Maya Angelou and New Friends!

The wonderful and wise Maya Angelou spoke tonight at Randolph College in Lynchburg. I'd love to tell you how great she was, but unfortunately I didn't get in!

I met up with a new friend from a book club I just joined and we had a delicious light dinner at Rivermont Pizza before getting in a tremendously long line just before 6pm. Dr. Angelou was scheduled to speak at 7pm. We knew we should arrive early because students and teachers were allowed in first but there were no tickets, just first-come, first-served basis. What we didn't realize was that all of Lynchburg decided to show up!

After waiting for over two hours and meeting up two other ladies from the book club, some police officers came and told everyone that the building was full and we had to leave. Such a bummer! We got as far as her tour bus, but no further. Despite not being able to see Maya Angelou speak, we had a great time hanging out and chatting with other folks in line. It ended up being really fun!

We left Randolph's campus and walked a couple blocks over to Mangia to sit and chat some more with drinks and appetizers. They had the most adorable old man playing classic and ragtime piano the whole evening! One more lady from the book club came by and joined us and shared some things that Ms. Angelou said. She was lucky enough to know a Randolph alumni and was able to get in!

Overall we had a great night, had a little preview book discussion, ate good food, swapped stories and came up with great ideas like a cooking club expanded from the book club.

Did I mention I ran out into the street to try and help catch a loose dog?

Yeah that happened too.

It was a great night and we made some great memories! Can't wait for our first book club meeting on Saturday! We're reading MWF Seeks BFF-My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend. It's really good!

P.S. This was my 100th post!!!

Have you ever read any of Maya Angelou's work? What's your favorite poem or book?

Till next time,
Catherine

Cook: Whole Wheat Spinach & Feta Pizza

My husband and I have an unhealthy obsession with Domino's Spinach and Feta pizza. I know! I know! But sometimes, it's just a guilty pleasure when we don't feel like cooking. While grocery shopping, Brian got the grand idea to buy the ingredients to try and make it ourselves! We had talked about it before and now we finally got around to it and let me just tell you...best decision. 

Just take a look at that! It tastes as good as it looks, I swear it!

Even if you're not a big fan of spinach, trust me, you'll like this! 

Whole Wheat Spinach & Feta Pizza

Pizza Dough Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cups of warm water
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 1 Tbs or 1 packet of active dry yeast
• 6 cups of whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp salt

Toppings: 

• Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
• Sprinkle of garlic salt
• Grated parmesan cheese
• Grated romano cheese (optional)
• Block of shredded mozzarella
• Fresh spinach leaves
• Crumbled feta cheese 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Prepare your pizza dough first. Basically you proof the yeast by letting the warm water, yeast, and sugar sit for about 10 minutes, then slowly mix in the flour (add in the salt and olive oil with the first cup of flour). Knead the dough once it is thick enough to be handled, adding flour as needed. Form it into a ball and let it "rest" for about 15 minutes. 

Now roll out the dough. We split the dough into two and they made a somewhat thin crust pizza but we got two instead of just one. I recommend splitting it into two because whole wheat pizza dough tends to be pretty filling, in my opinion. 

Press your fingers into the edges to create a crust on the outside. I made just a little crust so it would keep the sauce from spilling over but not so much that you end up wasting it. 

Carefully move the dough to your pizza pan. I brushed olive oil over the surface so that the garlic salt would stick. This step may or may not be needed. 

Sprinkle some garlic salt on the edges for a little delicious addition. 

Now sprinkle your parmesan all over. In hindsight, it's probably a better idea to put the parmesan on after the alfredo sauce because it made it a little more difficult to spread the sauce. 

Pour on the alfredo! 

Spread it to whatever thickness you prefer. We used maybe 1/3 of a jar. 

Mozzarella time! As thick or thin as you want! We like a bit of cheese as you can tell!

Fresh spinach leaves on top. It looks like a lot but they shrink up a bit in the oven. I think next time I'll put almost double this much. 

Sprinkle on your crumbled feta. We also put a little more mozzarella on top of the spinach leaves to help bake them onto the pizza.

Now bake the pizza for about 15-20 minutes. Keep an eye on it though. 

Once the cheese starts to brown it's done!

Sometimes it can be tough to see when whole wheat is done because it's more difficult to see when it's browning. Relying on the cheese turning brown seemed to do the trick for our pizzas.

I used to be a plain cheese pizza kind of girl but after trying the spinach and feta pizza from Domino's, I was hooked! And now that we've mastered it at home, we're both totally hooked. I doubt we'll be calling Domino's anytime soon! The best part is that, despite all the cheese, it's at least whole wheat dough and there's spinach on it! 

We'll be making this again for sure! I think you should too!

Do you like to make your own pizza? What's your favorite kind of pizza to make or buy?

Till next time,

Catherine

I've linked up to Less Laundry, More Linking #5 with Life After Laundry and Sensational Creations!