Walt's Corner

For those you who want me to shut the fuck up and just give you the damn recipe without the history, here it is. My thoughts and comments follow.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups warm water 105-110˚F
• 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1/2 Tablespoon salt
• 420 grams bread flour plus more to dust

Instructions

How to Make Pizza Dough:

• In a small bowl, stir together water, honey, and salt then sprinkle the top with 1/2 tsp yeast and let sit 5 minutes then stir.
• Add the 420 g flour in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center. Pour yeast mixture into the center then stir with a firm spatula until the dough comes together. Knead by hand 2 minutes (dough will be sticky). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature 4-5 hours or until doubled in size.
• Transfer dough to a floured surface, turn to coat lightly in flour so it isn’t sticky then divide in half. Fold each piece of dough in half 8 times, gently pulling the sides over the center like closing a book, turning the dough each time and repeating for 8 folds. Form a ball in your hands and transfer each piece of dough to a lightly oiled bowl seam-side-down, cover and refrigerate overnight (18 hours) or up to 1 week. If you want pizza sooner than overnight, no big deal. Just let it hang out on the counter in the bowl for an additional hour while your oven is coming up to temperature.

How to Form a Pizza Crust:

• PREP: Remove the dough 1 hour before using to let it relax and come to room temperature. Before forming the pizza crust, fully preheat your oven so pizza can be baked right away. Place a pizza stone or inverted baking sheet onto the center rack of the oven and preheat to 550˚F (or as high as yours will go). Also, lightly flour a pizza peel and prep toppings.
• When dough is about room temperature and oven is preheated, transfer 1 piece of dough to a floured surface, turning to lightly coat in flour. Pat the center of the dough gently with fingertips. DO NOT pop any bubbles present.
• Lift the dough over both knuckles and roll your knuckles under the center of the dough, working outward as you rotate the dough along your knuckles and leaving a thicker crust at the edge. Toss and spin the dough for a more symmetrical crust. Continue working the dough until it is the size you prefer. It will shrink slightly so make it a little bigger than you think. Place the dough down on a floured pizza peel. Give the pizza peel a little shake to make sure the pizza slides over it and is not sticking.
• Spread on desired pizza sauce and toppings. Here’s a link to my own pizza sauce recipe. Give the pizza another jolt to make sure it slides around on the pizza peel (you don’t want it to stick while transferring it into the oven). Slide pizza onto the preheated pizza stone and bake at 500-550˚F for 8-10 minutes or until crust is golden brown and some of the larger bubbles on the crust are lightly scorched to ensure a crisp crust.

 

My commentary

This is the 2^nd in a series of 3 different pizza crust recipes I have found that I’m sharing. The first recipe was a delicious, thick, chewy, pan pizza crust that is also very good for making breadsticks as well if you reserve a little bit of the dough for that purpose. Pan Pizza is definitely my favorite crust but due to the overnight rising followed by a couple to a few hours proofing, I don’t make it as much as I use this particular recipe. This one still has quite a few hours of rise time, but is certainly doable for me on a weekend. It also freezes and thaws well, allowing me to pull a dough ball from the freezer in the morning prior to heading off to work and store in a loose-covered container sprayed with Pam all day. When I come home from work, it’s ready to stretch and toss. This recipe makes me 4 personal pies, or 2 medium pies. Perfect for just the two of us. I can make a batch, get 2 pies for one night, and freeze 2 more dough balls for a couple pies later. Or just let them proof for up to a week in your fridge.

I can’t remember where I found the foundation for this particular recipe from. I tweaked it a bit to my liking and use. If you think this is your recipe and show me the link and video to where I saw this, I’d be more than happy to provide a credit link here. Just hit me up on the socials or email me.

 

Pizza. Arguably my all time favorite food in direct competition with tacos. As I look through my daily memories I am guaranteed to see at least one picture of a pizza, tacos, and a healthy pour of some whiskey and a cigar.

Over the years I have come across many recipes for a good pizza crust. The following are my 3 current favorites. In the coming days I’ll provide you with a deep dish pan, a hand tossed crust, and my “I forgot to prepare this yesterday” generic crust that can be whipped up in 10 minutes for pizza emergencies. As I add crust recipes I’ll update here and link them all together.

First, lets start with a pan pizza. This is the closest I’ve found to that Pan Pizza from the Pizza Hut of the late 70s and early 80s and by far the most time consuming of the 3, but ironically the easiest. The recipe is from the folks at seriouseats.com and you can read and even watch a video of them preparing it here. They call it their Foolproof Pan Pizza Recipe. I’ll give you the cliff notes I keep saved in my recipe notes:

• 400 grams of flour (I use bread flour)
• 10 grams of salt
• 4 grams of yeast
• 275 grams of water (not warm)
• 8 grams of oil.

For best consistent results, use grams in your measurements. Mix it all together briefly so that there is no dry flour left. No need to knead or mix it any further. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit for 8-24 hours. I generally like to let it sit overnight anywhere from 10-13 hours.

Pour the dough onto a flour covered workspace. At this point, you can make two 9-10 inch pizzas, or do what you will with it. For example, you can continue to make one and freeze the other half. I like to use half for my pan pizza and the other half for another pizza and breadsticks. To make 2 pizzas, divide the dough in half and ball it with your palms.

Pour a fair amount of olive oil into a 9 or 10 inch pan such as cake pan or cast iron skillet. Place the ball of dough into the pan, palm flatten it a little and turn it over to the other side and do the same thing, spinning it in the pan to make sure the oil goes everywhere. Cover and let it proof for 2 more hours. If freezing one, I’ll throw this “thick pancake” into a ziploc bag and put in freezer. The evening I intend to make a pan pizza, I pull it out in the morning and place in a oiled pan and let it sit all day. By the time I get home, it’s ready to continue.

After 2 hours of proofing, Preheat your home oven as high as you can. Some can go to 500, some 550. Mine goes to 550. Finger tap the dough to make sure all the bubbles are popped and that it conforms to the entire width of the pan. Spread at least ¾ cup of your favorite sauce over the entire surface – edge to edge. Like Serious Eats says, this is an extremely thirsty crust. Let it get sloppy. I put a small layer of cheese down first then add my toppings. Be more generous with a pan pizza than a regular one. It can take a lot of toppings. Finally, I put more cheese on top, maybe over a cup. Again, edge to edge. Don’t try to get that ring around your crust. I place my pepperonis on last, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and drop it in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until it looks good. All that sloppy sauce, cheese, and toppings will create little delicious crunchy morsels that only this method can provide. I like to top mine with some parmesan powder and a little bit of basil. Back in the old days at Pizza Hut, we called that Fairy Dust. Ready mixed in a shaker and went on every pizza.

Bonus Breadstick recipe: utilizing the above pan dough, I take a quarter of the dough after the overnight rising and pull and roll it out into something resembling a rectangle, throw some mozzarella in there and fold it over onto itself. Pinch the edges. Place on a greased pan. I take a rocker pizza cutter and cut the breadstick strips into it at this point. Carefully slide all the strips together because they will separate while cutting. Generously slather on a garlic/parmesan/butter mixture and let proof the same 2 hours as the pan. Bake with the pizza. I have both shelves in the middle 2 racks. The his and hers pizza on the bottom and breadsticks on the top. Monitor the breadsticks. They will finish before the pizza does. You’ll know when they are done. Once removed, I slather on more of the butter mixture so that it melts into the top and dust the top with parmesan cheese. Cut again along the previously cut lines and serve with a side of your favorite dip. I like to use whatever pizza sauce I am using with my pizza. Carol likes to dip hers in Ranch Dressing and crushed red pepper.

You can check out my easy pizza sauce here.

Pizza sauce should never be cooked prior to spreading on your pie. It gets cooked on the pie. Here is my easy recipe for a good pizza sauce that is very customizable. Change it how you like. The main ingredient is crushed or ground tomatoes. I find 6 in 1 Brand makes the best. If you can’t find that, try Centos. After that, any will do. Shoot. Even a good tomato sauce can work in a pinch. Halve the spices if using a 15-16 oz can.

• Crushed/ground tomato 28oz
• Tablespoon crushed basil
• Teaspoon garlic powder
• Tablespoon sugar
• Tablespoon fresh ground black pepper
• Salt to taste

Mix it up and let it sit for a couple hours or even overnight. Freezes well indefinitely.

To prepare for one of this year’s road trips, Spring Break 2023 we’ll call it, I parked the runabout in the front yard the weekend prior. Gives us plenty of time to slowly pack during the week. Do the grocery shopping, etc. I left the task of filling up the fresh water tank to the day of. Keep that water fresh. Just our luck the fire department decided to play around with some of the hydrants in our area, turning the water murky. We had to let that run clear, but eventually still shoving off before 5PM, Friday, March 10^th. I enjoy traveling in around 200 mile increments. Keeps it fun without being exhausting.

Final destination for this adventure was Black Rock Campground, Joshua Tree National Park, next to Yucca Valley, CA. The plan was to slowly and comfortably make our 733-mile trek for a Monday check-in. I refer to our travels as jumps. I travel someplace in the Lance, park, slide out, stay at least one night, slide back in, and go. That’s a jump in my books. This adventure consists of Jumps 191-197.

Jump 191. Friday night was to be in a nice New Mexican rest area with shelters. Pretty much a campground built into a rest area just west of Deming, NM along the I-10 corridor. It’s a perfect stop for the night if we leave El Paso in the evening. Gives us a good 150-mile head start on the trip instead of leaving Saturday morning. This time around that west-bound rest area was shut down due to highway construction along I-10. The east-bound counterpart was still open and spaces available so we ended up turning around at the next exit and a spending the night on the I-10E rest area. Waking up whenever we do, usually around 7AM thanks to the fur-babies who have an internal clock. Pour-over brewed coffee with a toasted bagel smothered in some garlic cream cheese for breakfast. Leaving Saturday morning we only had to backtrack about 4 miles before making forward progress again.

Jump 192. Saturday’s plan was to stay at Picacho Peak State Park, AZ, just north of Tuscan, AZ. No such luck on this Saturday of Spring Break. I figured. Tried to make reservations a few months ago online but no dice. They do have some sites that are not for reservation and we can usually get one one of those. When we turned off the exit for Picacho Peak, it was an immediate line to get into the park. Then we noticed the sign that said the campground was full. Went down the road to an RV-Resort only to be met with a “No Vacancy” sign. Back to I-10W. About 10 miles down the road there was a KOA. Exited. Made our way to the kampground. There wasn’t a sign that said No Vacancy. The office was closed for lunch. Ended up getting the last site available. The staff told us it was only a 20amp hookup, no water or sewer. I said that was perfect. Had no intention of using any electricity or water. First time readers can get an idea of our solar array/battery power here – we don’t require any power, fully self contained. We just wanted a nice spot to stay for the night. It’s an award-winning KOA. All the usual amenities you’d expect from a $50/night KOA. Same morning scenario – wake up when we wake up. Pour-over brewed coffee with yogurt then hitting the open road again.

Jump 193. Sunday was supposed to be around Quartzite, AZ, and didn’t disappoint. There is plenty of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) area here. I had intended on staying at the Hi Jolly BLM (top-rated, according to google maps) but somehow had saved the coordinates in the GPS for the next one north – Plomosa Road BLM. Even better. Disbursed camping. This left us about 160 miles to our final destination. The campground host was off until Tuesday. We were only there for 1 night. I guess it’ll be like we were never there. You’d think they’d have a self-registration table set up for when the campground host is off. Beautiful sunsets in Quartzite. Woke up with the dogs. Pour-over coffee with pancakes for breakfast and back on the road.

Jump 194. We were at our final destination before 1300 on Monday. Confusing layout of the campground, especially when they publish the map with north pointing downward. The fuck is that all about? Site 76. Larger RVs with slides are not recommended due to the Joshua Tree in the site but we fit perfectly in our 23 foot Lance. Site is not level but easily leveled with our Anderson Levelers. Dumpsters are conveniently located throughout the park as are fresh water spigots. Roads are very narrow but passable. It rained Tuesday night through Wednesday but Thursday was a beautiful day. Plenty of hiking opportunities abound. There is a dump station with fresh water. We dumped and filled to 2/3 on the fresh water side to last the rest of the trip.

A few years ago we stayed at the interior of Joshua Tree at the Cottonwood campground. A whole different experience. That was a sandy desert. At the spot we stayed this year at the most north-western portion of the park, the elevation is much higher. More moisture. Cooler temps. The Joshua trees are the biggest in the park. We were able to get some good hiking in – between 4-6 miles per day.

Jump 195. We began our journey back home Friday, March 18. Allowing for a 3-day travel instead of 4, like we took to get here, these stops were a little more than my usual 200 miles per day self imposed limit. 1^st night was Constellation Park Campground in Wickenburg, AZ. 243 miles from Joshua Tree. Seemed like a nice spot to stay based off All Stays app. Designated as a community/city/county park with 32 back-in sites I think. First come, first serve. No hookups or even central water but many spacious, beautiful sites. A couple big trash bins at entrance and exit from the park to conveniently dispose of your trash on the way out. There are a few sites designated as equestrian. $8 and $12 per night for the regular and equestrian, respectively. I thought I saw a sign that said there was a 7 day limit. I could see easily charging double what they do. It’s that nice. Most sites appeared almost level. We managed to be level enough without any assistance from the Anderson Levelers. The road through is certainly not. Ups and downs!

Jump 196. 2^nd night traveling back home was the longest by far, and that was back to our regular New Mexico Rest Area we stayed at on our way to Joshua Tree. That was 363 miles, setting us up for an early arrival back home the next day. That night was windy and cold.

Jump 197. Sunday we rolled into our home city of El Paso. RV dumped, drained, and stored by noon. Another successfully planned/executed road trip across this beautiful nation of ours at 10 days/9 nights.

Time to start planning the next big trip as well as prepping for an additional component to the power system – a 60 amp DC to DC Converter. Happy Camping!

 

 

 

 

 

I love those people. They’ll knock on my office door and say, “I’m John. The one that emailed you yesterday?” Like it’s a question or something. Or, “I’m Jane. We talked on the phone last week.”

Really?

<checks email>

243 emails last week. Just at work. Yeah, I ain’t gonna remember you.

The best one happened today though. Phone rings. I answer.

Stranger: Is this Mr Walters?

Me: This is Walter Basil.

Stranger: This is Joey Bonniefoofoo. <changed name to protect the stupid>

Me: How can I help you Mr. Bonniefoofoo?

Stranger, er… Joey: It’s me, Joey Bonniefoofoo.

Me: <rolls eyes, Robert Downy Jr. style> Yes?

Joey: You gave me your business card in 2009. I had asked you about….<edited to keep you from dying of boredom because this is some really boring, complicated shit about the relationship between some federal-in-nature money and non-federal-in-nature money and… see? Your eyes are glazing over right now> …and anyways, I was just going through my wallet and found your card and wanted to call up and see if you are still there!

Me: Yup. I’m still here.

So this guy really thought I’d remember him from 2009. Buddy, I won’t remember the dude I saw this morning out of the 17 phone calls, 24 emails, and 14 in-person clients* I took care of. Unless you slapped me. I’d remember that motherfucker. Just asked Chris Rock.

*Actual statistics from before lunch today.