Elevated Pizza

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Andrea

I’m still getting used to the lighting in our new digs which means I’m still getting used to taking pictures in the kitchen. Please bear with me as I get adjusted to things.

This is the best pizza picture I’ve got for this week.

This week I was finally able to make pizza! The previous weeks we’ve been running around completing errands or I didn’t have my stuff yet, so I was unable to make pizza at home.

This week I had everything; my stuff and plenty of time!

I was curious how making pizza at elevation would turn out. I read and researched as best I could so that I would be prepared.

When dealing with yeast, it was advised to reduce the yeast amount by half and to possibly increase the liquid if need be.

So I followed my recipe for dough but decreased the yeast to 1/2 TBSP. I did not increase the liquid though.

Single Slice

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Andrea

It was pizza for one this week! So I decided to experiment a little bit and then use all of my favorite toppings.

I made butter last week and has just enough buttermilk left to use in the dough. I wasn’t quite sure if it would effect the flavor or not but I was going to find out!

I followed my usual recipe, cut in half, and using buttermilk instead of warm water.

The dough rose perfectly and rolled out beautifully!

I then brushed the dough with some garlic butter (chopped garlic in melted butter) and then used spinach and sun-dried tomato as a base.

Topped with cheese, red onion, and red pepper chicken sausage.

Yum!

The crust really didn’t taste much different but it was very light and crispy once baked. The garlic butter helped the crust get to a nice golden color.

It was so very yummy! And I have enough leftover for tonight’s dinner but I’m not sure I want it. Hrmmm decisions, decisions.

Pepperoni Pimpin’

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Andrea

This week while Scott and I made a quick trip to Whole Foods, I got a hankering for some pepperoni. I knew that I wanted some for pizza later this week and decided to start looking around for something that fit the bill.

I found some Applegate Pepperoni and decided to give it a try. Ideally, yes, I would love some pastured raised pork pepperoni. Realistically I have yet to find that.

This is as good as it gets at this point.

I have to say that the pepperoni isn’t that bad. There’s less fat which makes it a little bit drier than typical pepperoni but not enough that it’s inedible.

I also love that it’s sandwich size and not the wee little round slices.

I cut some up and put it on the pizza!

Pizza this week was pretty simple with just a few toppings. My main focus was on pepperoni so I didn’t want to overshadow that with other things.

Roll With It

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Andrea

There was sausage! Again! Since I had been craving sausage on pizza for so long there needed to be a revisit this week.

I was a little concerned about how the dough was going to turn out though. Slight moment of panic.

I made it like I always do but you know how finicky dough can be and yesterday it was a hard little ball of flour.

After sitting for a couple of hours it had not doubled in size. It rose but not as much as it normally does. Typically the dough is bursting out of the bowl but this dough was content to just sit there and puff a bit.

Yikes!

Even after rolling it out, it was a thick little brick of dough.

It worked though and we had a lovely crispy crunchy pizza with several air bubbles. Score!

Toppings were simple this week:

Shredded Mozzarella
Red Peppers
Red Onion
Italian Sausage

Yum!

Pizza Satisfaction

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Andrea

This week we finally got some decent pizza! I decided to put the deep dish style on the back burner for now, I couldn’t risk another pizza fail.

I could not wait for pizza this week because it wasn’t going to be anything fancy and it was finally going to have sausage on it. Whooo!

Simple pizzas are my favorite!

The only thing I did differently was the sauce. I mixed spinach and sundried tomato with a can of fire roasted crushed tomatos. First I let the crushed tomatoes drain to get rid of the excess water.

The I put that in the food processor along with spinach, sundried tomatoes, garlic and gave it a whirl

The result was a really flavorful and thick sauce for the pizza.

Toppings were:

Shredded Mozzarella
Hot Italian Sausage
Shredded Carrot
Red Onion

I got pre-shredded mozzarella from Whole Foods and it was amazing! Normally I buy the blocks of cheese from there and shred it myself. Last trip they were out of blocks and we needed cheese for pizza so I bought the preshredded. It has so much more gooey and stringy characteristics, I loved it! The block mozzarella does not, I’ll probably purchase that again.

Maintaining and Gaining

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Andrea

Yesterday was a horrible pizza fail. Horrible. Scott, bless him, will always try to make things positive.

I was bummed out but damnit I will master this deep dish pizza if it kills me.

So since I don’t have any lovely pizza to show you, let’s get updated on the Rocky situation.

If you remember, Rocky had surgery on his paw three weeks ago. We basically lived in our living room for two weeks. Scott picking him up and carrying him on and off the couch, and down the deck stairs for potty breaks.

He was doing really well and last week he was set to have his stitches out. However we had to take in him a day early because we noticed his paw was red and swollen to twice its size.

He had an infection. We figured this would happen. No matter how hard we tried, he did have an open wound on the bottom of his foot. There’s no way to really protect that area because it had to be left open to dry and form a scab.

Cast Iron Determination

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Andrea

Did things just a little bit differently this week for Pizza Thursday. Sometimes Rocky can get a little anxious when the oven gets turned on (due to the over sensitive smoke alarm being located almost right above the stove) so in order to keep the peace, I went deep dish this week.

I used my regular dough for this and baked it in my 12 cast iron skillet. Before adding the dough to the skillet, I greased it with a pat of unsalted butter (Kerry Gold).

I molded the dough around the skillet and pushed it up the sides a bit, then I filled it.

With pizza sauce and topped with:

Shredded mozzarella
Shredded Pepperjack
Red Onion
Shredded Carrot
Banana Peppers

Nothing fancy with toppings, I used what I had on hand. We desperately need to get to the grocery store. Food stuffs are running low!

At 425, this took about 40 minutes to bake. It only took that long because of the crust, I used too much. I think splitting the dough amount in half would have been a much better way to go. While the crust was good, it was almost too thick and it took too long to cook.

Slumber Party

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Andrea

Yesterday was a looonnnngggg day. We had to get up early because we had to drop Rocky off at the vet for some minor surgery.

He needed to have a tooth removed and some bumps removed. Pretty basic stuff.

Once home I cleaned the house, we ate lunch, I prepped pizza fixings, and then I had two client meetings.

Since it was also Thursday, I didn’t want to miss out on pizza! I decided to bake them ahead of time. This way when we were ready to eat, I could quickly reheat them as opposed to waiting on the pizza stone to heat up, and waiting on the pizza to fully bake.

This worked out really well because I was able to make two pizzas! Usually when we make pizza I’m so hungry I don’t have time to wait around on two pizzas to bake. Making the pizza right after lunch, this wasn’t an issue. So I made His and Hers.

Creeping Up

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Andrea

We have been having the most amazing weather here in Columbus this past week! It’s been completely spring like in temperature and everything is so very happy! The birds are happy, people are happy, and the plants are really happy.

Along with the time change (curse it all you like, but I love this time change) which means there’s more light in the evenings, the atmosphere has been pretty much giddy around these parts.

Last Tuesday was my birthday and it was sunny and in the high 60s. For March in Ohio this is rare and I loved every second of it.

Scott and I have been enjoying the weather as much as possible by having the windows open and getting outside often.

Yesterday I was BUZZING all day with excitment. Partly because I was so very ready for pizza and partly because it was hockey night!

Pizza was basic but tasty and it hit the spot.

Redemption

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Andrea

I could not wait for pizza this week! After last week’s debacle, I was really jonsing for a great pizza. It also felt like an amazing reward for what turned out to be a long and super productive week.

I’m currently working on a new business plan that I’ve put into effect this week and as a result but the time the end of the work day on Thursday rolled around, I had already attended 6 personal business meetings and 2 group business meetings.

Please look past that horrible sentence structure and focus on the stats! Thank you, ever so.

I put the pizza in the oven and poured a taste of red while it baked and I chatted with Scott (about more business stuff). Here is where I would link to my instagram photo of my wine but I have no idea how to do this. I also have no idea how people get two pictures or split pics on their instagram feed. If you can tell me I would greatly appreciate it!