A good while back I found myself half way through a bottle of wine on a Saturday night, sitting alone on my patio watching cute cat videos on YouTube.

Wait… should I be embarrassed about revealing this to you?  Just wait… it gets better.

I was feeling pretty content with my Saturday night of wine and kittens, except, I didn’t really want to be alone.  Sometime after my last glass of wine, and before I started eating frozen yogurt straight from the container, I found myself filling out one of those online dating service profiles.  Yea… I was totally having that moment in my life.

Because there’s no shame in my game, I won’t even hesitate in telling you that filling out one of those profiles is a complex mixture of fun, excitement and nausea.  So many questions to answer.  So many clever quips to whip up.  So many ways to try and say that I’m weird and cool, and I spend a lot of time in my kitchen, and I kinda have a thing for kitten videos and wine and frozen yogurt…. without saying anything about kittens and wine and frozen yogurt.  That, after all, might come across as too weird.

What I really wanted to say was something like.. “Hey!  You’re cool.  I’m cool.  Let’s get to know each other.  I’ll make us pizza.  I’ll make us salad, but I won’t be mad if you don’t really want to eat it.  Cookies.  I can make those too.  Also… I like Star Wars, except I might call ‘Storm Troopers’ ‘Star Troopers’ on accident.  And… your Mom is going to love me, and I’m going to think she’s pretty rad too.  Let’s do this!”

It all worked out.  I think I may have had that profile up for about a month before I realized it wasn’t really my scene.  I have someone pretty awesome to make pizza for now.  He knows all about the wine and kitten videos and frozen yogurt.  He likes all those things too… plus Star Wars.  That feels pretty nice.

I suppose that was all just the long way of saying that I think you should make dinner this weekend.  Something down to earth and comforting like pizza and salad, with cookies for dessert.  If you also wanted to drink wine and watch kitten videos, you’d totally have the thumbs up from me!

Pepperoni and Black Olive Pizza

Homemade Caesar Salad

Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Sometimes what I need from the world manifests itself in the strangest ways.

Truth be told, I think I might need a hug. I know… that phrase has tinges of lame and needy all over it. I could easily go find a hug, that’s not the issue. I’m looking for a very specific hug.

I need to kind of hug that I imagine comes from the husband I don’t yet have. The kind of hug that you can completely relax into. The kind of hug where you are exactly who you are without any self conscious discomfort. The kind of hug that I imagine comes with familiar husband neck smells, synchronized breathing, and maybe a whisper in the ear. The kind of hug that softens everything in the world- that’s the kind of hug I need.

Since I don’t exactly have that soul changing hug at my everyday disposal, I decided to take to get in my kitchen and make myself exactly what my soul wanted to eat. Ironically enough, my soul didn’t wax on about chocolate, or pudding or fresh doughnuts. All my insides wanted was a big, fresh, home-crafted Caesar Salad.

Funny how that works.

If you’ve never made a homemade Caesar Salad, consider this your formal invitation. There is something unbelievably satisfying about grinding garlic and anchovies into a paste, then working the dressing into the most luscious salad topper with egg yolks and olive oil. It’s lovely. It feels like the salt of the earth, like I imagine those husband hugs.

Oh! This salad is perfect with homemade pizza. Now that’s good lovin’.

The Perfect Caesar Salad

from Martha Stewart

Print this recipe!

If you don’t like the idea of using egg yolks for this dressing, feel free to substitute one tablespoon of mayonnaise. Don’t skip out on the anchovies as much as you think you might dislike them. They add so much flavor and depth, you’ll miss if you leave them out. I skipped the fresh croutons, mostly because I didn’t have any bread on hand. I’ve included the crouton portion of your recipe for your tummy. Enjoy!

• 6 slices (1-inch) ciabatta or another crusty white bread, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon fresh flat-leaf parsley, minced
• Coarse salt (to taste)
• 2 cloves garlic, halved
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 4 to 5 anchovies
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 heads romaine lettuce, washed and dried thoroughly and torn into 2-inch pieces
• Grated Parmesan cheese (to taste)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium-size bowl, toss bread cubes with remaining crouton ingredients. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, toast croutons until golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes.
2. In a large wooden bowl, using a wooden spoon, mash halved garlic cloves to a fine paste. Stir in egg yolks and Dijon mustard. Add anchovies, and grind to a paste. Add lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper. Slowly stir in olive oil until dressing is creamy
3. Add lettuce to bowl, and toss to coat leaves thoroughly with dressing and grated Parmesan. Sprinkle croutons over salad, and serve topped with Parmesan shavings.

I can humbly say that I made the magic happen with this pizza.

If this pizza were a song, it would be an Al Green song.  It would be Love and Happiness.  This pizza is tight, it’s in the pocket, it’s got soul.

Speaking of love and happiness-  remember when I was down to my last egg and came to you for love advice a few weeks back?  Did I tell you how much all of your comments touched me?  They truly did.  Thank you, again and again and again.

I just wanted to let you know that I have found love and happiness.  It’s all just inside of me.  It’s lovely and amazing.  So I’m back to living the good life, on my own.  I also happen to me making the magic happen, one pizza (and one very hot kitchen) at a time.

Here’s something that I didn’t know about pizza:  it’s really easy to make!  When it comes to having all of my pizza questions answered, there was only one place I could go:  Smitten Kitchen.  Deb is batty for pizza and she has some amazing tutorials about what to do and how to do it.

I know it’s warm out friends, but don’t let that stop you from making some magic in your kitchen.  Crank up the air conditioning, pour yourself a nice cold beer, blast the Al Green and make a pizza.  That’s called the good life.  I know.  I’ve tried it.

Pizza Dough

recipe from Smitten Kitchen

Print this recipe!

makes 1 large pie.

3 cups flour (can replace up to half of this with whole wheat flour)
2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water (may need up to 1 or 2 tablespoons more)
2  tablespoon olive oil

Stir dry ingredients, including yeast, in a large bowl. Add water and olive oil, stirring mixture into as close to a ball as you can. Dump all clumps and floury bits onto a lightly floured surface and knead everything into a homogeneous ball.

Dough after a few minutes of kneading.  Just before first rest.

If you are finding this step difficult, one of the best tricks I picked up from my bread-making class is to simply pause. Leave the dough in a lightly-floured spot, put the empty bowl upside-down on top of it and come back in 2 to 5 minutes, at which point you will find the dough a lot more lovable.

Knead it for just a minute or two. Lightly oil the bowl (a spritz of cooking spray perfectly does the trick) where you had mixed it — one-bowl recipe! — dump the dough in, turn it over so all sides are coated, cover it in plastic wrap and leave it undisturbed for an hour or two, until it has doubled in size.

Dough, just before air is pressed our after first rise.

Worked into a nice smooth ball, ready for 20 minute rest.

Dump it back on the floured counter (yup, I leave mine messy), and gently press the air out of the dough with the palm of your hands. Fold the piece into an approximate ball shape, and let it sit under that plastic wrap for 20 more minutes.

Sprinkle a pizza stone or baking sheet with cornmeal and preheat your oven to its top temperature.  I used a baking sheet, turned upside down, lined with foil and sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Roll out the pizza, toss on whatever topping and seasonings you like. (I always err on the side of skimpy with toppings so to not weight down the dough too much, or if I have multiple toppings, to keep them very thinly sliced.)

Bake it for about 10 minutes until it’s lightly blistered and impossible to resist.

Pepperoni and Black Olive Pizza, Heavy on the Sauce

1 1/4 cup pizza sauce (I bought mine from Trader Joe’s. It’s great!)

1 1/2 to 2 cup grated mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup sliced black olives

as much pepperoni as you can layer onto the pizza.

Once the dough is rested and rolled, spread the sauce over the pizza and layer with cheese. Top with olives and pepperoni and bake at 450 for 10-13 minutes. So good!

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