USMB Coffee Shop IV

[Ringel05]

Waiting for the appliance guy to show up, the wife has been complaining about smelling natural gas for a couple of days now and claimed it was strong this morning. Seems to be a slow leak in the gas cooktop so notified the management company that we were calling the appliance people and then called, they'll be here soon.

DO NOT MONKEY AROUND WITH A GAS LEAK!!!!

You'll come home, fire up a stogie and wind up on the news!

How about calling the gas utility? They're Johnny on the spot when they hear about gas leaks.

I knew it was the cooktop, old 36" Jenn-air. The tech just left and as I suspected one of the burner valves has a very slow leak plus he found a leak in one of the feed joints. The feed joint is fixed but he has to order the valve for the burner so in the mean time the gas is off to the cooktop.
I know about not messing with gas, don't like it in the house but it's not our house so I deal with it. As for lighting up a stogie I'm a cig smoker and hate stogies besides I do not smoke in the house, ever. The heater furnace has been summerized so no pilot lights lit and the ovens are electric,again no pilot lights.
The other good thing is it's been relatively cool the last few days so the windows have been wide open but this next week we're supposed to get up to the high 90s, possibly low 100s which means the house will be mostly shut up.
Good thing the wife is extremely sensitive to the smell of gas, it has to be strong before I can smell it.

Natural gas-Lower explosive limit=9%. Upper explosive limit= 15%

Lower explosive limit (LEL) is the minimum concentration of natural gas in one atmosphere where an explosion can happen

UEL is the maximum.

Keep the gas above or below those concentrations and you can avoid an insurance claim.

Until the replacement part is installed I'll turn the gas on and off when I use the cooktop.

How about a few nights at the outdoor grill? Or Domino's delivery? Anything to keep the gas off.

Believe it or not I hate cooking on a grill and fast food pizza sucks big time might go with oven baked and a few microwave dinners. There are a couple of really good mom and pop pizza joints but they don't deliver so I'd have to pick them up, couple of good Chinese places nearby also.

 

[ChrisL]

DO NOT MONKEY AROUND WITH A GAS LEAK!!!!

You'll come home, fire up a stogie and wind up on the news!

How about calling the gas utility? They're Johnny on the spot when they hear about gas leaks.

I knew it was the cooktop, old 36" Jenn-air. The tech just left and as I suspected one of the burner valves has a very slow leak plus he found a leak in one of the feed joints. The feed joint is fixed but he has to order the valve for the burner so in the mean time the gas is off to the cooktop.
I know about not messing with gas, don't like it in the house but it's not our house so I deal with it. As for lighting up a stogie I'm a cig smoker and hate stogies besides I do not smoke in the house, ever. The heater furnace has been summerized so no pilot lights lit and the ovens are electric,again no pilot lights.
The other good thing is it's been relatively cool the last few days so the windows have been wide open but this next week we're supposed to get up to the high 90s, possibly low 100s which means the house will be mostly shut up.
Good thing the wife is extremely sensitive to the smell of gas, it has to be strong before I can smell it.

Natural gas-Lower explosive limit=9%. Upper explosive limit= 15%

Lower explosive limit (LEL) is the minimum concentration of natural gas in one atmosphere where an explosion can happen

UEL is the maximum.

Keep the gas above or below those concentrations and you can avoid an insurance claim.

Until the replacement part is installed I'll turn the gas on and off when I use the cooktop.

How about a few nights at the outdoor grill? Or Domino's delivery? Anything to keep the gas off.

Believe it or not I hate cooking on a grill and fast food pizza sucks big time might go with oven baked and a few microwave dinners. There are a couple of really good mom and pop pizza joints but they don't deliver so I'd have to pick them up, couple of good Chinese places nearby also.

I have yet to find a pizza that I'm really impressed with. You can bake your own pizza in the oven though! It's easy if you buy a ready-made crust, like Boboli.

 

[Ringel05]

I knew it was the cooktop, old 36" Jenn-air. The tech just left and as I suspected one of the burner valves has a very slow leak plus he found a leak in one of the feed joints. The feed joint is fixed but he has to order the valve for the burner so in the mean time the gas is off to the cooktop.
I know about not messing with gas, don't like it in the house but it's not our house so I deal with it. As for lighting up a stogie I'm a cig smoker and hate stogies besides I do not smoke in the house, ever. The heater furnace has been summerized so no pilot lights lit and the ovens are electric,again no pilot lights.
The other good thing is it's been relatively cool the last few days so the windows have been wide open but this next week we're supposed to get up to the high 90s, possibly low 100s which means the house will be mostly shut up.
Good thing the wife is extremely sensitive to the smell of gas, it has to be strong before I can smell it.

Natural gas-Lower explosive limit=9%. Upper explosive limit= 15%

Lower explosive limit (LEL) is the minimum concentration of natural gas in one atmosphere where an explosion can happen

UEL is the maximum.

Keep the gas above or below those concentrations and you can avoid an insurance claim.

Until the replacement part is installed I'll turn the gas on and off when I use the cooktop.

How about a few nights at the outdoor grill? Or Domino's delivery? Anything to keep the gas off.

Believe it or not I hate cooking on a grill and fast food pizza sucks big time might go with oven baked and a few microwave dinners. There are a couple of really good mom and pop pizza joints but they don't deliver so I'd have to pick them up, couple of good Chinese places nearby also.

I have yet to find a pizza that I'm really impressed with. You can bake your own pizza in the oven though! It's easy if you buy a ready-made crust, like Boboli.

Has to be thin crust for the wife, wheat allergy. There is one chain we found that we both love called Extreme Pizza, unfortunately there's not one down here.

 

[ChrisL]

Natural gas-Lower explosive limit=9%. Upper explosive limit= 15%

Lower explosive limit (LEL) is the minimum concentration of natural gas in one atmosphere where an explosion can happen

UEL is the maximum.

Keep the gas above or below those concentrations and you can avoid an insurance claim.

Until the replacement part is installed I'll turn the gas on and off when I use the cooktop.

How about a few nights at the outdoor grill? Or Domino's delivery? Anything to keep the gas off.

Believe it or not I hate cooking on a grill and fast food pizza sucks big time might go with oven baked and a few microwave dinners. There are a couple of really good mom and pop pizza joints but they don't deliver so I'd have to pick them up, couple of good Chinese places nearby also.

I have yet to find a pizza that I'm really impressed with. You can bake your own pizza in the oven though! It's easy if you buy a ready-made crust, like Boboli.

Has to be thin crust for the wife, wheat allergy. There is one chain we found that we both love called Extreme Pizza, unfortunately there's not one down here.

They sell thin pre-made crusts too. They are pretty good and you can put whatever you want on them. I love making my own pizzas. I think they even have gluten free crusts.

 

[Foxfyre]

I've a little time to kill here at work and it reminds me that, in my working life, I've had very little time to kill at work. I was once an Environmental Engineer chasing down leaking underground storage tanks, asbestos containing building materials, PCB leaking electrical transformers, lead based paint and a mysterious plume of naphthalene in a municipal water source.

Sure I made a lot more money. Sure I got to travel to exotic locales and experience local flavors. But I rarely spent a night in my own home and never had the chance to develop personal relationships that might serve me well today.

I've cast my shadow on the Roman Coliseum, got stopped by some nervous Czechoslovakian border guards, nearly got rolled in San Juan Puerto Rico and spit from the top of the Eiffel Tower. All in all, a pretty interesting life.

But I chucked it all when one of my colleagues got a telephone call in Philadelphia informing him of the death of his father. There he was, 325 miles away when his Pop passed away. I could not live with the notion that the same might happen to my family one day.

I was tired of making improvements to my home and never around to enjoy them. Once, after taking the Red Eye from an Army base in Germany back to Pittsburgh, I got home and collapsed on my sofa exhausted. I woke a few hours later and saw the lights were on. My first thought was 'This must be the Officer's Club.' not recognizing my own living room.

But things are different, if not a bit better now. I've had to adjust my budget downward and my expectations of adventure way downward, but I'm home every night. I miss the hotel services of clean sheets and towels every day, so I do laundry three times a week. I've never had to cook for myself, or even grocery shop. At first, I'd buy way too many groceries and end up tossing out produce and cheese and milk that I over bought.

There's just no manual instructing someone who lived out of a suitcase to adjust to a home centered life style.

Maybe I should write one, but I don't think there's a big market for it.

I've always thought you should write something other than the most visual and colorful posts at USMB. Maybe a short E-book or something along that order? Never assume there is no market for your idea until you have at least explored to see what is out there.

There are a gazillion single folks out there who struggle with the household stuff many of us take for granted such as laundry and cooking for one and good tips on food buying, storage, preparation, cleaning tips etc. Even those of us who have been doing stuff like that for decades can still learn a new trick or two.

 

[Ernie S.]

I was up at 6:30 again for another court date and for a second time, nothing got done. My attorney is the DA for the small town just east of here and had to handle an emergency commitment hearing here in Foley while I was cooling my heels in Bay Minette, 42 miles north of here. It seems that committing someone who thinks they are sane and rational and insists on representing themselves is a time consuming process.
Next date, 7/8
Got the late shift tonight, so I'll be up til 4 AM or so. Let's see... Yesterday morning, I was up about 9 AM. I opened up and stayed for poker til 10PM and came home, laid down and stared at the ceiling until 5 AM. If my brain is still working that works out to43 hours on 1.5 hours of sleep.
And you people wonder why I keep saying that 2 1/2 years ago I was retired but now I'm just tired.

Committing someone? I must have missed something.

Another case his lawyer had to deal with, I assume. That lead to the lawyer not being available for Ernie's court date and having it pushed back.

Ohhhh! I thought Ernie was trying to have someone committed. Lol.

Maybe that would be easier than divorcing her? Probably not. Just a thought.

Cheaper too... No committing her would be difficult, but having he incarcerated? I'm collecting surveillance all the time. I'm up to a couple motor vehicle infractions so far.

 

[Foxfyre]

In Lehigh Valley PA today

Good night everybody.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Wake up and smell the coffee folks...


Come down off your throne and leave your body alone
Somebody must change
You are the reason, I've been waiting so long
Somebody holds the key

But I'm near the end and I just ain't got the time
And I'm wasted and I can't find my way home

Read more: Steve Winwood - Can't Find My Way Home Lyrics | MetroLyrics

 

[Gracie]

Flour tortillas baked make a great pizza dough, too.

Meanwhile...I had to rearrange the back yard furniture further away from the small patio for the roomies to use. New guy seems to think its ok to climb up on the fence and peer over to chat with me when I am trying to just chill and be left alone. I am not amused at this behavior. So I told him the fence is there for a reason, the yard is my oasis and please do not do it any more. He apologized and said he wouldn't. Still...now I am not happy that he COULD again if he wanted to and I wouldn't know it if I wasn't looking and he is peeking. So I hung a bunch of sarongs on the umbrella, moved everything WAY back to the other side of the house as far as I could get it, and that seems to work. And I told MrG if he did it again, the gate is coming off and reinstalled against the patio room. He will lose access to the little patio for good. But if I can keep my cool for another 3 months, he will be gone. He is moving in September. And, this newest little stunt is something to put in their rental agreement. "NO CLIMBING ON THE FENCE. Looking over it is like walking in my private room!" and have them initial next to it on the contract.

Jeez. Why are people so damn oblivious to common courtesy?

 

[Nosmo King]

Let's take a closer look at my family's business. It's a printing shop that has been in constant operation since 1921, making it the third longest lasting family owned business in town. It was opened by my immigrant Great Grandfather who passed away before I was born. He hired his family as pressmen and co-operators.

My Uncle Alex, the patriarch of the family as I was growing up, ran the business until Pop took it over in the mid 1970s. My brother was hired by Pop after he graduated high school in 1978.

The shop is like a museum. Cases of type arraigned neatly in those cubby hole drawers folks pay big bucks for on E-Bay to use as curio cabinets, stand up front. Four and a half feet high and made of red oak, those cases have always been a temptation to me to re-finish (furniture finishing is one of my hobbies).

There were, at one time, two linotype machines near the front door. The linotype has been obsolete since the Truman administration. These machines stood six feet high and six feet wide. They would melt an ingot of lead and inject that molten lead into type face molds. Pop ran the linotypes. He would sit before the machine at a keyboard. This key board was not the type of keyboard you and I are looking at right now. That is to say, they were not qwerty keyboards, but boards with the upper case (capital) letters set on the left side and the lower case letters on the right. There was a keystone shaped case of typo face molds, called a matrix, mounted atop th linotype. As Pop would strike the upper case A key, a mold for and upper case A would fall into its place. Then, as he struck the lower case key denoting s, a small s mold would line up behind the A. So, Pop just set the type for the word 'as'.

If everything didn't line up just so, occasionally a stream of molten lead would squirt from the machine and catch Pop's trousers. Between the knee and the cuff, his trousers would come home splattered with bits of lead.

Passed the linotypes stand two Platen presses. You've seen them in movies. In fact, my brother and I notify each other whenever we see that obsolete technology in old movies. Frank Capra was a great impresario of showing off printing technology. They are the presses where there is a three foot diameter flywheel on the left, a smooth metal disc centered on top where the ink is applied. Rubber rollers smooth and pick up the ink and then roll down to cover the type. A bed upon which a single piece of paper is placed by a skilled pressman. There are little pins on the bed secured by sealing wax. That's right, sealing wax. The pressman has to be agile and quick lest he obtain the nickname "Lefty". A rhythm has to be set. Place the paper, remove the paper, place the paper, remove the paper. Any deviance could result in serious injury.

Furth back in the shop were the big presses. My Uncle Bill, husband of my Aunt Dorothy ran the big presses. Uncle Bill taught me how to 'match' nickels, pull his finger and how to wait while telling an off color joke to establish comedic timing. He ran a press that made raised ink on business cards. there was a special ink with a polymer in it that, when passed under a gas flame, would contract and produce that raised ink feel to business cards. So, we had wooden floors saturated with inks and solvents, paper everywhere and an open gas flame. How that shop never burst into flames, I don't know.

 

[Foxfyre]

Let's take a closer look at my family's business. It's a printing shop that has been in constant operation since 1921, making it the third longest lasting family owned business in town. It was opened by my immigrant Great Grandfather who passed away before I was born. He hired his family as pressmen and co-operators.

My Uncle Alex, the patriarch of the family as I was growing up, ran the business until Pop took it over in the mid 1970s. My brother was hired by Pop after he graduated high school in 1978.

The shop is like a museum. Cases of type arraigned neatly in those cubby hole drawers folks pay big bucks for on E-Bay to use as curio cabinets, stand up front. Four and a half feet high and made of red oak, those cases have always been a temptation to me to re-finish (furniture finishing is one of my hobbies).

There were, at one time, two linotype machines near the front door. The linotype has been obsolete since the Truman administration. These machines stood six feet high and six feet wide. They would melt an ingot of lead and inject that molten lead into type face molds. Pop ran the linotypes. He would sit before the machine at a keyboard. This key board was not the type of keyboard you and I are looking at right now. That is to say, they were not qwerty keyboards, but boards with the upper case (capital) letters set on the left side and the lower case letters on the right. There was a keystone shaped case of typo face molds, called a matrix, mounted atop th linotype. As Pop would strike the upper case A key, a mold for and upper case A would fall into its place. Then, as he struck the lower case key denoting s, a small s mold would line up behind the A. So, Pop just set the type for the word 'as'.

If everything didn't line up just so, occasionally a stream of molten lead would squirt from the machine and catch Pop's trousers. Between the knee and the cuff, his trousers would come home splattered with bits of lead.

Passed the linotypes stand two Platen presses. You've seen them in movies. In fact, my brother and I notify each other whenever we see that obsolete technology in old movies. Frank Capra was a great impresario of showing off printing technology. They are the presses where there is a three foot diameter flywheel on the left, a smooth metal disc centered on top where the ink is applied. Rubber rollers smooth and pick up the ink and then roll down to cover the type. A bed upon which a single piece of paper is placed by a skilled pressman. There are little pins on the bed secured by sealing wax. That's right, sealing wax. The pressman has to be agile and quick lest he obtain the nickname "Lefty". A rhythm has to be set. Place the paper, remove the paper, place the paper, remove the paper. Any deviance could result in serious injury.

Furth back in the shop were the big presses. My Uncle Bill, husband of my Aunt Dorothy ran the big presses. Uncle Bill taught me how to 'match' nickels, pull his finger and how to wait hile telling an off color joke to establish comedic timing. He ran a press that made raised ink on business cards. there was a special ink with a polymer in it that, when passed under a gas flame, would contract and produce that raised ink feel to business cards. So, we had wooden floors saturated with inks and solvents, paper everywhere and an open gas flame. How that shop never burst into flames, I don't know.

Is it still in business using he old technology? I learned printing in college being one of the very few girls to take the course. How to place the individual lead letters into the hand held or larger type case, reading upside down, and then fitting it into the press. And I became very proficient on the linotype. By the end of the course we could all put out a professional looking pamphlet, flyer, poster, or news page. But alas, those skills are relics of the past in this computerized digital age just as professional photographers no longer use film.

 

[Foxfyre]

Flour tortillas baked make a great pizza dough, too.

Meanwhile...I had to rearrange the back yard furniture further away from the small patio for the roomies to use. New guy seems to think its ok to climb up on the fence and peer over to chat with me when I am trying to just chill and be left alone. I am not amused at this behavior. So I told him the fence is there for a reason, the yard is my oasis and please do not do it any more. He apologized and said he wouldn't. Still...now I am not happy that he COULD again if he wanted to and I wouldn't know it if I wasn't looking and he is peeking. So I hung a bunch of sarongs on the umbrella, moved everything WAY back to the other side of the house as far as I could get it, and that seems to work. And I told MrG if he did it again, the gate is coming off and reinstalled against the patio room. He will lose access to the little patio for good. But if I can keep my cool for another 3 months, he will be gone. He is moving in September. And, this newest little stunt is something to put in their rental agreement. "NO CLIMBING ON THE FENCE. Looking over it is like walking in my private room!" and have them initial next to it on the contract.

Jeez. Why are people so damn oblivious to common courtesy?

I was wondering about your setup with taking in renters. Are you operating like a boarding house? Furnish meals? Laundry? Cleaning service etc? Or are they allowed to cook in their room?

 

[Foxfyre]

Natural gas-Lower explosive limit=9%. Upper explosive limit= 15%

Lower explosive limit (LEL) is the minimum concentration of natural gas in one atmosphere where an explosion can happen

UEL is the maximum.

Keep the gas above or below those concentrations and you can avoid an insurance claim.

Until the replacement part is installed I'll turn the gas on and off when I use the cooktop.

How about a few nights at the outdoor grill? Or Domino's delivery? Anything to keep the gas off.

Believe it or not I hate cooking on a grill and fast food pizza sucks big time might go with oven baked and a few microwave dinners. There are a couple of really good mom and pop pizza joints but they don't deliver so I'd have to pick them up, couple of good Chinese places nearby also.

I have yet to find a pizza that I'm really impressed with. You can bake your own pizza in the oven though! It's easy if you buy a ready-made crust, like Boboli.

Has to be thin crust for the wife, wheat allergy. There is one chain we found that we both love called Extreme Pizza, unfortunately there's not one down here.

I have several friends and family members with wheat allergies. My niece swears by this wheat-free pizza crust recipe saying it is as close to regular pizza as you can get without using wheat. I have not made it and it looks like an awful lot of ingredients for a pizza crust, but whatever works. I have no idea where you get rice flour, tapioca flour, xanthan gum or agar powder/flakes though. Everything else are staples in my kitchen.

WHEAT FREE PIZZA

1⁄2 cup + 1 tbsp. brown rice flour
3⁄4 cup tapioca flour
1 3⁄4 tsp dry yeast (make sure it is gluten free)
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp agar powder or flakes
pinch salt
1 tsp dried oregano (optional)
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp vinegar
1⁄2 cup + 1 2⁄3 tbsp warm water
pizza sauce and toppings of choice

In a mixing bowl combine the rice flour, tapioca flour, yeast, xanthan gum, agar, salt, and optional oregano.

In a separate bowl mix the olive oil, vinegar, and warm water.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet mixture. Beat well for 5-6 minutes by hand, or for 3 minutes in a food mixer. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky.

Line a pizza pan or baking sheet with baking parchment, or lightly oil and rice flour. Put the dough on the baking sheet and using your hands knead the dough a few times until it is smooth. Using either your hands or a brown rice floured rolling pin, form the pizza dough into a smooth circular shape approximately 12 inches in diameter sprinkling with rice flour to stop it getting sticky as you work. Make the edges slightly thicker to retain the filling.

Bake the pizza crust for 10 minutes.

Add your store bought or homemade tomato sauce and toppings and bake another 20-25 minutes until crust is done.

 

[ChrisL]

Until the replacement part is installed I'll turn the gas on and off when I use the cooktop.

How about a few nights at the outdoor grill? Or Domino's delivery? Anything to keep the gas off.

Believe it or not I hate cooking on a grill and fast food pizza sucks big time might go with oven baked and a few microwave dinners. There are a couple of really good mom and pop pizza joints but they don't deliver so I'd have to pick them up, couple of good Chinese places nearby also.

I have yet to find a pizza that I'm really impressed with. You can bake your own pizza in the oven though! It's easy if you buy a ready-made crust, like Boboli.

Has to be thin crust for the wife, wheat allergy. There is one chain we found that we both love called Extreme Pizza, unfortunately there's not one down here.

I have several friends and family members with wheat allergies. My niece swears by this wheat-free pizza crust recipe saying it is as close to regular pizza as you can get without using wheat. I have not made it and it looks like an awful lot of ingredients for a pizza crust, but whatever works. I have no idea where you get rice flour, tapioca flour, xanthan gum or agar powder/flakes though. Everything else are staples in my kitchen.

WHEAT FREE PIZZA

1⁄2 cup + 1 tbsp. brown rice flour
3⁄4 cup tapioca flour
1 3⁄4 tsp dry yeast (make sure it is gluten free)
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp agar powder or flakes
pinch salt
1 tsp dried oregano (optional)
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp vinegar
1⁄2 cup + 1 2⁄3 tbsp warm water
pizza sauce and toppings of choice

In a mixing bowl combine the rice flour, tapioca flour, yeast, xanthan gum, agar, salt, and optional oregano.

In a separate bowl mix the olive oil, vinegar, and warm water.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet mixture. Beat well for 5-6 minutes by hand, or for 3 minutes in a food mixer. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky.

Line a pizza pan or baking sheet with baking parchment, or lightly oil and rice flour. Put the dough on the baking sheet and using your hands knead the dough a few times until it is smooth. Using either your hands or a brown rice floured rolling pin, form the pizza dough into a smooth circular shape approximately 12 inches in diameter sprinkling with rice flour to stop it getting sticky as you work. Make the edges slightly thicker to retain the filling.

Bake the pizza crust for 10 minutes.

Add your store bought or homemade tomato sauce and toppings and bake another 20-25 minutes until crust is done.

Sounds good. I hate working with dough though!

 

[SixFoot]

Gypsy Also is trying to lay with Moo-Moo. He's not having it, but he isn't being violent at all today. Excellent.

 

[Foxfyre]

How about a few nights at the outdoor grill? Or Domino's delivery? Anything to keep the gas off.

Believe it or not I hate cooking on a grill and fast food pizza sucks big time might go with oven baked and a few microwave dinners. There are a couple of really good mom and pop pizza joints but they don't deliver so I'd have to pick them up, couple of good Chinese places nearby also.

I have yet to find a pizza that I'm really impressed with. You can bake your own pizza in the oven though! It's easy if you buy a ready-made crust, like Boboli.

Has to be thin crust for the wife, wheat allergy. There is one chain we found that we both love called Extreme Pizza, unfortunately there's not one down here.

I have several friends and family members with wheat allergies. My niece swears by this wheat-free pizza crust recipe saying it is as close to regular pizza as you can get without using wheat. I have not made it and it looks like an awful lot of ingredients for a pizza crust, but whatever works. I have no idea where you get rice flour, tapioca flour, xanthan gum or agar powder/flakes though. Everything else are staples in my kitchen.

WHEAT FREE PIZZA

1⁄2 cup + 1 tbsp. brown rice flour
3⁄4 cup tapioca flour
1 3⁄4 tsp dry yeast (make sure it is gluten free)
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp agar powder or flakes
pinch salt
1 tsp dried oregano (optional)
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp vinegar
1⁄2 cup + 1 2⁄3 tbsp warm water
pizza sauce and toppings of choice

In a mixing bowl combine the rice flour, tapioca flour, yeast, xanthan gum, agar, salt, and optional oregano.

In a separate bowl mix the olive oil, vinegar, and warm water.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet mixture. Beat well for 5-6 minutes by hand, or for 3 minutes in a food mixer. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky.

Line a pizza pan or baking sheet with baking parchment, or lightly oil and rice flour. Put the dough on the baking sheet and using your hands knead the dough a few times until it is smooth. Using either your hands or a brown rice floured rolling pin, form the pizza dough into a smooth circular shape approximately 12 inches in diameter sprinkling with rice flour to stop it getting sticky as you work. Make the edges slightly thicker to retain the filling.

Bake the pizza crust for 10 minutes.

Add your store bought or homemade tomato sauce and toppings and bake another 20-25 minutes until crust is done.

Sounds good. I hate working with dough though!

I really enjoy it. I used to bake a lot of our own bread and other baked goods but seem to find other things to take up my time these days. But I still do it now and then. I do make our own homemade pizza but do use the much simpler wheat flour to do it as we tolerate that okay.

 

[Foxfyre]

Gypsy Also is trying to lay with Moo-Moo. He's not having it, but he isn't being violent at all today. Excellent.

View attachment 76967 View attachment 76967

Interesting photo. Double exposure? Or what are we looking at?

 

[SixFoot]

Gypsy Also is trying to lay with Moo-Moo. He's not having it, but he isn't being violent at all today. Excellent.

View attachment 76967 View attachment 76967

Interesting photo. Double exposure? Or what are we looking at?

Looking through my dirty ass patio glass door to my back deck where they live. lol

 

[Nosmo King]

Let's take a closer look at my family's business. It's a printing shop that has been in constant operation since 1921, making it the third longest lasting family owned business in town. It was opened by my immigrant Great Grandfather who passed away before I was born. He hired his family as pressmen and co-operators.

My Uncle Alex, the patriarch of the family as I was growing up, ran the business until Pop took it over in the mid 1970s. My brother was hired by Pop after he graduated high school in 1978.

The shop is like a museum. Cases of type arraigned neatly in those cubby hole drawers folks pay big bucks for on E-Bay to use as curio cabinets, stand up front. Four and a half feet high and made of red oak, those cases have always been a temptation to me to re-finish (furniture finishing is one of my hobbies).

There were, at one time, two linotype machines near the front door. The linotype has been obsolete since the Truman administration. These machines stood six feet high and six feet wide. They would melt an ingot of lead and inject that molten lead into type face molds. Pop ran the linotypes. He would sit before the machine at a keyboard. This key board was not the type of keyboard you and I are looking at right now. That is to say, they were not qwerty keyboards, but boards with the upper case (capital) letters set on the left side and the lower case letters on the right. There was a keystone shaped case of typo face molds, called a matrix, mounted atop th linotype. As Pop would strike the upper case A key, a mold for and upper case A would fall into its place. Then, as he struck the lower case key denoting s, a small s mold would line up behind the A. So, Pop just set the type for the word 'as'.

If everything didn't line up just so, occasionally a stream of molten lead would squirt from the machine and catch Pop's trousers. Between the knee and the cuff, his trousers would come home splattered with bits of lead.

Passed the linotypes stand two Platen presses. You've seen them in movies. In fact, my brother and I notify each other whenever we see that obsolete technology in old movies. Frank Capra was a great impresario of showing off printing technology. They are the presses where there is a three foot diameter flywheel on the left, a smooth metal disc centered on top where the ink is applied. Rubber rollers smooth and pick up the ink and then roll down to cover the type. A bed upon which a single piece of paper is placed by a skilled pressman. There are little pins on the bed secured by sealing wax. That's right, sealing wax. The pressman has to be agile and quick lest he obtain the nickname "Lefty". A rhythm has to be set. Place the paper, remove the paper, place the paper, remove the paper. Any deviance could result in serious injury.

Furth back in the shop were the big presses. My Uncle Bill, husband of my Aunt Dorothy ran the big presses. Uncle Bill taught me how to 'match' nickels, pull his finger and how to wait hile telling an off color joke to establish comedic timing. He ran a press that made raised ink on business cards. there was a special ink with a polymer in it that, when passed under a gas flame, would contract and produce that raised ink feel to business cards. So, we had wooden floors saturated with inks and solvents, paper everywhere and an open gas flame. How that shop never burst into flames, I don't know.

Is it still in business using he old technology? I learned printing in college being one of the very few girls to take the course. How to place the individual lead letters into the hand held or larger type case, reading upside down, and then fitting it into the press. And I became very proficient on the linotype. By the end of the course we could all put out a professional looking pamphlet, flyer, poster, or news page. But alas, those skills are relics of the past in this computerized digital age just as professional photographers no longer use film.

In 1984 Uncle Alex bought a Macintosh computer and two offset presses. Uncle Alex was in his 80s then and watching his elderly hands whisk a computer mouse around was a sight to see. My brother does most of his work on a color printer and the offset presses now. But the two Platen presses are still used regularly. He uses them to print and number raffle tickets and for small jobs like school bus passes.

There is a Heidelberg windmill press fro envelopes, two antique stitchers used to staple pamphlets together and a paper cutter that would make OSHA cringe.

If you were to draw a triangle between Buffalo New York, Pittsburgh and Cleveland you would find the our shop is the one and only print shop in that triangle still using letter presses. Everybody else is using offset presses.

 

[Nosmo King]

About Pop's lead laden trousers...

He would come home from work and my brother and I would wrap our arms around his legs in welcome. Pop would rough house with us on the floor. Mom would iron his trousers and hold the hot iron over the specks of lead to soften them up and then flick them off with her finger nails. All our laundry would be washed in the same machine.

I earned a degree in Environmental Engineering from The Ohio State University. There I learned the hazards of lead exposure especially to young children. High lead exposure can lead to an intellectual stunting, wiping I.Q. points off the top that never return.

"Pop! I might have been born like DaVinci or Einstein and the lead you brought home dumbed me down to what you see today!"

"You give yourself too much credit" he said.