Excel + Pizza

Two of my favorite topics - Excel and Pizza - together in one post. I've previously shared the Randy's American Dough recipe I commonly use. Or perhaps, more accurately, I shared a version of what I use. I don't always make the same size pizza, and I don't particularly care to use imperial weights. You can use the expanded dough calculator on pizzamaking.com to re-size your recipe as needed. But what if you want multiple dough balls of different sizes?

Enter Kal's Dough Calculator featuring Randy's American Dough:

The highlighted cells are ones you can change. To change the "weight in" type, type "grams" or "ounces" (no quotes), it will default to grams. Then, enter the number of dough balls of each size. That will update the ingredients on the right.

Still rolling out features, so it's not quite ready to send out the whole file, but does provide the right amounts for the dough balls selected.

Kal

Meet Nu

The newest member of SGa is so new, we call him Nu!

Nu pledged SGa in November 2010. Tipping the scales at 9 lb. 5 oz., and a lazy 4 days late, Nu was a little more laid back in his arrival compared to his brother.

Going from tag-team parenting to man-to-man parenting has proved challenging. But this guy smiled at me for the first time when he was 12 days old and he hasn't stopped since!

Wordless Wednesday

When Bad Things Happen to Good Pizza

or,

Part One: It Pays to Cut the Cheese

There are many ways to ruin a pizza, but I made a cardinal mistake last Sunday. I used the wrong cheese.

"I don't know what six cheeses they blended, but together they just taste like a foot." - Rachel

 We went camping over Memorial Day weekend. We don't camp often, but when we do, one staple food is the campfire pie (or "hobo pie"...Hi Mom!). Since I'm a pizza nut, pizza sandwiches are the standard. We bring some sandwich bread, some homemade sauce, some pepperoni, and some cheese.

Rather than bring cheese to shred, we bought some pre-shredded. Campfire pizza pies aren't made for perfection, just good enough, so the cheese was fine. We picked up some 6-cheese italian store brand and ran with it. The campfire pies were great and fed 7 of us. However, we had a package and a half left over when we got home.

Last week, I was running a little behind in the whole pizza production, and didn't know when I'd have the occasion to use the 6-cheese blend, so I reached for it. Big. Mistake.

What I hoped for was a reasonable substitute, but what I got was plastic.

"The toppings, sauce, and top of the crust are entombed in plastic cheese, so the moisture has nowhere to go." - Rachel

The end result was a crispy crust on the bottom, plastic cheese on the top, and mush in the middle.

I also made some breadsticks from the same dough batch that were outstanding, so I can say with confidence that this otherwise great pizza was completely ruined by bad cheese.

I wasn't even going to take pictures until we started eating and realized how bad it was. When we decided it was good blog fodder, I took out the iPhone and snapped a couple close-ups.

The lesson here, kids, is to always make time to cut the cheese.

Kal

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Meet Kappa

Kappa pledged SGa in December 2007. We had already gone through many changes by this point, but NOTHING prepared us for making the "we to three" (humans that is) leap. He truly changed every aspect of life in SGa.

Kappa made quite an impression from the beginning; roaring into our lives like a freight train at 8 lbs., 13 oz., and 5 days early (born on a Friday, and we had a lot planned for that weekend!). I remember holding him for the first time, looking down at his squishy purple face and saying, "Mommy has no idea what to do next, but I love you and we're going to figure it out together. Deal?" And just like that, we were parents.

I'd like to say it was smooth sailing from then on. Not so much. Kal and I were largely making it up as we went along, at least that is how it felt. But Kappa kept up his end of the deal like a champ. People would ask how we were doing and I would always answer the same, "Kappa has it together. We are a mess just trying to keep up with him." We still sometimes just watch him and wonder how blessed we are to have this little person in our lives that we get to play with and teach things, and ultimately mold into an adult that will, God willing, go on to have his own little beta someday. Scary, rewarding, and just awesome.

Thanks for continuing to keep up your end of the deal, Kappa. Mama and Dada love you!