Second one down, pass it around...

Tonight marked night number two of eight days of pizza; while we started later than we'd like, (10 o'clock pm to be exact) the show went on as planned. Ryan was up to bat and ready to hit a home-run; unfortunately, it turned out to be more of a single than the smash-hit he'd hoped for. Ryan decided to make a baked ziti pizza, which I lovingly nicknamed "plain pasta pizza". The pizza lacked seasoning which was unfortunate as I believe it would have been at least a double had there been a pinch more salt & pepper. (Okay, I'll stop with the baseball references). It was slightly undercooked but not in a way where it was inedible. Ryan started by putting a pot of water on the stove on high heat with a pinch of salt. While waiting for the water to start boiling, Ryan spread the dough across the pizza stone. Once the water was in full boil, he added 7oz. of penne pasta into it. Afterward, Ryan took a can of pizza sauce and put it in a small saucepan on low heat on top of the stove. While letting the sauce warm up, Ryan decided to add a few spices to the mix including freshly ground sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, oregano leaves, garlic powder, onion powder, and parsley flakes- stirring frequently to avoid any burning of the sauce. Meanwhile, Ryan set the oven to preheat to 550 degrees.





With 5 minutes left on the timer, Ryan began to grow anxious. When the timer went off he instantly grabbed the pot of pasta, and slung it into our cheap, purple, plastic colander. Once the water was drained from the pasta, he poured the penne back into the pot, adding 7oz of ricotta cheese, 3oz of mozzarella, and the pizza sauce and stirred them together thoroughly. Once stirred to his satisfaction- Ryan flooded the pizza dough with red sauced, cheesy goodness; he sprinkled a handful of mozzarella & parmesan cheese atop and placed it into the oven carefully. After waiting what seemed like days (12 minutes really) the timer went off. As he grasped onto the stone with our oven mitt, a warm wind of sweet smelling air danced its way under my nose- this was it; day two of eight. As we sat down to eat Ryan's Frankenstein of a pizza, I looked up at him and remembered why I loved him so much, because he was a great cook. No, I'm just kidding- I love him for his money too. ;) Anyways, like I said before- the seasoning was a little off, the dough a little underdone, but with a little tweaking here & there, this pizza could have without a doubt been the home-run hero Ryan only dreamed of. Check back in tomorrow night to see what happens when pizza stops being dinner & starts getting chocolate- my dessert pizza awaits! :)

Stay fired-up!

One down, seven to go!

Tonight was, in a nutshell, somewhat disappointing. Unfortunately, it was my fault- my pizza sucked. We dubbed it "garlic breath"- not exactly something you'd line up around the block to taste. Though the pizza was sub-par, the recipe was actually quite good, it just needed to be altered a bit. I started by rolling out the dough and gently placing it onto the pizza stone. I spread the dough evenly around the circular pan making sure to leave extra at the edges for crust. After the dough was molded to the shape of a pizza, I put it aside, preheated the oven to 450 degrees, and started the olive oil mix. I used a small bowl to mix olive oil, dried oregano leaves, parsley flakes, freshly ground sea salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and a dash of onion powder. I mixed the olive oil with all the spices and then brushed it over the dough.

Afterwards, I took 3-4 garlic cloves, minced them with a food processor, and sprinkled over the pizza. Then, I took a few slices of white onion and drizzled them on top of the garlic and olive oil mix. After everything was settled, I finally started the cheese. The first layer was shredded mozzarella, then shredded parmesan. I took sliced provolone and broke it up into quarters draping it across the previous two layers of cheese. The final layer of cheese consisted of a mixture of shredded mozzarella, provolone, romano, and parmesan. This was it- the moment we had been waiting for; the pizza was complete and ready to be placed into its electric womb. I set the timer for 18 minutes and the countdown began. It seemed like forever waiting for the pizza to be ready but when I finally heard the timer beeping, it sounded like a harp chime, dancing its way into my ears. This was it, the moment of truth! We sliced the pizza into eighths and waited while it cooled. We placed two slices of pizza onto each plate- went in for a bite, and as my teeth broke down into the tip of the first slice of pizza, my taste buds went numb with pure excitement. My mouth was expecting a fierce fiesta, all it got was a boring hangout session with the kids who weren't even cool enough for the nerds but BAM! There's the garlic- ready to hit you like a ton of bricks. The pizza was way too salty, the olive oil base made it much greasier than I'd like. Overall, disappointing. Using our handy-dandy scorecards, we rated this pizza a 44 out of 60 giving it a solid B-/C+ grade. So much for the night of my life. *sigh* Well, off to hit the hay, another adventure awaits us tomorrow as Ryan is up to bat- making pizza number two for 8 Days of Pizza.

Stay cheesy!

Grocery Shopping!

& we're off! We left to go grocery shopping at 3:00pm on Monday, October 11, 2010. The legacy has begun and this afternoon marked the beginning of something spectacular; we made a list, checked it twice and headed to the local grocery store. With eight pizza doughs and nine bags of cheese in hand (well, basket really) we headed towards the check-out counter. Total price of all ingredients used in making the pizzas on Heathers part was: $80. Not bad for 8 days of pizza! :) So as we walked out of the automatic doors, wind in our hair, pizza dough in our hearts, we began the journey into finding the eighth wonder of the world- here's to the magic of the number eight apparently. Now, we both had our fears and doubts about 8 days of pizza; would we be able to stomach 8 full days of pizza? (Nine if you count the day we created this idea) But what would we do? Would we lessen the sentence to 6 days? 4 days? Just two? NO. Not this time, we weren't going back- it was game on and we were amped (I just added that to my dictionary). Now we're gearing up, flouring our hands, and pre-heating our ovens to 400 degrees. Let's get ready to roll! (the dough that is)

I'll check back in later tonight with details on the first nights pizza.

Stay baked! (wait, that sounds bad..)

The Dawning of A New Era-The Making of 8 Days of Pizza

We've never done anything truly spontaneous. I think we've always been pretty predictable- but not tonight. Tonight marked the birth of a new idea- an idea that would bring us both out of our comfort zones and launch us into a fresh way of living, living on the edge. Okay, so it wasn't that exciting- but hey! It's EIGHT whole days of pizza, how cool is that? So here's the deal- we each make 4 pizzas, alternating each night. We judge the pizzas based off of taste, timing, and appearance. Whoever wins... well, we'll figure that out later but let's start our ovens!

So tonight marks our first night of the competition; the rules of the contest are as follows:

The first rule of 8 Days of Pizza is, you do not talk about ... nah I'm only kidding- SPREAD THE WORD!

-All pizzas must be home-made.

-All pizza recipes must be different.

-The pizzas are to be judged fairly.

- You have to try the pizza, no matter what.

- The pizzas must be legit; do not make lame pizzas.


If you do not follow these rules, you are automatically disqualified & that would kill 8 days of pizza- so just... don't.

I'll follow up with our first pizza of the night including a recipe & pictures.

Stay heated! :)