pizza pizza

remember Little Caesar's Pizza? John often reminds me of how much he loved it when he was in high school. the more pizza for John, the better (many of his friends know that you can't really trust John's opinion of how good particular pizzas are because he will factor price into the equation).

this weekend was a good weekend for John because we had homemade pizza two evenings in a row. I made the aforementioned dough on Friday the 13th, and of course, it was a near-disaster. there is something major about this dough that I don't understand! it was SO soft that it was very difficult to work with, and extremely hard to get off the pizza peel onto the stone. as you know, the pizza stone should be piping hot before you place a pizza onto it, so having a disaster with the transfer does not make for a pleasant experience. first of all, there is the panic, as the dough seems to resist the slide-off; secondly, it's terrifying to try to get your hands/tools into the oven to mediate because burnage is so possible; thirdly everything that has slid off the pizza onto the stone is BURNING...I managed to cook 5 of 6 fairly small pies decently, but there was a lot of smoke in our kitchen, and it was anything but a smooth hosting experience.

working with that pizza dough was so aggravating (it tasted fine, but not so dramatically better, or even better at all than the standard, that it justified all the trouble it took to use it), that I couldn't resist the urge to make a second batch of dough on Saturday. this time, I used a recipe from Baking With Julia and it worked like a charm, and tasted delicious. maybe I'm just a fan of NYC-style over Napoletana-style. whatever, I'm not afraid of that. the dough was easily prepared, didn't need to rest overnight, and best of all, it slid right off the peel and onto the pizza stone - PRESTO! NO trouble at all.

since our dear friend, Jack, passed, we haven't had homemade pizza. I've made it before, and obviously, own a pizza stone and peel, but since Jack was such a master, I just let him fill the pizza part of my life. now that I've started, however, I think I'm going to keep going. pizza dough comes together so easily with the help of a stand mixer that there's no reason to NOT have homemade pizza. there's less of a reason to not have homemade pizza when there's basil in the backyard and delicious tomatoes all around us. this summer has been so hot and nasty that the only redeeming parts have been the fruits and veggies.

so I know I'll never win any photography awards, but here are a couple of pics from this weekend's pizza-fest.

sausage pizza from Friday night
pesto slice (left) & margherita slice (right) from Saturday night
the Saturday pizza was taken on Sunday morning, so those slices are definitely a little worse for the wear, in terms of presentation, but they still tasted delicious!

one more photo...yummy breakfast toast topped with anchovy (can't see it), tomato, and softish boiled egg. doesn't it look like an owl? I didn't eat the basil with the meal, but I coudn't resist adding it into the photo for effect.


I generally like my eggs softer than this, but I zoned out Sunday morning and got to the eggs a minute or so late. oh well, at least it wasn't hard-boiled! actually, I pretty much like eggs all ways, so it wouldn't have been the end of the world if the yolks had been hard - just a bit disappointing.

mmmm, breakfast

I totally didn't even think about photographing my breakfast before I wolfed it down. here's what's left of it: empty containers.


it was so good that I ate a variation of it for breakfast yesterday, and dinner last night. what was it?!

anchovies, tomatoes, and soft-boiled egg on top of flaxseed and quinoa toast made from loaves that I've become absolutely addicted to (whole foods). I came up with this concoction as I was lying in bed yesterday morning. anchovies suddenly popped into my sleepy head, and the rest just followed. the best part was that the tomatoes have been those perfect, summary specimens; exquisitely ripe with the best texture and color ever!

this morning I was running late, so I just had tomatoes atop buttered toast (yup, flaxseed and quinoa bread). the toast didn't even get soggy in my monkey container! I mean, it wasn't of the 'straight from the toaster quality,' but it wasn't a sodden mess, either.

I'm excited about tonight's dinner because I'm making pizza. I haven't had homemade pizza since last Thanksgiving (thank you again and again, Jack!). that's a long time. I'm trying a new (to me) dough recipe, so there's a lot of anticipation building up in my mind/body/soul. toppings will include: fresh mozzerella, basil, homemade red sauce, aged mozzerella (for John), a mixture of sweet and spicy Italian sausage, pesto, ricotta cheese, and of course, ANCHOVIES!

the other thing that's kind of exciting about the pizza experiment is that my new house came with one of those stoves that has a little oven on top of the main, normally sized oven. I've kind of been aching to get rid of the electric beast, but have a hard time justifying the junking of a perfectly functional large appliance. so, I'm trying to get used to cooking without gas and am hoping that the smallness of the oven (plus my pizza stone) makes the perfect pizza cooking environment.