My wife, Yankee Noodle Candy, and I will go down as one of the great couples in kitchen history, although I do nothing but eat. However, there have been several occasions (diminishing in number each year) for which I've been allowed into the kitchen to do something other than "test" the food and burn the toast.
To celebrate the launch of CUPS & CAKES, she was kind enough to reluctantly let me help make pizza tonight. She quite foolishly figured it would do no harm to let me chop some bell peppers and add the ingredients to my half (60%? ... ok, 70%) of the pizza. No one got hurt.
Homemade pizza is always an excellent choice, even for rank amateurs such as myself. Not everyone has the time or talent to create a masterpiece, but I'm told it isn't difficult to make a quality pizza, and for much less money than it costs to purchase one. Besides, for every Carfagna's, Donato's, Burgh's, or The Pie that leaves you in ecstasy, there is a Papa John's that will leave you wanting to hurl. And then there are hundreds of those overhyped but mediocre places in between.
Under close supervision, I chopped the green and red bell peppers. Sharp knives are cool.
It was all downhill from there though. After admiring my work I began to place the ingredients onto the dough and sauce. My wife said something about ingredients. I added the fresh mozzarella. I added the cheddar. I proudly added the pretty green and red bell peppers. I added the pepperoni (turkey - as you can see we're clearly concerned about calories here). I added more cheese. I added the oregano. I added more cheese on top of each slice of pepperoni, and then some more cheese.
Looks good, but, in retrospect, a bit cluttered. Can't see much dough or sauce.
The pizza was delicious, as always. The only problem is that the dough was
If you're like me and you're a perpetual failure in the kitchen (besides "testing" the food) I can't emphasize enough that it's important to listen closely to the expert. In my haste to pile on as much delicious food as possible, I paid little attention to the "something" my wife was talking about a few paragraphs up, which was that adding too many ingredients will cause excessive moisture as the juices cook out of the vegetables and cheese. That's today's lesson for neophytes, and one that I won't soon forget.
Despite the moisture, the toppings were still delicious. Wetter ingredients, wetter pizza, still better than Papa John's. And again, no one got hurt.
YANKEE NOODLE CANDY'S HOMEMADE PIZZA
YANKEE NOODLE RATING: 9 out of 10 mmmm's.
YANKEE NOODLE RATING UNDER ORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES (WHEN HE DOESN'T HELP): 10 out of 10 mmmm's.
