I’m getting together all the junk for pizza tonight. I’m making the dough and sauce today for dinner in College Station on Saturday.

At the rate I’m going, I won’t have everything in the fridge until midnight or later but it’s worth it. I perfected my recipe for both awhile back and then got majorly burned out on pizza. So burned out that I couldn’t write about it. So burned out that I couldn’t read the item on my life list to cross it off.

Now I’m kind of ready to deal with it all again so I’ll just say…I make some pretty damn good pizza. I don’t know if it’s the best ever or whatever but it is exactly how I love pizza. Ryan said I shouldn’t share my recipe but I don’t think that’s keeping with the spirit of the life list. I will, however, still keep all my brownie recipes a secret. Those are going to make me my fortune someday.

So here we go:
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Sauce
1/2 carrot chopped
1/2 onion chopped
1 stalk celery chopped
about 2 Tbsp fresh parsley chopped
about 1 Tbsp fresh basil chopped
28oz can tomatoes (peeled) or roughly 2 lbs fresh (peeled and seeded)
1 tsp tomato paste
salt
pepper
1 cove garlic minced

Put the carrot, onion, celery and parsley in a covered saucepan with about 1 to 2 Tbsp of olive oil on medium-low for about 15 minutes. Uncover, increase heat to medium-high and add the garlic and tomatoes (including the juice). Add the basil, tomato paste, salt, and pepper (and extra garlic or other seasonings if you are so inclined — sometimes I add a little extra minced onion or whatever other fresh herbs I have on hand). Reduce the heat to low and cook for about 15 more minutes.

After I let it cool, I always pop it in the blender or food processor to really get a nice smooth texture. I personally don’t like chunks in my sauce but this step is optional.

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Dough
1 packet yeast (I use RapidRise but ActiveDry works as well)
1 1/2 cup warm beer
3 1/2 cup bread flour
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar (can also use honey or agave)
couple of dashes of garlic powder
dash of cornmeal

Sprinkle the yeast in the beer and let it dissolve for five minutes. Mix it with a fork to be sure it’s all dissolved and then add the olive oil, salt, sugar, garlic powder, and cornmeal. Add the bread flour one half cup at a time until the flour is thoroughly mixed into the dough. Knead the dough and form it into a ball. Place the ball in a bowl coated with olive oil. Turn the ball to make sure it is coated as well. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it aside to rise in a warm place. Let is rise for a couple of hours or until the dough doubles in size.

At this point, you can either refrigerate the dough for a couple of days, freeze it for a couple of weeks, or use it immediately.

To use it immediately, separate it into two balls. If you have a pizza peel, spread cornmeal on the peel and shape your dough into a pizza shape on the peel. Add the sauce, cheese, and toppings and slide it on to your preheated stone (450 degrees) and bake 10-15 minutes.

If you are like most people, you have no baking stone or pizza peel and instead have a couple of baking sheets or pizza pans. I have you covered. Lightly spray cooking spray on the pan and sprinkle on cornmeal. Shape your dough on the pan and lightly coat the dough with olive oil. Put the pan in the oven and cook for 5 minutes at 450 degrees. Take the pan out and add sauce, cheese, and toppings. Put the pan back in the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes at 450 degrees.

I also like to add extra cheese before it’s done baking.

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So that’s it. Those are my pizza baking secrets. The sauce is pretty basic. I’m not wild about red sauce so I didn’t get that creative with it. I just try to use fresh ingredients and I find that it always tastes great. The dough is where I did the most work. Using beer was a revelation. Seriously.

Oh and real mozzarella makes all the difference.

Another life list item…crossed off!

I’m reading three books right now. America by Jon Stewart, Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan, and Julie and Julia by Julie Powell.

I’m reading America for the life list and am having trouble getting through it. It’s almost too disjointed to devour as I like to do with a good book. Obviously, it is a spoof of a text book and is meant to be disjointed but right now I am hungry for a good narrative. I need to get through it though because next is Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman and I can’t wait to read that.

Apathy was a recommendation from Steve and it is pretty funny so far. I am going to try to power through it by this weekend so I can return it.

I’m listening to the Julie and Julia audio book. I ran across the story last night and spent hours pouring through the Julie and Julia blog. If you don’t already know, it’s about one woman’s attempt to figure out her life by doing something insane. She decided to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in just one year. The article that introduced me to her story described the feat as the culinary equivalent of climbing Mount Everest. I was intrigued.

I’ll be sure to post reviews of all three.

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Is it weird that I kind of want to add “Hang out with Cat Deeley” to my life list? Do you think there’s anyone that doesn’t like her? Like…does she have enemies? I hope not. Enemies of Cat Deeley are enemies of me!

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I got my eyebrows waxed today. I tried a new place right near my new apartment and…wow, y’all. Turns out most of the pain I usually feel when I get them waxed is directly related the person who pulls off the strips. This lady worked some kind of magic and it seriously barely even stung. I was scared to try a new place but I’m so glad I did. It was great - more expensive but worth it.

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Went to Whole Foods over lunch today. I wanted to stir fry some broccoli tonight to serve over rice but I had no fresh vegetables at all in the house. I picked up the broccoli and also the ingredients for carrot parsnip stir fry for tomorrow. I bought some frozen vegan stuff and some stuff for smoothies as well.

Have you ever noticed that Whole Foods and Central Market and places like that always have a distinct smell? I think it must be the bulk aisle. With the bins opening and closing, I guess the smells waft out. Something about that smell always makes me feel like cooking something adventurous. It also reminds me that I’m paying something like 20% more for organic and natural food.

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For dinner tonight, I steamed some white rice and stir fried some broccoli in a simple sauce. I made the sauce with corn starch, water, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and a couple of dashes of teriyaki sauce. I think I cooked it a little too long because instead of thickening into a glaze, it congealed a bit. I could have also had the pan a little too hot. Either way, it was still heaven served over the rice.

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I think I’m going to cancel Audible once and for all. I decided that the life list books have to all be physically read and I really listen to podcasts way more than audio books these days. I have 4 credits built up right now which means I haven’t downloaded an audio book in four months. I like Audible but it seems like, more often than not lately, they don’t have the books I want. Time to let it go.

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Did you know about this Lady Gaga person? I guess this is like how I don’t know what Megan Fox looks like but know the most obscure films and actors. Anyway, Ryan sent me a picture of Lady Gaga. Do you think she means to look that way? It can’t be on purpose, right? Is she blind? No, seriously…I know nothing about her. Is she blind? Maybe she is and has untrustworthy advisers. Poor Lady Gaga.

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Today I went to Kohl’s to buy some summer shirts. I’ve lost enough weight since last summer that I have nothing that fits. It was pretty standard Kohl’s shopping fun. Except for the teenage girl and her mom in the dressing room. They were in the same room together and the mom seemed to be trying on clothes while the girl just sat in there. Now, weirdness of that aside, this girl seemed to have no concept of the fact that dressing room stalls are not completely private.

First she was just singing loudly. That’s fine I guess. But then she started talking about how she thinks she has a cute butt. She told Xavier that when she was laying on her bed. But it’s okay because he doesn’t even like her! He’s not that kind of boy! Anyway, she likes her butt.

Can you imagine?

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I have decided to wait until closer to time to buy my Seattle plane tickets. There have been some rumblings at work that lead me to believe my job might not be stable for much longer. To nearly quote Daniel Faraday, whatever happens, happens. But, if it might happen, I really don’t want to commit to several days off plus plane tickets. Most likely, it’ll be fine and I’ll just pay a bit more for tickets closer to time but…I’d rather be sure.

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The beer I’m drinking tastes like college.