Recipes

The hardest part of making a great pizza at home is making and baking a great pizza dough.  I found Peter Reinhart because this otherwise simple task eluded me in my home pizza making endeavors for so long.  I now make what I consider to be a decent dough, or doughs as I keep trying to chase that perfect pizza experience here at home with my family. The next thing…Read More…

I was working in New York City this summer and went on some great little pizza quests.  When I got home, I found that a group of volunteer cherry tomato plants were about ready to burst in my back yard. I decided that things had gotten out of control, as the plants were crawling across my patio and it was time to clean things up. First, I had to pluck…Read More…

Living in Southern California, I use my grill more than I use my oven.  I love cooking with fire.  Fire roasting adds to the flavor complexity of almost anything you cook. There is something primal about it.  We’re spoiled with gas grills — mine is even connected to the house and is ever ready to be fired up with a simple turn of the dial, which is great and convenient,…Read More…

I was walking through one of my local markets and, in the produce section, a large oval green shape caught my eye.  As I turned to look closer and my eyes focused on what I was seeing, my smile grew at the same time.  My market had fresh cactus!  I had literally made my pickled cactus sauce, ode to the Nevada desert pizza, “The Hwy 15 Pizza,” a couple days…Read More…

A few months ago I went to Las Vegas for the Pizza Expo.  I wrote about visiting with John Arena of Metro Pizza.  While driving to Vegas I had been a little lost in thought.  No, I wasn’t on my phone, but I was drifting along somewhere out in there in the desert.  I was thinking about the email exchange I had with John and the fact that he mentioned…Read More…

When you do a pizza night, half the fun is coming up with the menu.  With the prep work that goes into making pizza, it just doesn’t make sense making one type of pizza for the night.  You usually have the idea pizza for the night and then you borrow ingredients, add others and come up with supporting pizzas for that particular event. Our friends had us over and as…Read More…

I have only experimented with this dough one time.  It’s nothing earth shattering, though it sounds like it should be, but it’s certainly interesting, so I think it’s worthy of a post. I was making up some pizzas recently and we were doing a Vietnamese inspired pizza. Since I make the doughs the day before, I noticed my Sriracha Salt just sitting there staring at me on the counter.  As…Read More…

Kim’s sister Loan (pronounced Lahn) came down from Coos Bay, Oregon where she lives, with a mission to get us together and make pizzas, cook some good food, and hang out with friends.  Knowing we all love seafood, she and Randy did a little digging (maybe a lot of digging) and personally dug up what seemed like a ton of Coos Bay Empire Clams!  I knew what we were going…Read More…

I met Randy Clemens at a baking class Peter was teaching at a Sir La Table here in Los Angeles. We were just getting Pizza Quest going and Peter was out on a teaching tour.  Peter introduced me to Randy, who had come to visit with him, after the class.  Peter had connected Randy with his publisher and Randy told us that he was close to finishing his first book…Read More…

For some time, I have suggested that when our friend Kim Wildermuth’s sister, Loan (pronounced Lahn),  who’s mother is responsible for our favorite “Mom’s Soy Pickled Jalapeños” comes to visit, that we get together and make a Vietnemese inspired pizza.  I have been a lucky guest on many of her visits from Oregon, when she and her husband Randy make the trip down to cook for me.  (Well, maybe they’re…Read More…