Breakfast Pizza 2

Breakfast pizza. Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Breakfast Pizza Ingredients:
Whole Foods Pizza Dough
Mozzarella
Parmigiano
Shallots
Fakin Bacon Tempeh
Eggs
Parsley
Garlic Chives
Scallions
Salt and Pepper

We rolled out the pre-made dough and then sprinkled on the two cheeses. We then placed the tempeh down and cracked a couple of eggs on top of the pizza. This went into the oven until the yolks were cooked. When the pizza came out of the oven, it was topped with the parsley, chives, and scallions. The saltiness of the bacon really complemented the eggs. Though this pizza did not have any sauce, it wasn't missed. This was a really easy breakfast to make. This is something that you could whip up for a brunch. Next time that we make this we are going to add mushrooms and caramelized onions. The parsley really added a fresh flavor. There was a really good variety of onions on it, but they weren't "sharp".

A couple of posts back, Trader Joe's pizza dough was talked about. For this pizza we used Whole Foods pizza dough, which we all decided was much better than the TJs dough. The Whole Foods dough was really proper pizza dough. It is much fluffier and less sticky. It also has far superior rise factor. It runs about a dollar more, but it really is worth it.

Michelangelo's Pizza

Michelangelo's Pizza is a great place to pick up a quick pizza that is also satisfying and cheap. The pizza has a sweet tangy sauce and they include garlic sauce +++. There are also a bunch of nIce multi ethnic people working there.



While I was waiting for my pizza to be cooked I witnessed a robbery and a chase. It's like dinner and a movie! It was about 7pm and some guy smashed a brick through a car window to steal a bag with a GPS in it. The owners of the car were in the pizza place and they took off after the guy. Everyone working at Michelangelo's went outside to see what was going on. The guy dropped the bag and the victims got their stuff back and I left with a delicious hot pizza and a 85¢ Dr Pepper.



Michelangelo's Pizza
235 W. Read St., Baltimore MD 21201


6 out of 8 slices.

Pizza Everyday - Mall Madness

This past Friday Joe and Sarah and I took a trip to Towson Town Center. Unfortunately, we didn't get there until like 7:45pm and the mall closes at 9pm, so we had to split up and haul ass. We each had specific consumer goals in mind but in the end, none were attained in the amount of time allotted. We simply brushed our shoulders off and glided across the street to Pasta Mista (shitty website), a local college staple. The place is ALWAYS packed and super small, which makes being there kind of a nightmare. If you can deal with the jock infestation and girls wearing makeup, the food is well worth the effort. I got two slices, one Gorgonzola with tomatoes and one plain cheese. Sarah got a slice of pepperoni and broccoli. Individual slices range from $2 - $3, depending on toppings. Joe got a chicken parm sub (his "favorite food"), but that is not pizza... doy. We took our bounty to the car and ate in the parking lot, which is kind of the only option, and watched a girl simulate fellatio while telling her friend a "hilarious" story in the next car.

My slices were bomb. I would give them both a 7/8. I was pretty much starving by the time I ate them, so that might have skewed the results. Sarah also really enjoyed her pizza.

After we quickly ate, we raced to the Senator Theater to watch House (Hausu) the unbelievably amazing mind shifting psychedelic Japanese horror film from 1977. All and all, a wonderful night out in the suburbs. Grazie, Mr. Mista! Dōmo arigatō, Mr. Obayashi!

Pizza Everyday - Trader Joe's Pizza Dough

I've been buying TJ's pizza dough and making delicious pizza with it for quite some time and I think it's time to "post" about it. Last night, I made myself a pizza with the meager ingredients I had left in the kitchen... which were actually surprisingly gourmet, but that's just how I roll.

Ingredients:

plain Trader Joe's pizza dough (which comes in wheat and herb varieties as well)
half a shallot
5 slightly wrinkled asparagus stalks
half a can of artichoke hearts
some canned whole tomatoes
herb goat cheese (also from TJ's)
some old ass garlic salt (ran out of actual garlic)
pepper
olive oil

I baked the pizza at 425 for about 12 minutes and I came out golden delicious brown:

I ate about a third of it while watching Rocky on channel 54. It pretty much ruled all around. I would rate my pizza at a 6/8, real garlic and the herb pizza dough would have made it at least a 7. I highly recommend TJ's pizza dough, it's hell of cheap ($1.99 a ball) and you can freeze it, so it lasts like forever.

Helpful tips:

Steam the asparagus a bit before adding it to the pizza. Same goes for broccoli.

If you do freeze the dough, it will thaw much faster in lukewarm water. Just make sure there aren't any holes in the bag because gushy wet dough is Gross.

Also, when buying the dough avoid balls that are all bubbly and full of air... they're probably not long for this world and tend to taste weird. I guess it's fermentation or something.

Pizza Everyday - Russell and Scott's Brithday Party

Last week, Aran and I attended our friends' joint birthday party in Hampden. It was a potluck affair and good food was bountiful (we brought supermarket cookies that no one touched, I regret not reclaiming them for myself). Guests were provided with six large pizzas from three different pizzerias: Iggie's, Oriole's and King's. Unfortunately for us, the two boxes from Iggie's were empty by the time we got there, which means we missed out on the "classy pizza" option. I ate a slice of what I think was King's cheese pizza and it was pretty good (see our 2008 review of King's). Someone had made some crazy mushroom/cabbage salad and I used it as a topping, making things much more exciting. I'll have give my mysterious pizza slice a rating of 5/8.

Pizza magnet! How does it work?

Joe Squared

Joe Squared has thin crust, square pizzas. Their pizza seems to have gotten more expensive. We were wondering if the prices had gone up. Toppings are priced not only by tier, but also by pizza size. Topping selection is very extensive. We ordered the flag pizza. The flag pizza consists of red sauce with mozzarella, provolone, romano, parmigianio, and asagio; garlic sauce with mozzarella, cheddar, and ricotta; pesto with fresh mozzarella. Green, white, red.

Price breakdown of flag pizza sizes:
10" - $15
12" - $17
14" - $20
16" - $23


We ordered at 7:30 pm and received the pizza at our table at 7:55 pm. The red section was by far the largest, though most traditional. The sauce on the red was very nice. The white section was the favorite part of the "flag". The pesto part could have had more pesto, it also made up the smallest section. Emily thought it tasted like BBQ. That might have had something to do with the (minor) burnt edges. Last time I checked, the Italian flag was made up of three EQUAL colored parts.

6 out of 8 slices


Joe Squared
133 W. North Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21201

http://www.joesquared.com/

Little Caesars

Flash from the past. Little Caesars it seems still exists!


Pizza brought by my boss to a work meeting.






The pizza was very doughy. It tasted like it was made out of Little Caesars bread sticks, which would make sense. Light sauce use. I don't think I would go out of my way to purchase Little Caesars pizza, but when it is given to you for free it is an enjoyable experience.

5 out of 8 slices

Breakfast Pizza

So, I've been catching wind of this BREAKFAST PIZZA phenomena for about 1 year or so now. Seen it on a few menus and heard about some gourmet Williamsburg brunch spots that were catching onto this alarming and potentially exciting trend. My GF and I decided that we needed to create our own Breakfast Pizza system or become slave to another man's, and therefore created our own Breakfast pizza recipe outlined below. A successful breakfast pizza to me would be both a little bit of breakfast and a little bit of pizza without either of the flavors dominating: balance between these two worlds is key. This recipe owes a bit to BPC contributor John DeCampos who helped brainstorm when we had the idea a year ago. All other credit to myself and Sarah Capua. Please modify and improve to your liking.

(suggestions to improve at the bottom)

Ingredients - 1 Trader Joe's Pizza Crust (uncooked)

1 jar Ragu pizza sauce

Fresh mozzarella

Canadian Bacon

2 yukon gold potatoes

1 small onion

4 eggs (w/milk and water)

(seasonings of your choice)

To prepare - Preheat oven and prepare the hash browns first - cook and season to your liking but it is recommended to cook well done and get a bit of that burned skillet flavor (adds to the overall breaksfast feel), chop onions and potato in small bits to spread well over the pizza.

Cook canadian bacon a bit on a separate skillet to warm and lightly brown

Spread your pizza dough, add modest amount of pizza sauce, evenly coat with the Canadian Bacon and hash brown. *Sparsely* coat the whole surface with shredded mozzarella.

Cook for ten minutes to lightly melt cheese and begin cooking the crust.

While pizza is in oven, scramble 4 eggs with tiny bit of milk and water. Cook them up but STOP ALL heat on the eggs when they are about 2/3 of the way done. VERY IMPORTANT to undercook the eggs because they will finish cooking in the oven.

Take out pizza, coat with the scrambled eggs and another modest layer of mozzarella. Cook until perfection. Enjoy.

**If I were to cook this recipe again, I would probably change TWO things.

1st- I think that adding a bit of ketchup and hotsauce to the PIZZA SAUCE would be AWESOME, Sarah squashed that idea but I am definitely doing it next time.

2nd - Cook the crust a good bit before adding ANY ingredients. This would make it possible to do just one round in the oven instead of having to do a second baking with the eggs. If the crust is about half or 2/3rds of the way cooked before adding the ingredients, you could lay down the fully cooked ham and hashbrowns with the undercooked eggs and a full layer of cheese all of once and just do 8-10 minutes in the stove to fully melt the cheese.

Holla.

AK

Pizza Club Meeting this Wednesday

We are having a meeting this Wednesday, April 14 at 7 pm at Joe Squared. See you there.

American Pizza and Wings

Located on the corner of 29th St. and Huntingdon Ave., American Pizza and Wings is the newest addition to cheap counter food in the neighborhood. The shop boasts a flashy new sign and countless American flags used to frame pictures of pizza, subs, wings, and other crappy food.

One will probably be able to guess the quality of their $5.99 extra-large pizza pick-up special, so let's not take too much time to debate the issue. The pizza was medium warm even though we waited in the shop as the pizza was made and we ate it around the corner. It definitely wasn't hot. Whatever, we were really hungry so we were still pretty happy.

The shop itself is very clean, though no seats and a busy counter area make for a tight, uncomfortable squeeze at times. We even got to see some jerk argue with the clerk about whether or not he would divulge the brand of soda he was buying. "You don't need to know what soda I'm drinking, I'm going to get it from the fridge myself!" He got a 2-litre of Dr. Pepper.

This pizza was such a blur that I don't really feel like telling you much more about it. If you happen to be in Remington and you just finished skateboarding all day and you have six dollars, then by all means, buy a pizza. Otherwise, you might be better off with the "Sun of Italy" from your local Giant.

3 slices out of 8.

The Sun Of Italy Pizza Kit

I found the aforementioned pizza kit at my local Giant. These pizza has eluded me for years. I pass by it every visit and think to myself "That pizza looks bad." The premise is as follow: Two disks of pizza, two packets of tomato sauce, and two packets of shredded mozzarella for $8.99. Upgrade to pepperoni for $1.00 and bring your grand total to $9.99. I chose the former.

The directions are simple enough...open bag with pre-rolled, pre-baked dough, open bag of sauce and apply, open bag of cheese and apply. Now, I wasn't going to eat this whole pizza myself and my eating partner was hesitant on the additions (broccoli and onion), which is why the pizza is only half covered in toppings. Oil a pan and place in the oven at 475 for 8 minutes and you're done!

Everything about this pizza was OK, but you knew that before reading this review. Of course this pizza sucks, it comes from a bag at your local Giant. Though, for crappy pizza and two pies for $9, it could have been a lot worse.

A few things to take note of....
Don't over bake this one. At 8 minutes it smelled like burning (but it wasn't????).
Don't be scared to dress it up!
It's not unfathomable to eat this whole thing by yourself (I almost did).
Be glad you live in a democracy that allows you to assemble your own pre-packaged pizza.

Price: 4/8 slices. Should be cheaper cause these are ingredients used to make garbage.
Taste: 2/8 slices. Remember what I said about dressing it up?
Fun: 7/8 slices. Greglan was hanging out.
Overall: 4 and a half slices.

Turps

Turps Sports Bar and Restaurant
1317 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD

Tuesday at Turps is Half-Price Pizza Night, so we decided this was a good place to restart the Baltimore Pizza Club. We ordered the Bianco, which is "five imported cheeses: romano, parmesan, mozzarella, ricotta and provolone, brushed with garlic, herbs and olive oil". The waitress warned us about the fact that the "specialty pizza" Bianco is "just bread and cheese"... which we thought was fine because that's what pizza is made of. Sara added red pepper to her slices because she felt the individual flavors of the 5 cheeses on the Bianco all blended together and it needed a little kick. We rated it a 7.5, but it would have been an 8 if it wasn't for the grease and lack of napkins. (We are going to be switching to a new pizza rating system. On this new system we give them 6 slices out of 8.)



We are unsure if the half price deal is only for their specialty pizzas or if they apply to all the pizzas on the menu. If you order a regular pizza, toppings are free. The half-price special is for dine-in pizzas only. You can order a bucket of PBR tall boys for $5.50, which go very nicely with the pizza and for dining on a budget.




Turps

it begins again

If you know, it's this tuesday at 7. If you don't, you will in the future. . . we are coming back.

don't give up hope.

BOP (Brick Oven Pizza)

Review by Contributing Writer John DeCampos

So times are tight at my job place right now and they're watching our hours pretty close, so the other day I was forced to take a half hour break. "And what did you decide to do with your mandatory break?" you ask...EAT PIZZA!! So I strolled on down to the nearest pizza parlor, a local fells point favorite known as B.O.P. which stands for Brick Oven Pizza. As I entered I was met with a 7 to 8 person line, I thought at the time that it should decrease quickly and decided to stick it out. The line took about 15 minutes, but I tried to soak in all the atmosphere B.O.P. had to offer. First off, the oven seems to be made out of metal not brick, however it was heated by a wood fire. Also they have a flat screen T.V. for you to watch while you wait though the lunch rush line that features screen after screen of their menu items. Okay, so I was close to the end of the line and I was planning on getting the lunch special which was a 8in 2 topping personal pan pizza, a soda and salad for $7. But as my allotted time whittled away, I found that I had to go with what was readily available. So i decided to get the lock and stock of the pizza industry, 2 slices of peperoni pizza. This ran me about $6 but I somehow managed to get 2 slices fresh out of the oven.  Okay, so the pizza itself was pretty much perfect: Now keep in mind this had no fancy toppings or specialty items, just pepperoni, cheese, sauce and crust. The crust was thin, a tad bit chewy, had a slight bit of crunch and was flavored nicely by the wood fire oven. My only complaint is that the crust didn't have the structural integrity to hold up during the classic "fold" maneuver. The cheese was stringy and flavorful, sauce had just the right amount of spice, and the pepperoni was ample and tasty. All in all a fine pizza indeed. The price was a little steep, but for 2 classically delicious slices of fresh oven pizza, it's hard to complain.