Pizza night!

Tonight, Lansen and I made pizza from scratch and it was AWESOME!!! Pix below. The crust was wheat flour and water to make a dough, then kneed in some salt, sugar (optional), and baking powder (I think soda would have been better, but you use what you gots, ya know?), rosemary, and a generous amount of olive oil. I kept asking Lansen how much of each thing to add--he lived in Italy for 4 years, so he oughta know, eh? He kept saying whatever you feel. I cook a lot of things by feel, but I usually use recipies for a framework when trying something knew, and it's been a long time since I made pizza dough...

With a little prodding, Lansen gave a little more direction and I rolled out two beautiful pizza crusts. I contemplated tossing the dough to thin it out (for the full pizza making experience, you know), but since our baking pans were little Japanese rectangles for the little Japanese oven, I just squished and pressed with my palms, knuckles and finger-tips. Over the crust, we brushed an oil, garlic, basil, oregano, and salt mixture (the oil helps seal the dough and keeps it from getting soggy under wet toppings or drying out around the edges). Over the oil, we poured tomato sauce on 3 and left one just oiled. He did 3 with cheese and various toppings. I did one with no cheese and tons of veggies. I've made a similar pizza without cooking the toppings and it came out rather al dente...not my intent, so I stepped over to the frying pan and seared some thinly sliced zucchini (of course! though it's almost the end of the season, I think...), eggplant, onions, carrots, and spinach which I then arranged over the tomato sauce.

Masaru made a delicious potato soup in the pressure cooker (I've never seen soup made in the pressure cooker before), I threw together a salad with red lettuce, iceberg, raisins, grapefruit, and carrots shredded in the slicer machine I love so much, and viola! Feast your eyes on this (quite possibly the best pizza I've ever tasted):