Pizza and an Interview

I had noticed recently that Fresh & Easy market had little packages of pizza dough already made up and ready to go. They have regular, whole wheat, and an herbed one for focaccia. I purchased everything I needed to make a pizza (dough, sauce, pepperoni, and cheese) for less than $8. Pretty cool, huh? It would cost more if we ate anything besides pepperoni on our pizza, but we don't. Just pepperoni.

Here is a before shot:

Looks pretty professional, eh? I'm just fortunate enough to have a former pizza dude living at my house. Although I'm thinking where he used to work they must have used their heads to work the dough.

The finished product.

The pizza dude's happy pizza tips:

* Press down like a mofo (down, under, and out) around the rim leaving a 1"-ish edge -- this will leave a well-formed crust. But only knead lightly in the center before stretching, just enough to pop the bubbles. Schwarzenegger-like center-kneading will yield a flimsy-ass center or a cracker crust.

* Sauce it right up to the rim you have created and make sure to get good cheese and ingredients coverage right up to the rim. During the bake, the cheese and ingredients will gravitate toward the center of the pie. So not getting proper edge coverage will leave your last few bites of each piece tasting like sauce-soaked bread.

* You need to work the dough on a flour-covered surface, and you need the flour to prevent sticking. However, allowing flour to clump up on the dough will leave the crust tasting bitter and unpleasant. Shake off any excess when stretching to shape, or, preferably, gather up any excess and apply liberally to your face and hair. Brushing on melted butter or olive oil around the crust is a nice touch.

* Assuming you don't have a baking stone or industrial-strength deck oven, you're going to have a hard time getting an even bake. The top will be black while the bottom is still semi-raw dough. Cook on the bottom rack and remove the pie from the screen or sheet as soon as it's firm enough not to decorate the bottom of your oven with itself.

* Raw tomato sauce is kind of bland. Spice it to taste with basil, oregano, garlic, salt, sugar, or whatever it takes to trip your culinary trigger.

* Time and temperature gets the yeastie-beasties a workin'. Under or over-activated yeast will ruin the pie. You want to work with it when it is pliant but not squishy.

* Good pizza ingredients: pepperoni, onions, olives, sausage, ground beef, pineapples, ham. Canadian bacon, jalapenos, bell peppers, sliced chicken breast, tomato slices, banana peppers.

* Bad pizza ingredients: tuna fish, cottage cheese, Captain Crunch, liverwurst, chocolate, grapes, beans, yogurt, creamed corn, pureed beets, prunes, anything Andrew Zimmern would approve of. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have been seeing this thing going around where you ask your kid/s 20 questions about yourself and see what kind of answers they come up with. I thought it sounded like fun so I cornered had a relaxing chat with my children and this is what transpired. The endeavor was made a bit more challenging due to the fact that the boy child has autism, and one of his quirks is that having a bunch of questions fired at him displeases him a great deal.

1. What is something mom always says to you? Mara: no answer/ Simon: clean your room

2. What makes Mom happy? m: when I clean my room (not that that can be proven)/ s: let me think about that

3. What makes Mom sad? m: when we say bad things to her / s: Let me think about that

4. How does your mom make you laugh? m: tickling/ s: i'll think about that

5. What was your mom like as a child? m: she liked to climb trees but her mom didn't let her/ s: *just looks at me*

6. How old is your mom? m: 41 (darned honest kids)/ s: no answer

7. How tall is your mom? M: 2 garden yards (WTF??) / S: *shakes little plastic car more violently*

8. What is her favorite thing to do? M: watching the cooking channel / s: no more questions!

9. What does your mom do when you're not around? M: sleep (ALL THE TIME)/ S: *makes huffing noise*

10. What is your Mom very good at? M: cooking / S: more huffing

11. If Mom became famous what would it be for? M: being in a tv show (the most boring TV show ever!) / S: He's gone now

12. What is your mom not very good at? M: jumping rope

13. What does your mom do for her job? M: she's a nurse

14. What is your mom's favorite food? M: chili

15. What makes you proud of your mom? M: How good she can twirl the baton (I AM awesome)

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? M: Sandy from spongebob (It's the teeth, I think. Or maybe the drawl)

17. What do you and your mom do together? M: go to Starbucks

18. How are you and your mom the same? M: we have the same hair (I wish!)

19. How are you and your mom different? M: she has blue eyes and I have brown eyes

20. How do you know your mom loves you? M: She tells me (Aww)

April is autism awareness month. To learn more about autism you can visit Autism Society of America or SARRC.

This may have been my longest post ever. Bless your heart if you made it to the end!