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!

Meet Delta

Delta pledged SGa in December 2003. She was a scrawny little kitteh abandoned at a vet's barn in Monterrey, MI. Half-starved and sweet as sugar, I couldn't resist those pretty green eyes and immediately fell into a mushy pile of nonsensical baby-talking love with this girl.

I mean, just look at that face. Would you look at that face? Isn't that a face you could die for!?

*ahem. Sorry.



So Kal brought her home, and we quickly discovered the drawbacks to bringing home this little rescue. First we discovered that she had an eating disorder. Yes, out of all the cats in the world we found the one with bullemia. She was so used to not having food that she would binge (then subsequently purge) every time she passed by her food dish. Really?

Then once she started feeling better, she discovered that she had claws (oh boy!) and teeth (even better!) and was a masterful escape artist (STUPID CAT!). We thought so many times, "She is 2 (3, 4, 5 ...) year old now. Surely she will start to calm down ..." Oy.

But, she is still our little girl. She's been there since darn near the beginning; surviving 2 months living with another cat, a 12 hour half-sedated car ride, and 2 screaming newborns (one of which has since learned what the spray bottle is for). SGa just wouldn't be the same without her.

Kal's Little Caesars' Sauce Clone Recipe

(Originally posted here, this is slightly edited.)

I've had several people ask me if I make my own sauce or if I use store bought, so I thought that would be a good post. I used to buy pre-made sauce - Ragu Homemade Style Pizza Sauce - and then add some italian seasoning at the time of pizza assembly.  For all of you who make your pizza at home but don't make your own sauce: don't use spaghetti sauce. Do yourself and everyone eating your pizza a favor. It's not the same. Use the Ragu Homemade Style (usually on the top shelf above the spaghetti sauce). Or, check out the sauce I use.

Kal's Little Caesars' Sauce

18oz can Tomato Paste
2 1/4 cups water
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder

This is a variation of a reverse-engineered recipe for Little Caesar's sauce. You can find the "original" copycat recipe on PizzaMaking.com (link).

Instead of using the mentioned method of cooking the sauce, my sauce is cold-fused, with the flavor of the dried spices being helped along with what's called Microwave Assisted Extraction. Before mixing all of the ingredients together, I place the oregano, basil, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder in a small pyrex cup, with just enough water so that everything is wet.  Then I stick it in the microwave for 2 minutes on 30% power.  When that's done, the kitchen smells magnificent.  Then I mix the spices in with the tomato paste, water, sugar, and salt.


For more on the idea of Microwave Assisted Extraction, check this link, again on PizzaMaking.com. This takes you right to one of the replies, but the whole post is pretty informative on the topic of cooked vs uncooked sauce. Warning: extreme pizza geekery lies ahead. Proceed with caution.


After it's mixed up, I pour it into a mason jar I picked up from Ikea. I actually scaled it up by one half as you'll notice from the original recipe, because it will fit perfectly into the jar. Stick it in the fridge and use it within a couple weeks. Try to make it a few days before you plan to use it, because it gets better with age. The first day or two after it's good, but give it 3-5 days and it's even better.


Kal