Pizza and Dinosaur Comics

Last Wednesday, my dear friend Joleen came over and made pizzas with me. They were mozzarella with peppers, tomatoes, zucchini and onions, and, my special creation, smoked Gouda with sliced pears. Hooray!

First, we made some delicious dough, courtesy of Betty Crocker. First, take a cup of flour and mix it with a teaspoon of salt, 2 1/4 tablespoons of yeast, and 1 delicious tablespoon of sugar. Sift it nicely and make a little well in the middle to pour 3 tablespoons of olive oil and one cup of very warm water. Stir it up until the flour is mixed in and then add in more flour, one cup at a time, until you've gotten 2 1/2 to 3 cups. Eventually, it'll be really uncomfortable to stir and lots easier to just knead it, but don't do this too soon, because it'll be sticky and awful. Knead it until it is consistent and then leave it in a warm-ish place for 30 minutes.



See how nicely Joleen kneaded this? Hooray!

Meanwhile, you can grate some cheese! Joleen grated 2 1/2 cups of each mozzarella and smoked Gouda.



And I cut up a couple of zucchini, a few tomatoes, 2 pears and a red bell pepper. Also, I sautéed an onion.



Yum!

Look over there! Your dough is twice its original size! Time to punch it!




Knead the air out of the dough and split it in half. Roll each out with your rolling pin and put each on a baking tray. Stick them in your 425 degree oven for about seven minutes so the crust doesn't soak up the sauce.

Take the crusts out and spoon some tomato sauce on one but olive oil on the other. Then sprinkle (generously!) the mozzarella on the tomato sauce crust and then decorate it with the veggies. Pile on the yummy smoked Gouda on the olive oil crust and arrange the pears in some artistic manner.



So pretty! And delicious! Cook it for another 8-10 minutes and enjoy!


Sometimes I read webcomics. Maybe you do too? Dinosaur Comics, by the very clever Ryan North, is my favorite! Here is a link so that you, too, can enjoy the bizarre hilarity of dinosaurs talking about things anachronistically: http://www.qwantz.com/index.php. The first thing that is my favorite about Ryan North is that he does not draw and uses clipart pictures of dinosaurs, which never change positions, instead. My second thing is that he is chock full of literary references and time travel paradoxes. In case you did not know, these are two of the most important items in a writer's toolbox.