Blog Archives
Pizza Lab #18: Tikka Pizza
Believe it or not, Meg A. and I plan our Pizza Lab choices pretty well ahead of the time, for the most part. Sometimes we throw it together last minute, but most of them come from a laundry list of ideas and experiments. This month’s Pizza Lab actually has been on the drawing board for quite sometime, originally being formulated almost a year ago! The two of us love Indian food and a trip to the local curry house wouldn’t be complete without some Chicken Tikka. Yes, I realize it’s heavily Americanized (or technically Englandized since they’ve erroneously claimed it to be “a true British national dish” years ago, despite originating in Punjab) however its flavor and background undeniably lies in Indian cuisine. As such we tossed around the idea for a pizza featuring curry spices and soon the idea for a Tikka Pizza was born.
Also, it’s just really fun to say ‘tikka pizza’.
Pizza Lab #16: Pizza Pancakes
Pizza Lab is a fun theoretical column in which Meg A. and Erik S. explore their innermost passion for baking and eating pizzas. It exists purely for the sake of experimenting in the kitchen. It may not necessarily be cost-effective every time, so don’t try this at home kids.
Though the month of March contains a few important holidays (St. Patrick’s Day, the first day of spring, my birthday…), perhaps most important is National Pancake Day on March 4th. National Pancake Day was started by IHOP in 2006 as a way to raise money for charity by giving free short stacks of buttermilk pancakes. Now I know what you’re thinking: this is a pizza lab post, why am I talking about pancakes? It’s because in honor of National Pancake Day we decided to have March’s pizza lab be pancake pizza! We’d tossed the idea around before, and this seemed like the perfect occasion. It’s also a good tie-in to the Pancake Lab we have on our Facebook page.
Pizza Lab #15: Mac ‘n’ Cheese Pizza
Pizza Lab is a fun theoretical column in which Meg A. and Erik S. explore their innermost passion for baking and eating pizzas. It exists purely for the sake of experimenting in the kitchen. It may not necessarily be cost-effective everytime, so don’t try this at home kids.
“In epistemology, the prefix meta- is used to mean about (its own category).”
Meta is a bit of a buzzword lately, due to it being a fun prefix, and uber-intellectual way to describe things. For example a movie about making movies is meta. Playing a video game inside of a video game is meta. A dream in a dream in a dream movie about dreams is wayyy meta. Well, Meg and I made a meta pizza. That’s right, Pizza Lab is all about uniquity and experimenting with the combination of pizza with other foods. This time around, we combined pizza with another, more venerable food combination, macaroni and cheese. So it was a food combination of food combinations.
…META!!!
Erik S. Ya know, for some reason I can’t stop craving mac ‘n’ cheese lately. I guess this pizza is partially to blame…
Meg A. We did have a very mac’n’cheese filled week, between mac and cheese bites over the weekend, and then this pizza during the week.
Erik S. Hopefully it’ll pass over soon. That being said, this pizza was preeetty fantastic.
Meg A. It was really yummy. And it was our first Pizza Lab/We Can Do It Better crossover.
Erik S. That is technically true. The findings of this experiment will lead to our next WCDIB focusing on macaroni and cheese.
Meg A. As soon as we tasted the mac and cheese we had a good feeling about this pizza. Luckily it reached our expectations, unlike some other pizzas *cough*discofriesandchinesefood*cough*
Erik S. Yeah, I feel as though the pizza benefited a lot from the fact that this mac ‘n’ cheese recipe was incredible on its own.
Meg A. I’m glad we decided to make our own from scratch instead of just using a box mix (yes, yes, we do use box mixes on occasion, hold back your shock).
Erik S. Yeah, we used a recipe courtesy of our food scientist role model, Alton Brown.
Meg A. We should really hang a picture of him in our kitchen or something.
Pizza Lab #14: Gluten-Free Jerk Chicken Pizza
Pizza Lab is a fun theoretical column in which Meg A. and Erik S. explore their innermost passion for baking and eating pizzas. It exists purely for the sake of experimenting in the kitchen. It may not necessarily be cost-effective everytime, so don’t try this at home kids.
Okay everyone I’m gonna go out on a limb and here and (sarcastically) make a bold statement here… I think the two of us maaay enjoy pizza. Just maaaybe we like pizza a lot. You could pooossibly make the claim we are pizza lovers. Yooou get the idea. Whyyy am I talking like this? Iiiiii don’t know.
Yeah so joking aside, pizza is a God-Tier food. You love it, they love it, we’re obsessed with it. But just imagine, if you will, for a moment that you couldn’t eat pizza. You wanted to, but just weren’t allowed. Misery! But yes there are some people who don’t eat pizza or whom cannot eat pizza for medical reasons. Such a meaningless existence seems empty and futile, and yes you’re right a diet without pizza is like breathing without oxygen. What’s the point? But as you know, there are many people with Celiac disease, possessing an allergic reaction to wheat products. Allergies are annoying, but could they be enough to keep you from your favorite foods? Well considering the reactions for Celiac sufferers range anywhere from stomach cramps to skin rashes to hysterical diarrhea, yeah, they probably are enough to keep you from eating pizza. Fortunately in recent years, gluten-free awareness has risen and more and more food providers cater to those with Celiac.
Erik S. So Pizza Lab is officially one year old now! How exciting!
Meg A. Yup! I feel so proud. I imagine this is what it’s like when your child turns a year old. Except Pizza Lab is way better than children.
Erik S. Yeah, pizzas are inexpensive and you can eat them when you’re done with them. Children feature neither of those perks.
Meg A. Exactly. Pizzas also don’t cry. Which is good, because it’d be incredibly uncomfortable to eat something that’s crying.
Erik S. Uncomfortable, or hysterical?
Meg A. Nonetheless, our pizza this time was a bit different than usual, and for good reason.
Cheat Codes: Pizza English Muffins
It doesn’t exactly take a genius to realize the two of us love pizza. It’s a weekly ritual for us, and Pizza Labs are a highlight of every month. But sometimes there isn’t pizza dough on hand. Sometimes going out for pizza isn’t realistic. Sometimes you need to get creative. And today was a perfect opportunity for doing so, considering Long Island has been blasted with a snowstorm for the umpteenth time this winter.
Naturally I found myself craving pizza, not having eaten any in five days, but didn’t want to risk driving through six inches of wet, sloppy snow in my hilarious PT Cruiser. What is a man to do?
No, no, not quite that.
The Poor Couple's Food Guide 
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