Friday, July 3, 2009

Three Burglars and a Pizza



I have not posted anything in such a long time. My mom arrived last Wednesday from Miami. Although I am thrilled she's here, it has not been a good week. The day after she arrived, three burglars came into the house and had a gun. My mom was home alone and heard a really loud noise from the back of the house. She went to investigate and was met with a pointed gun and three delinquents. Thankfully my mom started screaming like a mad woman and they left before doing any damage- other than leaving her seriously shaken, and breaking the lock and patio door frame. Several trips to home depot, about 6 hours of paid labor to fix the door, and a bill of about $650.00 everything is back to normal. About 3 days after that, I came down with the most awful flu I can remember having in a LONG time. I started feeling sick on Monday night and today is Friday and I am still feeling sick. My week has been filled with rising and falling temperatures, horrible headaches and the most painful sore throat I ever had. I went to the Doc. and she told me it wasn't strep so I guess that was the silver lining. Why am I posting all of this you ask? Well, the truth is that I had been on a food blogging kick. I was posting a lot more frequently and really enjoying it. I kind of feel bad that I've fallen of the blogging wagon (and shhhhh- the workout wagon went to hell too). Here is my feeble attempt at a come-back. I hope you guys enjoy this! Who could turn down a piece of home-made pizza?



Pizza Dough Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose unbleached flour
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp garlic powder
2 2/3 cups water
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tsp baking powder
1 packet active dry yeast
1 1/2 tbsp. cornmeal

Add the ingredients to your bread machine according to manufacturer's instructions. Mine said to add all of the wet ingredients first then add the dry ingredients(with the exception of the cornmeal- that's for later). Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. I turned the bread machine on to the the dough setting and let it do its thing. The pizzas I made had a really thin crust. To achieve this, roll out the dough till it is about 1/8" thick- make sure to flour your surface and your rolling pin so that the dough does not stick. Next take your pizza pan and add a little canola oil to the bottom. With a pastry brush, make sure to get all of the bottom of the pan coated. Take the cornmeal and sprinkle evenly over the pan. After that, take your pizza crust and drape over your pan. When you roll it out, you want to try and roll it into a similar shape of the pan you're using, leaving about a 1/4" overlap so you can create a crust. Once you position the dough in the pan, fold the edges over and lightly pinch to secure. Take your silicone brush and spread an even layer of olive oil over the top. At this point you're ready to bake it in the oven for about 8 minutes. Remove from the oven to begin adding your toppings.

Toppings For pizza #1
2 hand fulls mozzarella cheese
1 handful shredded (not grated) Parmesan cheese
1 small white onion
6 cloves garlic
extra virgin olive oil


Topping For Pizza #2
2 hand fulls mozzarella cheese
1 handful shredded (not grated) Parmesan cheese
1 small red onion
1 ripe tomato, diced
6 black olives, sliced
1 tsp. dried oregano
extra virgin olive oil

While your dough is pre-baking, you can begin to cut up your toppings. This pizza was not your traditional one since I did not include a sauce. I added a little olive oil after removing the pan from the oven. I made two varieties, one with just cheese, garlic and onions. The other had red onion, garlic, tomatoes and olives. After you assemble each pizza, drizzle with some olive oil and bake until the crust is somewhat crispy and the cheese is bubbling.

3 comments:

Karen said...

How awful that happened... glad your Mom is okay! These pizzas look so delicious!

Cristy M. said...

Geez. To think it, she left Miami for Texas and she gets house-invaded THERE?! It's ironic, actually ironic. I'm glad things are "back to normal" and I'm glad that you blogged about those pizzas because...despite not making the dough myself...I'm definitely inspired to make some pizzas tomorrow a la Rox. Hope all is well and you keep blogging! More food!

Marilyn said...

Hi Rox,
OMG!
I am so glad your mom is ok, que susto!
Great pizzas!
Saludos!


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