THE GURGLING COD

Your own, Personal, Pizza

So what happened was I got inspired by my guy Gabe making the Anthony Falco pan pizza, with the pepperoni that curls up. I ordered the pepperoni from Penn Mac.Pepperoni had a Thu end of day ETA from Fed Ex and thinking like I was making Camrys, I started the dough on Wednesday night. This week has not been a good one for plans that involve airplanes and Memphis, so a delay, and no roni in sight. We improvised, and used VT Smoke and Cure roni, and it was pretty good. 

The Falco dough recipe makes three pies worth, and there are two people in this house, so casting around for another pie concept, it occurred to me that the Falco pan pizza is a hat tip to Pizza Hut style pizza, and it would be fun, or at least perverse, to recreate the vibe of a Pizza Hut Supreme Pizza, IE what I used to eat on campus when I was having a bad day in the before times, and also before I decided I could not give one more penny to Aramark, baby jail caterers that they are. 

I proposed this idea to my partner, who promptly vetoed it on the grounds that green peppers are nasty. It then occurred to me that I could pursue my dark twisted fantasy of Pizza Hut for shut-ins, and she could have a pepper-free meal, which is her right. I grabbed 2 9" pie pans at the supermarket, along with the red onion, olives, green pepper, sausage and mushrooms (which I totally forgot to put on the pie), and made a personal Supreme pie for me, and a personal pepperoni/banana pepper/olive pie for her.

It turned out pretty well. The one thing I would suggest is that at least in my oven, the rack needs to be near the bottom of the oven to get the bottom crisp before the toppings burn. It would be nice to have a pan w/ right angles, instead of the slope, and this is bigger than a regular Pizza Hut Personal, so either be hungry, or split it. This pie does not seem to reheat as well as some. So, reach out and touch your own personal pizza, or share it with someone who cares.

Mastering the Art of Okay Cooking

The pandemic has a lot of us putting in more reps in the kitchen than we'd like. I love to cook, but there are days I wake up w/ the realization that another day = another dinner to plan and execute. 

A fave from the before times is the Cubano. I would argue that the bread is the #1 difference maker for how much you enjoy almost any sandwich. You could bring your own AOC prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella to a Subway, but the sandwich is still gonna taste like ass, b/c it has the texture of a sponge you would rather not touch. Most of the time, you can get their Cuban bread at our our Publix (yeah, I know), and that puts you on the way to a sandwich which you will not dash to the ground and pine for Calle Ocho. 

A Cuban is ham, roast pork, Swiss cheese, and pickles. You want thin-sliced pickles. I have put up jars w/ Cubanos in mind, but Rick's Picks People's Pickle sliced in half will do nicely. And Mt. Olive Sandwich Sliders work in a pinch. You could get real fancy with the ham, but I suspect Benton's would be too much. The roast pork is the tricky part. Janie Campbell was kind enough to share her roast pork recipe, but you're marinating and roasting a butt, which is sometimes more than you want. On the other hand, sliced roast pork from a deli case can be hard to find and is usually Not Great. 

Waiting for cold cuts to get sliced to order at a deli counter was a little bit annoying in the Before Times, and actually scary now, esp if you live in an area where wearing a mask suggests that you are partying in the Underground Pizza Sex Dungeon with Q themself. So, I tried to figure what I could do w/ grab and go presliced cold cuts. Our market has ham, Swiss, and (I have been known to sneak in some cheddar), and... sliced turkey. So against my instincts, last weekend I made Cubanos with turkey, and they were fine. Not the best I've had, but it worked as a meal, and got me parked back in front of the TV watching Billions. If I ever run for office in Miami, I will delete this post, but making this for dinner tonight, and looking forward to the sandwich, as well as the time it will allow to do other stuff.