Another attempt to duplicate a recipe

About eight years ago, when my marriage fell apart, I packed up and moved to The Frozen Tundra, mainly because this was the only area where I had friends that were willing to take me in while I got back on my feet.  One place that was on the list of preferred dining spots was a local pizza chain called Davanni's.  This was the one place that served a pizza that was close to what I had in Connecticut, and whenever we went there for dinner this was what we would get.

Besides being a deep-dish style, loaded with toppings and cheese, it also featured what they called "pink sauce."  Essentially, this was a mix of their red sauce and their "white" sauce (which was a garlic-and-herbed olive oil), and the mingling of these flavors was truly spectacular.

Ms. Darkstar expressed a craving for this particular style of pizza, along with the fact that there seem to be no pizzerias in the area that serve anything close.  So, it fell upon me to try to duplicate it.  I knew I wouldn't even come close to an exact match, but just getting in the ballpark on this one would be worth the effort.

I started with the white sauce.  I took some fresh garlic and Italian seasoning, and heated this in a pot with some local extra-virgin olive oil that I picked up at the farmers' market in Frisco last year.  It's a local olive grower that produces some fantastic oils.  Once this was cooled, I poured it into a jar with some re-hydrated Penzey's minced garlic and let it sit.

Our red sauce came courtesy of another Frozen Tundra place we went to: The Green Mill.  Target sells their pizza sauce by the jar in their stores, so we picked up some of that, and I was able to doctor it up a bit with some Tuscan Sunset to get the flavor just right.

The toppings were simple enough.  I cooked up some Italian sausage and hamburger, cut some red onion, got sliced mushrooms, and for an added kick, cooked up some bacon left over from breakfast.  Pepperoni and a nice four-cheese blend were the crowning touches.

All that was left was to make the pizza dough.  We tried the one that Robyn and Nance made.  The dough was simple enough to make, and I was able to split it into two and freeze the other half for another time.

We placed the dough into an oiled deep-dish pizza pan, put on the sauces, a base layer of cheese, the meats and veggies, and topped it off with the rest of the cheese.  Now, what temperature to use to bake the pizza...

I dropped the rack to one space below center, and baked it at 400 degrees for about fifteen minutes (to start).  The crust seemed cooked after that time, and the mushrooms had cooked up perfectly.  I sliced and served, and damn if it wasn't pretty close to good ol' Davanni's.

All in all, the recipe was a success.  Some minor tweaks for next time:

1. I may season the dough next time.  Mixing in some dried garlic and Tuscan Sunset with the wet ingredients right before adding the flour might enhance the flavor a bit.
2. Prebake the crust a bit.  I did find one small raw spot on the bottom, so next time I may top the pizza with everything but the final layer of cheese, bake it for five minutes, take it out, add the cheese, and bake it for fifteen more minutes.
3. Oil the pan better.  There were a couple of places where the dough stuck to the sides of the pan.  Ms. Darkstar also noted that Davanni's crust had a buttery flavor, so I'm thinking maybe some butter-flavor Crisco would solve both of those issues.

Other than that, I think dinner was a huge success, and I will definitely have to make it again.  Soon.

Lazy Sunday Posting

This week has been interesting.  It's been a series of twists and turns, ups and downs, spills, chills, and thrills.  I've gone from mind-crushing boredom to a serious case of the nerves, and today I get to rest as much as I can before we start all over again on Monday.

Work's been somewhat slow, but usually in the late mornings or afternoons there's a few runs that come in that I do.  I already know that Monday promises to be a busy day, and we'll see if that trend continues through the week.

Yesterday was the day I did something I never thought I would do after leaving the cooking trades: I cooked a meal for people that weren't family.  The whole deal came about on Wednesday, during a discussion about how Central Market was doing a promotion centered around grilling.  Ms. Darkstar remarked how we hadn't grilled anything since moving to Dallas (living in a second-floor apartment with no storage space for a grill), and one of our other group members said she had a patio area at her condo complex, and would be quite amenable to having us over this Saturday so I could cook up a fabulous meal on the grill.'

Having very little danger in my life, and a couple of Strongbow ciders in me, I agreed.

Our menu would be a simple one: steaks, grilled veggies, and then it got complicated: grilled pineapple.  We had a version of this at our favorite Brazilian restaurant, and I was game for the opportunity to recreate it.  Since there was no rotisserie available, we just used a regular roasting rack on top of the grill, to keep the pineapple away from the direct heat and avoid scorching it.  There was just the matter of coating the pineapple with the seasonings.

First, there was the matter of finding the right cinnamon.  I know, I could have used plain-old store-bought cinnamon (like McCormick's or whatever), but since I am a Penzey's fanboy after all, I went through my collection and settled on the Indonesian cinnamon.  It's similar in aroma to the store-bought, but has a more subtly sweet flavor and is not as sharp.  The online recipe sites we consulted were unanimous in using a syrup glaze on the pineapple, and that's what I decided to do as well -- I would cook up the glaze and bring it with me the day of cooking.

Saturday was spent, after the usual laundry trip and a visit to the barber for me, in a flurry of shopping.  First stop was the restaurant supply store.  I picked up a new 12-inch skillet, we found a pan deep enough for our pizza experiment (more on that when it happens), and a few other odds and ends.  We then went to lunch at the India Palace, which has one of the best lunch buffets we've ever had, followed by a trip across the parking lot to the Penzey's.  I picked up a small bottle of vanilla sugar for the pineapple glaze (yes, I could have just put vanilla flavoring into the syrup, but I'm trying to impress people here), and a bottle of a new spicing blend that we thought would be good with the veggies.  After that, we did our own grocery shopping, and had a couple of hours to relax at home.  If by "relax" you mean I cooked up the glaze, packed the things we would need, obsessed over every little detail, and pretty much became a basket case by the time we had to leave, then I was one relaxed dude, all right.

So, our steaks were little ball-tip cuts, not much like the ones we used to get back in Minnesota in terms of size or thickness, but they were fine.  I just did a salt-and-pepper seasoning on those, and prepped the veggies.  We had summer squash, zucchini, onion, and portobello mushroom all sliced, coated with the herbs and tossed with butter.  These went into a grill pan and cooked over medium-high heat, and once those were done, I did the steaks.

Everyone was unanimous in their opinion of dinner -- and it was pretty damn tasty, if I say so myself.  Now, it was time for the pineapple.  I had a whole pineapple, which I peeled and removed the ends, placed it into the roasting rack, basted it with the glaze, and slowly let it heat over medium- to medium-high heat until it just started to warm on the outside, turning and basting frequently.  Once it was heated, I sliced off the roasted part into a serving platter, put the pineapple back in the rack, and started the process anew.  It came out wonderful, and was damn near close to what we had at the Brazilian restaurant.  I managed to get three roastings out of the pineapple, which we served with a cinnamon gelato.

So, the upshot is I survived, and apparently I did quite well.  Maybe I'll attempt it again someday.

Today, I'm just taking it easy.  I've already made muffins, and after I finish up here I'll cook up some home fries, make a potato salad for dinner, bake a key lime pie for dessert, and if there's time, I'll make a batch of snack mix.

Enjoy your day.

And that's something!

Day Two of our outing has commenced after what was a very trying day, both on the personal and professional fronts.  Little Miss And That's Something! is flapping her overworked gums at a volume that should only be used at sporting events and for crying out loud would you just PLEASE SHUT YOUR FREAKIN' PIE HOLE ALREADY???

(Note: If you were expecting sunshine and lollipops, you came on the wrong day.  Snark will flow tonight along with the hard cider.)

Hallelujah, the volume has decreased.  I suspect more fluctuations are in the works in direct proportion to the amount of wine she consumes.

So, yeah.  About my day...

Today started out as another typical slow day, no runs scheduled, and only busywork in the warehouse to occupy my time.  My job was to use the forklift to place the pallets of finished goods on the stretch-wrapping machine, remove the wrapped pallet, place it in the shipping area, repeat until done.

At least I got to drive something.

This took about an hour and a half out of my day.  My next assignment was to take our trailers out for their annual inspections, which all seem to be at least a year or so over due.  Oopsies.  We're doing one at a time, and when the one is done, we'll bring down the next one.  So, I got to get away for a little while, picked up some hardware I needed to fix one of the trailers (minor fix, had to reattach the handle for the landing gear), and grabbed lunch.  Should have been a lark, yes?

Oh no, dear reader.  The plot thickens.

Let's backtrack a little bit, back to when I went to "school" to get my Class A CDL.  There was a substantial amount of money that needed to be repaid, and part of the deal was that once hired on, the debt would be repaid through your settlements.  Well, they really can't deduct from my pay anymore, and all I was waiting for was a simple phone call from these people to make an equitable and reasonable payment schedule and all would be good and there would be wine and cake and we would all dance the night away...

Yeah, right.

Apparently, their way of reaching an equitable and reasonable payment schedule is to turn everything over to a freakin' lawyer and have this poor schmuck make the calls these people are too lazy to make themselves.  Such was the call I received this morning.  I am pleased to report that this guy wasn't a total asshat, and an agreement was reached. They wanted full payment to settle the claim, but there's about as much a chance of that happening as me being able to self-pleasure myself orally.  Sorry for the visual.

With all of this rattling around in my head, I was given another delivery.  Simple enough -- six pallets, place is about ten minutes down the road, and after that a pickup a little further away.  Yeah, simple...

... until right before I was to load up, when they noticed that each and every case was overpacked.  By one item.  Which meant that each and every case had to be unpacked, the errant item removed, the cases sealed and re-packed, and the extras packed into new cases and stacked.  Which meant that all of the paperwork now needed to be re-done, and now everything was running behind.

Joy and rapture.

So, once again, from a totally slow day I managed to get another hour and a half of overtime, which will be a big help in getting the stupid student loan settled.  And now I try to relax, now that Miss Flappy Gums (among other appendages YEAH I WENT THERE) has left the building and a calm has descended over all, as I sip my cider and let today melt into memory, leaving tomorrow as a blank slate.

Highs and lows

It's funny how much difference a few days can make at my new job.  Last week, I had something scheduled for each day, and a few other things cropped up as well.  This week has be excruciatingly slow, to the point that I spent the better part of today in the warehouse helping out with odd jobs.

It's still better than being out on the road, because I still get to go home every night, and even though it was slow, with last minute things I managed to get an hour and a half of overtime.

We're out at our usual hangout on Tuesdays, and the place is jammed full of people.  One of the candidates for county commissioner is holding a rally, or perhaps a thank-you to his volunteer staff, or maybe even conceding, I really don't know because I wasn't paying attention.

It's hard to think of things to write within a crowded, noisy space, so I'll put this aside for now.  I'm hoping I can think of something more substantial for my next entry.

More of a "Holy..." week, really

After Tuesday's activities, the rest of the week kept me fairly busy.  I made the delivery that was postponed by the weather on Wednesday, along with the scheduled pickups that were an ongoing thing.  Friday was the busiest by far, with one pickup and two deliveries out toward the Fort Worth area, fighting traffic each way.  Then, I had to come back and load the trailer for a delivery on Monday.  All told, I got about eight hours of overtime this week.  It's still better than what I was doing, because at least I get paid for EVERYTHING I do, and get overtime after my forty hours.

We celebrated my first paycheck by going to our favorite Brazilian restaurant and enjoying the rodizio dinner.  Perfectly cooked meat on skewers, brought to the table and carved ... what's not to love?  And the roasted pineapple? To DIE for.  Items like that make me wish I had a little rotisserie, so I could attempt to duplicate it.

I remember what Easter week was like when I was growing up.  Basically, from Wednesday night onward, there was lots to do.  After Wednesday's service, we (the altar boys) would rehearse for Holy Thursday, jsut refreshing on the order of the service that night and getting things ready.  After that, we went over the Good Friday morning service, with lamentations that evening.  After that night, we would get things ready for Holy Saturday, which involved the blessing of the fire and water.  In retrospect, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to give a bunch of hyperactive youth the job of getting the water ready for the mass the next day.  We were surprised things dried out as quick as they did, given the volumes of water that went seemingly everywhere.

After mass on Saturday, we would go over the order of the Easter service, after which two of the altar boys would accompany the priest as he went around and blessed the Easter food at the home of those that requested it.  It was always a treat to walk into someone's house and smell all of the wonderful food.  The day would end at the rectory, and a small dinner of the blessed food before we went home to get some sleep for the sunrise service the next day.

Easter breakfast was a big deal, and my grandparents would have a wide variety of things ready: ham, kielbasa (store-bought and  the one made at the church), eggs, homemade horseradish, farmer's cheese (which I can never find any that tastes the same as the kind my grandparents would get -- think cottage cheese pressed into a small wheel, with very little moisture), Easter bread from a nearby bakery,and the usual coffee, tea, or whatever you preferred to drink.  Grandma, Mom, and I would go back for the more sparsely attended service at the normal time -- Mom and Grandma in the choir, me at the altar.

I don't get to church much, mainly because there are no churches of my faith here in Texas, but I do my best to uphold the Easter breakfast.  It's one of the few traditions I observe, and it takes me back to those earlier days.

Dinner tonight is a crock-pot lasagna from a recipe I got here, and because I'm a tinkerer, I made a few small alterations to the original recipe.  It smells wonderful, and in a few hours we'll see how it tastes.

If you celebrate it, I hope your Easter was a good one.  For the rest, I hope you had a great Sunday.

Wild Weather and Wine

Today has become a very complex day.  I'm amazed that I am able to find the time to talk about what happened, never mind attempt to process it all.

The day started normally enough.  I got to work early, had a couple of trailers to move around, and then headed out to pick up some rolls of paper.  I had heard people talking about some storms due to pass through the area, but I didn't really give it much thought beyond that.  Big deal, it's springtime in Texas, of course there will be storms.  I was more concerned with having to work out in the rain, and for poor Ms. Darkstar, who would have had to walk to the bus stop in the rain once she left work.

I was in the middle of loading up for my afternoon delivery when one of the other drivers announced that we were under a tornado warning.  I took a quick look at the sky, said something along the lines of, "Oh. That's nice," and went back to the task at hand.

A few minutes later we were all being herded into the storm shelter, although a few of the more adventurous of us (myself included) decided to venture outside to see what all of the fuss was about.  And there it was, larger than life, and seeming to have a direct bearing on our warehouse.  I snapped this picture as the storm passed to the west of us, being very closely watched (both the tornado and us) by the Mesquite police.

It appears the tornado was in mid-hop when I took this picture, because it once again extended itself down to ground level as it moved out of view.

The storm passed, and we went back to work.  I had heard, both from the National Weather Service and local broadcast stations, that the area where my apartment is could be affected by this storm.  I spent the rest of the day wondering if everything was all right at home; moreso, would there be a home to return to?

I am happy to report that all was well at home.  Other parts of the metroplex weren't as lucky.  I saw the video of one of the local trucking companies taking a direct hit, trailers being lifted into the air like toys.  The local news has shots of neighborhoods devastated by what one station was calling the worst tornado outbreak in this area since the early- to mid-1970s.

Today's delivery was postponed, thankfully, and now I relax with a glass of wine and hope things are a little quieter than they were today.

... so, how was your day?

This whole "free time" thing ...

The rest of the week went pretty well.  I am gradually getting the hang of things, and I proved to them that I am, indeed, certifiable when I successfully completed my forklift training.  There's already a few trailer loads booked for next week (one delivery and a week of pickups) along with whatever else comes up.

Wednesday was a pretty busy day and I was glad we picked a quick and easy dinner for that night.  On our shopping trip to the Target, we found a bag of Tyson's cheddar and bacon flavored chicken strips on clearance, and we made a plan for dinner based on that.  We had already planned on salad, which would be topped with the cooked chicken, and a mix of buffalo ranch dressing, and a cucumber ranch dressing to cut the heat of the buffalo ranch.  Top with some shredded cheese and there's our dinner -- The dressings blended well with each other and gave a nice buffalo-wing flavor to the chicken

The chicken on it's own isn't bad either, as I found out on Thursday.  Since Ms. Darkstar was doing her volunteer work that night, I had a dinner of clam chowder and the leftover chicken strips, with some cucumber ranch for dipping.

And, now it's the weekend.   Friday night was a trip to our favorite Indian restaurant, and then a trip to Central Market.  We wandered and looked at all of the wonderful things they had, and I wept silently as I realized I would have needed that half a billion Mega Millions jackpot to get everything I may have wanted at that store.  We went to the bakery and got a couple of cupcakes for our dessert (tiramisu cupcake for me, Nutella cupcake for Ms. Darkstar), and a jar of organic blood orange spread for breakfast this morning.

Saturday was our usual shopping and whatever day, dinner being a trip to get some barbecue that we hadn't had since before I left on my cross-country tour.  Tonight, a simple crock-pot pot roast dinner and pie for dessert.

I still have this feeling that I shouldn't be just sitting around, that I have work to do and I shouldn't be such a slacking slacker.  I'm sure that feeling will pass.  Right after I get the crock pot going.  Relaxation is a wonderful thing, and I intend to make the most of it.

I have six months of catching up to do, you know.