A Perfect Pizza.

Next up, the pizza you've all been salivating for.

Dixie never likes to be far away when I'm cooking, so here she is resting on the rug with her head on her hamburger pillow. She's very tired after swimming and jumping in the pool all day.

I decided I wanted pizza tonight, but pizza with a spin to it. Something different from your regular pizza. Apparently, Mr. Hawthorne was thinking the same thing. Here are my ingredients starting at top left and going kind of clockwise: sun-dried tomatoes soaking in hot water black olives baby bella mushrooms chopped red onions green onions basil assorted peppers feta cheese mozzarella cheese Montrachet goat cheese

I skewered my peppers and roasted over an open flame.

Until blackened all over.

Ooh. Looky. The little tips are catching on fire.

Immediately, place the hot peppers in a paper bag so the steam does most of the peeling for you. I know it's cutting edge photography like this that keeps you all coming back to my blog.

Here, I'm starting on my pizza dough. Instead of using my usual 1 cup of warm water, I decided to cut it back to 1/2 cup. I added 1 package of yeast, a bit of sugar, and some olive oil and let that proof before I added my egg.

Add just enough bread flour to form a sticky mass.

Then knead away, adding flour as needed. After getting a nice soft, smooth, elastic dough, I placed it in a bowl, covered it with plastic wrap, and let set to rise. To help in rising, I take a damp kitchen towel, nuke it in the microwave for about 90 seconds, cover the bowl with the towel, and put it back in the microwave to rise.

While the dough is rising, I started preparing my toppings. Here are the peeled peppers.

I sliced my baby bellas.

Sauteed them in a combo of butter, olive oil, and a bit of black truffle oil just because I had some.

Never salt your mushrooms until after you've finished sauteeing. Salting brings out the moisture in the shroom and you'll get steamed shrooms instead of sauteed shrooms.

And you know how fond I am of action shots.

Here, I'm tossing my shrooms.

After all the fun of tossing, I added a bit of white wine for a little extra flavor.

Steamy. Just cook off the wine a bit.

I thinly sliced my peppers and the sun-dried tomatoes.

Then I checked on my dough. Usually, I let it rise until it's coming up out of the bowl. Because we were hungry, I punched it down when it was just about doubled in size.

Take THAT, Frank!!! By the way, AgingHippieChris, our Association Manager, just called to tell me he had talked to Lieutenant So-and-So of the Dare County Sheriff's Department and I am perfectly within my legal rights to call a tow truck if and when Frank parks on my yard again. He said he also called Frank to tell him this and Frank was none too happy. I kind of get the feeling that Chris ain't too happy about Frank either. I told Chris that I wouldn't want to call a tow truck on Frank. That would be an extreme measure and last resort for me. But I just didn't want him parking on my grass. I would like to be shown a little respect and see some common courtesy from Frank, none of which, unfortunately, will be forthcoming from him. He only parked on my grass out of meanness. He wanted to provoke me, just out of spite. Well, Frank, you picked the wrong bitch this time to mess with. Maybe I should put the tow truck number on my speed dial. Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Here's my happy little ball of dough.

I spread it out in my greased pan and let sit for a bit to let the dough rest.

Here are some of my toppings: sliced sun-dried tomatoes, sliced olives, sliced smoked peppers, and chopped red onions.

And some more toppings: I sliced the white part of the green onions in thin strips lengthwise. Then I chopped the green part. I have fresh basil and feta cheese, an herbed goat cheese, a plain goat cheese and Mozzarella.

I just slightly browned my crust before adding the toppings.

This is the tomato sauce leftover from my spaghetti the other day. I didn't want much sauce, just a tiny bit for flavor.

Mushrooms go on.

Then the black olives, feta and goat cheeses, and the long slices of green onions.

Mr. Hawthorne is adding a light drizzling of Lucini Estate Select Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

This is really looking good.

Next, we peeled and sliced tomatoes.

Finally the shredded Mozzarella goes on.

And the basil.

Almost there.

We decided it needed a bit more Mozzarella.

A final drizzling of olive oil.

And it's ready for the oven.

Into a pre-heated 425 degree oven until the cheese melts and nicely browns.

This, to me, was a perfect pizza.

Mr. Hawthorne declared it to be "excellent."

The crust was very light and crunchy/crispy. The sauce gave it just enough flavor without being overpowering. And the toppings were all complimentary flavors.

Excellent pizza, if I do say so myself.

Here's Dixie with her water bowl trick. She's been tipping it since she was a puppy and never once has she spilled any.