My take on Pizza

Detroit is a pizza town.  When I was very young, pizza was purchased at an Italian bakery or a local bowling alley.  And then Little Caesar's appeared.  You got Pizza-Pizza, two for one.  Later it was Domino's and then Hungry Howie's.  The owner of Hungry Howie's belonged to my parish (when I was still a church-goer) and one of my sons worked there while in college.  All are local companies.

I remember the opening of a Pizza Hut and Pizzeria Uno in the township - both long gone.  Dine in and carry-out, my boys will tell you that we ate a lot of pizza.

But I do enjoy making my own pizza for guests.  If I am making my barbecued chicken pizza, I make my own dough or buy it.  But when I make my white pizza, I purchase naan flatbread from a west Michigan bakery.

Pizza is relatively easy to make.  Pick your base, your sauce and your toppings.  I prefer red pepper, mushrooms, caramelized onions, and cheese - ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, asiago, or whatever might be in the fridge.

The pizza pictured above was actually one from my Blue Apron meals.  And here is another from BA, a calzone:

When I make my own at home, I prefer no red sauce and no meat.  Here is my recipe for roasted garlic bechamel...

1 head of garlic, just a small one of 2 inches or so
1 1/4 cups milk
1 tbsp flour - preferably cake flour if you have it
1 tbsp butter
1 ounce fine diced onions
Clarified butter, about 4 tbsp

Cut off the head of the garlic.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a little olive oil.  Wrap in foil and roast at 375F for about one hour.  Cool and squeeze garlic paste into small bowl.
Clarify the butter by warming and pouring off solids.  It does not need to be perfect.  Pour it over the onions and cook on the stove until onions soften.  Drain and set aside.
Make the roux by melting the tablespoon of butter and then whisking in the flour.  Cook for about one minute.  Scald the milk and then add to the roux while whisking, bring to a boil while whisking until smooth.  Lower the heat.  Add the onions and the garlic.  Simmer for 30 minutes.

Adjust to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Strain out the solids.  Use on dough for pizza.

Recipe can be easily doubled, or even quadrupled. 

Any questions?

Show me the Bread

One of the bloggers I follow is participating in the 'Share Your World' Challenge.  I have found some of the questions interesting, but this week they really hit home.  Food.  Four questions about food.

Maybe it is because I am now into my third month of weight watchers and I am craving real bread.  Folks who know me well know that I could live on bread alone.  That low-fat, low-cal stuff is OK, but nothing like real artisan bread fresh from the oven.

The questions to be answered this week and my answers are:

If you had to eat only three meals/food for one month, what would you choose?

Okay.  Let's pretend weight is not an issue and all calories will miraculously disappear once they hit my tongue.  Right.  I'll take pizza.  As long as there are no olives, sausage or pepperoni, or anchovies, it is usually OK by me.  And could I have pizza for all my meals?  If not, pasta will also work.  And of course, I will need some bread. 
 
For your main meal do you prefer sweet and sour, hot and spicy, spicy and sweet, bitter, salty, bland or other?

I enjoy spicy foods, not necessarily spicy-hot.  And I like a balance of sweet and salty.  Just enough salt when cooking to enhance the flavor of the food.  I have never once in 40+ years of cooking ever put salt on the table.

Do you prefer eating things with nuts or no nuts?

OMG, I  love nuts.  I always have almonds, walnuts and pecans in the fridge.  Unfortunately, my daughter-in-law does not like nuts so I usually prepare foods with the nuts added afterwords.  But when baking, I love putting them in the batter.  Thanks to Weight Watchers, my intake of nuts has dropped quite a bit recently.

For potlucks or parties do you cook it yourself, buy from a grocery store, or pay for catering?

Well, after all that money I spent taking culinary classes, I am cooking.  I actually miss being able to cook for my kids and my staff.  I end up eating lots of leftovers.

I am sure that this is what I'll be dreaming about tonight:  Home baked bread.

Pizza, Pizza Day, Week, Month

I just received an email from Driscoll's berries informing me that January 28 is National Blueberry Pancake Day.  Now, I like pancakes, but I prefer berries other than blueberry.  So I decide to google National Strawberry Pancake Day, but only found National Strawberry Day, February 27.

OTOH, National Buttermilk Pancake Day is coming up on February 5.

This 'food for a day' got me wondering 'When is National Pizza Day?'  Pizza is my favorite food.  I discovered several days to celebrate pizza. 

Seems that I just missed National Pizza Week, January 9-16.  But on February 9 we can celebrate National Pizza Pie Day.  September 5 is National Cheese Pizza Day and November 12 is National Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day. The entire month of October is National Pizza Month. I have lots of days to eat pizza.

Without question, pizza is my favorite food. I try to limit my intake to only a few times a year. I even order salads at California Pizza Kitchen.  This is not calorie-conscious food.

I grew up with an Italian mother who made her own pizza.  Before Little Caesar's arrived in our neighborhood in the 1960's, we got great pizza at the local bowling alley on Seven Mile or the Italian bakery on Eight Mile Road near our home.  I still remember going with my Dad to pick it up and taking in that wonderful aroma on the way home.

I've made my own pizza from scratch a few times.  I took a cooking class with Michelle Bommarito who taught us to make a wonderful barbecue sauce for barbecue chicken pizza.  (Her family makes THE BEST cannolis I have ever had.  No wonder she is such a great baker.) 

My youngest son worked for Hungry Howie's while he was in college.  I have three pizza places less than a mile from home and several more within a less than five minute drive.  It is like living in pizza heaven.  And I have exercised the greatest restraint in not picking one up each time I go past. 

I have posted pizza recipes on my Pinterest account, even a recipe for pizza dough.  But in a pinch, just order take-out.  It's pizza.  The only bad pizza I ever had was in Italy.  Seems like all the guys who really know how to make the good stuff are in this country.  And they have it perfected.