Oops... How NOT to Reheat Pizza!

This post is actually an email from a friend of mine. I won't embellish. Just read her story and enjoy, learn... and again, enjoy. We all learn something new every day, don't we?

Dear ladies.....I am sharing this with you as I wish one of you had shared it with me....Bill and I were out today running errands and stopped to pick up a large cheese pizza at our favorite pizzaria! We got home too early for dinner and so just left the pizza sitting peacefully on the stove in its red and green box.  We knew that later we would be glad we had dinner "in the bag" so to speak.  A few hours ago, the little dinner bell rang in our heads so I went to the kitchen to heat up the pizza.  So far so good.

I opened the box and the pizza looked a little lame to me.  The cuts, all 12 of them, were a little indistinguishable and the bottom was very pale.  Now I have a very large round pizza pan but that pale bottom just had me going.  I just knew putting it right on the rack would brown up that bottom (sounds like excerpts from "Fifty Shades of Gray!) and my pizza would be done to perfection.  So with visions of Tuscany in my head, I put that 12 inch cheese pizza right on the rack in that 435 degree oven and shut the door!  Do you see where this is going???? 

I thought about 5 minutes would do it so I set the timer and went back to the golf tournament. At the ding, down to the kitchen I go to be greeted by a cloud of smoke.  A little cheese had dripped off the edge of the pizza onto the bottom of the oven and was just blacking away down there.  I scraped it up and shut the door again. The top just wasn't quite bubbly enough for me. Another few minutes should do it.  Poured the Pepsi and the cabernet, got out the salads and delivered them to the den. Back down now for the "baked to perfection" pizza.  

Not so fast...the whole damn thing had collapsed thru the rack onto the bottom of the 435 degree oven. To make a short story shorter, I salvaged enough for dinner and left the rest hanging by its cheese in the oven.  I just spent the last 45 minutes working on the racks and the bottom of the oven and even in the drawer as the cheese somehow oozed its was down there while I was attempting a rescue. Right now the self-clean is engaged. You'll be glad to know the crust had browned up quite nicely.

Thanks Bev, for sharing this hilarious story of what NOT to do! I hope your oven is now bright and shiny...and your next pizza is 'ready to eat'.

 

Happy Birthday, Maggie!

Maggie, my buddy and traveling companion, turns 10 today. In honor of this special day we decided to have a special birthday dinner for her. Fortunately, for us, that also means we have a treat for us.

Maggie's favorite food is PIZZA!

Our first Lab was the traditional Garbage Can. She ate anything, including stuff she shouldn't. She ended up at the vet's on a few occasions until we decided her stomach had something in common with a goat. Soap, charcoal, hardboiled eggs in the shell, boxes of Girl Scout cookies, including the cellophane, whole chocolate easter bunnies, poisonous plants.... nothing seemed to inflict permanent damage.

Our second Lab had a more refined appetite. Food was not snatched out of your hand, it was delicately lifted. If you were eating a brownie, cookie, apple,...and you happened to let your hand hang at your side between bites, she would come up from behind and gently wrap her tongue around it and pull it from your hand before you realized what was happening. Feeding her pills was a breeze. "Caia, Sit. Caia Catch". The pill was caught and swallowed. But her real love was fruit and vegetables. She could peel a tangerine and eat all the sections and leave the skin intact. She stole tomatoes or bananas off the counter, leaving only a red stain or a banana peel. As soon as anyone began to make a salad, she was by their side, waiting for a treat.

Maggie has her own eating idiosyncrasies. For one thing, she is a picky Lab. She sniffs her food before eating, and from time to time decides she's really not hungry. She does not take pills... ever! She will hold it in her throat until you think it's gone, and then give it back. If she needs antibiotics, the vet knows she has to have a shot. She also is allergic to beef. Go figure! But one food that never fails is Pizza.

For years we had pizza night. As soon as she saw us write the check for the delivery guy she'd stand guard at the door. Casually say the word "pizza" in conversation with someone and her ears perk up and she starts the dance. Sometimes I make my own from a bread dough recipe. As soon as I pull out the pizza pan instead of the loaf pan, she begins to hover. This does not happen if I get the pizza pan out to make something else. Dogs have a sixth sense, and this one can sense when pizza is in the air. One day I pulled a foil wrapped package out of the refrigerator--leftover cold pizza. She awoke from her nap and was under my chair as I ate it.

Maggie only gets the crust. In spite of her great love of Pizza, she's never had a whole slice to herself. In honor of her 10th birthday, we've decided to break tradition and let her eat what, until now, she has only smelled.





Happy Birthday, Maggie! This one's for you!






(By the time she was finished her treat and we were finished with dinner, her bandana was soaking wet from drool and we had brought her a towel to cover the floor. But she was happy!)