Adventures in Sourdough, Episode 4: Pizza!

Mandough is still healthy and alive, but I decided that perhaps he was a bit too...doughy.  All three bread recipes so far have been a little on the dense side, which lead me to wonder if the hydration ratio in our starter is a little off.  I did a little research and per the Interwebz, starter should be somewhere in the range of pancake batter to warm peanut butter in consistency.  So when I fed it this week, I upped the amount of water a touch.

I also split off some more starter for my neighbor...yes, the same neighbor who we gave Gro-goo to last week, because there was an "incident" with an elbow and a hard fall to the kitchen floor...

Someone executed Order 66 on Gro-goo.

We needed a break from having fresh bread in the house all week.  We love carbs, but they don't love us back.  So this week we decided to make pizza dough with the discard.  

We followed the King Arthur flour recipe (minus the addition of yeast, and "pizza flavor").  This was the first time I used my Kitchenaid & dough hook to knead the dough, and I think I should probably do that more often.  It was a big help, especially since I jammed my elbow on my dominant arm the night before in an unfortunate roller skating accident. Kid's birthday parties are dangerous, man.

The dough ended up a touch on the sticky side; we transferred it from the stand mixer bowl to a greased stainless bowl, and then I busted out my newest bread-making purchase...

A terry-cloth lined shower cap, for $3 at Walmart.  I've been seeing a lot of cute reusable bowl covers in recipes online, and was feeling a smidge guilty about burning through plastic wrap...so I bought this, and flipped it inside out so that the plastic layer is closer to the dough to hold in moisture.

I let the dough proof all day (started it in the morning), and about 5pm it had doubled in size and was ready for pizza time!

We stretched the dough on our pizza stone and let it proof for about 15 minutes.  I should have done a par-bake at this point, but we were hungry, so I just slapped on some sauce, toppings & cheese and threw it in the oven.

Sausage & pepperoni, with pineapple on half for me & Lil' Man, and Jalapenos on the other side for The Hubs.

I would use this recipe again, but would probably do the par-bake to aim for a crispier crust. And luckily--the recipe made enough for two crusts, so we froze the other one and have it available whenever we need it!

All Things Peach!

I was looking through my backlog of pics and recipes that I haven't shared yet, and noticed a surplus of peach recipes.  Since peach season is coming up soon, it seemed like a good time to share all of these!

First things first:  I was craving bruschetta, but didn't want JUST tomato bruschetta.  So I bought some goat cheese, added some sliced peaches to one, sliced strawberries to another, and sliced mint to both.  UH-MAZE-BALLS.

Next up, I made a peach and proscuitto pizza.  I used a pre-made crust, brushed the crust with garlic & olive oil, then laid down the proscuitto & peaches, and topped with fresh-sliced mozzarella.  After it came out of the oven I added shredded basil and drizzled it with a balsamic glaze.

Next up:  I had some over-fresh peaches that my Aunt sent down from her garden that needed to be used up STAT.  We were out of sugar, so I decided to make a sugar free version freezer jam, using some Splenda for Baking blend.  

Ingredients: (per pint jar)
2 peaches
1/4 cup Splenda for baking
1 Tbsp instant pectin
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Directions: combine in a blender, food processor, or simply using a hand masher.  Then jar and place in the freezer (or fridge if you're ready to eat right away.

Note: this came out a bit runny, but still delicious. I think my pectin is past its expiration date, which may reduce its thickening powers.  So if you're in the same boat, maybe double the amount of pectin.

Here are some other peach recipes from past entries!

Peach Bread Pudding

Peach Muscadine Sangria

Peach Brandy Fizz

21-Day Keto: Day 19

The end is in sight...or well, technically HERE for The Hubs, since he started 2 days before I did.  Today was Vision Sunday at our church, where we reflect on all the things the church helped accomplish in the last year, and then set the vision for the coming year. They blocked off sections of the front rows for Life Groups, so we had amazing seats. (Note: anytime you have to sign a pyrotechnics waiver, you probably have great seats.)

Afterward, we went to a soft opening at the CiCi's pizza in town...it had closed down last year and just reopened under new ownership.  The new owners attend our church and so invited all of the Life Groups to come down for free pizza to help their staff get ready for the real opening tomorrow.

Breakfast: Leftover waffles with peanut butter & whipped cream, coffee, and bacon.

Lunch:  Was a little underwhelming for me.  Cici's DOES offer a "crustless pizza bowl" option, but with the soft opening, they were super-slammed so I didn't want to throw a special order at them (especially when they're already feeding us for free).  I got a few slices of pizza and just scraped off all the toppings. 

I ate a couple bites of cheesy edge crust (which were delicious), but mostly I had 2 plates of salad.  The salad bar selections were a little wanting. It would have been nice if there were cheese, some sort of meat, and maybe cottage cheese on the bar.  

(On the flip side, DK and Lil' Man both ate plenty of pizza and pasta and dessert, and said it was all very tasty.)

Dinner: When we first started searching for keto friendly recipes before starting the diet, one of the things that popped up was deviled eggs.  They're naturally keto friendly and simple to make: eggs, mayo, mustard, salt, pepper, some sort of vinegar (I use pickle juice), and a sprinkling of paprika on top. We also garnished ours with pickled okra.  Had some of these with a Michelob Ultra Pure Gold.

Totals: 1472 kcal, 115g fat, 24g net carbs, 56g protein 

Thoughts: Going to CiCi's while on keto feels like torture.  I wanted breadsticks with marinara SOOOO bad. Or even just ONE slice of thin crust pizza.  And a brownie.

21-Day Keto Diet: Day 9 (Pi Day)

As a follow up to yesterday's post about my child's wake-up patterns...today I had to get up at 6:20a for a work meeting...but when I left the house at 7am, Lil' Man was still snoozing.  So, the obvious conclusion here is, despite everything that comes out of his mouth, he truly does love his Daddy more. ;)

So...Happy Pi Day all!  I had almost forgotten, until our HR manager sent out an email yesterday noting that in honor of Pi Day, they were buying pizza for the office for lunch, and folks were welcome to bring in dessert pies.  

And y'all, I REALLY wanted to come up with a brilliant keto-friendly pie and bring it so I could participate.  I thought, "hey...we've got coconut flour...surely that would make a great faux-graham cracker crust, for a no-bake cheesecake, right?"  But I couldn't find a single recipe online that used ONLY coconut flour--most called for almond flour or a mix of the two.  

So, let's all just PRETEND that I made this beautiful cheesecake (which is the recipe I would have used if I had had the energy and supplies to make it).

Photo & Recipe from Simply So Healthy, click on photo for link.

Breakfast:  Raspberry coconut muffin with butter, 3 sausage links, soft boiled egg, water, and coffee w/DIY creamer.

Lunch:  Leftover Zuppa Toscana & celery (and the toppings from 1 slice of sausage pizza.  What? I don't turn down free food, dude.)

Dinner:  Chicken Pizza Bake, made with chicken, bacon, pepperoni, bell pepper, onion, kale, and mushrooms. I tried to cram as many veggies in there as I could.  This was pretty darn tasty--the kiddo loved it too. Also had a Michelob Ultra with dinner.

Totals: 1598 kcal, 110g fat, 22.6g net carbs, 91g protein

My Thoughts: I was pretty bummed to have to pass up all those pies today.  They looked really good.  But I did make it to the gym today (a good thing, since I was at my desk almost all day and pretty sedentary).  The gym scale tells me I'm only down 2 lbs, which is a little frustrating.  I should probably try to up my trips to the gym to balance things out a bit--would probably help with the low energy levels too.

The Hubs' Thoughts:  If yesterday was my best day, today is my worst.  Sore muscles and really low energy.

Adventures in Parenting: Month 11

Weight: 24.5 lbs

Teeth: 8

Eating:  He eats just about everything.  We still haven't tried crunchy vegetables, but he eats table food at day care and pretty much everything we eat for dinner.  

Life Changes: Last month I mentioned that we were house hunting.  Well, now we've house-found, house-bought, and are house-fixing up so that we can house-move-in.  I'm pretty excited and nervous at the same time...it was my first home buying experience.  I was constantly certain that everything was going to fall through, and since it was a For Sale By Owner, at least once or twice I had the thought "this guy doesn't even OWN this house...he's a con man and he's fake-selling us someone else's house.  Have we checked his ID???"

The new house is very similar to our house upstairs--we're pretty sure it was the same building plan/builder.  BUT--now we have a basement, extra bedrooms/bathrooms, storage, a tornado shelter, and a ton of other little extras.

New Living Room

We bought the new place from the original owners, who lived there for about 13 years with their 3 kids--meaning it's well lived in.  So we'll be spending the next month or so fixing dings and dents and repainting and cleaning carpets and whatnot. But I'm excited to move in.  We've already met some of the neighbors and it seems like a great, family-friendly neighborhood.  We've even been invited to a neighorhood BBQ.  Yay!

Finding a New Day Care:  *sigh*  This is no fun.  Seriously.  Trying to find a space for a kid under 2 is SO frustrating.  One day care we called didn't have openings until NEXT summer.    So we may be shuttling Lil' Man to his current day care for a while, which is really out of the way (like, in another town out of the way) until we can find an open spot.

First Plane Ride:  Over Labor Day week, we flew down to Louisiana so my friends could meet Lil' Man for the first time.  I was anxious about the plane ride, but he did great, both there and back.  We had a connection in Dallas, so each leg was about an hour long, which was pretty manageable.  He would sleep for one of the flights, and then be awake for the next, but was pretty easy to entertain--we'd feed him puffs or applesauce and let him play with the seat buttons and latch for the tray table, or sit and watch out the window.  I downloaded a bunch of games and videos onto my iPad, but we never had to use them--ah well, they're ready for the next time!

In Dallas we had a little bit of a layover, so he even got to play in the kids area!

We stayed in Lafayette for 3 days, Morgan City 1 day, and New Orleans 3 days.  It started out a little rough: we tried to visit an alligator farm, only to get there and find out they weren't doing tours, but they did let us see all the wild-caught alligators that had come in that day (it was a LOT, despite it only being about noon).     Then we tried to visit a tap room and got kicked out because they were having a private event (but hadn't put a sign on the door). The next morning, I had planned for us to do a nature walk at one of my favorite spots in Lafayette, only to find out it had flooded in the recent rains and was teeming with mosquitoes.  Needing to fill some time and let my restless child crawl around,  I enlisted help from my local friends and they pointed us to Kart Ranch, which has a special play area for little ones under 5.

But from that point on, it went pretty well.  We got to see most of my friends, eat lots of good food--Lil' Man had MANY firsts:

• grits
• cajun sausage
• rice dressing
• boudin
• beignets
• jambalaya
• snoball
• shrimp
• and probably others that I'm forgetting.

Nommy nommy beignet from Morning Call at City Park.

Sleeping...was rough.  All of our hotels provided either Pack 'n Plays or a collapsible crib (we confirmed this ahead of time before booking), but Lil' Man had a hard time sleeping in so many new places, and would inevitably end up in bed with us sometime around 3am. Which means we were all a little sleep-deprived for the entire week.  I brought some sheets from home so they would smell familiar, which probably helped, but apparently not enough.

"Yeah, I see the crib.  I'm good right here."

We played tourist and visited Avery Island Tabasco factory, City Park in New Orleans, and did a walking tour of the Garden District (for free, using the self-guided tour in that link).  Note:  The sidewalks in New Orleans are...choppy, at times, which can be rough for stroller travel.  You've been warned.

Brace yourself, kiddo...

Initially, I spent a lot of time planning our trip by trying to find kid-oriented activities for us to do.  And then I realized--when your kid is under a year, and still sleeps a fair bit, and can't walk, and won't remember any of the trip, it's a little silly to spend a lot of time (and money) trying to do activities he can't really participate in and won't remember.  Our son can still spend nearly half an hour being entertained by a PLASTIC SPOON.  So, aside from making sure the places we went had high chairs, it was pretty easy to travel with him and still do the things WE like to do--which is mainly eat, drink, and walk around and see stuff.

Snoozing while Mom & Dad try some new brews at Second Line Brewing in NOLA.

I realized about halfway through our trip--this is actually a pretty easy age for traveling with him (aside from the sleeping arrangements).  He's still portable in the infant carrier/stroller, he's not nursing anymore so we can feed him a bottle anywhere that has warm water, and he's eating table food so we don't have to cart around a bunch of baby food. Each morning before leaving the hotel, we filled a bottle with hot water (and put the bottle in a coozie to help keep it warm), and grabbed some yogurt, a banana, and made him a jelly sandwich from the complimentary breakfast fare--bam, there's lunch and snacks for him, if we don't happen to eat at a sit down place with choices for him.  

And New Orleans was very kid-friendly, everywhere we went.  We particularly liked Urban South Brewing, which has a kids area for little ones to play at.  Lil' Man loved the train table and the tote full of Mega Blocks.  They usually have food trucks, but none were there the evening we visited, so the bartender recommended ordering pizza from Slice & having it delivered. I loved eating at Slice when I lived in NOLA, and I'm happy to say it's still delicious. (I highly recommend the Flying Hawaiian.)

Not really thinking, I put our kiddo down in the kids play area without socks (because it was pretty warm out).  And it wasn't long until I noticed his bare feet were pretty dirty.  And some Mom Guilt started creeping in.  "You put your son down on a dirty old warehouse floor, and let him play?  When were those blocks last cleaned?  He's totally going to get lead poisoning, or Zika, or some other disease from touching all this dirty stuff."  

And then, in a moment of fate, a 20-something girl walked over to our table and said, "I just have to tell you...you guys are doing life RIGHT.  I mean...seriously." And she gave us a little bow. I laughed, and thanked her, and pushed the Mom Guilt aside as I looked at my happy child, contendedly playing, and smiled.  Yes...yes we are.  Kids are meant to get dirty.  And later after we finished our pizza and beer, we went back to the hotel and plunked him into the pool, which took care of all of that soot just fine. :)

Bacon Mushroom & Swiss Pizza

Last fall The Hubs & I took a trip down to Eureka Springs before the baby arrived.  We ordered a Mushroom & Swiss Cheeseburger Pizza at the Skybar (located at the top of the beautiful & reportedly haunted Crescent Hotel).  It was....okay.  Super cheesy, but lacking some depth of flavor that would have really made it taste like a Mushroom & Swiss Burger.  So, we decided we'd see if we could top it.
And this was our result.  Pretty darn tasty (though if I make it again, I'll use more cheese).

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup brown gravy (preferably made from Tony Chachere's Brown Gravy Mix)
4 oz mushrooms, sliced
1/2 lb lean ground beef
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp smoked salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp Montreal Steak Seasoning
1-2 Tbsp yellow mustard
1/2 medium onion, sliced into rings
2 cups smoked Swiss, shredded (note:  Swiss melts somewhat translucent, so feel free to add in some mozzarella to maintain that uber-cheesy pizza look)
2 slices bacon, cooked & crumbled
1 pre-made crust (we did thin crust, you can opt for hand tossed if you prefer)

DIRECTIONS:
In a large skillet, brown the ground beef along with the Worcestershire sauce, salt, garlic, steak seasoning, and yellow mustard (you can use ground mustard if you prefer--I was just out at the time).  These seasonings are intended to help your ground beef element taste as "burger-like" as possible.  If you have some other seasonings that you prefer to season your burgers with, by all means use those instead--it's all about tricking YOUR palate into thinking "Ooh, cheeseburger!"  The mustard plays a big role in that, so don't leave it out.  As they say on Food Network: "taste your food".  Season it until it tastes like a tasty burger that you would enjoy eating...then you're done.

When the ground beef is cooked through, use a slotted spoon or spatula to spoon it out & place in a bowl.  Then use the drippings that remain in the pan to saute the mushrooms & onions.  Cook until the onions are nice & caramelized.

Now it's time to assemble your pizza.  Preheat the oven according to your crust's instructions (for us it was 425F), and spread the gravy onto the crust.  Then add the ground beef, mushrooms, and onions.   Cover generously with cheese (all the way to the edges, peeps!!!) and cook according to the instructions that come with your crust (since the thin crusts are pre-cooked, that was like 7-9 minutes for us, but a hand tossed crust is going to take longer).

Once baked, let it cool for a bit (this time helps allow the cheese to "glue" the toppings in place before slicing), then slice and devour.

Enjoy!

Daniel Fast, Days 17 & 18: Homemade pizza!

Day 17 (Wednesday)

Today’s Devotional: “Thankful Hearts- Psalms 105:1 ‘O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.’  1 Thessalonians 5:18 ‘In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
We should be the most thankful people in the earth. We have had all our sins forgiven & forgotten as far as the east is from the west. We have received life because of Jesus death, He became poor so that we could be rich, weak so we could be strong. He has given us the ability to make a great exchange & this should be the message of witness to those who do not yet know Jesus as Lord. Why don’t you take a few minutes today & thank him for all He has done for you.

I am truly a blessed woman.  I have an amazing husband who’s taken this Fasting journey with me, a loving family, good friends, a paid-for home that keeps me warm, enough to pay the bills, keep our stomachs full, and afford us even a few luxuries, a good job that I enjoy, hobbies to keep me entertained.  My cup truly runneth over.  We are without want.  Our lives are never completely stress-free, but our issues are minor in comparison to some others in this world.  And even when we are in the midst of a trial, we still always come out on the other end; perhaps a little emotionally banged up and teary-eyed, but alive & changed, hopefully for the better.  In this life, I think that’s really all a person can ask for; anything more would be excessive & superficial.
Breakfast:  Oatmeal with a few chopped dates & figs leftover from the Antipasto party
Lunch: a baked potato with a drizzle of olive oil, pepper, and some Cajun Seasoning, and 2 tbsp of homemade “guacamole”  (actually leftover sauce from the cilantro-avocado pasta the other day, with a little lime juice added in) and corn tortilla chips
Dinner:  The Hubs’ parents were in town visiting, so they took us to Qdoba.  I got a Grilled Veggie Burrito (whole wheat wrap, brown rice, black beans, fajita veggies, grilled squash, pico, corn salsa, salsa verde, & lettuce) and had them cut it in half so I can take the other half for lunch (because remember, even just their veggie burrito with no meat, cheese, or sour cream has over 700 calories).
Day 18 (Thursday)
Today’s Devotional: “He Has Established My Goings- Psalms 40:1-3 ‘I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.’  Phillipians 1:6 ‘Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.’
You are standing in the middle of the purpose of God because He loved you & chose you before the foundation of the world. He set your feet upon the rock (Jesus) & gave you the ability to stand on a firm foundation that can hold you up, unlike the clay ( flesh) that you once trusted in. He has given you direction for your life & because of this a song of Victory has filled your mouth. There is nothing impossible for you, nothing out of reach, you have your eyes fixed on the prize & refuse to allow anything or anyone to stop you. You are determined, directed, destined, & you will not be denied.”

This was a great message to start the day with, as we’ve been having some issues lately. I won’t mire you with details, but suffice to say it’s mechanical, annoying, and has involved a repairman coming out to our shop THREE times,  only for us to realize that they *may* have caused the issue to begin with (but of course won’t admit that). *sigh*  These details are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, but they are definitely aggravating enough to make us fret and worry about the days & weeks to come.  Mechanical issues when we’re closed are one thing…mechanical issues when we’re open and trying to keep things frozen; that’s a whole new animal.  But we power on, and pray over it, and ask God to reign over the situation & to give us peace in the matter.

Important things to remember with all we have going on in 2014, the least of which is my upcoming professional exam on March 7.  I’ve been taking practice tests a few times a week to see where my weak areas are, and then studying whenever I get the chance (mostly at the gym, so I can multitask):

This exam means a lot to me, because I *technically* don’t have a hard “science” degree, let alone a degree in Geology.  My bachelor’s was in Mass Media (with a focus on environmental photojournalism) with a minor in Geology.  My master’s degree was in the Geography program, with a focus on Environmental Analysis (ie, using GIS and remote sensing imagery, along with environmental law), with another minor in Geology.  It’s through those minors that I have enough Geology credits (30 hours) to qualify to take the Professional Geologist exam—and really, only barely, since right after I got accepted as “qualified” to take the exam, they changed the requirements for future applicants so that the 30 hours have to require a specific set of courses (which I only have half of).  The slightly egotistical part of me likes to think that I’m the reason the made the change…I’m the last one to slip through without having a Geology degree… (muahhahahha).  In reality, it’s likely a coincidence. :)

When I started my professional career down in Louisiana, all the scientist positions were titled as “Biologist” (Biologist I, Biologist II, etc.)  I never cared for that because, well, I haven’t had a biology course since high school.  Not to mention the confusion it caused in the field, when a client would assume I was a biologist and start asking about some weird fish he caught last weekend, and then try to describe it, assuming that I must OF COURSE know what he was talking about.

(Sidenote: I don’t.  If it’s not a catfish, crappie, or trout, I have no clue.  I have a reference book in with my scuba gear for anything more complicated than that.)  After a couple years, they changed the title to “Environmental Professional”.  Which encompasses a much more broad swath of disciplines….but it makes for a very vague job description.  I would meet people and when you say “I’m an environmental professional”, they say “ohhh” and nod…then pause, and ask, “but what do you DO?”  My aunt used to tell people when we were out & about that I was marine biologist. I would correct her but she would shush me and wave her hand dismissively and say, “oh, but sweetie, ‘marine biologist’ just sounds sexier.”

Here, I’m a “Project Manager”, which is a bit more descriptive as far as titles go:  I manage projects!  That’s what I do!  But it still ends up sounding a bit vague and almost…administrative.  So to be able to have that title of “Professional Geologist” really hits home.  And I will finally be able to say, “I’m a geologist.  That’s what I do.”

We have ONE DAY LEFT!  Friday (tomorrow) will be our last day.  Normally this would be a 20 or 21 day fast, but Saturday is the 33^rd Annual Sertoma Club Chili Cookoff, and we have to work my company’s chili booth. And then Sunday I fly down to Louisiana for work…and trying to travel while on a Fast would definitely be tough.  When we were looking to schedule our fast, we picked the time between SuperBowl & my Louisiana trip because it was the only time close to 21 days that we had “open”…our lives get pretty chaotic.  And here in a couple months, The Scoop will be open and the option of not eating meat or dairy would be near impossible, since we often spend all our extra time at the shop and end up having to eat there.
Breakfast:  Oatmeal with a few chopped dates & figs
Lunch: The other half of my Qdoba burrito
Afternoon snack:  Pineapple & cantaloupe
Dinner:  I decided to take a whack at making pizza.  I found a recipe for matzah dough (unleavened bread)—however, we only had about 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour left, so I used that plus 1/2 cup of corn meal.  We had to bake it a little longer than the original recipe (about 4 minutes on each side) but it held up well.
I had marinated some veggies (mushrooms, asparagus, bell pepper, red onion) in a combination of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and yellow mustard) for about 30 minutes while prepping the crusts; then I put the veggies on a grill pan for about 5-7 minutes so they would get tender.

In a small pot, I used one 8oz can of tomato sauce (pre-flavored with garlic & basil) and added 2 Dorot basil cubes, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp crushed rosemary, and 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning.

When the crusts were ready, I loaded them up, and spinkled crushed cashews over the top (I read somewhere that they taste similar to parmesan), and baked for 8 minutes.

Not quite as good as “real” pizza, but still darn tasty!  And the crusts held up really well, crackery like a thin crust pizza!

Cajun Pizza!

You may not know this about me: I’m a pizza expert.  A professional pizza maker.  Or, at least I was in college.  For 3 and a half years, pizza was my life.

“It’s a better day at Papa Juan’s, this is Feaux, how can I help you?”

I had two vehicles throughout my pizza delivery career; both reeked of pizza sauce and anchovies by the time I got rid of them. I put about 20,000 miles on those cars each year, thanks to pizzas.  This is a college town, and college kids LOOOOOOVE pizza.  College kids also don’t know how to tip.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Always tip your pizza delivery driver, peeps.  They’re putting miles on their personal cars, burning gas, oil, and every other motor fluid to get that pie to your door hot ‘n fresh.  They make minimum wage, plus about 5% of their sales to “cover” the fuel costs for their cars…which doesn’t actually come anywhere near covering fuel & maintenance costs.  They pay higher insurance rates for having a “high risk” job that they use their personal vehicles for.  They’re hardworking college kids who need a flexible schedule to work around classes, or adults who need a second job to make ends meet.  They drive through rain, thunder, snow, sleet, and tornadoes with wet shoes and numb toes, so that you don’t have to.  Sometimes, they work ‘til close at 2am, then get up and open the store at 10am the next day, and are very tired.

(Our assistant manager catches a quick catnap during the post-lunch lull.)

They get treated like crap, get snowballs thrown at them, get griped out for not just  automatically “having” parmesan & crushed red pepper in their cars… but they take it in stride with a smile on their face and then get back in their vehicles and scream, “I HAVE A BACHELOR’S/MASTER’S DEGREE!!!!  I’M A FREAKING HUMAN BEING, PEOPLE!!!”  Then they sigh, drive back to the store, and do it all over again.  Why?  Because of the tips.  Without the tips, it’s completely not worth it.

ANYWAY.  *jumps off soap box*  Where were we?  That’s right…PIZZA.

I decided to make a pizza, from scratch, at home the other night.  But not just any pizza.  A CAJUN pizza.  Something I felt honored Louisiana flavors & tradition.  Toppings like smoked Andouille sausage, bell peppers, green onions, and jalapenos, and a kicked-up tomato sauce full of Cajun Power.  And this was our end result:

 

This was, and I’m being totally honest, probably one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had.

You don’t HAVE to make your own dough—I did because I wanted to try out my Kitchenaid dough hook.  But a store bought crust would not take away from the awesomeness of this pie at ALL.  However, if you do want to make your own dough, the basic dough recipe I use is here.

Sauce Ingredients:

1 6oz can of tomato sauce

1-2 tbsp of Cajun Power (depending on the heat level you like)

1 tsp minced garlic

3 dashes Louisiana hot sauce

1 tsp Italian seasoning blend

1/2 tsp fresh rosemary, diced

about 8 leaves fresh basil, julienned (1/4 cup, or 1 tbsp dried basil if you don’t have fresh)

Combine sauce ingredients in a bowl & mix well.

 

Toppings:

1 link sliced andouille sausage (if you can’t get authentic Louisiana andouille, Johnsonville makes a pretty tasty version)

1/2 red bell pepper, sliced

2-3 green onions, sliced

sliced jalapenos

Other Optional Ingredients: mushrooms, tomatoes, etc.

1.5 cups shredded mozzarella

 

Directions:

Heat your oven to 425 F.

Spread your crust out on a pizza stone or cookie sheet.  Add sauce (if you don’t use all the sauce, that’s okay, it’s great with pasta later in the week, too), then sliced andouille.

Then add peppers & onions & jalapenos, along with any other ingredients you might like.  I just tried to keep it somewhat simple with very traditional Cajun ingredients.

Now add cheese.

More cheeeeeeese!!!

That’s better!

Now bake for 15-20 minutes or until crust & cheese are lightly browned.

No worries…if it burns a little, just tell people it’s “blackened”.  People seem to think Cajun & “blackened” are fairly synonymous.

Let cool for a bit, slice into 8 pieces, and then CHOW DOWN!