DYI Pizza Night

Sometimes the best pizza is the pizza you make yourself. The other night we got together with our friends Rahul and Dil (and their 10-month-old daughter) to make pizzas. Dil made the dough and prepared the toppings (sauteed onions, zucchini, peppers, mushrooms, and an egg), Rahul made the sauce, and Adam and I brought a package of mozzarella cheese that went unopened. But we did bring a bottle of wine (also went unopened) and DYI ice cream sundae supplies (opened and eaten).

The pizzas turned out tasty, although Dil (the former pastry chef) is much more talented in the pizza assemblying process than the rest of us.









My finished product:


Sai already loves pizza...

Pizza + Corn dogs = win? No.

What. is. this.

My Pizza Beginnings

Pizza is awesome. It transcends generations, social class, appropriate meal times. You can put anything on a pizza. You can put more pizzas on a pizza. You can get pizza from the grocery store, restaurant, food cart, and for when you're really craving pizza in a bus terminal or at the office, a vending machine.

I grew up in Scott City, a lovely town in western Kansas. Scott City lacked many things, but one thing it did not lack was a Pizza Hut franchise (see above photo). Pizza Hut's name is synonymous with delicious, quality pizza. Best in the nation? Maybe not. But ridiculously close. What other pizza brands offers innovative products like the Big Foot (two feet of delicious bread, sauce, and cheese) and stuffed crust pizza.

The Pizza Hut was the home of many childhood memories for myself and other Scott Citians: birthday parties, most lunches during high school, family dinner after church, even my first date. Pizza Hut even taught me how to read.

For me, Pizza Hut become the benchmark that which all other pizza would be judged by. So, my standards are really, really low. I now live in Portland where friends who grew up near Chicago or on the East Coast talk about "good pizza" and how Portland "lacks good pizza". Pizza snobs. Thanks to Pizza Hut, I enjoy most all pizza and think Portland has great pizza.

I tried deep dish once in Chicago and I thought it sucked.

Luckily there will still be pizza in five years...