Pita Pita Pita

I made pita bread for the first time tonight! I wish I had taken pictures, but, I didn't. Sorry. Let me just say that they were completely warm and delicious. I adapted the Peppy's Pita Bread recipe from allrecipes.com. Can you be in love with a website? Maybe.

Anyway, here is the recipe:

Original Recipe Yield 8 pitas

Ingredients

· 1 1/8 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

· 3 cups all-purpose flour

· 1 teaspoon salt

· 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

· 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar

· 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in bread pan of your bread machine, select Dough setting and start. When dough has risen long enough, machine will beep. ( I did it by hand, call me old fashioned. It was not hard. If you don't have a bread maker, let the dough double in size. I didn't use my dough right away, it freezes very nicely!)

2. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gently roll and stretch dough into a 12 inch rope. With a sharp knife, divide dough into 8 pieces. (I used my fingers to pinch the pieces apart.) Roll each into a smooth ball. (Mine, well, they weren't completely smooth.) With a rolling pin (I used a lumpy cup.), roll each ball into a 6 to 7 inch circle. Set aside on a lightly floured countertop. cover with a towel. Let pitas rise about 30 minutes until slightly puffy. (I actually did this...)

3. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). Place 2 or 3 pitas on a wire cake rack. (I put all of the pitas on the wrong side of cookie sheets and cooked them all at once for 5 minutes) Place cake rack directly on oven rack. Bake pitas 4 to 5 minutes until puffed and tops begin to brown. Remove from oven and immediately place pitas in a sealed brown paper bag or cover them with a damp kitchen towel until soft. Once pitas a softened, either cut in half or split top edge for half or whole pitas. They can be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for 1 or 2 months. (I served the pitas right away with some chili, they were sooooo good! If you eat them right away, they are already soft!)

Zoom Zoom

In addition to being back in school, being friendlier than normal (at least trying to be), waking up on time and being all around great, I am buying a car.

Unfortunately, I do not know how to drive a stick shift. There goes half of my options. My future sister-in-law told me about a great guy that sells cars, he sold her his car. I googled him. He sounds pretty swell. I am calling him tomorrow. But if that doesn't work out, I can always have this car. It doesn't tote much, but for something this cute, why not make two trips?

The Idiot

I found a book to "read" (more like listen to when I'm not supposed to be doing other things...)

It's called The Idiot by John Kendrick Bangs.

This is a quote from the description: "His brand of creative thought is dismissed as foolishness yet it continues to get under their skin, because when you're beneath contempt you can say what you please."

Sounds like a fun read, I mean, listen.

In Case You Haven't Heard

I am going back to school in January. It's official. I told my boss I am leaving. I have a plane ticket, a place to live, classes scheduled, and my first (and last) student loan all prepped and ready.

I love it here, and while I wish that I wasn't leaving much of the time, I know that I need to go now. I am going back with a firm resolve to get in and get out as quickly as I possibly can. And I am going to enjoy every minute of it.

Dear Stalkers

Dear Stalkers,

Lately, I have had a surprisingly high number of creepy men attach themselves to me. Not saying that you are one of them, but you may well be one. Please take note, I am not enjoying this attention. Not one bit. It's disturbing.

Just because I smile, does not mean I want to carry your children in my womb. It means I am happy and you happened to be in my line of sight. I do not fantasize about you. I do not long for your warm embrace. And I most certainly NEVER want you to corner me in elevators when I am alone EVER again. Yes this has been happening. My bosses will not let me go across the street by myself. Thank you.

Simply because I am not married or that I work Monday through Friday does NOT mean that I am desperate for a man or your so-called stature to look after me. I can, and do, take care of myself. I do not want you, you strange stranger of a man. I do not want to plan my Saturdays enjoying your sleazy company. Please stay away.

When I have my ear buds in and am facing purposefully AWAY from you, I do NOT want to talk to you. I was not asking you to promptly tap tap tap me on the shoulder and proceed to tell me how I shouldn't listen to whatever it was that I was listening to because it was too sweet and would rot my brain out. I will never listen to any type of music that involves "Bambi and the Satanites." And I do NOT want you to tell me that you don't like the fact that I am even listening to music at all because it would make it too easy for you to follow me off the bus and grab me in the dark and I would never see it coming. Thank you, but no. I am now afraid of the bus at night. I do not want other people to be afraid of you for my sake.

While I am at work I do not want you leer at me as I walk down the hall. I do not want you to stare at me through window wall in front of my desk. And yes I mean you, scary blonde butch woman. No matter how many times you flip your hair and wink at me, I will not be interested.

It is never attractive when you YELL at me down the street because I smiled and you said "How you doin" and I pretended like I didn't speak English. That or just walked away. Personally, I feel like it is inappropriate. When did "how you doin?" or "sup" become a way to flirt? Also, please do not think that I am going to jump you when you do the head nod. Just because you seem to be on the same bathroom schedule as I am, does not mean that I am waiting for you.

I don't know where all of these creepy and borderline insane men are coming from. But please know, your advances are unwelcome. I am not interested.

Sincerely,

Ruthie

On the other hand, I still like men. Just make sure I don't have nightmares about you before you give me the "head nod."

Twitters Times

This is how I feel today:

Squished. And a little overwhelmed.

Halloween

Here's a tiny update (really tiny, I'm tired). Halloween was so much fun!

Molly was a tornado! I was a flower! Here's a picture!

We had fun carving a pumpkin too! It was puking! Here's a picture!

Halloween Night we had friends over for scary stories and creepy food. I had nightmares.

More to follow!