Two pies last night. One bacon, one ground beef, pepper and tomato. Recipe was the same as I've been using, but over the summer we got a new pizza pan with the little holes in the bottom. This is my favorite pizza pan yet. The crust ends up almost perfectly crispy every time (and has fun black polka dots on the bottom. -Sandra). Turned the heat up a little (475), but otherwise I've settled into a pretty consistent recipe.

The big news last night was the lesson for our friend Sandra who was visiting for the weekend. It was a first time making pizza of any kind for her, and it turned out very well. Some of the diners would have preferred more sauce, but I thought the ratio was just right.

First, a little dough tossing lesson:


The student becomes the master:


In addition to making pizza, we also made fudge (my father's recipe; don't know where he got it) and chocolate chip cookies (Joy of Cooking). All told, a delicious meal.

Made a couple of pies the other night while friends were over. Same recipe as usual, but with all white flour. Used one of those metal pizza pans with holes in it. 14 minutes at about 500 degrees yielded a crust of just the right consistency.

Also, made some chocolate chip cookies while the dough was rising. Used roughly 4x baking powder instead of baking soda, and noticed no difference in the resultant cookies.

New Year's (Sort of)

I made 4 pies yesterday for a New Year's gathering. I made the dough on Friday night and let it rise in the refrigerator over night. The main difference was that I ground some pizza seasonings into the crust. It was not a very strong flavor, but I think it added a little interest to the meal. The pies were cooked at 500 degrees for between 9 and 11 minutes in an electric oven, and came out just right.