Dynamite Pizza

   I know it's been a while since my last posting and people are wondering if pizza is out of my veins yet. That's not the case, only the time I have had to devote to writing the blogs has been shortened. Sheri says, "Work isn't just a job, it's an inconvenience." That is so true but when work comes up I have to give full attention to it and with this late summer heat everything has slowed down including me and my pizza making and experiments.
   I pulled out the binder that holds my many dough and sauce recipes and started to take inventory of what recipes I have tried and which ones I haven't yet tried. I have come across one that is another sourdough recipe but it includes garlic powder and oregano. I was hot, hungry and tired when I was perusing the file and thought I had read gun powder in the list of ingredients. That caught my eye as something I hadn't tried yet but after glancing back it clearly read garlic powder. Thank God! I don't even know which aisle at Safeway or Nugget that they might sell gun powder. I think Big 5 might carry it but that's all the way across town and if they asked me what I was using it for they might call security. It still looked worthwhile using garlic powder so I've decided to give it a go. I wonder though what would've happened if I did go with my original interpretation of using gun powder? In Rachel Ray's magazine, her one column that I read are monthly stories of kitchen messes and successes. So many of them are accidents that should have been disasters that ended up becoming a new family favorite. I think I could've made her top ten if I had insisted on gun powder.
   You want to make a pizza that's memorable and with flavors that explode in your mouth and maybe call it an Extreme Pizza or a pizza that will blow your mind not to mention your oven. I stuck with the garlic powder. After trying the recipe twice that were unsatisfactory in my opinion I decided to try a different approach. I was baking them on the stone at 550º and they were turning out hard and so tough that I had second thoughts that maybe I should have used gun powder. My final attempt I steered clear of the stone and used the pizza screen that I use when I do my incredible NewYork pizza. Instead of 550º I lowered the temp to 475º like the NY pizza, and baked it on the screen resting on the lower rack. To my surprise the pizza was chewy and and flavorful. The sourdough starter that I had added really came out in the overall taste so the gun powder was unnecessary after all.
   If I had used the gun powder I suppose I would have had to add a disclaimer to pizza lovers. "Kids, don't try this at home, Vince is a trained professional." The pizza didn't blow my mind but with the additional garlic and oregano in the mix I think it will become a worthwhile footnote to keep in mind for later use.