A Pizza the Action

Pizza, uncooked

Once, I was asked if I was going to put the local fish guy out of business. It all started from telling local fish guy that I didn't need my fish scaled. The fish that I had just bought from him was going to be scaled by me with a fish scaler that I bought for camping. I never got around to using it before then. I assured the worried fish guy that I wouldn't go into the fish business much less put him out of work. Oddly enough that would be the first and last time I'd scale a fish and the last time I visited him for fish. Hope he's still in business.

Today, while not a fish, I decided to make a pizza from scratch. I imagined the local pizza guy saying "Are you putting me out of work?". In this case "Yes", but only if my pizza turns out better than your pizza. Also, is making my pizza more convenient then going outside and walking a block to the nearby pizza place on the corner in an Italian neighbourhood? Probably not. Then my answer is "No". However there will always be times that I'll want pizza and it's raining outside and I just happen to have all the ingredients, so "Maybe?". As if I was the only customer.

As for making pizza from scratch, I'm attempting to do so, at least, as much as you can make a pizza from scratch in the city. It's not like I'm grinding out meat to make my own pepperoni, making a wheel of cheese, or even growing wheat to make flour. I'm going to attempt to make a pizza using store bought flour, pepperoni, packaged cheese and even *GASP* jarred tomato sauce.

I suppose the line gets a little blurry when talking about making stuff from scratch. Let's just say it's a step above buying a frozen pizza and baking that. A step above? Well not trying to sound snooty (on purpose) but I am putting more work into this pizza than opening a single cardboard box and throwing the contents into the oven.

It's funny how if you're cooking and putting more effort into it, it sounds better, where as if you're programming some computer software, the less work you put in sounds better. Anyhoo, I digress.

The pizza dough recipe I'm using comes from here (Robert's recipes). After making said dough, I threw on some tomato sauce, cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms and onions, stuck it in the oven for 425 F. Like a frozen pizza waited for the cheese to melt and the crust to brown. Took about X minutes.

You may look at my pizza and say "But it's not round." that's where I reply "Pffttt. Can't you see I'm trailblazing?". This is not a case where looks matter, as I'm the one eating it, only taste matters. That and the pizza doesn't come out burnt (thereby making the taste meter go to "sucks"). Also I'm a lazy person who can't make a nice perfect circle from dough to save his life, but I won't say that out loud. Clearly there are better bakers out there than me... and really if you're looking for recipes shouldn't you be reading better food sites like Epicurious.com? (While you're there check out the Pumkin Cheesecake - amazing)


Pizza, cooked

And yes, the title "a Pizza the Action" is a take from the original Star Trek episode where Kirk and Spock beam down to a planet to find it's being run by mobsters.