingredients
Pastry
Strawberry Jam
Apricot Jam
Sugar
Cinammon
1 egg

Method

Cut the pastry and roll out fill with jam and close the pastry so that the jam cant ooze out. Place on a baking tray and place in a preheated oven (gas mark 6) for 20 minutes or so.

Robert thinks they look Nummy.

For the cinammon roses flatten out the pastry and sprinkle sugar and cinammon onto it. Roll up the pastry and cut into smaller pieces.
They were super tasty and look amazing. Thank you Lena.

#tasty #babuskapastry #recipe

Istomin Family Recipe: Spring Onion and Egg Pie

Well happy Saturday night Gentle Reader and thanks for looking in on my world again.
As you know a few weeks ago, Lena's mum, Lena, Robert and I visited Russia, in particular the village of Kuzino where Lena's Babushka lived.

Sadly, she passed away just a few weeks before our visit and I never got to meet this special lady. Lena though, was inspired to try one of her family recipes. We had tried them in Russia and here for you to try yourself is the recipe for Babushka's savoury meat free pasty.

Ingredients
7 Eggs
200g Spring Onions
4 and a half cups of plain flour.
1 packet yeast (14g)
2 teaspoon salt
500ml warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
100g butter
Sliced red chilli (optional)

Method
Hard Boil the Eggs and wash and chop the green bits of the spring onion.

Add the yeast, sugar and salt to the water and stir. Add the flour and mix into a dough.

Leave the dough in a warm place to let it rise.

Peel the eggs and chop them into very small pieces and add the spring onions and the melted butter. Stir so you get a buttery, eggy, oniony mixture.

Take some of the dough and cut up into similar sized pieces and roll out evenly with a rolling pin. Spoon some of the mixture onto the dough and pinch it closed. Repeat until you have got 4 pies.

Pour some olive oil into a frying pan and place on a low heat. Carefully place the pies in one at a time and fry gently turning them regularly so that they are cooked evenly.

Repeat until you have used up all the filling. As a twist I chopped up some red chilli and added this to the mix for a few of the pies.

These pies are really tasty and they were fun to make because as a family we made them. Lena's Babushka handed down the recipe and we hope she would have liked what we did tonight.

#recipes #istomin #springonionandeggpies

Omelette (In a bag)

Hello there Gentle Readers.

Last night we tried something new for dinner. Omelette.

I know what you are thinking..."omelette...new" but its the way we did it that was new.

We made the omelettes in plastic freezer bags and I want to share with you how to do it for yourself. The beauty of this is that because you make individual omelletes for each person and they can be filled with whatever you fancy.

Ingredients
Eggs obviously
Anything you fancy

Method.
For each person you will need a sealable freezer bag.

Break 2 or 3 eggs into the bag and shake or squish them so they get properly liquified.
Add your other ingredients and shake the bag so they are spread evenly through the egg.

Seal the bags and place them carefully into boiling water for 15 minutes. Be very careful.

After 15 minutes carefully pour the contents of the bag onto a plate. The omelette will be shaped a bit like a sausage.

If you think your omelette looks a bit pale you can place it in a frying pan and brown it til its crispy on the outside.

We had ours with toast but you could have them anyway you want.

Robert was suitably shocked when we told him about how we were cooking his dinner.

#recipes #omeletteinabag

Top 10 fun facts about George W. Bush

Well howdy Gentle readers. Ex POTUS George "dubya"Bush turns 71 today so in honour of his special day I present to you some little known facts about the 43rd President of the United States of America.

1. While at Yale in 1966, he was arrested for trying to steal a Christmas wreath.

 2. He was a high-school cheerleader.

3. He was an alcoholic before he got married.

4. He served as a part time fighter pilot in the National Guard.....

5.....but was suspended for failing to take a medical.

6. He has painted portraits of several world leaders, including Vladimir Putin.

7. He is only US President to have recieved an MBA.

8. While at Yale he played Rugby Union for the University.

9. In 1993 Bush ran a marathon in 3 hours 44 minutes.

10. In his 8 years as president he had the highest and the lowest approval ratings in US presidential history. The highest 90% was just after 9/11 and the lowest 22% just after Hurricane Katrina.

#funfacts #georgewbush