Monday, June 16, 2014

Spring Awakening: Midvale Main Street Theatre

Winter is a dreary, lonely few months at the beginning of every year.  Sometimes we feel an ache, knowing there is more out there for us in the sunshine of spring.  Our senses are teased and titillated with the changing sights, smells, sounds, and sensations the change of seasons brings.  Take yourself back to the days of your adolescence around the time your body began to feel things it had never felt, your mind began to dream of things you didn't understand, and you started feeling desires to be in the companionship of a certain girl or boy in a way you didn't quite understand.  The winter of the body had turned into spring.

Spring Awakening, being produced at Midvale Main Street Theatre, is an aptly named rock musical based on the banned 1891 German play of the same title.  Child abuse, rape, suicide, incest, abortion, and homosexuality are all contributors to the banning of the play and the deep substance of the production.  Set in 19th-century Germany, one may think the time-period's approach to a sexual awakening of youth to be antiquated, but it is alarmingly frightening how true the show resonates with the youth of today.

For more of this review, please visit Front Row Reviewers.



Monday, June 9, 2014

New York White Pizza Recipe

I discovered white pizza on a random day in New York City.  We put in our names to eat at Serendipity, but given the hour-long wait, we decided to get some lunch across the street at Patsy's Pizzeria before our dessert.  My sister, Britney, and I both love cheese and decided to order something we'd never heard of, but appealed to us due to it's "all cheese, no sauce" nature - white pizza.

That day, dear friends, was the day I fell in love.  Every single trip we have taken to New York since has involved at least one trip to Patsy's for white pizza.  

I have been to over a half dozen pizzerias in Salt Lake City and none of them come close to replicating my Patsy's, not even the one that so kindly tried to replicate a recipe from online for us.  Naturally, I had to create my own.  Unfortunately, I have no coal oven and don't want the fuss of making hand-tossed dough, so regular ole store-bought dough will have to do.

I served this super easy recipe at my 2014 Tony Awards party to rave reviews - one guest even told me that my white pizza deserved a Tony.  

Ingredients
  • 1 thin-crust pizza dough (use the in-a-can kind at your grocery store or buy at local pizzeria)
  • Pre-minced garlic (dollar a jar, so worth not having to mince your own and lasts forever)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil, little more if needed
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Oregano to taste (1 tsp - 1 tbsp)
  • hand-shredded into tiny pieces of fresh basil to your liking - 1-2 tablespoons or 2 sprigs of leaves should be enough
  • 1.5 cups shredded mozzarella
  • 3/4 - 1 cup ricotta
  • 3/4 - 1 cup parmigiano-reggiano 
  • Several Slices of fresh mozzarella or about 12 balls of fresh mozzarella - your choice - heck add a ton of cheese if you want, it's your pizza!  Just make sure there is some fresh mozz in every bite.

Directions
  • Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
  • Evenly spread olive oil over cookie sheet
  • Spread dough onto cookie sheet
  • Lightly dab minced garlic all over dough, be careful to not over-do it but also get it evenly distributed
  • Place dough in the oven for 5 minutes
  • Spread shredded mozz on dough over entire crust, leave no edges (continue covering entire crust when adding toppings)
  • Sprinkle salt and pepper over mozz & dough to your liking
  • Sprinkle oregano evenly
  • Dollop teaspoon sized mounds of ricotta all over dough, making sure to leave them in their dollop-mounds 
  • Sprinkle parmigiano-reggiano evenly 
  • Spread fresh mozz (slices or balls, whatever you chose) over entire pizza
  • Sprinkle hand-shredded tiny pieces of basil evenly
  • Bake for 10 minutes at 400
  • Cool at least five minutes on the sheet before eating, but if you want to burn your tongue, go for it sooner

I didn't take a picture, but I will post one next time I make this, which shouldn't be too long:-)