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Pizza Anyone?
Friday, October 07, 2005

Guess what? It's National Pizza Month! Around the country, Americans are enjoying pizza at a phenomenal rate. Pizza is the snack of choice for slumber parties, football gatherings, and neighborhood bashes. It's so popular that nearly every community has not one but several pizza establishments that deliver to their customers. Even in our rural location, at least three restaurants are willing to deliver to our home on thirty minutes notice. Ah, get the door! The pizza guy is here!

We often think of pizza as an Italian food, but it's purely American. We top it with nearly anything and everything, and have come up with numerous variations and twists to the original pizza pie. The basic dough can be adapted in many ways. Bakers have created thin and crispy crusts, thick and chewy ones, and even crusts with cheese embedded in them. The sauce varies dramatically from thick and chunky tomato glop to simple tomato paste. Some use spaghetti sauce, and some use instant canned pizza sauce. Some even make their own special variety.

My husband gets raves over his original recipe: he uses a basic bread recipe but switches out half of the processed white flour for whole wheat. He adds a bit of extra sugar, too, I think, but the rest of the recipe is a carefully guarded family secret. The sauce is a mixture of tomato sauce, spices, and tomato paste.

But the main secret of the family infatuation with Dad's pizza is the personalized way that he fixes it from there. After pre-baking the crusts, we gather for a ritual that rivals Christmas or Easter for its rich tradition. Each member of the family (and guests, too!) gets to make their own personal pizza. We put on the preferred amount of sauce, from my daughter who uses absolutley none to some guests who slather it on. Everyone adds favorite toppings, choosing from pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, black or green olives, and even ham, pineapple and brocolli! Arrange it just the way you want it, cover the entire thing with a generous layer of mozzarella cheese, and then pop it back into the oven to heat the toppings and melt the cheeses.

You can't miss with a combination of fun, tradition, and good taste like that! And the Christmas holiday is even more fun. Have you ever seen a Christmas pizza? Carefully shape the dough into your best Christmas tree on a large cookie sheet. Spread on the sauce, and then decorate your creation with pepperoni balls, garlands of olives, and festive green peppers. Streamers of cheese add the final touches. You can even use a star-shaped cookie cutter to top your creation with a star-shaped piece of crust. The end result is a fabulous meal or snack for your holiday party. Give it a try!

Pizza draws us together. We enjoy it with our families, friends, and neighbors. We can enjoy lots of varieties yet have our pizza together. Make mine half pepperoni and half green pepper, please!

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