Addendum to purchases from 7/31: Mike bought a big gulp at 7-11 for $1.50. He really doesn’t waste a whole lot of money, and he’s the one with the full-time job, so I can’t complain too much — even though it makes me a little crazy when we have soda pop at home…)

We bought a new coffee maker several months ago (our old one was a wedding present and was over 20 years old). The new one has one of those cone filters. We’ve been buying the paper liners and ran out just before our trip. Now we’ve decided that we like our coffee better made with just the mesh strainer. Not a huge savings, but why spend money when you don’t have to.

Today was garage sale shopping day. I grabbed soft drinks before we left the house, so we didn’t stop anywhere for food/drinks. Slow day as far as “finds”. Our first stop was to pick up carpet remnants from a fellow freecycler to use on the paths in my vegetable garden, which, by the way, had plenty to harvest when we got home from vacation. A TON of green beans. Several more jalapeños, tomatoes (sort of a pathetic year, not doing heirlooms again!), and about a quart of tomatillos.

Okay, back to today’s food. Dinner was homemade pizza, as is our custom on *most* Saturday nights. We make a 2 pound batch of dough and make two large thin crust pizzas. I make the dough in my bread machine, but it can easily be made in a heavy duty mixer or by hand.

Pizza Dough – 2 pounds

1 ½ cups Water
4 cups Bread Flour (you can use all purpose if that’s all you’ve got)
1 tsp Salt
3 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp Sugar
2 tbsp Yeast, Active Dry

Place all ingredients in pan, select dough setting and press start.

When dough has risen long enough, the machine will beep. Turn off break machine, remove pan and turn out dough onto a floured countertop or cutting board. Split dough into two parts and form dough into small mounds and allow it to rest for 10 minutes.

Roll out dough into 2 large pizzas. Top with pizza sauce and toppings of your choice. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

I generally use the pizza sauce sold in the #10 cans at Sams Club. They cost about $4.80, or thereabouts. That makes a LOT of pizza. When I open a can I use what I need and freeze the rest in plastic ice cube trays and pop the cubes into zippered freezer bags. It takes 8-10 cubes of frozen sauce to make a pizza (defrosting them in the microwave takes a little over 2 minutes). I’ve considered making my own, but the tomato sauce costs about the same, and I’m happy with the pre-made, so I just don’t see the point.

Tonight’s pizza had mozzarella and parmesean cheeses, pepperoni, bell pepper (bought on sale, chopped and frozen), chopped onions, and sliced black olives (I buy whole and use my egg slicer to slice them up quickly). Even with 2 teenage boys we have leftovers, and those make a good lunch for who ever remembers its in the fridge first.

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