Whole Wheat Pepperoni Pizza Debacle

I made pizza from scratch on this next to last Sunday of the 2022 version of July. The result, which you see here, looks better than the result actually was.

I used the automatic breadmaker to make the pizza dough. I used whole wheat flour. Using whole wheat was a mistake. It made for an extremely unusual pizza crust.

On top of the pizza crust I spread a thick covering of pizza sauce, then black olives and a lot of pepperonis. And topped that with a lot of mozzarella, colby, monterey jack and parmesan cheese.

The pizza was rendered salvageable by sliding the topping off the woeful whole wheat crust.

This was my first cooking disaster in quite some time.

I also learned heating an oven to 475 degrees in not a real good idea when experiencing an extreme heat wave. The air-conditioner was not keeping the kitchen zone to a desired level of cool...

Walking Around Fosdick Lake With Pink Wildflowers & Tortilla Pizza For Lunch

Fosdick Flowers

Today, for my last day of September, Sunday walk in the wild, I went to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdick Lake.

Thanks to Mother Nature's irrigation intervention in the past 24 hours a forest of pink wildflowers was busy blooming near the Fosdick Lake Dam spillway.

Dozens upon dozens upon dozens of pink flowers made the landscape look as if it is Spring, not Fall, not sliding down the slippery slope towards Winter.

I saw no turtles today. They are likely traumatized by the cool temperature. The Fosducks seemed to be in a very good mood, doing a lot of melodic quacking.

Changing the subject from quacking to pizza.

I invented a new pizza for lunch today. Took large whole wheat tortillas, covered them with spaghetti sauce, then black olives, green olives and mushrooms, then shredded 4-cheese Mexican blend I got yesterday from Town Talk. Roasted the pizzas for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Very tasty.

However, due to the thin nature of the tortillas, to render the pizza edible it had to be folded over, ala a taco.

Will The Last Saturday Of July Be Day 29 In A Row 100 Degrees Or Hotter In North Texas?

Looking out my primary viewing portal on the last Saturday of July at a clear blue sky it would appear that Tropical Storm Don has passed us by.

Despite the prediction that we would not hit 100 yesterday, at the official temperature monitoring station for this zone, at D/FW Airport, we did hit 100, making Friday Day 28 in a row of 100 degrees or more.

The prediction for today is only 99. But, if we do hit 100, or more, I believe that would make today's Day 29 in a row the 2nd longest streak of 100 degree days in North Texas history.

Meanwhile, up in Washington, Betty Jo Bouvier reports that yesterday it got to 80 and she almost sweltered to a full swoon whilst working in her garden. This morning Betty Jo is being chilled to 53.5, while here in North Texas we are being chilled to 79.4.

Changing the subject from the HEAT to lunch, I am making pizza from scratch today. Carlotta Camano gave me the step by step directions as to how to do so. I believe the pizza dough will be the only step which may present me with some measure of difficulty.

Before I make pizza I am going swimming and then later will likely do some hill hiking, followed by Town Talk. Then pizza assembly.

I Talked To My Sister In Washington While The Super Bowl Pre-Game Show Answered Some Super Bowl Mysteries

I was heading west on a countrified section of Randol Mill Road on my way back from Hurst when the bright blue sky and snow-free road looked as if it would make a good photo. I do not know how I managed to zoom in on my hand on the wheel. Or that I had the camera on the wrong setting.

This makes 2 days in a row where I've had a camera malfunction. Yesterday's was the battery going dead when I was down taking pictures at the Cowboys Stadium.

Speaking of which. I watched some of the Super Bowl Pre-Game Show. I now know what the big temporary buildings at the west end zone are. A red carpet deal with people screaming on either side of the carpet. I saw Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston get the screams. I  assume the red carpet leads into the stadium. Or it may lead to another one of the temporary buildings, where I saw Maroon Five on a stage singing to a large group.

Who were the people listening to Maroon Five and watching the people walk the red carpet? Ticketholders? Arlington residents invited as a thank you for hosting the monster deal in their town and helping build the stadium? The people who's homes and apartments were taken to build the stadium?

The east end zone, where the Party Pass People get to stand outside the stadium during the Super Bowl, was also shown. Already with a lot of people standing. Also screaming when the camera panned them. TV made it look like quite a raucous scene, with a lot of people outside the stadium, about 5 miles to the east of where I am sitting right now. The screaming sounds are not making it through my windows.

The Super Bowl thing makes for a long day for those attending. It's about 2 hours til the actual game and already people are there screaming.

On the way to Hurst I returned a call to Elsie Hotpepper who was all in a tizzy due to a cat getting loose. Elsie is not going to the Super Bowl.

On my way back here from Hurst I took the scenic, non-freeway route of Precinct Line Road to Randol Mill.

I called my sister who lives in Kent on her cell phone. No answer. So, I called her house on Lake Cushman, where she often goes on weekends. Lake Cushman in on the Olympic Peninsula. My sister answered that phone. I asked what time the Super Bowl Party was and what I needed to bring.

When I lived in Washington I would rotate Super Bowl Parties, one year at my house, next year at my sister's.

My sister told me I lived right by the Super Bowl, why would I want to go to her party? Right when she said that I saw planes with banners circling the stadium. Told my sister that and that the stadium would soon come into view. And it did.

Soon after the stadium came into view my sister told me they'd arrived at the location of their Super Bowl Party. A friend's place on the way back from Lake Cushman.

I said good-bye. Hung up. And was perplexed about a minute later when I realized I'd called the Lake Cushman number. It is a land line. How could my sister arrive at her friend's house when she was talking to me on the Lake Cushman land line?

It is very perplexing. I've come to the conclusion my sister used this as an excuse to get me off the phone. I shall make inquiries and get to the bottom of this.

In the meantime, I've got a pizza to shove in the oven in a couple hours for my raucous Super Bowl Party. With Pomegranate Juice.

Memorial Day Pizza

When my physical therapist, Dr. Layla, read on my blog that I was having pizza for Memorial Day she sent out an urgent query, wondering what had been done to Durango. Due to Dr. Layla's erroneous belief that pizza is not health food.

I beg to differ with the doctor. She is always telling me I get way too much exercise and that I eat way too many fruits and vegetables and other healthy stuff.

But, for Dr. Layla to assume the consumption of a pizza is a fall off the health food bandwagon, well, it just makes me question her credentials and wonder if she might not be just some sort of quack pretending to be a physical therapist.

My Memorial Day Pizza was a whole wheat pie. Covered with a tomato paste base. Tomatoes are rich in lypocene. There was a chopped up red pepper on the pizza, also rich in lypocene. BBQ chicken breast was the meat product on the pizza. Other vegetables included green pepper, onion, garlic, broccoli, spinach, green and black olives, fresh tomato (more lypocene) and mushrooms. On top of all that was a smattering of low fat Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

Now, how can any legitimate doctor not see that this was one very healthy pizza? It perplexes me.