Great summer pizza ideas

When I wrote my post, “On the Bruce,” what I didn’t say is that when I came home from my second Bruce trail trek, I came home famished, and was able to satisfy a great craving for pizza in less than 15 minutes. I’ve written before about how to make pizza in batches and freeze it (I actually wrote about batch cooking in general, but it generated a lengthy discussion in the comments section on pizza, specifically.) Pizza is not hard to make, but there are lots of tips to make it even easier. In addition to cooking in batches and freezing the pizzas, you can also save time by prepping the ingredients at once. If you have a busy week coming up, prep a bunch of veggies and cheese in advance, and then assemble when you’re ready to eat. If you make spaghetti sauce, preserve some for your pizza – or make a roasted garlic puree. ( I’ve mentioned before that I love roasted garlic puree as an alternative to pizza sauce.) It will last in the fridge for days.  You can also make up a full pizza, cover, and refrigerate for a day or so.  The pizza doesn’t need to be baked immediately. This can be a handy trick, especially if you’re cooking for company or planning ahead for days when you have almost no time to cook. The day I wrote, “On the Bruce,” I came home to do just that – bake a pizza that I had sitting in the fridge.  It turned out to be one of my finest creations yet:

Portabello mushrooms, zucchini, rosemary, roasted garlic puree, and a blend of real parmesan and mozzarella (heavy on the parm).  Gorgerous.

Simple pizzas can taste really good, too. I recently made a pizza with my own spaghetti sauce, mozerella and lots of fresh basil.  Perfect opportunity to use the basil from my herb garden.

I noticed that my sister recently tweeted about some pizza toppings she likes, and thought I’d share them with you too, because they sound damn good:

1. Carmelized Vidalia onions, heirloom tomatoes, artisan proscuitto, fresh mozzarella, baby arugula, fresh basil & homemade sauce
2. Sauteed green garlic, wild mushrooms & sausage w fresh mozzarella and homemade tomato sauce.
3. Benedictine blue cheese, carmelized Vidalia onions, proscuitto & homemade fig jam.

Sounds great! What I love about pizzas is that you can be totally creative, often using what is sitting around in your fridge and pantry.  I love that a delicious pizza can be made out of very little, and that cheap ingredients – herbs, onions, garlic – can go so far in adding amazing flavour.

What is your favourite homemade pizza idea?

Moving on

I took the above photo at a yoga & meditation retreat I attended recently. Actually, it was the same retreat I attended last year. Long-term readers will remember what was going on in my life right around that time. There’s been many changes in my life over the last year. This was an opportunity for me to not only feel more mindful and present, but to engage in a little self-reflection.

The gardens had wild rose bushes as you can see above. Wild roses are my favourite. I first discovered them on a hike in Newfoundland:

Wild Rose in Tickle Cove, Newfoundland

At the retreat, our instructor had written out little affirmations that we could pick from an envelope; they were statements that we could reflect on during our practice.  I picked one that said, “now is the perfect time to let go.”

This weekend, I am letting go.  I’m packing. In a couple of weeks, I will literally be moving on. I’m not changing cities, but I am changing apartments. My current apartment is beautiful, but housing costs take up 65% of my income (every time I think about that I hear a line from TTDUP ring in my head: “No one can afford to spend 65% of their income on housing!” My new apartment lacks the luxuries of my current place, but will give me a little more financial breathing room. It will also be a change – a good change – as it’s an opportunity to say goodbye to some of the ghosts of my past. It will be a new space, and all my own.

Packing is not easy. You discover things you had long forgotten about – old photos, to-do lists, letters, trinkets, and they are all loaded with memories. In studying an object that you see every day, contemplating what to do with it, you realize that something you long considered benign is actually heavy with meaning. Packing is like lifting up a log in the forrest – you see all little insects crawling around underneath it that have long gone unnoticed.

As I write this, I sit comfortably on my loveseat, which faces the balcony.  It is close enough to see the water droplets hanging on the balcony railing. The view is all green – green trees for miles. On my balcony I’m growing herbs. Butternut watches the plants shake in the wind. I can hear the birds singing proudly. Their joyful songs dwarf any lingering traffic noise. My apartment is a perfect retreat. I hope that in my new place I can recreate the same kind of peace.