Gotta Short Little Span of Attention

they say goldfish have no memory

i guess their lives are much like mine

the little plastic castle is a surprise every time

it's hard to say if they are happy

but they don't seem much to mind

~ Little Plastic Castles by Ani Difranco

That's me today...Little Ms. "Oh Look, A Butterfly" - that's what my ex used to call me when I had my short attention span moments because I'd jump from random topic to random topic and expect him to keep up. I think the only one whose ever really been able to keep up is my friend Juli, because she's the same way.

Juliana and I met in the 7th grade. My mother had made Pizza Bread for some celebration in homeroom and Juli asked me for the recipe (which I don’t think I ended up giving her until I was well into University – what a bad friend I am!) and that’s what got us talking. But, even though we hung out in homeroom, we had different classes and a different group of friends. When high school started, we had classes together and realized we had a lot in common, but we still didn’t really hang out with each other outside of school.

In 1992, the summer before our sophomore year, I get this call out of the blue, saying “You’ve got to help me!” – no “hello, is Tiffany there?”, no “it’s Juli, how are you?” and I have no clue who the hell this person is begging me for help! Then she says, “My brother actually has a friend and he’s here and they’re driving me nuts – you have to come over here and save me!!” We ended up talking on the phone forever and made plans to go see Wayne’s World. And thus began the friendship that has lasted these 15 years.

When we were in high school, we used to forge our mothers’ signature on notes so we could skip out of school early. I think we both had a study hall at the end of certain days – and I was horribly bored with school…always (I had “senioritis” starting my freshman year and it only got worse by the time I reached my senior year)! We would walk to my house (until Ju got her license), heat up frozen chicken fettuccini and watch movies with guys we had crushes on.

So on Friday, in honor of our anniversary, I made chicken fettuccini (so much better than the frozen crap!), picked up an ice cream cake and watched Beowulf & Grendel (bad movie – I don’t recommend it, but Gerard Butler did look scruffy good) and to get that bad movie taste out of our mouths, we watched season one episodes of The Office.

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Cathy’s Pizza Bread

1 loaf of bread dough (doesn’t need to be pizza dough. My ma uses frozen bread dough; I save out a little of the dough I use when I’m making loaves of bread)
Your favorite sauce
Mozzarella Cheese
Parmesan Cheese
Favorite Pizza Toppings
Olive Oil
A Cookie Sheet or a Baking Stone (I prefer the stone, it just makes the dough cook more thoroughly)
1 egg, whisked

Preheat your oven to 375°F. Oil your cookie sheet or stone (just a little, not a lot).

Roll out your bread dough in a rough rectangle. Pour your fav. sauce down the center of your dough rectangle, covering as much or as little of the dough as you like (some people like very saucy pizza – like me) but leave an inch or so of clean dough on one side down the length of your rectangle. Spread the mozzarella cheese and parm over the sauce (I sometimes throw a little cheddar into it and my pizzas to add a different flavor – I know others who use every cheese under the sun, but those are my favs). Layer your toppings over the cheese, but don’t pile them. Roll the long side of your dough like a jelly roll and press that long edge to seal it, creating a seam down your rectangle. Put the pizza bread on your cookie sheet/stone, seam side down. Brush entire thing with a bit of the egg (gives it a nice glossy, golden sheen). Bake it at 375°F for 18-25 minutes or until light golden brown (a little longer w/ the stone - you just have to keep an eye on it). Let it stand for about 5 minutes or so and cut widthwise into slices.

When it’s hot out of the oven, I serve it with cold pizza sauce for dipping. If it’s the next day, I eat it cold w/ warmed pizza sauce. Mum makes this for most holidays and every year for the Christmas party where my Dad works (and the one year she didn’t make it, man did my Dad ever hear about it from his co-workers…for like weeks after! That next year, for a month, his coworkers would come up to him and ask, “Cathy’s making pizza bread this year, right?”)

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I hope these directions make sense; this is an impromptu recipe, ingrained in my head from making it so often, so there are no measurements. I think this year I’m going to experiment with a barbequed chicken pizza bread, substituting the pizza sauce w/ a sweet BBQ sauce and throw grilled chicken on it. Mmmmmm, barbequed chicken pizza – *drooool*. The thought came from the To. Die. For. barbequed chicken pizza that my brother brought me the other day from a place called Joshua’s in Brunswick, Maine. Major drool factor with that pizza!

Tonight is another movie night with Juliana (we try to do this at least once a week). She said that she’s taking care of the movie and dinner and they’re both a surprise. Yea for surprises!

Enjoy your Wednesday all!