PizzaPizza

Friday night used to be pizza night here in the Middle of Nowhere. Because of my new schedule, I'm going to move it to Thursday. This week, however, it's tonight.

Last week I tried a 100% whole-wheat crust to which I added wheat gluten, ground flaxseed and wheat germ. It tasted good, but it was heavy, dense. And the recipe only made enough for one crust.

My old recipe ( a combo of white and wheat flours) made two crusts, one for now and one to freeze, and the frozen one always had a better texture than the fresh one. Really, I should probably just spend one morning making pizza dough and freeze lots of them. That's how organized women do it, right? REALLY, I should probably spend THIS morning making pizza dough. Hmmm. Y'all are so good to help me plan my day. Heh.

©Debora J. McNeer

Mmmm, pizza, pizza!

I broke down and bought a bag of King Arthur White Wheat Flour – at almost $1/pound, it's pretty spendy, but it will work well in my favorite crust formula. I have onions, peppers, 'shrooms and olives for toppings, along with a little bit of sausage. Add a big salad, and a Phase II South Beach dinner is served.

I had a good workout at the gym yesterday. I've been using the machines for lower body – leg press, adductors, abductors – and free weights for upper body, with the addition of a couple of the pulldown machines for back and shoulders. I joined the gym January 23 and have progressed from NO dumbbells to 15-pounders. I'm amazed at myself. I hope to walk today, weather permitting.

I'm still posting daily photos using prompts from FatMumSlim. Today's is "neighbourhood." Since FMS is in Australia, she's already posted hers, and it's a real 'hood, with houses right next to each other. I don't even think of where I live as a neighborhood. I truly live in the Middle of Nowhere, I haven't been kidding about that. I hope to be inspired when I walk today to come up with something. I guess that's the point of the prompts, right? To inspire your creativity?

And speaking of prompts, this month's theme at BlogHer is "Whether." So far I've chosen not to use the prompts. But after four solid months of daily posts, the well is beginning to run dry, despite the rain we've had lately. I feel stale and tired and repetitive. How many times do you need to read about dumbbells and pizza and the weather, oh my?

As I might have said previously, however, the prompts feel like homework. I've been out of school for decades now, and I don't need no stinkin' homework. I do need some inspiration, however, so I might just step out on that limb, take a risk, live on – gasp! – the edge. It's been a while.

Not bad …

in an old-hippie, crunchy-granola kinda way.

I'm talking about the whole-wheat crust from last night's pizza, of course.

Prior to serving, my husband said if we didn't like it, we could just eat the toppings. I agreed, but was secretly hoping I wouldn't have to sacrifice a precious jar of homemade pesto. And I didn't! The crust was earthy, almost nutty, not too dense (that was my biggest apprehension) but definitely not the softer crust we're used to.

The recipe I've used (link is to a .pdf file) for the past several years is from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.), the book that nudged me into being much more of a locavore, whole-food kinda cook. It's the traditional formula, calling for approximately half-and-half white and whole wheat flours, along with yeast, olive oil, salt and water. I usually added a little sugar. Go figure.

Here's the Nourishing Traditions recipe:

1 cup plain whole yogurt
1 cup softened butter (oops! I only used half a cup, and it really was totally fine!)
3-1/2 cups spelt or whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons sea salt 

Mix the yogurt and softened butter, add salt and incorporate flour. Cover and leave in a warm place 12 to 24 hours.

Ready to pre-bake at 300° for 30 minutes.

That's it. Pretty simple. It doesn't rise, as a traditional yeast dough does. It just sits there in a bowl overnight. I doubt that an extra half-cup of butter would have changed the dynamics of the resting period. That additional fat surely would have changed the character of the final product, but we were happy with the, ahem, lower-fat version. Heh.

On the left, topped and back into a 350° oven for another half hour. At
right, plated and ready to eat. I was so excited I shook the camera getting
ready to sit down for dinner.

I spread a quarter cup of pesto over the pre-baked crust, then added shredded mozza, onion, mushrooms and chunks of chicken breast which had been sprinkled with garlic powder and sautéed in a little olive oil. I meant to add some feta cheese crumbles but I forgot. Sometimes I also throw on some sliced black olives. These are my favorite pizza toppings by far.

All of the recipes I've seen for a whole-wheat yeast dough include sugar or honey. If you find one that's sugar-free, please share your source! Thanks. In the meantime, we'll be enjoying this one again.

We're waiting for a big snowstorm today here in the Middle of Nowhere. I stopped by Tiny Kroger yesterday to pick up some of my husband's favorite yogurt (Kroger brand Vanilla Chai, which is okay but I don't care for flavored yogurt, and he doesn't care for my, um, tangier plain homemade stuff). I had to go past the refrigerated meat and poultry on my way to the dairy section. There was not a single package of fresh chicken on the shelves.

I bought the last seven cups of his yogurt and as I walked down the aisle toward the checkout lanes, noticed there were no tubes of refrigerated biscuits nor any packages of sliced American cheese. I should have taken pictures, it was so funny.

This snowstorm will last one day. Temperatures will be back up into the 50s the remainder of the week. I predict it will hardly be worth getting a snowplow out. I look at it as a nice soaking rain, only colder.

Apparently a lot of folks in my county are more worried about it than I am, and are planning to eat a lot of chicken and biscuits. I hope you have a warm-and-toasty Sunday. With American cheese on top.