As I mentioned, husband and I drove up to Santa Barbara yesterday to visit my younger brother. After the last week at work, this was a welcome break and I'm now feeling 10x more relaxed than I did when I left. Santa Barbara is possibly one of the most quiet and relaxing places I've been. Everything up there is so pretty - after all, it's not often that I'm sitting in the car waiting for somebody to grab cash at an ATM and inspired to take a picture of the bank (no, I wasn't casing the joint)!
My brother is the head food and beverages guy at the
Harbor View Inn, which is a great location right across from the water. Last night we had a chance to chow down and try some of his new cocktails at the restaurant there, plus an excellent meal finished off with a delicious Creme Brulee that had berries both on top and underneath! If anything is going to send you over the edge and into a food coma, that might do it.
This morning, my brother popped some pizza dough in his bread maker, and then we headed out to the local Farmer's Market and the grocery store to get toppings.
For toppings, we had decided on the following:
- Onion (sauteed)
- Red and yellow bell pepper (sauteed)
- Jalapeno
- Mushroom
- Fresh tomato
- Sausage
- LOTS of cheese
First we rolled out the dough, into rather "unconventional" shapes that I called deformed, but my brother called "rustic". We brushed each with olive oil then popped them into the oven for 3 or 4 minutes to crisp up a little bit.
Next step was to brush on marinara sauce that he made using tomato sauce, tomato paste, basil and oregano. I figured the cheese would go on next, but he told me that without a pizza oven or pizza stone, the pizza can often get soggy in the middle. So, we threw on all the toppings (except the cheese and tomato) and baked the pizzas for about 10 minutes. The final step was to pull out the pizzas one last time, throw on the cheese, fresh tomato, and a little chopped garlic, then pop it back in the oven for 10 minutes more to finish them off. They were delicious! I'm not always a huge pizza person and often won't eat the crusts, but I can tell you that we pigged out on the three pizzas we made and there was nothing left on my plate when I was done!
