Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Great Pizza Cleanup!

Today began with a massive cleaning of our fridge, freezer, and pantry. I was feeling quite proud of our progress in moving through our inventory in those areas until we began this task. Apparently we haven't even made a dent in our stores.



We have more jams, jellies, and mustards than I care to describe. One thing is for sure, we need to redouble our efforts in using up some of this stuff.



We had buttermilk in the fridge that was past its expiration by a few days. We also had croutons in the pantry that were past their expiration date by several years. I decided to combine them together by making this iceberg lettuce salad with buttermilk ranch dressing.

For the dressing I used buttermilk, mayonnaise, sour cream, smoked paprika, mustard powder, Dijon mustard, salt, pepper, fresh dill, fresh parsley, and fresh green onion. It came out well. I think Jen enjoyed it more than I did but it was nice to make. I don't think I've made ranch dressing in at least ten years.



For pizza I used up some of the pizza sauce in the cupboard along to make this pepperoni and broccolini pizza with fresh mozzarella. It was one of the better pizzas I've made in the past year. It was also nice to scrape up the leftover buttermilk ranch dressing on the salad plate using the pizza crusts. It was like when I used to do that same thing with Dominoes pizza when I was in college except far less repulsive.



For beer I had yet another jazz-themed beer called Brother Thelonious from North Coast Brewing in California. The last jazz-themed beer I had was the Miles Davis Bitches Brew which was a stout, a variety of beer I am not all that fond of. This beer combined a jazz musician who I am a much bigger fan of, Thelonious Monk, with Belgian beer which I am also a much bigger fan of. The result was a smashing hit.



I followed Brother Thelonious's lead and drank it out of a goblet, much as he is doing on the label of the bottle. I did not, however, hold on to a skull at the same time. I think I may have missed out on an opportunity in that regard.

I also did not listen to Thelonious Monk's music, which I would have loved to do. The only problem with that is that Jen has a deep and abiding hatred for jazz music. There's just too much noodling around on instruments and, in Thelonious's case, no singing or lyrics to distract from the intense piano work.

As Jen needs to leave tomorrow morning to do yoga, perhaps I can take that opportunity to make up for last Thelonious Monk time.

I don't know why she hates jazz so much. Bill Cosby would not be impressed.

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