Pizza Night

Before we talk pizza, I'll tell you a little bit about what I've been up to since the last post a million years ago. 

Last week I spent a lovely four days at my Grandma's house in Cabot, Arkansas. I saw my my family, ate good food, saw a couple of old, dear friends, played in the pool, and recharged for another semester. (I'm still not quite ready for that...) Frazier had a great time too. He probably didn't want to come home to his boring city house. After all, here he can't sit on the couch (yes, I know, we're so mean) and there is no Grandpa to sneak him toast and no barn cats to chase. Poor Frazier. 

Friday was a day I'd been looking forward to for weeks: a day trip with my good friend Jen to Kansas City. The main goal of the trip: shop at Trader Joe's!! Kansas City now has the 3rd largest Trader Joe's in the country. It was huge, it was awesome, I almost cried. I have to say, I went a little nuts. My cart was overflowing with TJ's goodness. All my self-control goes right out the window once I step through those doors. We also went to the City Market and I had maybe one of the best falafels of my life. Great day. 

The next day, however, was not so great. 

Trader Joe's has delightful cinnamon chip scones. I love, love, love cinnamon chip scones. I've been thinking about them for weeks. I bought two packages. Well Saturday, what should we return home to but to discover that my sweet little glutton Frazier had consumed not only BOTH packages of scones (6 total) but an ENTIRE loaf of sourdough bread I bought at the City Market. A trip to the emergency vet and $100 later, I had no scones and Frazier had the worst gas of his life - which is saying a lot. Needless to say, from now on all food is going on lock-down in the cabinets.  I haven't quite forgiven him yet...


Pizza. Pizza is a good thing to console my poor, scone-less soul. I made two kinds last night: one for me and one for Brian. 


Jen's Pizza: 

• one pizza dough of your choice (I used Trader Joe's for these) 
• good pizza sauce (again, I used Trader Joe's, but there are some great ones out there or you can make your own)
• about 2 cups shredded, good quality mozzarella cheese or slices of fresh mozzarella
• kalamata olives
• a few fire-roasted red peppers, cut into pieces 
• handful of arugula 

If you have a pizza stone (which I highly recommend having) heat the stone in the oven for about an hour or so previous to cooking the pizza. Roll out the dough to about a 12 inch circle (I usually do this on floured parchment paper), brush olive oil on the edges, and then top with the sauce, then the cheese, and then the olives and the peppers. Slide the pizza on the parchment paper onto the pizza stone and cook according to the directions for the dough. If you don't have a pizza stone, just use a round baking sheet. When just out of the oven, add the arugula over the top. Yum. You see, the greens make it healthy so it's OK.

 For Brian, I made a BBQ chicken pizza. Yes, with real chicken, but you could easily use imitation chicken strips such as Morningstar. Simply prepare the dough as above, but use your favorite BBQ sauce (preferably with some spice to it) instead of tomato sauce and throw your chicken pieces on top of the cheese and viola!