Chef Extraordinaire

To celebrate Ben's return home (he was gone all week), we made pizza. Now, you have to understand, pizza making is a time honored tradition in the Blackburn home. When my dad was attending college, he worked at a local pizza joint where he learned the basics. Over time, he tweaked and fine-tuned his skills to make what he (and all of us) thought was the perfect pizza. Over the years Jazz games, New Year's Eve parties, graduations, or any other kind of celebration called for homemade pizza. And he shared it with so many people! All my friends and neighbors and cousins ate pizza at my house over the years. He even made it several times for the young women in the stake who attended the YW conference broadcast (a little incentive for going). Anyway, you get the point.

So, now that I have a family of my own, I wanted to carry on the tradition, but the art of pizza making has always been a little intimidating to me. Strangely, the first time I was going to give it a try was right around the time my dad passed. I was planning on calling him the weekend after his passing to clarify some of the instructions in his recipe, but obviously never got the chance. I really wish I had made the call earlier... I can just hear the excitement in his voice at the chance of passing on his cooking tips to his daughter.

So, admittedly, the first few times I made it, it turned out a little scary. But, I think I'm starting to get the process down, and it's turning out pretty tasty. I enjoy doing it because it makes me feel close to my dad. I can imagine him looking over my shoulder saying, "That-a-way, Sis!" (That's what he affectionately called his daughters. Weird, but I guess that's the countryside vernacular he grew up with.) Or "Now, what makes the sauce really good is a little lemon pepper and garlic flavored olive oil." I really do think he's proud of me every time I make it.

Anyway, enough of the sappy reminiscing, but I really do miss my dad.

The dough

I forgot to take a picture of us rolling it out, so the next step is spreading the sauce... I like making it because everyone gets to participate

Sprinkling the cheese...
The yummy toppings
Ben decorated (is that the right word?) his side of the pizza and I mine. Can you guess whose was whose?
Caroline, waiting for the pizza to cook

And the finished product. It looks kind of jacked up, but it was pretty tasty.