pizza!

this week i went to my second cooking class, courtesy of my christmas present from dad!  the theme this time: making homemade pizzas.  YUM.  i experimented, pretty successfully, with homemade pizza dough in august when i was at home with my parents, but i learned a lot from this class.  for example: to make your oven EVEN hotter (the hotter the oven, the better the pizza), turn it on to 500 degrees (or as hot as it goes).  let it preheat.  then turn it to broil for 10 minutes.  then turn it back to 500 degrees and put the pizza in.  the broiler will heat it the oven up to 600 degrees (according to my teacher).  i also got some great tips on how to make super amazing dough (looooong rise/proofing time).  i can't wait to try them out when i'm in a real apartment!

we made dough first, and got to put it in a baggie and take it home with us.  mine is in my fridge now, waiting for pizza-making to happen (probably tomorrow).

then, with dough the instructor started yesterday, we made pizzas!  everyone made two, and we tasted each others' creations.  he had lots of suggestions of topping combinations (we got recipes to take home).  i made:

1. broccoli rabe, garlic oil, red pepper flakes, ricotta, and lemon (DELISH).

and 2. freshly-made red sauce, mozzarella, roasted mushrooms, and caramelized onions.  incredible.  i got big compliments on this one when i shared it around.  why am i not caramelizing onions more often?!

we also made two big salads to share - the fennel one on the right was the best.  i've never bought fennel before, but i will DEFINITELY be making this salad in the future.

another success!  i can't wait to move into an apartment in june and cook much more frequently.  [right now "cooking" is usually (a) stir frying, (b) making burritos, (c) cooking pasta, or (d) heating up frozen food.  all of this is fine in moderation...but we've moved past moderation at this point.]