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On Saturday we had our neighbors over for dinner.  Sarah and their seven year-old daughter, Juliet, set up a pretend hair salon and spa in the upstairs bathroom.  This was the menu of available hairstyles. 

I was offered the one on the lower right.

Maria, our housekeeper, often leaves helpful notes for us.  We found this one Friday evening.  It was offputting, although we were reassured by Maria’s use of the past tense. 

Out of an abundance of caution, I checked the sink, and found this:

For the record, it was about the same size as every other bat I’ve seen.  It seemed to be dead.  But when I tried to scoop it into a bag with a piece of cardboard, I found it oddly pliant, possibly reactive.  I told Jen I could not assure her that the bat was dead.  (Jen: “Why not just say that it moved?!”) 

Fortunately, Jen knows a special trick, effective against large spiders — and, it turns out, bats — using only a piece of cardboard and a plastic container. 

The bat was miffed.

Jen spirited the bat outside, and, on Saturday morning when I sent her to check, was able to report that it was gone.

Alert PondCam™ viewers today will have seen Jen clearing out some space for Sarah to skate on the pond.  She (Sarah) had a fantastic time. 

Below you can see Jen hard at work, an image captured from the pondcam, and today’s sunset.  We also had a mysterious visitor – all theories are welcome.

Sarah had a wonderful holiday season.  On the right side of the hearth you can see the empty dishes where Sarah left milk and cookies for Santa, and a bowl of carrots for the reindeer.

She also got to do a bit of sledding with her friend Max.

We returned from two weeks away (Thanksgiving) to encounter the first snowfall of the season.  This created opportunities for sledding, snowman-building, and relaxing in front of the fire.  Below, Sarah is showing off her handiwork from Sinterklaas, Rhinebeck’s annual assault on the Establishment Clause.  While there, Sarah entered the teddy bear dress-up contest (with a stuffed cat), and won the “Most Special” award.

We also had a pretty nice sunset.

For the last six or seven weeks, we’ve been making pizza every Saturday night, trying to perfect it.  It has not been very difficult to get Sarah to the dinner table on Saturday.  

Below are the recipes we’ve been using.  All are subject to change.  The dough owes a lot (though not, I believe, in a legally cognizable way) to Mario Batali.  The sauce is an adaptation of what I would normally make for pasta (with crushed tomatoes instead of whole, cayenne pepper instead of black, and much less cooking), but it is broadly similar to the recipe in The Godfather.  The pizza itself is the product of trial and error. 

On the Internet, there is, not surprisingly, a rich literature about pizza making.  To summarize: those with pizza stones, peels and circular cutters consider them essential.  Those without them disagree.  People whose ovens can be made very hot believe pizza should be cooked in a very hot oven.  The others note that corn meal — which is very useful for sliding pies in and out of the oven — burns above 450 degrees.  (For what it’s worth, I think the pizza stone does make possible a crisper pie; you could probably MacGyver a pizza peel out of the back of a cookie sheet and it would work just fine; a pizza wheel is fun, and convenient; and heat versus corn meal might be a wash.) 

If you give it a try, please report your findings.

Pizza Dough

3 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp instant or fast-acting dry yeast  (or a packet of regular active dry yeast)
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp sugar (or honey)
1/4 cup white wine (something acidic, like a sauvignon blanc or gruner veltliner)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup warm water

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.  Add the wet ingredients and stir with a large spoon until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated. You may need to use your hands at the end.  Turn the dough out onto a surface lightly dusted with flour and knead for 7-10 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic.  Form into a ball.  Pour about 1 tsp olive oil into a large clean bowl and use the dough to oil the bowl, turning to cover the dough.  Cover bowl with a tea towel and let dough rise for 1-2 hours, until dough has doubled in size. 

Using both hands, pinch dough in the middle to divide in two.  Form each half into a ball and place on a lightly floured surface, dusting the tops with flour.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for about 30 minutes before using.

Pizza Sauce

1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion (or 2 medium shallots), chopped fine
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 tbsp dried oregano
2 tsp dark brown sugar
1/4 cup red wine
1 bay leaf

Add olive oil to a large saucepan over medium heat.  Once the oil is hot, add the onion, garlic, salt and cayenne pepper.  Cook until onions are translucent, but do not let the garlic brown.  Add all other ingredients and stir, reducing heat to low.  Adjust seasonings to taste.   Simmer for 15 minutes and remove from heat.

Pizza

Corn meal
Parchment paper (if cooking at very high temperature)
Pizza dough
Pizza sauce
Fresh mozzarella
Other toppings (optional)

Preheat the oven to its highest setting.  (Our oven has no marked setting beyond 500 degrees, but there’s a good 3/8 of an inch after that before you get to broil, and we set it just shy of broil.  I’d guess it’s around 625 degrees.  If your oven has a self-cleaning function, you might consider using that.)  And it should preheat for a good long while; an hour or so.  You can also make excellent pizza at 450 degrees; if doing so, sprinkle the pizza stone with corn meal before heating. 

Lightly sprinkle a peel with corn meal and, if cooking above 450 degrees, place parchment paper on top of it.  After flouring your hands, stretch the dough into a disk and place on parchment paper or peel.  (You’ve seen this in the pizzeria.  If you want a very thin crust, you’ll get there faster with gravity, letting the dough hang, than by using a rolling pin.  If the dough is not cooperating, just let it rest for 10 minutes or so.) 

Spread sauce over the pie, leaving a half-inch border. You don’t need much sauce – the recipe above will make enough for four pies.  Add cheese and any other desired toppings.  Again, less is more. Slide pizza (and, if you’re using it, parchment paper) onto the pizza stone.  If you’re using parchment paper, remove it from beneath the pizza it after 2-3 minutes using a pair of tongs and oven mitts, using the “hand is quicker than the eye” motion.  In a really hot oven, the pizza might be done in about 4 minutes.  At 450 degrees, it might take 8-10 minutes.   Remove when cheese begins to brown and crust begins to burn.

Let rest for a few minutes before slicing.

It was warm enough on Sunday to be outside without a coat.

Sarah is enjoying a post-Halloween Tootsie Pop — they now come in pomegranate!

Here is today’s sunset — which unfortunately comes at about 4:00 p.m.

As Dave (who cuts our lawn) says, “Too bad you can’t sell ’em.”