Posts about Local History and Culture

Making Homemade Pizza Step One, the Dough

Whether youre tired of the pizza you can get by ordering by emoji, or just want an excuse to make and toss your own dough on a neglected pizza stone, well outline what you need to make some of the best homemade pizza youve ever had. In this post, well be focusing on the ways to make a suitable and robust dough. And in our next post, well post a few of our favorite homemade pizza recipes to give you the topping inspiration you need to bring it all to the table. The Ideal Dough If youre looking for a quicker kind of homemade dough, wed recommend jumping over here after this post. But it wont take that much longer to make a higher quality dough. Adapted from a hip restaurantRobertas in Brooklynyoull be eating a tasty dough thats the talk of the town. Heres what youll need: 153 grams of 00 flour 153 grams of all-purpose flour 8 grams of fine sea salt 2 grams of active dry yeast 4 grams of extra-virgin olive oil First, in a large mixing bowl, youll want to combine all the flours and salt. Next, in a separate small mixing bowl, stir together 200 grams of lukewarm tap water, the olive oil and the yeast, and then pour it all into the flour mixture. Use your hands to knead the mixture until it comes together nicely, for about 3 minutes, and than let the mixture rest for 15 minutes. After that 15 minutes is up, knead the rested dough for 3 minutes. And then cut that into 2 equal pieces and shape them each into a ball. Once youve done that, place them both on a heavily floured surface, cover them with a dampened cloth, and let them rest and rise for somewhere between 3 and 4 hours at room tempor 8 to 24 hours in the fridge. Just remember to remove the dough 30 to 45 minutes from the fridge before you begin to shape the pizza if Once that time has passed, youll have dough thats ready to be shaped on a floured surface into a round or square pizza dough.

Making the Most of Public Transportation

Perhaps you use public transit every day, perhaps you used it years ago, or perhaps it is a foreign term to you entirely. By definition, public transportation, or transit, is a shared passenger experience which is available for use by the public. City buses, trolleybuses, trams, light rail, passenger trains, rapid transit (metro/subways/undergrounds) and ferries are all types of public transportation. Public transportation is a safe and affordable way to commute. It helps reduce traffic congestion, it saves energy, decreases automobile pollution, can provide exercise (like biking from the train to the office), contributes to a sense of community A bus/train pass is often less expensive than buying gas, even if you are only commuting part of the way. And most public transit offices offer monthly passes that cost less than the per day use. Cars create about 50 percent of pollution nationwide*; so the more people who use public transit, the less pollution is expelled into the air we breathe. And less pollution is a win for everyone. Traffic conditions nationwide are often in a state of congestion. If it wasnt for public transportation, it would be worse. A single, large city subway can carry about 30,000 passengers in one hour. If those riders drove instead, ten additional highway lanes would be needed to accommodate the additional traffic. And, think about this, if every American who currently uses some form of public transit were to stop, and drove to work, one person per car instead, they would fill the equivalent of a nine-lane freeway stretching from Boston to Los Angeles. Additionally, while others are feeling road rage at being stuck in traffic, you can get caught up on your reading, homework, scan your email, or cruise through FaceBook. Saving energy is another benefit or using public transportation. Public transit is twice as fuel efficient as automobiles, and that kind of efficiency adds up, and saves more than 45 million barrels of oil a year. The energy saved is enough to cool, heat, and operate about a quarter of all American homes each year. An added benefit, is that public transportation is, statistically speaking, safer than driving. The National Safety Council estimates that riding the bus is over 170 times safer than traveling by car. Thats a pretty striking number. Add exercise to the formula, walking or biking to and from your destinations, and its a win/win situation. The benefits of public transport are evident. So start commuting, or take a day trip using public transport, and send us a comment about your experience. *Stats for this article were taken from Wikipedia and PACommutes .

Making the Most of Your Storage Space

Getting our apartment organized is a common goal many of us have. The question is not whether to do it, but how to do it. There is wisdom in having a place for everything, and keeping everything in its place, figuring out where that place is though can be a challenge. Today we will be sharing some tips for getting a handle on getting organized. Tip #1 First things first. Make a checklist of your closets, drawers, and other storage containers. Use it to go through them one at a time. Figure out what exactly you have, and where it currently is stored. Does the storage place make sense? Is it with like items? Could it be placed in a kit? Does it require any sort of special storage? The answers to these questions will help you determine the best place to keep any given item. Tip #2 As you are working to organize a closet or a set of drawers, pull everything out and sort through it all. Create three piles: Throw Away, Donate, Keep. Once the items are segregated into these three categories, go through the Keep Items and ask yourself these questions: Do I really love it? Do I really need it? And for clothing, How often do I wear it? Your answers will help you determine whether to keep it or to put it in the donate pile for someone else to enjoy. Tip #3 If you have sentimental items that you cant justify keeping, but you are loath to get rid of, contemplate taking a picture first, and then getting rid of the original. Tip #4 Decide on an organizational strategy. Do you need additional totes to organize all of the toys or your hat collection? Use some sort of system to identify contents (a certain color or label), Think outside the box, or borrow creative solutions from others. Pinterest has a multitude of ideas for organizing your home. Tip #5 Remember you dont have to do the whole house in the next two days. Take your time to go through all of the stuff. It will be worth it when you can find anything at a moments notice. Now sit back and enjoy your newly organized home. Perhaps ended up with a lot of To Donate items, maybe you can host a mini swap meet at your clubhouse. Directions for how to do it can be found here . Please feel free to post your favorite organizing tips in the comments.