Skinny Lizzie Pizza

Although this afternoon has been sunny and mildly warm, this morning we awoke to freezing fog and -2 Celsius. It stayed cold and foggy most of the morning, not helped by a breeze which made it feel colder still.

The kitchen was the place I wanted to be this morning and so I stayed in there, making bread, doing a jigsaw in the room next door and generally meandering between the two.

Forgot to make some soup so instead pinched off some of the bread dough before the rest went into two loaf tins and decided on a pizza for lunch.

Only problem was a lack of toppings, hence the title of this post. There were no fresh tomatoes, cheese, meat etc. Instead I had to compromise - my middle name.

I made up some tomato paste with a squirt of garlic and a little water and smeared it over the base. Next came a finely sliced small onion and a 1/4 of a yellow pepper (the rest was going off). I had an unopened tub of low fat garlic and herb cheese and mixed a little with a small amount of milk to make a sloppy paste and dropped it on top in small blobs. Finally, an end rind of parmesan was finely grated on top followed by a few good splashes of hot cajun sauce and olive oil.

20 minutes later and we were eating it piping hot for lunch plus a nice cup of tea. 

After lunch we went out to gather pine cones to dry to help eke out our kindling. Two bags are now spread flat on the floor of the garage and should be ready to use in a few days. We aim to go back and gather some more bagfuls as they are dropping quite well now and we need to gather as many as we can. What aren't used this season will be stored for next autumn/winter. 

We are well aware they give off tar but as we sweep our chimney quite often, don't think it will be too much of a problem. Anyway, as wood burner owners are aware, they can be a little cantankerous at times and on rare occasions, just refuse to go.