Upper Crust
I had the worst longing for pizza today.
I love eating pizza. I know for most people it is immature and not a fancy food...(unless of course it is made on foccacia with basil, tomato and feta... or some other Food-Network-Worthy topping)... but I love it. Extra cheese, pepperoni, and hand-tossed crust. Judge me if you will. I am throwing caution to the wind.
I would eat pizza every day if I could. Seriously. And I would also eat a LOT of pizza every day if I could. There was a time in college where one of my friends and I would split a Rogan's double-dough extra cheese pizza several times a week. Thank God for high metabolisms and three hours of sports workouts every day or my freshman fifteen would've turned into the freshman 250! But I digress....
Of course eating pizza (a lot, a little, whatever) does not fit very well into the food diary plan on an every day basis... At approximately 250-300 calories per slice (minimum!) it adds up very quickly and can either 'eat up' all my allotted calories for the day... or take me well over my limit and into the guilt-ridden land of food diary prison. Plus, eating pizza every day is not friendly on the pocketbook... so despite the desperate pleas my brain/stomach send out for this cheesy, warm, crusty, deliciously wonderful food, I limit myself to once a week.
Friday night is that 'once a week'.
Friday night is pizza night at our house. Almost without fail. In fact, I am so addicted to our Friday family tradition that if we don't have pizza on Friday it is as if my whole week has been thrown out of whack. Yes, you're right, I don't have many things to look forward to in my pathetically small little life... and so yes, Friday pizza night is one of the great highlights of my culinary life.
However, my problem is that today is Tuesday. It is not pizza night. The flipside of the set-in-stone-forever-Friday-pizza-night-routine is that we also 'cannot' order our beloved Italian treat any other night of the week.... it throws off the entire weekly schedule and it is also not good for the budget to splurge on a meal out more than once a week. So therefore you can see my truly heartwrenching dilemma.
The solution? I braved the kitchen once again tonight and made pizza and 'cinni-sticks' from scratch! I was so proud of myself. I did a yeast-based pizza crust and topped the thing with sauce, mozz cheese, some pork sausage and some chicken ham that I had previously purchased for the breakfast burrito bar I was going to put on for Kevin's Tuesday Morning Football gathering. (However, that gathering did not happen this week and so I was free to use the ingredients for something else. Yes, I know you were wondering.)
While the pizza was baking in its 350 degree oven, I took the other half of the bread dough and (in my beloved pink kitchenaid mixer of course... with the 'dough hook') added raisins, cinnamon and honey, rolled it out on my well-floured board, then cut it up into strips and twisted it before putting it into the lightly greased baking pan for our fun dessert treat -- later to have butter and brown sugar added on top when fresh out of the oven. Mmmm good! Sadly, Claire dropped the glass jar of honey on the floor shortly after I added some to the dough, so we were not able to dip our pizza crusts in honey after our meal. I guess that specialty will remain reserved for BeauJos.
So, tonight I accomplished two things.... I successfully managed a homemade pizza from my kitchen... and I also satisfied my never-ending longing for pizza. I am happy tonight and can't wait 'til the 'real' pizza night rolls around on Friday.
~lk
I love eating pizza. I know for most people it is immature and not a fancy food...(unless of course it is made on foccacia with basil, tomato and feta... or some other Food-Network-Worthy topping)... but I love it. Extra cheese, pepperoni, and hand-tossed crust. Judge me if you will. I am throwing caution to the wind.
I would eat pizza every day if I could. Seriously. And I would also eat a LOT of pizza every day if I could. There was a time in college where one of my friends and I would split a Rogan's double-dough extra cheese pizza several times a week. Thank God for high metabolisms and three hours of sports workouts every day or my freshman fifteen would've turned into the freshman 250! But I digress....
Of course eating pizza (a lot, a little, whatever) does not fit very well into the food diary plan on an every day basis... At approximately 250-300 calories per slice (minimum!) it adds up very quickly and can either 'eat up' all my allotted calories for the day... or take me well over my limit and into the guilt-ridden land of food diary prison. Plus, eating pizza every day is not friendly on the pocketbook... so despite the desperate pleas my brain/stomach send out for this cheesy, warm, crusty, deliciously wonderful food, I limit myself to once a week.
Friday night is that 'once a week'.
Friday night is pizza night at our house. Almost without fail. In fact, I am so addicted to our Friday family tradition that if we don't have pizza on Friday it is as if my whole week has been thrown out of whack. Yes, you're right, I don't have many things to look forward to in my pathetically small little life... and so yes, Friday pizza night is one of the great highlights of my culinary life.
However, my problem is that today is Tuesday. It is not pizza night. The flipside of the set-in-stone-forever-Friday-pizza-night-routine is that we also 'cannot' order our beloved Italian treat any other night of the week.... it throws off the entire weekly schedule and it is also not good for the budget to splurge on a meal out more than once a week. So therefore you can see my truly heartwrenching dilemma.
The solution? I braved the kitchen once again tonight and made pizza and 'cinni-sticks' from scratch! I was so proud of myself. I did a yeast-based pizza crust and topped the thing with sauce, mozz cheese, some pork sausage and some chicken ham that I had previously purchased for the breakfast burrito bar I was going to put on for Kevin's Tuesday Morning Football gathering. (However, that gathering did not happen this week and so I was free to use the ingredients for something else. Yes, I know you were wondering.)
While the pizza was baking in its 350 degree oven, I took the other half of the bread dough and (in my beloved pink kitchenaid mixer of course... with the 'dough hook') added raisins, cinnamon and honey, rolled it out on my well-floured board, then cut it up into strips and twisted it before putting it into the lightly greased baking pan for our fun dessert treat -- later to have butter and brown sugar added on top when fresh out of the oven. Mmmm good! Sadly, Claire dropped the glass jar of honey on the floor shortly after I added some to the dough, so we were not able to dip our pizza crusts in honey after our meal. I guess that specialty will remain reserved for BeauJos.
So, tonight I accomplished two things.... I successfully managed a homemade pizza from my kitchen... and I also satisfied my never-ending longing for pizza. I am happy tonight and can't wait 'til the 'real' pizza night rolls around on Friday.
~lk
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