computer crashed, but back again! Now – Pizza

Well, nothing like one’s computer crashing to delay blogging! But, I’m back, all is well and much data saved, and thankfully, it was my laptop not the tower. Although, the tower is pretty well backed up regularly. I lost my personal email address book, but it was too darn big, anyway. Quicker to rebuild than delete, one by one, all those old addresses from years back.

BUT – now, I am making pizza. I am embarassed to say that, at age 46, this is the first time I have made my own pizza dough. Well, that’s not quite true.

I worked at a pizza place for years when I was younger. For folks in my area, that’s Wakefield House of Pizza on Tuttle St, Wakefield MA. VERY good pizza as of the last time I got some from there. And, the owner, John Mavredakis, is a great guy. Working there got me through high school, college and part of grad school.

So, I of course sometimes made the dough, but that is not the same as making a small bit of dough at home for one 16 inch pizza! And, baking is not my forte. Although, the two times in my life I made homemade pies, including the crust, they came out really well. I think I somehow inherited my Nana’s talent for pie crust. Although, if this pizza crust doesn’t come out well, that will challenge that assumption! Making any dough or “crust” is intuitive since the measurements can’t be exact. It just has to feel right.

I have all the toppings chopped and sliced (onion, garlic, green pepper, shitake mushrooms, brocoli, peperoni – well, a fancy kind – and I will slice some fresh tomatoes right before assembling to save as much Vitamin C as I can, even though cooking will kill some of it) and I have shredded the cheese. About 2/3 part New York Sharp (nothing fancy, just the Shaw’s brand) and 1/3 part Cabot low-fat cheddar.

The last time I had some pre-made crust and did a pizza, I used the same regular and low-fat cheddar mix and it seemed that the low-fat added a texture (without the extreme gooeyness) of mozerella. Since my local market didn’t have low-fat mozzerella available, I figured I try this mix again to see if it works again.

Okay – time to experiement again. 🙂 Geez, why isn’t the spell check thing working? Well, never mind any typos!