I like to imagine that I have some level of artistic talent, but so far it just hasn’t really surfaced. I enjoy photography but I haven’t spent alot of time with it. A new camera has come into my life that may help change that.
The other day I was browsing through a local thrift store. If you are familar with Utah, you know of the D.I. (Deseret Industries). It is like a Salvation Army thrift store. Anyway, I found an old Polaroid Automatic 100. I remember my Grandpa having a camera like this. The price sticker on the camera was three bucks. Even if the camera was completely non-functional, it would still make a pretty cool office decoration. The camera that I found is like the Automatic 103 pictured here, but it does not have the flash attachment.
It is no secret that my family likes pizza. A little while ago my family took a cooking class at the local kitchen store. It was on making deep dish pizza at home. Over the weekend we made some. I thought it was very good. My daughters were suffering from a little bit of carb overload.
I would like to see how the pizza cooks in a wood fired oven. I think that with a little intense oven you would end up with a little more loft in the crust and a crisper crust as well.
Over all, I would make this style of pizza again.
The instructor, Lindsey Owens, gave a couple of recipes to start with. Here they are:
Lindsey’s Deep Dish Pizza Crust
Ingredients
1 Tablespoon SAF instant yeast
1-1/4 cups warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup cornmeal
3-1/4 cups bread flour (approximately)
Directions
In the bowl of your mixer (or a mixing bowl) place the yeast, water, sugar, olive oil and cornmeal. Begin mixing at a low speed. Slowly add in 2 cups of flour followed by the salt. Add in as much of the remaining flour as needed to produce a soft, springy dough. Knead for a couple of minutes. Allow it to rise until doubled in bulk at least once.
Makes 1 pizza crust.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Grease you deep dish pizza pan with 1 tablespoon olive oil and press the crust into the pan. Top as desired. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
Toppings
The toppings for your deep dish pizza can be anything you want. Because of the high temperature and the long baking time, cheese does not do well at the top of the pizza. With deep dish pizza, the cheese should go on first, right on the dough. Next, put down and meats and vegetables that you want and follow that up with the sauce.
Pepperoni Pizza – Cheese, pepperoni and red pizza sauce
Chicken Alfredo – Cheese, shredded chicken, baby spinach, thin roma tomato slices, white pizza sauce
Chicken Cordon Bleu – Cheese,shredded chicken, canadian bacon, bacon crumbles, thinly sliced green onions, white pizza sauce
Carnivore – Cheese, meat, meat & more meat, red pizza sauce
Pantry Red Pizza Sauce
1 – 8oz can of tomato sauce
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon salt
fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
pinch (or more) red pepper flakes
Mix all ingredients together. Makes enough sauce for 1 pizza.
White Pizza Sauce
1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves minced (or grated) garlic
1 tablespoon flour
white pepper
1 chicken bullion cube or 1/2 teaspoon bullion granules
1 cup milk (at least 2%)
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
(depending on your application, you can also stir in 1 tablespoon basil pesto)
Saute the garlic in the butter. Add the flour and cook for about 1 minute. Combine the milk and the chicken bullion. Add it to the butter/flour mixture. Stirring constantly, let cook until thick and bubbly. Stir in parmesan cheese and pesto (if desired). Makes enough sauce for 1 pizza.
Last week our company went to Jack’s Wood Fired Oven for dinner. The excuse was to celebrate the March birthdays. It was quite a sight to see everyone from work fill up this little pizzeria on Main Street. I think that our company family filled nearly every booth at Jack’s at one point during the evening. I think that everyone enjoyed their food, I know that I did.
Towards the end of our visit, one of my daughters had a bit of a sweet tooth. She asked if she could have dessert. Jack and Julie had a new apple pizza dessert that sounded good, so we ordered one. I am not normally much on sweet pizza. It brings up images of fruit pizza at my grandma’s (sugar cookie crust, cream cheese frosting, topped with strawberries and bananas), or the fruit pizza at the Pizza Hut buffet. Dessert pizza would send me for a pitcher of water to clear my palate.
Apple of My Eye Pie
Jack and Julie’s apple pizza was a different experience. It was focused on the apple and not the sugar. Once again their crust is the star of the show with the toppings taking a supporting role. The crust was crisp and chewy, just like good pizza should be. The apple was tender crisp with a slight tartness. There is a buttery flavor and just enough cinnamon and sugar to balance out the tart apple. Worth the extra calories. My girls want to name it the “Apple of My Eye Pie”. What ever you call it, it is tasty.
