Oh my god.

My mouth thinks it has died and gone to heaven.

Basically, a family friend from Chicago who makes amazing deep-dish pizza invited me over for dinner before I go to Germany. Hooooly shitttt. So good. I try not to swear excessively in the blogosphere, because it sounds stupid later (i.e., when I reread my blog posts out of boredom). But, there is no other way for me to convey the deliciousness of this pizza. Words, profanities even, cannot express how good it was. I wish I'd had my camera and taken pictures, although it's dark and rainy here right now, so they wouldn't have come out well at all. Anyway, it was a simple pizza--mozzarella, tomato sauce (with copious amounts of garlic, of course), Italian sausage, olives, onion, basil. My favorite toppings. Home-made crust! I could go on and on about that crust. Sweet Jesus, that pizza was good.

And for dessert, there was ice cream from a certain locally-owned ice cream shop. That I happen to work at. Ahem.

It's the little things like this evening I spent with friends and family, eating good food and having good conversation, that I will miss the most when I am away. I can't wait for this next chapter in my life, but at the same time, I'm reminded a little every day how much I care about everyone here, and how lucky I am that life right where I am makes me this happy.

Here are some things that are making me happy this week:

*There is deep dish pizza in the fridge for lunch before work tomorrow.

*Orange blossom honey

*Economy pack of Twining's Earl Grey Tea

*Honey-nut Cheerios (Good breakfast cereal can make my day, actually.)

*I've seen so many of the people I love, but who I am never able to visit, in the past few days.

*Ice cream!

*Fresh vegetables from a friend's garden

*The premier of the next movie installment in a certain over-hyped franchise involving a boy wizard, which I may be going to with coworkers

Is anything not making me happy? Honestly, the list is very short:

*Packing. Ugh. My life=boxes.

*Mt. Eerie is playing at a local music fest. AND I'M GOING TO MISS IT. A sad turn of events (but I'll be in Europe...!).

More at some point in the future. Right now, pizza-bliss/work-induced weariness are lulling me into a sleepy daze. Oh, July.

Two Pies

I baked an apple pie this week.

David called and asked if I'd come over and help him bake a pie--he had some apples lying around that he couldn't let go to waste. Of course, I told him I would help him out, for who am I to resist the challenge of baking one of the potentially most delicious desserts there is? Apple pie is so simple, yet so delicious and comforting. I've been meaning to bake one for a while, and I was even thinking about baking yesterday (before I remembered that I had other errands to attend to).

Anyway, by the time I got to David's, I'd talked my way into commandeering the pie-baking process. I'd had this recipe for crust sitting around on my desk for a few months. I was curious to try it, as attempted pie-crusts in the past have ranged from pretty damn good to mediocre/not very good (thankfully, I've managed to sidestep inedible). Somehow, I convinced David to let me use the recipe, plus another from Cook's Illustrated for the filling. He's actually one of the nicest, least-argumentative people I know, so that might have something to do with it.

Long story short, after dough preparation, an unplanned trip to the store for better apples and a lemon, more dough preparation, making filling, and finally pie assembly, glorious smells were coming from the oven and life was good. Baked the pie per the directions in the Cook's recipe, and the crust was golden-brown and perfect about five minutes early. Luckily, it was extremely cold outside, so about twenty five minutes on the back stoop resulted in a perfectly cooled pie, ready for consumption. The verdict: 

Best. Crust. Ever. Flaky, delicious buttery flavor, tender...everything the recipe said it would be. And it held up well, not getting soggy or mushy. The filling was loaded with great flavor, although I thought it would have been a bit better with less lemon and allspice, and perhaps a little less nutmeg, as well. I'm a light-spice kind of girl.

The second pie I baked last night was a pizza. Actually, it wasn't really pie-like at all, as it was baked on a cookie sheet. David invented the topping combination, and I must say that the end product was quite delicious. Here's the recipe:

1 bag pizza dough

cornmeal for dusting cookie sheet

1 can Roma tomatoes (I like Muir Glen Organic)

1 bunch basil

2 cloves garlic

pinch of oregano

balsamic vinegar

olive oil

pitted nicoise olives

red onion

ricotta cheese

mozzarella cheese

1. Pour tomatoes into sieve set over a bowl and strain, stirring to get rid of excess juices.

2. Turn tomatoes onto cutting board and chop.

3. Strain again--tomatoes should be chunky, but also kind of smashed by now.

4. Peel and chop up two medium-sized (or large--hell, you can add as much as you want) cloves of garlic into pieces roughly the length of the head of a match--maybe a bit bigger.

5. Into a small cast-iron/nonstick skillet, pour enough olive oil to cover the bottom in a very thin coating.

6. Heat oil, then toss in garlic and fry until just golden.

7. Toss garlic and oil from skillet in a bowl with the tomatoes. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar, a pinch of oregano, and taste. If the mixture needs salt, you can add some, but canned tomatoes are generally salted and the sauce probably won't need it.

8. Sprinkle a cookie sheet with cornmeal. Stretch out the pizza dough and place on the cookie sheet. Spread dough with tomato sauce.

9. Grate as much mozzarella as desired, and sprinkle it over the pizza. Add desired amount of ricotta, placing lumps (for lack of a better term) of it around pizza. Add olives (whole or chopped--doesn't matter) and onions (sliced thinly). This pizza would also be excellent with some mild or spicy Italian sausage, salami--really any type of spiced Italian meat.

11. Bake until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbling. Can't remember how long it took, but I think we baked it at 425.

12. When you take it out of the oven, chop up some basil and sprinkle liberally over the top. The more, the better.

I meant to post this long ago, but I got lazy.