Skillet Pizza; Pineapple Pizza

   Wednesday, June 15th was my 15th wedding anniversary.  My "golden anniversary" according to my cubicle-mate, Debi.  My husband?  My darling husband of 15 years, my best friend, my greatest companion, and the love of my life...  was in Iowa farming with my dad.  Me?  I was here, alone, feeling somewhat sorry for myself.  I had pulled a muscle in my back on Sunday, and had tried every combination of
muscle relaxer and Ibuprofen combination I could think of since Sunday.  Nothing was working.  During work on Wednesday, I had decided that, since Jennifer was going to be out of town, and Roger was unlikely to come and bring the kids, and Jeff might or might not make it, and Pam had prior obligations she needed to attend to, maybe I would skip it.  A bowl of vodka (a.k.a. a martini) and Bones reruns ought to fix everything.

     Ah, but I am a creature of habit, I respect order and obligation (even if it is made-up obligation), and I just wouldn't feel right just sitting in my living room (the nest, as we like to refer to it) watching reruns, if I hadn't at least done something productive.   I went ahead and did some "pizza preps".  I don't necessarily have to make pizza on Thursday, since it may just be me, but I deserve nice meals too, right?  And, I bought all of the ingredients, right?  Besides, it wa
s raining again, and the hammock was too soggy to call me into its folds.

  Normally, I would start with the crusts.  I had a sweet crust in the freezer, so I just moved that to the refrigerator to thaw.  I didn't have enough energy yet to think about the basic crust.

  I thought, well, at least I should cut up the pineapple - if I'm not going to use it for pizza, at least it would be all cleaned up and ready for me to eat instead of the most-delicious barbecue flavored Cheetos my husband had planted in my snack cupboard.  So, I cut the pineapple up.  It was kind of labor-intensive.  OK, not really, but more effort than I felt like putting forth.  I had thoughts like, why did I talk Jeff out of buying the pre-cut pineapple for $1 more.  Or, why isn't my dad here?  He is so good at this, and I think he really enjoys it - it's his skill, and he enjoys being appreciated for it....  And, THIS is why I don't normally eat fresh pineapple. 
     I wanted nice rings, but without the core.  I decided to cut off all of the bark-y type stuff on the outside first.  I don't have one of those fancy pineapple corers (like they sell at Pampered Chef).  I have always thought it was silly - you can just CUT the core out, right.  Or, eat it, like Dad does (CHEWY).  But, if I were going to make the scheduled pineapple pizza, the pine
apple should be in pretty rings, right?  I don't have a thin-enough knife that is as long as a pineapple, and I was afraid the larger knives would make cuts that were too large to sustain the beautiful ring I was trying to achieve.  So, I took one of my steak knives (it is about half the length of the pineapple).  I jabbed into the end of the pineapple along the side of the core.  I tried to pull it around the core in a nice circular shape (ha!), but it didn't move in a nice fluid motion, as I had hoped it would.  So, I pulled it out, and rammed it in along side of another part of the core.  I did this until I had completely cut around the core (it wasn't exactly pretty, but it was complete).  Then, I flipped the pineapple over and did the same thing from the other end.  Once that was done, I turned the pineapple on its side, and made my slices (the recipe called for 12 slices, since I was only making one pizza).  I was pleased with the result: although my top and bottom core cuts didn't exactly meet, they did in most areas, and when
 I sliced the pineapple, the core was easily popped out.  This wasn't exactly true for the end pieces, as the broke apart before I was able to get the core out, but I think I
 got some pretty rings out the deal.

Ok, cutting up the pineapple wasn't so bad, and I was still standing.  I decided I could at least pit the cherries.  I did purchase a cherry pitter a while back and have never used it.  Looking at it closely, it resembles some kind of torture chamber.  And, I guess it would be a torture chamber, if you're a cherry.  I cannot believe how fantastic this worked.  I was skeptical. I pictured my beautiful, round, plump cherries getting smashed into oblivion, pits still inside.

   Since that was kind of fun, it reignited my interest in the process.  I decided to go ahead and make the basic crust.  As I have said before, I just throw everything into my Kitchen Aide and let it do all the work.  Once the dough looks smooth, I cut it into four pieces, freeze three and use the fourth for one 12" pizza.

   At this point, my back was going on strike.  What to do about that?  Well, the muscle relaxers hadn't done me any good.  Ah, yes, the bowl of vodka... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

    

   Thursday, when I got home from work, Jeff was there!  After we caught up a bit, we realized we were starving.  Let's get our pizza on!

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    First, I rolled out the sweet crust for the dessert pizza.  the directions said to brush the pizza pan with melted butter. My butter was pretty soft anyway, so I just grabbed some and smeared it over my deep-dish pizza stone, before laying the freshly rolled crust in it.  I think I am having a size problem with my fruit, now, too, because there was no way I would be able to fit 12 slices of pineapple on this pizza without piling them on top of one another.  I just barely fit six.  So, maybe my pineapple is bigger than the author's.

     While that was baking, I rolled out the dough for the skillet pizza.  I must have cut the original recipe unevenly, because this seemed like a really small amount of dough.  Oh well!  It is just the two of us tonight, and I really would prefer to use my new 10" everyday pan anyway.  I rolled the dough out on top of a sprinkling of fine cornmeal (which is how I always do it  to keep it from sticking to the board).  I laughed, when I read the part about removing the extra dough.  First of all, there wasn't any.  Second of all - who wants to get rid of any?

     I have never cooked a pizza in a skillet before.  I liked what it did for the crust.  The bottom was slightly crisp - it had a nice chew to it.  Also, I couldn't believe how much it brought out the flavor of the cornmeal I rolled it  out on.  It was toasty and slightly sweet.  The sauce (I cheated and used jarred spaghetti sauce, because the making of the sauce would have been something to do yesterday) and the cheese cooked up nicely with the lid on.  There were a couple of drawbacks, however.  The cheese didn't get that nice and bubbly brown crust that I like on the top of a pizza (Jeff isn't wild about this), of course.  The pizza was really easy to get out of the pan, but I could see a potential problem if there were more than just cheese on your pizza.  As it was, the sauce and gooey cheese slid around a little as I was transferring the pizza to a cutting board.  Since everything was so slippery, I was able to just push it back into place.  Jeff didn't see me do it, so no harm no foul. 

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I didn't measure the cheese when I put it on there.  I think I put on more than it called for, so that may be why it seemed extra slippy.  When we cut and served the pizza, the strings of cheese overlapped the plate and hung down the sides.  This makes for a good snack later when you thought there was nothing left to eat of the pizza.  There were no leftovers from this pizza.

    I skipped drink of the week today, because it just doesn't seem as fun without the sisters.  We had a nice bottle of Kim Crawford Pinot Noir.  It was light enough not overpower the simplicity of this pizza, but it had enough fruitiness to combat the acidity of the tomato sauce.

     Once we polished off the main course, we moved into the dessert pizza.  When I had taken it out of the oven, the juices from the pineapple and cherries had co-mingled with the brown sugar, but it was still pretty runny.  I wasn't sure that the pizza was done, because the pineapple and cherries looked the same, and the book gave no indicators to look for to test for done-ness. 

  Apparently, while it had cooled the liquids sort of carameled up and clung to the ingredients instead of swishing around on the bottom.  Jeff was so impressed with the flavor of this pizza, he had seconds.  It was juicy, fruity, and sweet.  The crust fared well, too.  As I have mentioned, I have previously had issues with this crust recipe, but this one worked.  The only drawback was that it got a little (I don't want to use the word "slimy") overly soft where it connected with the pineapple.

   I hope it is as good tomorrow for breakfast....