u/bigboxes1

After last week's ambitious birria pizza, I planned to keep it simple this week. I thought, that I would just do a plain sausage pizza. Then, what would be the harm in adding some pepperoni? Everybody loves pepperoni! Could I leave it at just that? Heh. What if I added some color? Maybe a green pepper? Couldn't leave well enough alone.

So, off to the market I go. The first store, I head to the produce. I look around. I don't see it. I see a worker on the other side of the produce section. I asked them if they are out of green bell pepper. They inform me they've been out for 2 weeks. That seems bizarre in my world. I pick up some mushrooms because now I got to have mushrooms. And a few other things. Since I'm there.

I decided to head over to one of the Mexican stores. Surely they will have a green bell pepper and have a really good price on it. I'm looking around and I don't see it. I see an employee. I asked them if they were out of green bell pepper. They look at me strangely. They fumble with what to say. I understand. They don't speak any English. I thank them anyways and leave to try out yet another store.

I head over to Kroger's. I'm hoping this is not a green pepper shortage. I look around. I don't see it. I ask an employee, who is stocking the area, if they had any green bell pepper. He points to the corner of a shelf. There it is! And it's a buck. For one measley green bell pepper. I get it anyways and head home.

I decide to go light on the bell pepper and mushrooms. Trying to keep balance with the rest of the pizza. First, I hand-sliced the pepperoni. I then diced up four rings of the bell pepper. Lastly, I thinly sliced four white mushrooms and dry sauteed them to reduce their moisture.

My plan was to keep it simple. Heh. Maybe I'll go simple next week. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Hand sliced pepperoni, Italian sausage, green pepper, fresh sliced mushrooms, (my own) tomato sauce and cubed mozzarella!

I made birria tacos for the first time last week. You can check the link in the comments. It was a lot of work. The tacos were very yummy. I had set about half of the meat aside and vacuum sealed it and stuck in the freezer for this week's pizza. The crust is on point. Truly an awesome pizza!

My guest had wolfed down two slices by the time I took my first bite. I made the base from the consume. I reduced it, adding some cornstarch towards the end. About 3 minutes of heat while constantly using the whisk brought it to the consistency that I wanted. It thickened up greatly after I took it off the heat. It was so good. Lots of involuntary "Mmmmms" while eating this. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Birria meat, fresh chopped jalapeños, and cubed mozzarella. Finished with diced onions and cilantro!

I am planning on making a birria pizza next week. I made birria tacos today and will use the leftovers to make the pizza. Check r/pizza next week, if you're interested.

I had never made birria tacos before. I was looking for goat so that I could authentic. I did a little googling and thought that maybe I would find it. I heard that you could get it at the butcher shop in Fiesta. I did not have it, so I just got a couple of beef chuck shanks. I shared them on both sides and then dropped him in my Cuisinart slow cooker and set it on low for 8 hours. I used a shortcut, called a birria bomb. I plan on making it from scratch in the future. I did find a place to source the goat. It's a halal market. I used beef broth instead of water to give it some more flavor.

I also made a batch of salsa verde and some guacamole from scratch. It was soooo good! I'll have plenty of leftovers and I'll be making a pizza next week.

I was playing around with another variable this time when making the dough. I decided to try to work the dough as little as possible after the bulk and just shape the dough. It got quite a rise during it's time on the counter. It went all the way to the top. That's surprised me. We'll see what happens in the coming weeks. I think it's fun to experiment and see if an improvement can be made. You guys know what I'm talking about!

On to this week's pizza! I planned to do something more ambitious, but I ran out of steam. I was up until 4:00 in the morning making pizza dough on Monday night. So I went with something not so elaborate for this week. I'm a kind of guy that has to plan things out because I want it to taste yummy.

I lightly saute some mushrooms. It's a balancing act. I wanted mushrooms to be the star this week. But I'm worrying that I'm going to have too much or too little. As you can see by some of the pics, the mushrooms did get reduced down quite a bit. That's a whole pound. I didn't quite use all of them but I think that I definitely went strong on the mushroom this week. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Hand-sliced pepperoni, baby bella mushrooms, (my own) tomato sauce, fresh grated Parmesan and cubed mozzarella!

I'm making the base for next week's pizza today. Stay tuned!

I took the dough out right before I headed out for a doctor's appointment yesterday. I have been trying to get surgery on my lip for almost a year now. (It's cosmetic. Nothing to worry about.) At first the doctor is super agreeable to doing it. But he says that I would have to be knocked out with anesthetics. I explained to him that my friend I had the same procedure done just walked in same day and did they did it right there on the spot. So, he goes to talk to his colleagues. They come back and say they can do it right then and there. I'm like, "but it's PIZZA DAY!" They agree that you can't mess with pizza day and we schedule the procedure for today. Ain't got no time for that! 😂🍕

Let me know what you think in the comments! About the pizza or about my decision to postpone the surgery for pizza. SMASH or trash!

Hot sopressata, hand-sliced pepperoni, Italian sausage, (my own) tomato sauce, fresh grated Parmesan and cubed mozzarella!