I dug into it on Wednesday after work. I started with the Grilled Italian Sausage and Peppers Pizza.
I sliced the provolone and I pulled grated mozzarella out of my freezer.
Next on my agenda was the peppers. I was very hopeful that I would find enough sweet peppers out in the garden that I would be able to use for this pizza. I did not find any yellow peppers, but I did find some Hungarian Wax peppers. They are yellow, but they are also hot. Sometimes they are especially hot. I thought this might be a good substitute for the pizza, since my sisters and I LOVE the hot stuff. So, that was my yellow pepper. I found quite a bit of green peppers and a couple of yellow. It was a much more fruitful experience than the tomato hunt the week before. There were quite a few hot peppers out there. Hopefully, I will be able to find a use for them all before they expire! Also, since I was only doing one sausage pizza (instead of the two that the recipe makes), I was cutting everything in half. I didn't want to use half a green pepper and half a red pepper, so I just used one pepper that was mostly red (with some green). I sliced them all up and bagged them for the next day. I also shredded the Parmesan that was going to substitute for the Asiago.
For the pizza sauce, I measured out some pasta sauce I got on clearance at Cub some time back (of course). It is actually pretty decent, but I found out the hard way that it WILL mold in the fridge after a while. Having learned this, after I opened the jar and measured out my cup-worth, I threw the remainder into a plastic container and threw it in the freezer for another time. The mushrooms I had in the refrigerator were pre-sliced, and I didn't think that they were thin enough, so I sliced each one in half again to make them thinner. I wasn't sure how much would make 4 mushrooms worth, but I think I probably came close. I sliced the onion and pepper and pulled another bag of mozzarella out of the freezer.
I scanned the recipe to see what was going to be done with the oil and the herbs. It sounded like it was going to be very similar to the garlic oil I made for the Grilled Anchovy and Onion Pie recipe in August. I had made extra of this and had set it aside. I decided that would be perfect for this use. I went ahead and added the vinegar. The recipe didn't specify what kind of vinegar. I really enjoy dipping bread in olive oil and balsamic, so I used balsamic. I added my oregano and tarragon, gave it a quick stir, and sealed it up.
At this point, I went back to the sausage pizza recipe. I had these lovely Italian sausages we bought at Cub when there was a crazy temporary price reduction a while back. Jeff, of course, purchased all that they had left, and we had spent a day vacuum-packing and freezing them. The label claimed that they were "hot" Italian Sausages, but they are actually Minnesota hot. Meaning, there is some spice to them, but I wouldn't call them hot. Luke warm, maybe. They have really good flavor, though, and they are somewhat kid-friendly, if one were interested in being friendly to kids.
I had put off grilling the sausages until I was done with everything else I was going to accomplish, pizzaretically, because I was hoping there was more than I needed for the pizza in the one package I had thawed. I weighed it, and it was only a pound. There were 6 large sausages in there! I looked at those and tried to imagine putting all of that sausage on one pizza and decided that it was way too much meat for one pizza. I was going to eat at least one of those for dinner. And that is just what I did! Jeff came home some time after that, and he had one too. I still thought that there was plenty left for one pizza.
Thursday while I was at work, my cubical-mate checked Wal-Mart's website to see if they carried apricot nectar. I had been unable to find it at Cub the previous week - they didn't have any in the juice aisle, there wasn't any in the specialty juice section of the produce aisle, there was none in the organic food section, and the ethnic section had just about everything but. Wal-Mart is right across the street from where I work, so I could bop over there quickly and bop back in a few minutes. I could also get the french loaves there. Their website offered two brands, so I set off to buy one of them. I got there and had the same results that I did at Cub. I checked the website again from my phone. The fine print said that the apricot wasn't available yet. Argh! I bought some cheddar jalapeno Cheetos (Cub doesn't carry them any more), the french bread, and a bag of sugar.
I tried the Indian grocery store down the street. They had all kinds of interesting things there: lychee nectar, mango juice, several types of coconut water, rose nectar, and several other nectar and juices I had never heard of. Alas, there was no apricot.
Last Thursday, I had received a call from our adopted sister, Judy (we Freese girls adopted her, so she's not adopted like Jennifer is - it's different). She was upset, because she needed to find someone to take care of her cat over the winter or bring it to the humane society, and she hadn't found anyone to take him. I lost all three of my cats recently, so we had a space, and she asked if we would take him. I told her we would.
Pam was bringing Jeb (Judy's husband) over with the cat. I sent a text message to Pam that neither Wal-Mart nor the Indian grocery had it and could she look for it on her way? She said she would try.
I put my purchases from Wal-Mart in my trunk and went back to work.
A few minutes after I got home at the end of the day, Jeff came home too. He had had a bad day at work and was feeling cranky about it. I remembered that he was as fond of the jalapeno cheddar Cheetos's as I was and lamented their disappearance from our regular grocery store as much as I did. I told him to wait right there, I had left something in my trunk that would make him feel better. I ran outside to the car. When I opened my trunk, I noticed that the two loaves of french bread had slid out of the bag. I grabbed the back to put them back in and noticed that it was empty! The only other things in my trunk were the two loaves of bread. Oh no! The cashier must have put the rest of my purchases in another bag, and I didn't grab it when I walked out of the store. Great! Now, I was crabby, too. Well, at least I had what I needed for the Vegetarian Wedge.
I am not sure why the recipe called for a four foot loaf, and then instructed me to cut it in to two two-foot pieces. Nor, am I sure where you can get a four foot loaf of bread. I purchased what I estimated to be two two foot loaves. I measured when I got home. They were actually 18 inches. That still looked like a lot of bread to me. I didn't think we would miss the other half a foot per loaf.
Pam and Jeb and Pele (the kitty) showed up. Jeb had found apricot nectar! I asked Pam where, and she claimed it was Cub and I had just looked in the wrong place. I didn't believe her. They had actually found it at Lund's. So, at long last, we finally had all of the ingredients to make Grandma's Frozen Apricots! She set out to start those, while we snacked on some sushi she bought at Lund's, and I started on the Vegetarian Wedge.
Jennifer and Gracie had arrived, and Gracie was torturing the cat while it was still in its carrying cage. Jeff and Jeb took Pele downstairs and set him up in his new temporary home. They got the kitty litter set up, food bowls, etc. down in our nesting area.
I was going to go outside to get the mint that was supposed to garnish our drinks, but when I started downstairs to go out the back door, Pele was at the bottom of the stairs, very unhappy with his new position. He was blocking the bottom of the stairs, growling, snarling, and hissing. We didn't really need mint anyway.
For the wedge, I started out removing the squishy interior of the bread. I thought that is a waste (I, of course, saved all of the interior that I pulled out of each loaf), but I could understand the theory. I guessed that it was so you would have a greater topping to crust ratio, and the toppings wouldn't be lost in a pillow of bread.
The amount of the oil that the recipe wasn't nearly enough to cover all four halves of bread. I ended up adding a bit more, and I was supposed to have saved a couple tablespoons of it to drizzle over the fully topped wedge, but that didn't happen.
I found the same issue with the amount of sauce the recipe called for. Perhaps my loaves were much wider than their loaves.
Once the breads were topped as close to specification as I was going to get, Pam and I headed out to start grilling. She carried the drinks, and I carried my paddle of goodies - all of the pre-measured ingredients I would need for my task.
While we were waiting for the grill to heat up, we finished our drinks. Pam said she would go back inside and come out with refills for us. Unfortunately, when she went to turn the knob on the back door, she realized that it had been locked when we came out, and we hadn't unlocked it. We were now locked out of the back door. The front door was probably still unlocked, because Jennifer had just left to go pick Jonah up from football. However, my darling husband, in his paranoia has also decided that we should lock the fence around the back yard - from the outside.
Luckily, Jeff and Jeb and Gracie were on the other side of the fence. Jeff unlocked the gate and let Pam through to the front, so she could get us new drinks. She came back out after a couple of minutes, filled my glass, and headed back in to make herself a refill. But, alas, she had still forgotten to unlock the door. Jeff had already relocked the gate and moved inside, so we tapped on the window to get their attention and have them unlock the door. I really need to hide a key in the back yard. It's a good thing we didn't have anything in the oven inside.
Meanwhile, I kept going on building the pizza. Again, I felt that amount of sauce the recipe called for was less than it should have been. I also thought there was too much sausage. I couldn't fit it all on the pizza without overlapping, so Pam and I ate the extra bits. Sometimes we have to make these small sacrifices to make our art perfect.
After I had assembled the pizza and closed the lid, it took quite a bit of time to cook. During that time, Jennifer and Jonah had come back, Brianna (Jeb and Jud's daughter) had arrived, and new drinks were made. I kept checking the pizza, waiting for the Asiago on top to melt. After a great amount of time, I decided that it wasn't going to melt in the traditional sense of cheese. It wasn't going to ooze all over it. The fine shreds just crisped up on top of everything. The cheese that was layered on the bottom the provolone and mozzarella were oozing out the bottom and browning around the edges of the pizza, so I felt it was time to take it off - before we lost all of the under-cheese.
I hustled my pizza inside. Jennifer had put the wedge in the oven, and it was just about done. We set the table, called the guys in, and poured some more drinks.
The wedge was more flavorful than I thought it would be, and Pam declared that it didn't need any more pizza sauce, it was good the way it was. The sausage pizza was meaty and cheesy. The Hungarian Wax peppers I sneaked into it were certainly doing their job. There were pockets of heat in the pizza. I thought it was delicious. I am not sure if Jeb and Brianna like either of the two recipes or not. They each politely ate one piece of each option and didn't have any more.
The drinks were fabulous. They were creamy, sweet, and tangy. My only thought was that it could be better with tequila. I didn't have any at the time, so I couldn't prove my theory, but I think most things would be better with tequila, so it may be a biased opinion.
The company was even better. It was nice to see Jeb and Brianna again.
Brianna had brought some brownies. they were dark and chewy and fantastic. She also had vodka-soaked cherries and whipped cream to top them. They were desserts of beauty. A perfect ending to a wonderful evening.
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