Pizza Florentine; Mango Coconut Pizza; Salty Dog

     I started out Wednesday with what I affectionately call "pizza preps".  I do as much as I can (or feel like doing) the day before Pizza Night, so my sisters don't rip through my cupboards, looking for food while they wait seemingly endlessly for the pizza to be done.  Also, as mentioned earlier, once the girls show up and the drinks start flowing, my attention span isn't what it should be.  So, the less I have to do when the ladies get here, the better.
  First I took an already prepared "sweet crust" out of the freezer to thaw.  I have made this recipe a couple of times before.  There seem to be a few variables at work here.  I always make the full recipe, divide it by four, and use 1/4 recipe for each pizza.  In previous uses, we have found the crust to be tough.  I am not sure if that is because it was previously frozen, or because it was still somewhat cold when I cooked it, or I cooked it at the wrong temperature or too long or what.  I vow to check into these variables as I can.  The last one I made was pretty decent, and I had let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight, and warm on the counter during work (for about 10 hours), before rolling and baking.  That is the method I am going to use this time.
    



From The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin (received as a gift from my Mom, Roberta)

 I didn't have to make the crust this time, because I had one in my freezer from a previous mixing.
     My next preparation was to make the Marscapone sauce.




from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin

    So, I am separating the eggs, and I wonder:  there is this little white, snot-like substance that always sticks to the yolks.  What is this and is it considered part of the yolk or part of the whites?  From my googling research, it appears that it is called "chalazae."   According to Wikipedia, it is "two spiral bands of tissue that suspend the yolk in the center of the white (the albumen). The function of the chalazae is to hold the yolk in place. For culinary use of eggs, particularly in baking, the chalazae are sometimes removed in order to ensure a uniform texture."  So, should I be removing it or including it with the whites or the yolks?  I still don't know.  I included them with the yolks.
     I had a hard time keeping the water on the stove hot, but not boiling.  Also the level was difficult to keep up without touching the bottom of the bowl.  I used a Pyrex bowl.  I also do not have a hand-mixer.  I used my husband's stick-blender.  I don't think that this is the right tool, but it was the closest thing I could think of.  The sugar sort of splattered along the outside edge of the bowl, but the yolks stayed in the center.  I figured I could live without so much sugar.  It took longer than the stated time to thicken the yolks.  It may be different with a real mixer.  I may have to investigate that further at a later date.

  I finally reached the thickness level I think that the recipe called for.  It needed to cool, so I thought that this was a good time to work on the "florentine" pizza.

   A note on Florentine pizza.  In my mind's eye, I had always pictured "Florentine" anything as some sort of dish that included spinach.  I tried googling "florentine", and come to the same conclusion.  But, alas, this recipe has harmed no spinach.  Apparently, for this pizza, the "florentine" is artichokes.  I am ok with that, I just want to know the correct terminology.

from The Complete Book of Pizza by Louise Love

     I didn't have any pre-made Basic pizza dough, and I really didn't feel like making another batch of dough, so I scroundged through the freezer and found a whole wheat dough.  I pulled that out and left it on the counter to thaw and rise.  I took it out at about 8pm and left it out on the counter until I was able to roll it out at about 7:30pm the following night.
    I debated about using a pre-made sauce for this pizza and ignoring the instructions for a new sauce, but I hadn't read all of that before I bought the ingredients, and since I had them, I figured I should use them.  Especially since I had misinterpreted the ingredient list and thought I needed 3 ripe tomatoes AND a 28oz. can of tomatoes.  I thought I ought to use the fresh tomatoes for this, since I am not a great fan of fresh tomatoes on their own.
    
         Pam had called me and left me a message before I was done with work.  I listened to it on my way home.  She said she was thinking about a strawberry blue cheese poppyseed salad that Judy (our honorary sister in Atlanta) had suggested.   I called Pammy back and got her voicemail.  I suggested that, if she meant that she was going to make that for us tonight. that perhaps she could replace the strawberries with blueberries, so Jeff could have some salad.  Unfortunately my husband is allergic to strawberries. 
     Pam showed up around 6pm on Thursday with Jonah, my nephew.  Gracie had another softball game, and Jonah didn't want to go, so Pam brought him over here.  We set him up downstairs with Star Wars II, and he was content.  At least I think he was:  We didn't see him again until dessert was served.
 
     First things first, we had to get our drink on.  This week's drink was called Salty Dog.

From the Ultimate Book of Cocktails by Stuart Walton (a gift from my sister Jennifer)

It's apparently a Greyhound with salt around the rim.  I didn't care for it at first, but it grew on me, especially after we added more vodka to it.


     I started by cooking the crust for the dessert.  I put it into the preheated 375º oven, and set the timer for the recommended time.  About 3/4's the way through the cooking time, I was detecting a warm toasty smell, so I opened up the oven to take a look at the sweet crust.  It appeared to have a little time left to cook.  I closed the oven and didn't give it another thought.
     A few moments later, Pam exclaimed (something I can't publish here).  Apparently, she was toasting almonds, and they had gotten away from her.  Who needs to set a timer, when you can smell when they are done, right?  Apparently, that was the warm, toasty smell.
   When the timer went off for the sweet crust, I opened the oven again to take a look at it.  It had curled up and browned on top, so I figured it had fulfilled it's ovenly duties.  I took it out, but I noticed that the underside wasn't cooked as much.  It was still soft on the bottom.  I went with it anyway, because we have had issues with this crust being too chewy on previous bakings.
   We decided to start without the Liggetts, since they weren't going to be there until after 8:30.  We started on the salad, since  the pizza wasn't ready yet.  It was simply delicious!  Judy had given the recipe to Pam via texting or e-mailing or some super-electrronic method.  It called for Romaine; toasted, salted almonds; blue cheese; creamy poppyseed dressing; and red onions (along with the strawberries, of course).  We took the liberties of changing the fruit to blueberries (they happened to be buy one container and get one free at Lunds) and changing the Romaine into spinach.
   Pam texted Judy to inform her of the alteration of her recipe, which Pam dubbed as "audience participation".   Since it was never explained to Judy (our "new" sister) that my husband is allergice to strawberries, and that was the original intent of altering her recipe, she sent a text in reply, suggesting that a better compromise between the recipe originator (her) and the audience participation suggestions, would be to combine the berries and the lettuces....  It sounds loveley, but I think it would defeat the purpose of trying NOT to let Jeff's tongue swell up.
  Pam, Jeff, and I couldn't get enough of the salad.  We ate the salad sparingly to save an appropriate portion for Jennifer and Roger, but it was too good.  We ended up polishing it off before they showed up.  Pam made another "batch" before they showed up, so they would be none the wiser.  It was apparently a hit with more than just the three of us, since there was nothing left.  Of course, it took a little coaxing to get Roger to try it, but try it, he did, and I didn't see anything left on his plate later.  So, unless he dumped it when Pam and I weren't looking, I think he might have liked it.

     The artichoke pizza was good.  It probably would have been better with the white crust, but, again, the whole wheat was all that I had.  I was surprised at how flavorful the simple sauce was.  I had left the pizza in longer than I had intended to, so there were some nice, browned spost interspersed on the pizza.  These were beautiful.  I loved the contrast of the slightly-briny artichokes against the creamy mozzerella.  I even actually remembered the post-oven instructions to sprinkle Parmesan over the top of the pizza, which added a little salty flavor to balance out the acidity of the tomato sauce.  It was really delicious.  The sauce was simple enought not to combate the mildly flavored artichoke hearts.

     And, now for dessert.  I was a little worried about this dessert.  I am not a wild fan of mangos, and I am less wild about coconut.

I cut all of the ingredints in half and only made one pizza.  The dreamy, creamy marscapone sauce was fantastic.  I was worried about adding two of my less-than-desirable ingredients to it.  However, once the whole thing was combined, it was pretty good.  There was so much sugar incorporated into the recipe, I don't think it would have mattered what the fruit was...  I mean, the marscapone sauce (buttery, cream-cheesy, sweet, eggy) with fruit, topped with (as Jennifer informed me later - sugar added) coconut shreds and FROSTING!  The crust was tender, as I had hoped (and have not been able to achieve before with this recipe), slightly sweet, and sturdy enough to hold all of the ingredients.
     As good as it was, I determined that I still cannot get past the mango-aversion, and Jeff and I (ok, I am not) a huge dessert eater, so I sent the left-lovers home with Jennifer and her family (the kids loved it, and if it gets them to like fruit, more power to it, right?).

     Side bar on the drinks:  While the salty dog grew on us, and the more we drank of it (especially after the addition of more vodka), the more we liked it; we did not chose to make additional servings.  I thought we ought to make something out of the leftover coconut milk that was leftover from the frosting endeavor.
    Our first attempt was grapefruit juice (we had some of that left over, too), coconut milk, home-made cranbverry vodka, and blue curacao.   I found it too sweet.  Pam wasn't thrilled with it, but couldn't put her finger on it.  We, of course, drank it anyway.
     Next try was cranberry vodka, coconut milk, Licor 43 (which is a vanilla-based liqueur with 42 other flavors), blue curacao (I just love that blue color), and a little regular vodka to balance it out.  Pam said it wasn't sweet enought.  I took back our drinks and re-shook them with some Dr. McGillicuddy's Vanilla.  That seemed to do the trick.  Jennifer and I did have to help Pam drink hers, because we were well into it by then.  Or, did Pam and I have to help Jennifer, because she is a bit of a light-weight... I can't remember.