Pizza night

Ever since we got the central air conditioning installed the girls have been demanding that we soon have a pizza night. They had been on hold since spring because the oven is required to be at 500 degrees for this and Michigan has been doing its best impersonation of southern Georgia this year, so we’ve been doing a lot of grilling.

The thing with pizza night isn’t really the pizza, it’s that the girls get to make their own, so it’s a huge hit with Savanna and Natalie and any friends they might have over.
The girls and their friends without fail request a cheese pizza, which I’m sure pleases the pizza purists out there. Amy, however, is a big fan of the much reviled/loved Hawaiian pizza, of which I am also a fan. I usually tend to fall more into the “let’s see what we’ve got and pile it on” school of thought. I like plenty of sauce and cheese, so purists might wish to turn away at this point.


All of that said, to me, the whole point of pizza is the crust. So, on pizza nights, I break out the Kitchen-Aid and we get to work. I start of with even amounts off water and flour. Tonight I wanted enough dough for 4 pizzas and 1 pie-shaped pan of bread sticks.



First, I use instant yeast from the bulk pack. I do a lot of bread baking and it’s just more cost-effective and fool-proof to buy the shrink packages of this stuff.

To start I use 2 cups of ~100 degree water. Temperature isn’t critical with instant yeast, but warmer seems to make it work faster. I keep it under 110 because much higher than that kills the yeast. I add 2 tablespoons of the yeast and let that sit for a couple of minutes, just so the yeast clumps dissolve. Then comes a big pour of olive oil, probably around 4 TBSP. Next, 2 cups of bread flour (not all purpose). I whisk this at high speed for 10 minutes to develop the gluten.


Next, I change to the hook and start adding more bread flour at ½ to ¼ cup intervals until the dough forms a ball and is pulling away from the sides of the bowl leaving only a minimal amount of moist flour on the bottom of the bowl.



Once the dough is where it needs to be I remove the hook, tip back the motor and watch the dough rise until it’s double in bulk, usually about an hour or 45 minutes depending on how warm the kitchen is.


I use just my basic tomato sauce recipe. One 24 ounce can of tomatoes, either diced, whole or sauce, depending on my mood and what I have on hand. Tonight diced was the winner by default. I’m sure at some point I’ll get the recipe out here, but mostly it’s just this. One can of tomatoes, oregano, basil, rosemary, a pinch of sugar and a couple of garlic cloves, crushed. Simmer that down and correct seasonings. Important note about the sugar, I abhor sweet tomato sauces, this is just to get rid of the tannins in the canned tomato sauces and to smooth out the flavor.

All there is from this point is to roll out the dough, top it with what you want and stick it in a 500 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.


The girls’ cheese pizzas are pictured here, Natalie went with a dog and Savanna’s was a bull … that girl watches a lot of rodeo.

My pizza, and I’m not just saying this, was truly the single greatest pizza I have ever made. I used jalapenos from my container garden in the backyard, some spring onions that have held well in the refrigerator somehow and smoke dried tomatoes from Boggy Creek Farm that my dear mother graciously shipped up here from Austin. Boggy Creek’s smoke dried tomatoes can be substituted for bacon in a lot of recipes and I was using it as one might use bacon or pancetta in recipe. But to say it’s a “substitute” is to sell it way short, in most cases they are far, far superior to bacon … and I am a committed carnivore. Using smoke dried tomatoes is like inviting a campfire into your food. It’s hard to put into words what they taste like, but my guess is that it must be what bacon would taste like right off the smoker instead of sitting in shrink wrap … and that’s still not doing it justice.

The crust turned out very well, it drove right down that thin, fine line between too thick, and too thin. I don’t want it to be cracker-like and I don’t want the bread to dominate the pie.

The results tonight were sublime.

SOP Chili

I'm in charge of dinner for a campout this weekend that includes 20 men and boys. I picked up some hot dogs for the non-chili eaters and I'm making a pot of chili to serve up. There's another guy in the group who's making another pot of chili so we'll see how the two compare. This is pretty much my standard operating procedure chili, I typically add various things to it to spice it up. For instance, my favorite additions are smoked sausage and roasted chiles, especially if I can get some Hatch, NM peppers.

Since I'm feeding a ton of guys, I double the recipe tonight, but you're getting the standard amounts. 6 qt. dutch oven will get the job done.

2 Pounds ground beef
1 Med. Onion
1 Bell Pepper
2 cloves garlic
1 24 ounce can pinto beans
1 24 ounce can diced tomatoes
1/8 C. Chile Powder, more if you use the store bought stuff

I make my chile powder by grinding up a blend (typically ancho and chipotles) dried whole chiles and whole cumin seeds that I usually try to roast in a dry pan before grinding. That didn't happen tonight. I have an old coffee mill that I use for spices. Here's a tip, after grinding, let it settle before taking the lid off, you don't want a cloud of chile dust up the nose.

Brown the hamburger in a skillet.

Place beans, tomatoes, chile powder in the dutch oven, bring it up to medium heat.

Add hamburger, reserve a couple of TBSP of fat.

Toss diced bell pepper and onion and crushed garlice cloves into the skillet on medium, let it saute' until soft. Toss that into the chile pot.

Salt to taste, add more chile powder if you need it.

More about chile powder.
I'm a little picky about the dried chipotles I use. I prefer the ones that look like they have tree bark on them. Here's a closeup. I use a blend because the chipotles can be really hot if you don't blend them with a milder pepper. I typically use anchos, which are dried, ripe poblanos, so they pack a lot of flavor and milder heat.

Update: Chili cookoff variation: To a doubled version of this recipe, add one pound of bulk pork sausage. I made my own, here's the recipe:
1 pound ground pork
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon paprika
2 diced smoked tomatoes (which I have shipped here from Texas)
1/2 tsp salt, more if you like
Mix it all up, form into balls and brown in a hot pan.

Braise one smallish (1.5 - 2 pounds) well-marbled beef roast.

After browning it in a hot pan, braise it in a dutch oven at 325 degrees in a malty -- not hoppy -- beer, Sam Adams Oktoberfest was what I used in this case. Cook for at least 2 hours, 3 is better, you want to be able to shred it. Carrots, celery and onion can be added to the liquid at the start if you want.

Once it's done, shred it and add it to the pot. The leftover liquid can be added to the broth to improve your depth of flavor.