When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...

that's amore.

I have a confession to make. As a kid, I honestly believed that Dean Martin was crooning about loving pizza in that line from his classic tune. While I later realized that the song was actually about falling in love (Italian style), my childhood-interpretation still makes a certain amount of sense to me...primarily because I've rarely met a pizza I didn't truly love.

As a child of the 70's in small-town Ohio, my earliest experiences with pizzas involved the standard, but delicious, Midwestern variety ordered as a Friday night treat from the local place on the corner...crusts of medium thickness, smothered with Italian-seasoned tomato sauce and topped with mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. Because tastebuds tend to grow along with a person, my teenage years found us ordering pizzas with an expanding list of toppings...adding items like sausage, mushrooms, onion and green peppers, and experimenting to find the combination that tasted best.

Once I hit college, pizza transformed from an occasional treat into a staple of life...a dish that could be, and was, eaten multiple times a week for any meal of the day, including breakfast. During those same years, the menus of our local pizzerias also began blossoming with potential toppings beyond the ten or so basics that had traditionally been available. A pizza topped with ham, bacon and pineapple? Yum! "Ever tried sauerkraut on a pizza?" asked an adventuresome friend. Hmmn...sounds gross, but not bad! And, praise be, I discovered anchovies...an ingredient actually long available but theretofore always avoided. Awesome!

My pizza world continued to expand once I finished grad school and gained an income, albeit a modest one, that permitted the luxury of a trip or vacation every so often. Tasting new foods and trying regional specialties is, of course, one of the joys of traveling...and pizza is certainly no exception. The deep-dish pizza for which Chicago is famous, the crispy, thin-crusted New York version, the wood-fired, California-style with an even more eclectic combination of ingredients...I was happy to try them all, and then some. A favorite? Don't have one...although, sadly, the one time in my life that I had a truly awful pizza actually happened to be in Italy.

To this day, I continue to enjoy pizza of any variety at nearly any available opportunity (and I say nearly only in deference to my waistline and heart-health...although I'm unfortunately not a fanatic about either of those). Given my lifelong love of the pie, it struck me as curious about a year ago that I'd never put any effort into trying to develop the skill of making pizza at home. While a big part of the traditional joy of pizza is not having to make it yourself, I nonetheless determined I should at least be able to turn out a decent version chez moi. (Yes, Italian would be much more appropriate there but, alas, only French and German were offered in high school.) I decided I was not interested in making a from-scratch crust (because, again, the beauty of pizza is that it's easy), but figured that surely I could still come up with something delicious on a crust that was premade.

To that end, I grabbed together a few ingredients and got busy in the kitchen. Having no urge to compete with the traditional Italian-style perfection that's delivered from our favorite local place, I opted to create a more unusual pizza. A white-sauced pizza featuring chicken and artichokes that we enjoyed a few years back in Florida gave me something to shoot for, but I decided to substitute the alfredo-style sauce of the Florida pizza with something more manageable that would not require precooking. I pulled out a tried-and-true recipe for hot artichoke dip, made a few adjustments to the quantities, added a couple of ingredients, and - bingo! - ended up with a truly awesome pizza that is easily made at home.

In the time since, I have further tweaked this recipe and come up with a couple of versions that have both become favorites of ours. In fact, we find ourselves truly craving this pizza when I have not made it in a while. Sorry, Dean, but this is amore!

Chicken and Artichoke Pizza

1 prebaked Italian pizza crust (12-inch)

1/3 cup Hellmann's mayonnaise

1/3 cup sour cream

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 can (14 oz.) artichoke hearts (not packed in oil), drained and coarsely chopped

1/2 tsp. minced garlic

1/4 to 1/2 tsp. hot pepper sauce (such as Frank's Hot Sauce or Tabasco)

1 cup shredded or coarsely chopped cooked chicken breast

1 can (4 oz.) mushroom stems and pieces, drained

1 1/2 cups shredded Italian-blend white cheeses

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Stir together mayonnaise, sour cream, Parmesan cheese, chopped artichoke hearts, garlic, and hot pepper sauce. Spread mixture over the pizza crust. Top evenly with the chicken and mushrooms. Sprinkle the shredded Italian-blend cheese over the top. Bake (on a pizza stone or cookie sheet) for 10 to 12 minutes, or until cheese is melted and starting to brown nicely in spots.

Variation: Artichoke and Spinach Pizza

1 prebaked Italian pizza crust (12 inch)

1/3 cup Hellmann's mayonnaise

1/3 cup sour cream

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 can (14 oz.) artichoke hearts (not packed in oil), drained and coarsely chopped

10 oz. package frozen, chopped spinach, thawed and well (squeezed) drained

1/2 tsp. minced garlic

1/4 to 1/2 tsp. hot pepper sauce (such as Frank's Hot Sauce or Tabasco)

1 can (4 oz.) mushroom stems and pieces, drained

1 1/2 cups shredded Italian-blend white cheeses

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Stir together mayonnaise, sour cream, Parmesan cheese, chopped artichoke hearts, chopped spinach, garlic and hot pepper sauce. Spread mixture over the pizza crust. Top evenly with mushrooms. Sprinkle the shredded Italian-blend cheese over the top. Bake (on a pizza stone or cookie sheet) for 10 to 12 minutes, or until cheese is melted and starting to brown nicely in spots.

A few recipe notes: For the prebaked crust, I use a Boboli-type sold at my grocery that is equally tasty but cheaper, sometimes buying the "regular" and sometimes the "thin", depending upon my mood, so use your own discretion there. (In fact, I recently noticed a wheat-made-with-honey-crust that might just be awesome with this, but haven't tried it yet.) Don't care for mushrooms? Obviously, omit. Wondering why I don't suggest a version that combines the artichoke, chicken and spinach in one pie? It would probably be great, too...I've just never made it that way, always opting for either the artichoke/chicken combo or the all-veggie version. But, if you wish, go for it! As to the chicken, any leftover cooked chicken breast will do. But when I want to make this with no chicken on hand, and in the easiest way possible, a deli rotisserie chicken yields enough breast meat on one side alone to make the pizza, with more than enough chicken left over for another meal or two. Finally, as to the shredded cheese topping...I originally made this with all mozzarella, which tasted just fine. Then I discovered that many brands of preshredded cheese are available in an "Italian-blend", typically mozzarella mixed with some combination of provolone, asiago, romano, fontina and/or parmesan. While mozzarella alone works fine, if that's what you have on hand, I did find that a "blend" was a bit more pungent and, therefore, slightly more tasty. Enjoy!

Let them eat cake...

bundt cake, that is!

While I'm normally not big on New Year's resolutions, the first of this January found me making a list of goals to accomplish within the next few months. Among other things, I resolved to clean out all cupboards and closets in the house, to experiment with cooking some of the dishes in the growing stack of recipes that I've saved but never tried, and (of course) to exercise more and lose the twenty extra pounds I've been carrying around for the last couple years.

Three weeks later, I'm proud to report that the house is thoroughly organized and I've tried several new recipes. The needle on the scale has not budged (of course), but I'm telling myself that two out of three ain't bad (and, in hindsight, it occurs to me that simultaneous goals of cooking more and eating less were probably a bit foolish).

In any event, as I finished up the last of my kitchen cupboard clean-out last weekend, I came across a box of cakemix I'd been hoarding since receiving it as a Christmas gift a year ago. Family friend Mary Jane and her daughter, Becky, had raved about the Chocolate Decadence Bundt Cake way back then, and I should have definitely prepared it well before a year ran, because these people know their food. Hoping that cakemix has a healthy shelf-life, I plunged in yesterday to see if the cake lived up to the glowing recommendation of my dear friends. And, oh my goodness, did it ever...did it ever!

Having never made a bundt-style cake, my venture into this uncharted culinary territory began by trying to borrow a bundt pan, something I did not possess. While a quick trip to Walmart could have easily cured this deficiency in my bakeware-inventory, I balked at spending ten bucks or so on a pan that I was not sure I'd ever use again. My first few calls were unsuccessful...one friend pointed that bundt cakes were a relic from the 1970s, possibly explaining why no one we knew seemed to own a pan in which to make one. Theorizing that Southerners are renowned for their baking, I then called my friend Terri, a Georgia native. She just laughed in response to my query, informing me that she does not bake, but saying she could fry me anything I wanted. I finally solved my dilemma by (brilliantly) checking with the source of the cakemix...and Mary Jane lent me her bundt pan.

Elusive bakeware procured, the cake batter mixed up in a matter of minutes and into the oven it went. Forty-five minutes later, out came a perfect looking chocolate bundt cake. After it cooled, I finished the cake with a thick glaze made by melting butter and chocolate chips together, as directed on the box (although I doubled the amounts specified, thinking that a little extra chocolate never really hurts anything...except, perhaps, weight-loss resolutions).

And the end result sure looked fantastic. Historically, I have never had much luck with layer cakes, as they inevitably turn out a bit lopsided and my cake-frosting ability leaves something to be desired. Sheet cakes, while usually foolproof, are unfortunately just plain boring to look at. Bundt cakes, however, may end up being the perfect type of cake in my book. The fluted-style pan with its center hole turns out a lovely-shaped, evenly-baked cake, and it takes no skill whatsoever to drizzle a pretty glaze on top.

In terms of the taste, this one was definitely a keeper. The cake was dense, as bundt cakes tend to be, but also extremely moist. It had a deliciously deep chocolate flavor, but was neither too sugary nor too rich, as chocolate desserts can occasionally be.

Having had such success with this initial bundt cake experience, two things now top my shopping list: another box of the Nordic Ware Chocolate Decadence Bundt Cake Mix, and my very own bundt pan!

It's five o'clock somewhere...

and so it just seems to make good sense that this new little blog of mine should occasionally feature a cocktail or other libation that, from my totally subjective viewpoint, is worthy of special mention.

This past November, my husband and I decided to forego the traditional Thanksgiving family gathering for a mini-vacation in New Orleans. Not that we don't love family, home-cooked food and football, but since we had a couple of days off work and found ridiculously cheap airfare and accommodations, off we flew to the Big Easy.

We spent our three days in New Orleans soaking up the many delights that city has to offer...the Cajun and Creole cuisine, the live music, the historic architecture of the French Quarter and, especially, the joyful and resilient spirit of the people who live and work there. We walked in the wam sun along the Mississippi River bank, sipped drinks while people-watching in sidewalk cafes, shopped for everything from antiques to voodoo dolls, and lost money far too quickly in the slot machines at Harrah's.

Our entire stay was fantastic, but a definite highlight was the New Orleans Original Cocktail Tour that we took the night before Thanksgiving. While typically not a fan of organized tours, I had come across a mention of this tour online a few days before we left home. Billed as a walking excursion of the French Quarter, with a unique focus on the history of New Orleans combined with the city's history of fine dining and drinking, the cocktail tour caught my eye. More quick research online revealed dozens of traveler reviews absolutely raving about the tour on http://tripadvisor.com/, a website that has not let me down yet. Being that history and cocktails have both long been prime interests of mine (and, in fact, constituted my dual-major in college, albeit one official and one unofficial), I got quick approval from my husband and signed us up for the tour.

When we arrived to begin the cocktail jaunt, we happily discovered that Joe would lead the tour. Joe had featured prominently in the glowing reviews I had read on the Internet and he turned out to be a true gem....a dapper gent of a certain age whom we found to be very proper and cultured, but also totally hip in an engaging low-key way.

With this long-time New Orleans resident as our guide, a dozen or so of us spent the evening strolling the French Quarter. Along the way, Joe provided all sorts of details on various aspects of the city's history...political, religious, architectural, and cultural. Having lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and her aftermath, Joe also gave us some remarkable insider-insight on that terrible natural disaster and its impact on his beloved city. During the tour, we stopped in at a half-dozen historic dining and drinking spots where, if desired, one could purchase at each a specific cocktail that Joe felt was unique, and about which he detailed for us the history of its development, its ingredients, along with the history of the establishment at which it was being served.

We visited the Napoleon House for a Pimm's Cup, toured the world-famous Antoine's Restaurant and had a Sazerac, stopped at the Court of Two Sisters for a Bayou Bash, popped into Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar, enjoyed Tujague's special "lemonade", and finished the evening at the Pirate's Alley Cafe known for its absinthe drinks.

Ridiculous as it may sound, the history we learned about absinthe was truly fascinating. We loved the antique bar at Tujague's, and the courtyards at Two Sisters and the Napoleon House were remarkable. The warm and cozy candle-lit ambience in the tiny bar at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop made me want to spend the winter there, and pretty much every detail at Antoine's blew us away (what's not to like about a place with a 30,000 bottle wine-cellar?).

As to the cocktails themselves, while each one we tried was fantastic in its own way, our absolute favorite drink of the evening was the Pimm's Cup. Poured at the historic Napoleon House (located in a fabulous landmark building dating from 1797), a Pimm's Cup is a simple concoction featuring a gin-based liquor called Pimm's No. 1.

Pimm's No. 1 originated in England in 1823, when it was created by a Brit named James Pimm who ran an oyster bar in London. Pimm started offering his new tonic as a digestion aid, and the liquor (sold in the "house cup") soon became quite popular. By the 1850s, Pimm's was being sold commercially and, at some later point, the liquor was mixed with English-style lemonade to make the drink that became known as a "Pimm's Cup". While Pimm's No. 1 liquor is gin-based, it actually looks, smells and tastes nothing like gin. It is a dark caramel color, with a hint of citrus and spice to it.

Upon our return home from New Orleans, we immediately set about acquiring a bottle of Pimm's. While it turned out that no liquor store in town stocked it, the good people at our local Pony Keg carry-out were kind enough to special order a case of it, and didn't care if we only bought a bottle or two.

Once we had our Pimm's No. 1 in hand, we then went about trying to recreate the drink we had tried in New Orleans at the Napoleon House. Doing some reading, I discovered that a traditional Pimm's Cup is made with British-style lemonade, which is a sweetened carbonated drink that tastes of lemon, but is really nothing like the lemonade that we drink here in the United States. The recipe from the Napoleon House website calls for using (American) lemonade, but then topping the drink off with 7UP. However, more research online revealed that many people strongly advocate making a Pimm's Cup with ginger ale...some adding a splash of lemon-lime soda like 7UP to finish the drink, some not.

After a bit of experimentation, we found that we most enjoyed the combination of the Pimm's No. 1 with ginger ale, but without the splash of 7UP. We also played with the ratio of liquor to ginger ale, and determined that one part Pimm's to three parts ginger ale best suited our taste buds. (Pimm's No. 1 is just 50 proof, or 25% alcohol, so if one wished to include a bit more of the booze, it would result in a drink with no more alcohol than found in most average cocktails.)

Our version is not an identical drink to that we had in New Orleans, but is tastes mighty awesome. It's refreshing and light, but the ginger in the soda and the spicy flavor of the Pimm's give it just enought of a bite to make it drinkable all year round. (Having said that, we're praying that Pimm's can be found in Naples when we arrive there in Florida in late February, having decided that a thermos-full of the stuff will make the best take-to-the-beach drink ever!)

Finally, it should be noted that the standard garnish to include in a Pimm's Cup is slice of cucumber, which we always add because we enjoy both the tradition and the look of it (although I can't imagine it adds anything to the taste of the drink). Come summer, I'm thinking a nice addition might be to toss in an orange slice and a strawberry or two.

Cheers!!

Pimm's Cup

Over ice in a 12 oz. glass, mix one part of Pimm's No. 1 with three parts of chilled ginger ale. Add a cucumber slice, or additional garnish(es) of your choice.

As a postscript, I will note that the taste of ginger ale varies wildly from brand to brand. Our pick for this drink is Canada Dry, as it has a lovely ginger flavor but yet not one so strong that it overwhelms the flavor of the Pimm's. We personally could detect no discernible taste difference between the regular and diet versions of the Canada Dry, and so we mix our Pimm's Cups with the diet.

One small step for man...

one giant leap for me! "A blog?", chortled my husband, Scott, when I first announced my intention a couple of weeks ago. As Scott well knows, I'm the queen of great ideas...a small fraction of which generally come to fruition. But since cold and dreary Winter descended upon us a month or so ago in northwestern Ohio, I had been amusing myself at night by reading dozens of really cool blogs I had found in cyberspace, on topics that interest me...food, home and fashion design, travel, tips for frugal living and, goodness, just life in general. And, so...another "great idea" of mine was born!

I truly don't expect that anyone will ever read this (particularly given the fact I used the word Ohio in the title, since our state is known for being such a hotbed of excitement and cutting-edge trends). But, nonetheless, I'm determined to try and write this as if I have fans galore. In fact, I'm not at all keen on having any followers...I have quite happily let My Space, Facebook, Twitter, etc. totally pass me by without jumping on the bandwagon of such social networking. Bottom line, I've just never really wanted to share my life online, much less did I think anyone would ever really be interested in knowing about it.

Nonetheless, after greedily scouring some of the truly fabulous blogs that are out there, I was inspired to try my hand at this. This should give me the opportunity, generally, to try and hone my writing skills...something I've been wanting to do forever. This will (hopefully) force me to write regularly, and give me a chance to see if I can actually produce something in writing that is halfway witty and interesting...again, a lifelong dream (or, perhaps, nightmare...guess that remains to be seen). If nothing else, I suppose this gives me a place to rant and rave about anything that happens to set me off when I've had one drink too many and feel like venting! Or even when I haven't been drinking and something totally pisses me off...which seems to happen all too often. And, if nothing, nothing else, this will give me the chance to learn how on earth to upload photos from my camera to the computer and beyond...something I have absolutely no clue how to do but figure I should probably master, since I live in this century and all...

So, now that I've committed to this, what on earth will I be writing about? I shared this blog idea with friends the other night, lamenting the fact that all the best food, travel, and just generally cool-topic blogs of course shoot straight out of places like New York, San Francisco, Seattle or, at the very least, Cleveland. The best blogs, if any blogs, do certainly not generate from our small midwestern city. But feeling fearless, I announced my intent to write about my life here...our lives here.

Although we occasionally bemoan our bad luck and/or poor choice in not living somewhere much more hip, the reality is that our lives here are full of such humour and wit, such interesting people and happenings, such passion for the small and simple pleasures in life, as well as the larger and more extravagent ones. Also, I believe, that we actually eat, shop, decorate, travel and live with the best of them! So, throwdown to the big-city folks...just watch us go!! (Of course, the most interesting thing I did today was bake a bundt cake, but turns out it's totally worth writing about...so more on that later).

Since I just threw this blog up online on impulse, and I'm totally not computer-savvy, I have no idea what the lay-out will look like till I do a couple of posts and get my I.T. guy (okay, my husband) to help. Perhaps, once Scott gets in the game, we'll even have photos! In the meantime, I'm simply looking forward to where this goes from here...