What's for supper tonight?

Chicken sandwich from Burger King and fries. Famous Amos choco-chip cookies for dessert.

 

For the Stallion, highlights from three days in Key West (just got back two hours ago):

Abondanzza was everything he promised, and we were there within 90 minutes of touching down. I had Linguini Al Pesto Con Gamberetti. Ridiculously deep bowl of linguini. The pesto was highlighted by about 400 pine nuts throughout the entire dish. And the shrimp were to die for.

Speaking of shrimp, the next night was Red Fish Blue Fish at the top of Duval Street, where we picked through two pounds of huge Key West shrimp.

And yesterday was LobsterFest on the top three blocks of Duval, a street fair highlighted by lobster dishes. I grabbed a dish of Lobster Newburg and a lobster puff, took them off the street indoors into Big 'Uns (my favorite sports bar for the weekend) and chowed down with some ale and some TV sports.

Key West was quite fine. Hitting five seconds of weightlessness somewhere over the Atlantic ... not so fine. But Key West was fine.

 

ended up with papa murphy's. pep, salami, pineapple and x-cheese. i put the peppers on at home.

 

I've decided to start dabbling around with healthier alternatives to pizza, and put a new recipe into play tonight. It came out really well, and thought I'd share it.

It all starts with spelt flour. For those of you unfamiliar with spelt, it is, in short, closely related to common wheat flour, but a heck of a lot lighter, in my opinion. You might have seen spelt pasta at the grocery store.

The crust:

Ingredients
* 1 3/4 cups warm water
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 1 packet active dry yeast
* 6 cups spelt flour
* 1/4 cup olive oil
* 1 tablespoon salt
* 1 tablespoon freeze-dried Italian Herbs
* 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Cooking Instructions
1. Making the dough: Pour the warm water into the mixing bowl with the sugar and the yeast. When the yeast is active, mix in the first cup of flour. Mix in the olive oil, salt, herbs and spices. Add 4 1/2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup at at time, while continuing to mix the dough.

2. Kneading the dough: Sprinkle the last half a cup of flour out onto your kneading surface, turn out the dough and knead for about 6 minutes. Let it rest while you clean and grease your bowl. Continue kneading your dough till it feels smooth and springy.

3. Rising: Form the dough into a ball and place back in the greased bowl. Turn the dough so it is evenly coated with the oil. Cover it to keep it away from drafts. Let rise till it has doubled in size.

4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

5. Shaping: Turn your dough out on a floured board. Punch it down and break up the large bubbles. Cut it into 2 even pieces for thick crust or 3 pieces for thin crust. Roll the pieces out to the desired size and thickness. Take a fork and jab your dough (known as docking) about every inch so that the crust does not inflate like a big old pita while prebaking.

6. Prebaking dough on a cookie sheet, pizza sheet or pizza stone for 30 minutes:

7. Add toppings. Use low-fat motzarella

8. Bake the pizza: Slide the pizza back in and cook till the toppings are cooked to the desired state. By precooking the crust, you no longer have to be concerned with making sure the crust is fully cooked.

* * *

I also wanted to trry my hand at an imitation Pizza Hut sauce, and used this recipe:

* 1 (8 Ounce) can tomato paste
* 1/2 cup water
* 1/2 teaspoon oregano
* 1/2 teaspoon basil
* 1/2 teaspoon garlic
* 1/2 teaspoon marjoram
* 1/2 teaspoon salt

 

tequila beef tacos.

 

Papa Murphy's is damn good.

 

tuna macaroni salad (kudos to mi madre for my childhood summer favorite)

 

Dominos

 

do you remember papa aldo's, jake?

 

fried soul, cauliflower, baked potato

 

You eat souls? Wow. Tough boss.

 

I don't. I actually just got into Papa Murphy's this past year. What was it like?