I was exhausted when I came home from work on Wednesday. Jeff was gone, playing farmer again, and I hadn't been sleeping well. I just wanted to go to bed, but I knew that if I didn't get some preparations done for tomorrow's dinner, it would be really difficult to get the food on the table in timely fashion. I had to bargain with myself. Just start with one thing, and see how you feel afterward. If you still can't keep your eyes open, you can take a nap.
I started with the crusts. I took two portions of basic crust out of the freezer for the antipasto pizzettes. I thought one wouldn't be enough to make 6 pizzettes, and I found one portion of sweet crust for the cranberry pizza. OK. That was a start. I am still standing at this point, so I should do one more thing. I'll go ahead and make the caramel.
The directions say to whisk the caramel over medium-high heat until it turns into a brown liquid. I found that before this happens, the sugar clumped up some. I don't recommend using, as I did, a regular whisk. The balls of sugar that formed kept getting stuck inside the bubble. I switched to an open-end whisk. This worked better, and it was able to get into the "corners" of the pan, where the sides of the pan meet the bottom of the pan. It is important to have the cut-up pieces of butter handy for when the sugar becomes liquid, because it can burn and make the caramel bitter. I had made this recipe once before, but I had forgotten that when you start adding the butter to the liquefied sugar, it foams up and attempts to climb out of the pan. It is a little startling at first, but once you know to expect it and keep stirring, it works out fine. Once the butter is melted, take the mixture off of the heat, and whisk in the cream. It is still pretty runny at this point. As it cools, it gets thicker.
With that accomplished, I felt I could clean up and go to bed. The caramel smelled so good, though, I had to try it. I slid a finger along the length of the whisk, where some of the sauce was clinging. It was warm, sweet, with a nutty, toasty flavor. It was absolutely delicious! Wanting not to waste any, I felt it was my duty to make sure that the tines of the whisk were completely cleaned off before going into the dishwasher. The best too for this? My tongue, of course. I happily licked the whisk clean, but discovered that with an open-end whisk, this can be kind of difficult. The tines of the whisk that weren't being "cleaned" at that particular moment decided to kick back and whack me in the face. I had caramel on my cheeks, forehead, and I think I had some behind my ears. Oh, but it was worth it!
When I got home from work, I started by rolling out the dough for each pizza. I started with the sweet dough. I rolled it out to fit in my 12 inch deep-dish stoneware. The directions said to brush the pan with melted butter, but, again, the butter on my counter was fairly soft, so I just rubbed a tablespoon or so all over the inside of the stoneware. Once I had the crust loaded into the pan, I rubbed another tablespoon over the top. 
I used Grandma's Apple-Peeler-Corer-Slicer from Pampered Chef to prepare the apples. This is a really slick tool. I recommend it highly for anyone who ever makes pies or anything that requires peeling or slicing apples or pears. You jam the apple onto the corer portion of the contraption and turn the handle until the apple (or pear) until it bumps up against the peeler blade and pushes the apple through a circular blade, and it comes out the other side still in the apple shape but cored and sliced. Well, actually, it isn't completely sliced, it is actually like one big curly-q. A slide of the knife down one side of the apple makes them into separate rings.
One apple was enough to cover the bottom of the crust with a bit of overlap. I sprinkled the (sweetened) dried cranberries over the apple rings. I tossed the brown sugar over that, and it was ready for the oven.
By this time, Jennifer and the kids had arrived. They brought a stuffed pizza from Papa Murphy's, and coincidentally, it needed to be cooked at the same temperature as the cranberry apple pizza, so we put them in together in the bottom oven. Jeff had driven all evening to come home during the night, so he was around and able to help the kids get a movie started in the nest, and we didn't hear another word from them until we called them up for dinner. The Antipasto Pizzettes called for a LOT of ingredients. Jennifer and I agreed that the amounts were too great for the size of pizzas we are making, so we cut most of them in half. When I started reading the ingredient list, I realized I had made a grave error. When I had impromptu guests over on Tuesday, and I had seen the tomatoes on the counter that I had purchased the week before, and thought I should use those as a side dish. Four tomatoes seemed like a lot for three people for a side dish (I sprinkled them with feta, Romano, oregano, and olive oil and baked them until the cheeses were brown & bubbly), but what else was I going to do with them? I had forgotten that I was saving two of them for pizza. Hmmm.... We had one tomato (or two baked halves) leftover from that meal. They were going to be cooked anyway, right? Why not use them anyway? The cheese and oregano can only add, right?
Jennifer was disappointed, I think. She would prefer a tomato free existence except where salsa is concerned. I am trying to change her mind about that, since I grow an entire yard full of tomatoes. I think slowly, she is coming around. I made her cut the tomatoes and scatter them on the six little crusts I had rolled out. She cut half a pepper and sprinkled that as well. She sliced and portioned out the hard boiled eggs. I made an executive decision to skip the capers, which she agreed with me that they wouldn't be missed with the massive list of other ingredients in this recipe. Both olives went on in half the amount listed. We also halved the pepperoncinis (and we sampled a couple along the way). I actually did use an entire can of tuna, which I thought might be a mistake, because it might overpower the entire flavor of the pizza. We were just about to sprinkle out the cheese when I realized we forgot the onion! We briefly discussed abandoning them, because we weren't sure they would stay on the mountains of pizza we had created. I have been reading up on crusts, and most of the stuff I have read talk about preheating your pizza stone for an hour before you use it, and I have always poo-pooed that. It really seemed like overkill to me, a waste of electricity (or gas, if you are more privileged than me). Coincidentally, my oven had been on, with the stones in it for over an hour by them we were able to get the pizzettes in the oven. This crust that I have made several times over rose to the occasion (please forgive the pun). The puny, thin little ovals I had rolled out that would barely support the weight of the mile long list of ingredients, puffed up to twice their original size with a crust exterior and soft pillowy interior. And, in just 9 minutes, the ingredients warmed up and the cheese bubbled up beautiful and brown.
Not only were these little pizzas beautiful, but they were tasty as well. I loved it, don't get me wrong, but next time around, I would increase the amount of pepperoncinis - somewhere between 6 and 12. It could have used a little extra heat and a little extra brine. The tuna was a great compliment, too. Just a little salty, seafaring flavor mixed in with the olives and cheese and tomatoes (which I don't think we could have done without, as Jennifer suggested). I really enjoyed this! The drink of the week was Costa del Sol. I did not read ahead and make some simple syrup before the big event. Actually, to be honest, I didn't even read the recipe except to make sure I had the liquors that were involved. We used plain old regular sugar instead and the drink turned out fine. Jen even thought that the grittiness of the sugar added to the attractiveness of the drink. It was fizzy and tart, two qualities I am very fond of in a drink, and it was not overly sweet (maybe it would have been if I had made the simple syrup).
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The Cranberry Apple pizza came out beautifully. I poured some caramel sauce over the top, and it instantly melted in. The apples were al dente - slightly firm, but warm and juicey. Jennifer, who claims to hate cooked apples, kept picking partial apples off the pizza that was still in the pan. The cranberries were tart little bursts of acidity that was a perfect counterpoint to the rich caramel and brown sugar. Delicious!
The only thing that could have made the evening better would have been if Pam could have made it.
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