Hello a catch up day as this was what we did on the way to Florida. I would have to stop so much that we had to take our time having places to stay over and places to visit as to make the trip doable. We gave ourselves extra time for this. I can’t ride in the car for long distances. I have three cushions and a vibration and heat pad too. My back gets to cramping and my legs start have muscles spasms not to mention the pain in the right foot it’s stays numb and frozen. Yep that’s why we have to break the ride up. So Bruce ordered tickets online for a specific time for the Louisville Slugger factory.
I have wanted to go here for so many many years. Especially when my girls were playing softball. I had once seen a scrapbook page of the place and just knew I wanted to take my kids there. Well as with time being a thief the only kid that made it there was Dusty. Since Kim and Jr bought him the cruise ship ticket he was lucky enough to get to go this summer. What a wonderful gift. He can thank Levi for that. Levi had told Kim we can leave one of my sisters home so we can bring Dusty. Haha. Kim called her travel agent and was able to add another person. So I was so happy and joyful that Dusty was coming. We stopped at this famous place that I have been wanting to visit for so long. It was a wonderful place. I only wish we could have stayed longer as it was a beautiful town and so much to do. They even have the original paddle boats. Which would be so fun to go on. I would highly recommend this town for a visit if you will be near or close as it is a fantastic spot.
Dusty and I in front of the biggest bat!
The bat is HUGE! They tell the story about it. The information they provide is especially interesting.
We arrived around thirty minutes early before our tour. So once we took the pictures of the world’s largest bat. We crossed the street to see the old bourbon barrel truck. I don’t think I would be able to ride in that truck look at the seat. Hard and uncomfortable.
The famous players have signed the machine that makes the wooden bats.
This was a coffee shop we went to close to the Slugger Museum. It was very nice. I think it was called Beard Coffee.
This was on the side of a building I took from car at the stoplight.
I wanted to go to the art store as there really isn’t any near me. So when we were parking we saw this. Of course I loved it lol it’s a Knicky knack thang you wouldn’t understand.
You see our car is parked right beside it.
A very nice art store of course our money is so very low but I was able to buy a tube of watercolor paint and a package of glass beads. I was content. It was the joy of being in the town.i hope you enjoyed our little trip to Louisville Kentucky. It is a must to see. Make more than a few hours of it. Do one of those bourbon tours. We were only there for a couple of hours but so lovely.
A few updates
So the car has been broke down. It was the starter and the heat wasn’t working in the front of the car. Bruce worked on it for days. In the cold weather too. It was quite the experience as it was so cold his fingers would be wet they would stick to the metal tools. He tried wearing plastic gloves as well. Back in 1990 he had a stabbing incident at the marina he worked at that severed his median nerve in his arm. He was a reconstructive surgery for over seven hours. I was 22 at the time we had three children. It was the first time I had ever drank coffee in my life. I had worked a 16 hour shift at the hospital I did a lot of those days like that. I had a good babysitter whom we would take turns Bruce dropped them off early in the morning and I would pick them up after my shifts. I had pulled a 3-11 and a 11-7. I had picked the children up and got home to call Bruce at work. Well at that time only the super rich had cell phones. I called his work, the phone only rang in the office of this humongous company of boat builders. Bruce repaired engines and took wealthy people out on their new boats to teach them how to use them. He would get good tips then. So when the office answered the phone I heard the girl say “it’s his wife” I was like to myself what’s going on I am thinking. Well a few seconds later she gets back on the phone and says there’s been an accident and Bruce has left in an ambulance to the hospital. I had a zillion questions running through my head so I asked which hospital she Norfolk General (which now I believe is Sentara Norfolk general) it may have changed. I asked the office lady what happened then the boss got on the phone, told me everything was fine he would be going into surgery so you might want to head on over to the hospital. I called Maria our babysitter and she said she would watch the children. So I dropped them off and got to the hospital where he was in the surgery. He came out of surgery meaner than a snake. They kept him overnight and then we went to the doctors office the next day. The doctor fell in love with all the babies. Till this day his arm is messed up and he can’t use two fingers on his hand. So why I told you this story was because it makes it hard to hold bolts when the two fingers that would hold the bolts don’t work but the good thing is he completely compensates for it. Just takes longer. That’s why it took so long for the work he did on the car. I’m glad the car is working now. Yay!!!! Happy dance. I am reading two new books Joyful and The Correspondent By Virginia Evans.
Hello and welcome. Yes I know it looks delicious. As it should be. Earlier this year we had bought the PiPizza Pan yes a Pi pan. When I was a child my grandmother Joann used to say it’s a pizza pie. She was always saying things like that. She would say chride Fricky for fried chicken. When I would ask a question she would always say no it’s for your brother over in Italy. What??? It took me many years to get that! I used to think I really had a brother in Italy. I know laugh. She was a school guard and was a school guard for 30 years. She left because she became ill with what they called organic brain syndrome. She was diagnosed around age 52 I was 12 years old. It was a very painful experience to see your grandmother deteriorate in her memory. Anyway I digress. Did you come here for the pizza or what?? I would imagine you did. I have spent my life making pizzas. We used to buy them in the Chef BoyArDChef Pizzas in a green box. The box may have changed but this was over 40 years ago when I would buy them. It was like a Friday night special. I will have been married for 41 years this November. I was making them as a teen. I can still even remember making them when we lived in Norfolk behind the ABC Daycare which Bruce cut the grass for the school to pay for Jrs. Daycare. I was 18 going to Nursing school. Those pizzas were so delicious. The funny thing is I would make homemade wheat rolls (old Betty Crocker recipe book) but yet I bought that pizza kit. Haha. š¤£ I think that kit was only like a 1.40 then if that. It came with everything in the box. Good times! I want to add that the Lodge pan shown in the picture will hold the recipe batch below perfectly. No need to cut the dough. It’s a great easy way to make that pizza for the family.
We have always ate pineapple on our pizzas even when I was a teen I would go to chuck e Cheese with friends and I would order the ham and pineapple. I know laugh but if you then you know it’s very tasty. Lip smacking delicious. When Bruce worked at Dominoes Pizza he would bring home pizzas sometimes and he always had pineapple with extra cheese and extra sauce. That was our favorite!! Even our kids loved it.
I also will put them in cast iron pans to bake in. Add extra olive oil for a crunchy crust.
I also use the stones to cook them on as well but I believe the cast iron does a great job. As they both do.
Riggs and Ledger love when I make these homemade pizzas. They help me decorate them.
I am gluten free and have been eating gluten free since 2015. I have celiac’s disease. I have no choice but I find so much more gluten free items now than I did before. We would always have to drive to VA. Beach to find things for me at the Trader Joe’s or the Whole Foods. Then when Wegmans opened we went there as they had a great selections as well. I miss VA. Beach. Some of my best friends lived there. My art group was there.
A lot of times we will use the Pioneer Princess to cook the pizzas. It has to be in the teens as it will get so warm in here.
So a lot of times I will freeze the dough I wrap in cellophane and then put in gallon bags. They keep up to four months. Just thaw and use as you would. We would have huge pizza parties at my old house as we had built a homemade pizza oven. It was hand built. I will share more on that later. I was late on this post as it was. As if there is a time limit..,, lol it’s my internal time clock. Haha
So when we would have the parties I would make a list of everything we would need for the toppings. The boys mostly Colby made the Buffalo chicken pizza. Colten would make the bbq pizza. Dusty was a cheese pizza. Cooper was the pepperoni. š Now for what you all have waited for……
The Recipe
Pizza Dough Recipe
water 1 1/3 cups warm 100 degrees Fahrenheit (I use a thermometer)
Olive oil 2 TBS.
Sugar 1 Tablespoon
Salt 1 teaspoon
Flour 4 cups (I use whatever flour I have wether it’s bread flour or white flour)
Active dry yeast 2 teaspoons I buy the one in the jar and I keep it in the refrigerator.
I use a bread machine as having a family of nine children I needed appliances that could help me cook with. When my girls were growing up they would help with so much. In the bread machine I just use the dough cycle and put your water in first then the olive oil. Add the flour and salt. Then add the sugar and yeast. Start the bread machine and go do something else for 1 hour and half. Then your pizza dough is ready to make into delicious pizza. When I would have these pizza parties I had so many people over I had for bread machines going at once and then I would refrigerate the dough to be ready for the pizza party. When Kim and Jr got married in 2014 we had a pizza party that night at the wedding party. Bruce and I cooked pizzas (mostly Bruce) I kept everything together. Bruce cooked more than fifty pizzas that night. I think that was the record.
Hello and welcome, so if you are new here this is part of the 100 day project I am working on. You pick whatever you want to do the whole idea is in the end you will have learned something and made a new habit for yourself. Plus it’s creative and we all need creativity wholeheartedly!!! It can be as simple as a small sketch or a scribble anything you want. If you have viewed the last 10 days you can see it Days 1-10 the ones you are looking at currently at days 11-20
Day 12 I have nothing to really look at I am going by memory of trees my so called usual drawings. The skull I had actually seen one day on a walk.
Day 13 Here for the Craterellus foetidus I had decided to add a spotted skunk.
Day 14
This one has so much meaning, Skylar had spent a lot of time with me during 2022. She even went to school here while mom was deployed to Korea. We had bought a rabbit at the state fair and we would go on walks every afternoon. Fall was upon us and the sky was golden pink and purples. The leaves had newly falling and oh the beauty of it just poured out of me unto this painting. I had to be grandma and mom while she was here and it was a struggle at times. She was in the fourth grade then. If she didn’t get her way she would get upset. As with grandma she was used to getting her way. Easy peasy. Well I want you to know I miss those times we had together as it was special so very special. I enjoyed her company and the games we played board games etc. we did a lot then. Value every minute in your life because once that minute is gone it’s gone!!! You will want to relive it once more. This is so true.
Day 15 these are very small but I added the pileated woodpecker.
Day 16 when I was painting the background in the green I saw the green man show up. So I painted him. He was stopping by to make sure I had painted nature correctly.
Day 17 Shrimp or the woods doesn’t taste like shrimp but has the texture of shrimp. This one I painted without adding a sketch. It just flowed out and I did it while we were on a Zoom call with our weekly group chats for the 100 Day Project.
Day 18 this was right out of my brain as we have seen these many times over and the first time I saw one with snow on it, it was breathtaking beauty. See pictures below.
Day 19 Here I was enjoying just playing the Reishi in watercolor. It’s such a beautiful mushroom.
Day 20 Here is day 20 this one I actually started out total different like I was in charge and next thing I looked and it wasn’t going to work. My brain was somewhere else while I was painting as I looked and it was way off on perspective. I was going to let it slide but I couldn’t I had to fix it. So I tore a page out of the book (which I like never do) so I cut out the lacquered mushrooms off the stump I messed up on (it was already painted) I added a sweet little deer like the ones that keep coming to my yard. They come for the apples and the birdseed. When Brooks and Baker come over they ask for apples and then when they are done they tell me to throw it out for the deer. It’s the cutest.
Here is the picture of the Ganoderma applanatum I found in our woods several years back. I can spot these even riding down the roads. I hope you enjoyed the second 10 paintings of the 100 day project. I have enjoyed the process and I feel a progression in just the 20 days. I made hamburgers last night and potatoes for dinner and Bruce says it’s always good when you cook. It’s hard on me so I don’t do as much as I used to. Much love and respect, Good Vibes, Dawn Gallop
