SESAME SQUARE!

too much olive oil?
i didn't do it on purpose, but i did use the right amount.
uh-huh.
a heavily olive oiled sheet pan, WITH toasted sesame seed sprankles
above and below the dough, bro.
that gets the crispiest, fluffiest, sexxxiest crust, or so it seems, anyway.
yeah, neighbors-
do you expect me to not just dive into a tale of sesame seeded sicilian pizza?
because we're already in it.
y'feel me??
mmmhmmmm.
i do that sorta thing.
and it's been just cool enough, temperature-wise, to warrant using the INdoor oven.
dudes, 480 convection fahrenheit degrees is waaay more
than you want heating up the homestead when it's a natural eighty or more OUTside.
ANYway, look at it:

WOOOOOORD!!!
the dough was on point.
the sauce was the same cooked marinara i made the other day
(i made enough for pasta and pizza because that's what you;re supposed to do)
the chee' was that vegan chee' from the store,
and the toppings were powerfully flavorful.
f'real.
every bite punched me in the happiness button, and had me feeling great.
what kind of dough was it?
delicious homemade vegan delightfulness, obvi.
duh.
it's like this:
-
*
SICILIAN DOUGH!!
-
1 1/4 cups  king arthur flour;
1/2 cup king arthur bread flour;
2 tsp sea salt;
2 T olive oil;
1/2 tsp wheat gluten;
1 tsp sugar;
3/4 cup warm water;
1 pkg fast-actin' yeast;
1 tsp bread machine yeast.
kneaded in my mixer with a dough hook attachment beatin' it up
for 11 solid minutes of magic.
it rose up exxxtra big and tall while the oven heated.
i stretched out in that oily rectangle, which was a little irritating
with all that oil trying to foil my best laid edge-touchin' efforts.
whatever. it worked.
i had spinach on the bottom.
then minced daiya mozzarella chee'.
rules is rules, and the mincing makes it melt so much better.
sauce.
caramelized onions.
fried garlic sprankles.
sesame seeds toasted in the same pan, after the garlic,
then tomatoes blackened in there last but not least.
guys,
that's a ferocious pizza.
and MORE sesame seeds doesn't hurt either.
and fresh basil and oregano when it came out of the oven???
daaaaaaaaaaaamn.
there is nothin' more expert than a perfectly baked pizza.
that's no joke.
***********
i did NINE tattoos yesterday.
that's the truth.
out here slayin' those money tatts.
here's the thing-
i should really charge more.
but, like, for REAL, though.
i haven't gotten a raise in fifteen years or so.
ha.
i'm dumb, clearly.
but, i still set up and broke down NINE times.
the first six tattoos had words and birds.
in fact, i did eight birds on six folks, two mountains, a novel's worth of words,
and four branches, with leaves on two of 'em.
then i did three tattoos, all matchy, but different.
uh-huh.
swords, symbols, trees, words, and initials-
mostly identical, but the initials were rearranged
so that i still had to remake three different patterns.
the hardest day ever?
not hardly.
the longest?
also no.
but, it felt good, mostly, to bring the noise all F*ing day,
like a tattblastin' big boy from yesteryear.
yeah.
i had nostalgia for the old days, which means i'm definitely old now.
but i did rock all the socks and the shoes off of all those folks,
and that's a lot of work, even if it's all on small tattyzapbombs.
it's all really happening: that summertime grind.
i'm grateful for the day as it unfolded.
i fell asleep hard and fast at the end of it;
never quiet, never soft.....