Summer's Here!

My youngest brother, Michael, came over and spent the night with us on Monday. We watched "Over the Hedge," read books, and played Mad Libs. Here are some good lines from two of those Mad Lib games.

From OUR CAFETERIA: "The spaghetti is spikey and tastes like goats. One day, I swear one of my meatballs started to fart!"

From TYRANNOSAURUS REX: "The T-rex was about 285,000 feet tall - or the size of a four-story urinal."

Can you tell I was playing this game with a middle school boy?! :) We made chili & cornbread for dinner. After dinner we attempted to go for a bike ride but the farthest we made it was down the street. Literally. The bugs and deer flies were swarming our heads and biting our necks so we turned around and high tailed it back to the house. Zach got home later and as he ate dinner we had some leftover ice cream cake from his birthday. We had to eat it fast because it was melting so quickly! Finally, we all settled in to watch "The Blind Side," a fabulous movie. Mostly because I want to be Sandra Bullock... anyway, it was late by the time it was over so we got ready for bed. Mike forgot his toothbrush... gross. I made him a bed on the couch but knew he was going to end up in our room after 5 minutes so we just moved his "bed" to the floor in our room. I'm sure he slept better there, like I said, master bedroom is the only room in the house with AC.

It seems as if summer is finally here! It has been in the 90s the past few days. Woohoo! I've been waiting all winter for these hot days to be here! Therefore, I will not complain about the heat. The only unfortunate thing about Michigan living is that with heat comes the dreaded HUMIDITY! I'm talkin' HUMID! Probably around 100% humidity - so moist that the wood floor always seems wet, so humid that our toilet doesn't stop sweating and leaves a huge puddle on the bathroom floor, so humid that our towels never seem to dry, so humid I wanted to stay in my car after grocery shopping because the AC felt wonderful, so humid .... I've run out of things to give as an example. This humidity not only wreaks havoc on my hair making it uncontrollably frizzy & curly, it makes it almost unbearable to go outside. Hence, I spent most of the afternoon in our master bedroom, the one room in our house with an air conditioner, reading the August edition of Real Simple Magazine. :)

Seriously, I love summer. I get so much reading done its ridiculous! Reading and cooking I suppose. Last night I made "Pizza Roll Ups." Which I certainly sweat over because using the stove on a hot, humid day like today in a house with no AC is borderline insanity. Hopefully Zach appreciated all my hard work. Ha ha! My mom (Thorne) made these often because they are fairly quick and easy and yield quite a few! I made them for Zach last year some time and they have become a favorite in our house now too. Here's the recipe:

PIZZA ROLL UPS

1 1-lb roll of sausage

1 refrigerated tube pizza dough, or enough homemade dough for 1 pizza

1 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese

1 TBSP oregano

salt & pepper to taste

*NOTE: I don't really measure things out exactly, so the amount of oregano & cheese is a rough estimate.

1. Cook sausage and crumble. The smaller the better so it fits into the roll better.

Drain fat; put sausage in medium bowl.

2. Add mozzarella cheese, oregano, salt & pepper. Mix.

3. For the dough, I just use the recipe for pizza dough from my bread machine manual and make it in there. Roll out dough to approx 1/4-in thick rectangle.

How you're supposed to get dough to get in the shape of a rectangle, I don't know.

Mine always resembles some kind of crazy oval.

4. Sprinkle meat and cheese mixture onto dough and press down slightly.

This will keep the ingredients from falling off when you roll it up.

5. Roll into a tight log.

6. Pinch together any seams so nothing leaks out!

7. Using a serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, cut off approx. 1-inch sections and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. (Makes about 16 rolls)

8. Say goodbye to those delicious italian masterpieces while they bake for 15-20 minutes at 375 degrees F, or until tops of rolls are slightly browned.

9. Cool slightly and dunk in pasta sauce. Serve with a salad or fresh vegetable.

These are super easy to freeze and eat later. Zach loves to take them in his lunch. It makes his co-workers jealous. Score bonus points for me. :)

Anyways, this post was meant for last night, but I got caught up (or should I say, sweated my face off) making the pizza roll ups then we were off to Grand Rapids for a leadership meeting and didn't get back until late. Then this working I went to work out.

Stay cool!

Sarah