Perfecting My Pizza

A couple of months ago, I started experimenting with pizza making, primarily because I wanted recipes with sweet basil.   But it hasn't been easy.  In the first few ones, I tried flour with some special type of baking powder.  Supposedly, I wouldn't need anything else (e.g. yeast).  That wasn't such a hit because the dough was too tough.  The pictures here are from my second or third attempt.  I lost count.   Perhaps this was the disaster attempt.  One time, I ran out of flour and figured I'd use a "flour extender".  I tried cornstarch!  It was awful!!  It tasted like paste.  Too bad.  I even added Hungarian sausage with that attempt. 

Anyway, my latest attempt (last Monday I think) was the best.  At least I'm improving.  I've always had problems spreading the dough since I didn't have a rolling pin and I can't seem to do that dough tossing thing.  I've also added yeast!  This made my dough chewable.  Anyway, to solve the rolling pin problem, I used a simple round drinking glass to flatten and spread the dough.  Then I added tomato sauce, onions, garlic, bacon and three types of cheese (quick melt, Parmesan and mozzarella).  I topped it off with some olive oil.  For the dough, apart from yeast, I also added some salt, brown sugar and dried basil.  I then baked this whole concoction for about 15-20 minutes at 300.  It was pretty good.  Next time I'll use a lot more basil.  I'm just waiting for my plants to grow back their leaves.

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Pizza with Sweet Basil, Sweet Basil Fatalities

The past week, I tried a new snack: a homemade pizza!  Yey!  Ever since I was a little kid, pizza has always been my favorite snack.  And it didn't matter what sort of pizza it was.  Whether it was 3M or from the Tulips Bakery in Project 6 (yes, it's a bakery with pizza), I couldn't get enough.   It's still true now.  Recently, I also read that Basil is one of the big three Italian spices (Oregano and Garlic being the other two).  So let's put it all together.

My mom got some pizza dough.  I poured in some Italian spaghetti sauce, grated some Quick Melt Cheese, peppered in some grated Parmesan Cheese, sprinkled it with some dried Garlic and of course topped it off with chopped Sweet Basil leaves and toasted the whole concoction in a basic oven toaster.   It tasted really good!  Maybe next time, I'll put in a couple of drops of Olive Oil to make it taste even more Italian.

Anyway, back in the garden, I saw some Sweet Basil fatalities; even some of those grown in water.  I'm not sure why.  I have a couple of theories.  Three of the plants that died were recently pruned.  When I cut these, I left two very small leaves each.  It may have been a case of over pruning.  I don't really know.  It could be some disease too since about four of these plants died in the same week.  As for those remaining, I cleaned up some of the stems.  I cut out the dead roots (I saw some new white ones sprouting).  I then placed them in another container with clean water.  Let's hope for the best.

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