Homemade Pizza
Well my wife is back east visiting her parents, my in-laws, for the 10 days.
So it is Bob alone time! Which is fun for a few days and then starts to
suck, but I will enjoy the few days prior to boring setting in! No open
flame allowed while she is gone. Don't forget to feed the cats, don't
forget to water the indoor plants, the horses need water every third day.
Keep everything picked up and the dishes done. (Yep that will happen when
her plane is in the air on the way back, use a little technique I call Clean-Con
level 10 warp speed deep cleaning.) Don't forget you cook for the
Catholic Outreach
Soup Kitchen this weekend. yes dear yes dear!!! Anyway after 22 years
of being trained by this women I know the details! And I have learned a
lot of words I thought were bad words, are TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. Unless I
use them!
So what to have for dinner tonight. My wife does not care for onions,
so when she is gone I am having an onion fest, she does not care for Anchovies,
so they are coming out. Well while making the
Pumpkin Stromboli I had success two version faster than I thought the proper
balance would be reached. So I have a few pizza dough left in the reefer.
So why not through together a pizza? Sure that will go down well and its
Friday.
Pizza crust:
3 cups flour, 1 package active dry yeast, 1 tsp salt, 1 cup warm water, 2
tablespoons oil. Proof the yeast in the warm water with a pinch of sugar.
If it is good, combine the dry ingredients and mix in the water and oil.
Stir till stiff, then knead for 5 minutes. Let rise til double, flour
lightly and knead for 4 minutes, separate into balls and place on floured plate,
cover with plastic wrap and allow to develop in the reefer overnight to no more
than 36 hours.
Take it out the next day and flatten it, do not fold it, and roll or toss to
a 14 inch pizza shell. Pizza Sauce, Tomato sauce, 1 tbsp oregano, 1/2 tsp
basil, 1 tsp garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste. Place 1/2 cup in
center of pizza shell, spread to outer edges with a large spoon. Top with
mozzarella cheese that has been shreaded.
Now we have the fame work for a meal. But this baby is naked! We
need to get the emperor some clothes!! So I have a bunch of sun dried
tomatoes I did with the dehydrate this summer. 4 or 5 of them in the
Kitchen Aid
Chef Chopper and I have nice sun-dried tomato bits. Robbed a mess of
the cherry tomatoes off the vine before the freeze a couple days ago. So
they will go on for sure.
But is still looks naked to me, so I have to dig around a little and get this
pizza up to speed. Oh yah I made pickled sweet peppers for the Pumpkin
Stromboli. I can add them, I have some mushrooms that I sliced a while
back they should go well.
But still no SECRET ingredient. Ah, I know anchovies, the ultimate
pizza topping. I love them and I owe it all to the United State Marine
Corps. I was in when we still had barracks and lived 70 men to a bay.
If you order a pizza it was lucky to make it all the way to you, unless you
order it with extra anchovies, then no one wanted it. God bless the little
anchovy it kept my pizza safe during communal living conditions!
My wife claims to hate them, but I noticed she never misses a chance to use
the Worcestershire sauce, I guess she does not know? Any way this will
complete the pizza nicely, salty, yet sweet. They are fantastic. And
so it is into the oven with the dinner! No wait one more thing, I have
some nice chopped hot cherry peppers that will add a little zip.
Then when it has cooked at 500 F on the stone for about 8 minutes it is ready
to come out.
And so there you have it, MAN pizza! If anyone tells my wife I wrote
this I will deny it and claim a sinister plot to frame me. It is important
to leave a pizza rest for about 4 minutes or so prior to running the pizza
cutter through it.
Now we come to the part I get asked about a lot. What wine goes with
pizza? Everyone wants to know, what wine goes with pizza. I think
most wines go with pizza sort of, but there is one that I like, chianti is nice
with pizza, but it is not perfect. Nope for pizza we have to search back
to our youth and remember what was really the perfect match with pizza.
Pretty girl, of course, but we are talking drink her...... yes the girl could be
one tall cool glass of ........ but I digress, the perfect match to pizza comes
from barley and hops meeting together!
And so it is that I will have a few "pints" with my pizza tonight. I
have got the call my wife made it to her parents just fine. So now I don't
have to worry til she is flying back to Colorado. Yes dear I fed the cats,
yes the horses have water, ah nuts, can't a man just have his pizza and beer in
peace?!!!!!
'Til we talk again, bust out the stuff and make a pizza or two, we always had
fun with it since the kids could each top their own for dinner, it is a real fun
food to bake!
Chef Bob Ballantyne
The Cowboy and The Rose Catering
Grand Junction, Colorado, USA
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