Super Bowl pizza party, chez Lou-Bing. Where’s the internet version of Smell-O-Vision when I need it?
Seriously, though, best homemade pizza OF ALL TIME.
EDIT: Here’s the recipe!
Papa Lou’s Pizza
dough:
1.25 cups warm water
about 1 teaspoon yeast
1 tablespoon salt
13-15 oz. flour (about 2.5-3 cups)
2 tablespoons lard (or oil, but lard is way better. sorry, vegans.)
Dissolve yeast and salt in water. Add about half the flour. Add lard to mixture. Using a fork, break up the lard in the mixture. Add the rest of the flour. Dough should be not too sticky, not too dry. (It’s okay if it’s wet.)
Preheat oven to 150 degrees, then shut it off. Cover dough in bowl and let rise 1 hour and 20 minutes in warm oven.
Remove dough and put it on a floured surface. Flour dough, and let rest 10 minutes. Stretch dough into the shape of your pan or pizza stone, by pulling it gently. Work slowly to avoid making holes. Dust dough with flour if it gets sticky.
Sprinkle cornmeal on a pizza peel or back of a cookie sheet, and transfer the stretched dough to the peel. (It helps to flour the surface of the dough, and then fold the dough in half, then half again, before transferring it to the peel. Unfold it once it’s on the peel. Dust off any excess flour.) Preheat oven to 500, placing pizza stone (if using) on lowest rack, and let dough rest 15 minutes on peel.
Sauce:
1/2 28 oz. can of San Marzano tomatoes (no substitutes)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp each garlic pwdr, onion pwdr
Pepper to taste
Pinch of cayenne
2 TB olive oil.
Mix all ingredients with your hands in a large bowl, crushing tomatoes. Sauce will be liquidy.
Pour sauce on the dough. Top with cheese (whole milk mozzarella is best) and any other toppings. Once oven is preheated, remove hot stone and transfer pizza to hot stone with a quick, fluid jerking motion. (This sounds ridic, but you’ll understand when you try.) Bake pizza for 10-14 minutes, flipping it around halfway through cook time. Transfer pizza to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Bon appetit!
Weathered dock pilings and working waterfronts. File under These are a few of my favorite things -
I am grateful to have the Fore River Sanctuary near my apartment. I love that the place is called sanctuary. Not park or preserve. It has hardwood forests and saltwater marshes, and trails through very tall pines, and a bona fide waterfall, and in the summertime there are blackberry bushes. This time of year the falls are frozen over, but you can still hear the water moving somewhere below the ice. I was there this weekend, before the big snow came, and locked eyes with an owl sitting overhead in a pine. I read somewhere once that it’s a good omen to see an owl. He watched me and Lou awhile, until we tried to get closer, at which point he flew to a dead tree far from our trail. He made absolutely no sound, even with those enormous wings.
You know someone’s homesick when he says he’s going to start writing Get Well Soon cards to the injured players on his hometown hockey team. And then he actually does.
It can be so hard to pull yourself together and get back to work after two weeks of mostly lying around, napping with a delighted smile on your face, your favorite treats never out of arm’s reach. Unless of course you’re my 22-pound cat, in which case the lazy parade doesn’t have to stop at all. Ever.
From Traverse City: My friend Gaia’s new studio space for her jewelry and clothing line, Neashasha. In a beautiful renovated historic building, right on a river downtown. Big windows, bright colors, winter light. Congrats, G!
Man, they were not kidding about winters being sunny here. It’s beautiful, but alas it does not favor the LCD viewfinder.
Catching up and catching snowflakes during a last-minute gift run with my little brother, home from life in Hollywood. Horray for Michigan Christmas!
Had a handmade holiday bonanza this past weekend. Too bad Tumblr won’t let me post more pics.
Woah. Received my treats from my mega-awesome Tumblr Eat Up buddy Amanda, who sent me the sweetest handwritten card, some peppermint candy, and three incredible homemade treats: chocolate-peppermint sandwich cookies, toffee-chocolate bars, and white-chocolate cherry-almond biscotti! In Christmas-y packaging! I am now completely in the holiday groove.
Can’t wait to dunk the biscotti in my coffee tomorrow morning and do the Charlie Brown Christmas Snoopy happy-dance. Amanda, thanks for making my day!
