Pizza Day (Monday 8/24/09)

One of our favorite family boat foods is my homemade pizza! I, for one, TOTALLY love Pizza Day... except the part where everyone gets excited and hovers around the galley giving advice, instructions, placing orders, arguing with topping choices, etc... until I think I'm going to pull my hair out. I have found that if I begin doling out chopping and grating assignments that I can clear out the cabin pretty quickly.

We have actually found decent pepperoni and mozzarella cheese here in Mexico. I'll whip up a yeast bread recipe, let it rise once, roll it out on a cookie sheet, top it with whatever toppings we can come up with, let it rise again, and then pop it into the oven. The crust is not chewy like a typical pizza crust, but instead is bready and the sauces seem to sink in without making a mushy mess out of the bottom. We add canned black olives, parmesan, mushrooms, onion, pepper, and Italian spices. Jim likes canned jalapenos on his pizza. Tim likes pineapple. Carolyne hates everything except black olives. I love everything. That's probably one of the reasons why I've gained 15 lbs. I've thought about going on a diet, but my hands and mouth don't seem to acknowledge my brainwaves. They're not concentrating... too busy shoving pizza towards the backside of my throat.

In addition to the typical Meat Pie (a pizza saturated with greasy pepperoni, ground beef soaked in garlic salt and few veggies tossed on to make it "healthy"), this past Pizza Day we had fresh clams and decided to try those on a pie. They were steamed open and then sauteed in butter and garlic. I whipped up a "Blanco Sauce"... Media Crema (Mexican version of a thicker Half and Half), garlic powder, shredded parmesan, and Italian Seasoning. I slathered the rich, thick Blanco Sauce on the raw dough. The sauteed clams were generously added along with sliced black olives, thinly sliced white onion, grated Mozzarella and then a little more Italian Seasoning was sprinkled on top. I let it rise a bit before popping it into the oven. It was decadent! It was to die-for good! It was worth doing again... and again... and AGAIN! I took photos... I wasn't quick enough to snap the 'Almejas Blanca' Pizza before the swarm descended upon it. I love being creative in the galley and having the result turn out spectacular. It's too bad my waistline has to expand along with my horizons.