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.

We finished up the hockey game while enjoying our pizza.  There’s even enough leftovers for us to have for dinner today.  Hooray!

Rocky Update:  He took his last antibiotic today and he has recovered from his surgery.  He can even be left home alone.  Ahhhh, we can all go back to our normal routines now!

I’m very much looking forward to this weekend.  We have house stuff planned along with a quick trip to the butcher to stock up on some goods.  What’s on your agenda for the weekend?

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.

Next time I’ll adjust!

We ate pizza and watched the Pens lose dramatically to the Islanders last night.  Oh man.  I am definitely concerned about the post season.

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.

• Whole Wheat Crust
• Tomato Sauce
• Shredded Mozzarella
• Red Onion
• Spinach
• Shredded Carrot
• Banana Peppers
• Sundried Tomato Chicken Sausage

Delish!  Normally I do a half unbleached AP flour and half white whole wheat crust (or spelt) but I was out of AP so all whole wheat it was.  It turned out great!  I might stick with that for the next few weeks.

Dramatic lighting for the wine though it didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted.  Ah well!  A lovely syrah by Achelo.

Hockey was intense last night.  It was the return of the Pens captain along with the Pens star defenseman.  The game was against the number one seed in the East.

It was rough going and a little crazy but the Pens won and they are slowly creeping up behind the Rangers to steal the top spot.

I went to bed too late and had too much wine but oh was it a lovely evening.

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!

Pizza this week was an old familiar face.

• Homemade dough
• Pizza sauce
• Shredded mozzarella
• Grated parm
• Red Onion
• Green Pepper
• Red Pepper and Asiago chicken sausage

DELISH!  We ate and finished up Wednesday’s Pens game.  It was a good game but there were injuries that I’m pretending didn’t happen.

I’ll actually be back later today with some announcements about the blog and other goings-on.  Luck you, two posts in one day!

This week was birthday week here at the HQ for Mr. Scott.  For the next couple of weeks (until my birthday) I am referring to him as “my old man” because both of us are in a new age bracket this year.

Exciting (please note the sarcasm.).

With birthday week comes a special pizza! I decided to play around with the crust a little bit and see what would happen if I mixed in some butter, garlic, and red wine.

I did orginally think that the wine would turn the pizza more of a pinkish color but maybe that’s because I didn’t use a bunch of it, only a little splash.  I added the wine in place of adding in water when I added more flour to the bloomed yeast.  I also used melted butter and about 3 cloves of chopped garlic that got added in place of the olive oil.

Earlier in the week (For Zombie Appreciation Day) we had pasta with a homemade meat sauce.  I had leftovers of the sauce that I purposely saved for pizza.

Since the sauce was a bit heavier and had a ton of flavor I kept things simple with the toppings.

• Basic dough recipe (with the modifications mentioned above)
• Homemade meat sauce
• Shredded mozzarella cheese
• Chopped broccoli
• Banana peppers

The crust was alright.  Alright in the sense that it tasted like a regular crust.  No wine notes and I could not pick up the garlic and butter.  That’s best left brushed on before baking and not actually incorporated into the crust.

That’s how cooking is, it’s all about experiments and finding out what works and what doesn’t.

How did this week treat you?

My only thoughts for pizza this week were to keep things simple.

Since we had kicked up pizza last week and both of us had to work late last night, I wanted something that wasn’t going to take too much thought.

I also wanted something familiar and comfortable, which led me to a very simple veggie pizza.

Simple but oh so tasty and totally hit the spot as we munched and finally finished up Tuesday’s Pens game.

It was crazy.  Let’s not discuss it.

But we can discuss the pizza!

• Basic Dough Recipe
• Tomato Sauce
• Shredded Mozzarella
• Green Peppers
• Banana Peppers
• Red Onion
• Shredded Carrot

YUM!

I really like adding shredded carrot to pizza.  It cooks up nicely and you can’t even tell it’s there.  It’s a nice way to add in some veggies without anyone being put out about it.  Plus they brown up nicely and just look like golden cheese on top.

We had a new to us wine last night that turned out to be fantastic.  It was a Cabernet Sauvignon called Raconteur (FYI that link plays music so turn your sound down).  Delish! Very dry but very juicy at the same time.  Perfect sipping wine!

This week has been a busy one and I’m looking forward to some relaxing time tonight.  How’s your week going?

I had a Super Bowl snacks post all ready to be published and then the server hosting my blog crashed.

It apparently crashed hard because it was down for a couple of days.  My website and my email was out of commission.  If you emailed me and it bounced, I apologize.  Please resend it!

Clearly my blog is back up at this point and by now I don’t want to talk Super Bowl snacks because pizza is more important.

Scott fixed my oven this week and replaced the heating coil.  Looking at the old coil, the coating just didn’t burn off, the coil burnt right in half.

Yikes!  Check it out.

It seemed fitting that since this coil gave up the ghost as I was reheating pizza, that the new coil got broken in heating up pizza.

I have to say that this new coil is amazing.  It heated up my oven with the pizza stone to 425 in about 15 minutes.  Possibly shorter time frame as I was working on our half bath at the time.  It’s super hot and works so well!

Ok, so now pizza.  I totally copied Lori this week and made a Kale and BBQ sauce pizza.  I saw her version and I had everything on hand to make it.

This pizza had a cornmeal crust and if you remember my first try at making this style crust, I used cast iron to cook the pizzas.

This time, I followed my basic dough recipe and used 2C Unbleached AP Flour and 1C Cornmeal, this mix worked out well.  It rose beautifully and rolled out nicely.

I braised the kale earlier in the day in a little beer (Great Lakes Eliot Ness) and chicken stock.  Then I tossed it in a little apple cider vinegar and maple syrup.

I had some leftover Bourbon BBQ Sauce in the freezer and pulled that out for the base.

Topped with red onions, shredded carrot, and chopped up buffalo chicken sausage.  The cheese was shredded mozzarella and extra sharp cheddar.

It came out great! Totally fell in love with this pizza!  I kept the BBQ sauce layer light so that it wouldn’t over power the other flavors and it baked right into the crust.  Very flavorful and light.

I think some bacon or pulled pork would also make a great topping for this pizza.  If you haven’t made a cornmeal crust before I highly recommend you trying it!