Friday Pizza Night

I am a creature of habit. I think it is my Type A personality that causes me to find comfort in rituals. A new ritual is busy season Friday pizza nights.

It all started because Friday is the day, especially in busy season, that my fridge is the most bare. After working on Saturday, I run my errands and go grocery shopping. On Fridays, my team works a "normal" 9-10 hour day and when I come home I need a dinner that is quick, easy, and made from ingredients I still have within my hardly stocked kitchen. Pizza night was born.

I found an online pizza dough recipe that only takes about fifteen minutes to rise:





Easy Pizza Dough:

• 2.5 cups bread flour (or all purpose but add a tad more yeast)
• One packet of instant yeast (I buy a jar and keep it in my fridge so I always have it)
• 1 cup of warm water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Seasonings (optional: I like to add Italian seasonings like oregano and basil)

Stir the yeast and sugar into the water and allow to proof for five minutes (will foam up- if it doesn't, your yeast is dead!). Whisk flour, seasonings and salt together in large bowl. Add olive oil and yeast mixture. Stir until combined. Dump onto floured surface, knead for five to ten minutes, place in an oiled bowl and allow to rise in a warm place for ten to fifteen minutes.

This dough is a fast and perfect base to my Friday pizza. I usually cut the dough into four pieces and freeze three of them. Preheat the oven to 450-500 degrees. I am the proud new owner of a pizza stone and allow it to preheat for about 20 minutes and can bake my pizza directly on it. The thing is awesome and I wish I had bought it sooner. Prior to the pizza stone, I would preheat a cast iron skillet - it makes a perfect personal pan pizza! Bake for 12-15 minutes depending on your bubbliness and crispiness preferences.

I'm so brain dead by Friday, I can't muster the intellectual capacity to get too creative with my Friday pizzas. Usually, it is just a mixing of cheeses and a local Italian restaurant's jarred sauce. I cut it into small pieces and wolf it down while catching up on my DVR. I really should let it cool slightly before eating, but apparently I love burning the roof of my mouth each week, which heals just in time for me to scar it all over again the following Friday.

I justify my weekly pizza nights by saying "at least it's homemade" and "whatever gets me through busy season". Whatever my rationalization is, whenever I fire up my pizza stone and smell melted cheese, I know that I only have 5 hours of work left for the week before my Saturday evening and Sunday of freedom.

Do you have any food rituals?

Pure Bribery

I am in the middle of what are typically my most hectic two weeks of busy season, so this post is going to be short and sweet... with sweet being literal as well as figurative.

I am now starting to help run jobs at work, which requires overseeing staff and delegating tasks. I learned early on that leveraging my "Martha Stewartness" can help keep my workers happy, motivated and on my side. Yes, I bribe my teams with treats.

Long hours amps up the stress and brings out the crankiness in all of us. Therefore, one of my favorite bribes is "PMS Mix": everything one could want when it's that time of the month. Well, male or female, young or old, busy season essentially makes all of us auditors have PMS. If the name grosses you out, it can be called "white trash mix" or simply "white chocolate chex mix".  This is one of those recipes that is circulating everywhere, but here is what I use from a family friend.  Enjoy!

1. Cheerios - 3 cups
2. Rice Chex - 3 cups
3. Corn Chex - 3 cups
4. M&M's - 2 cups
5. Small pretzels (I like sticks) - 2 cups
6. Salted nuts (I use dry roasted peanuts) - 2 cups
7. White chocolate - 20 ounces

Combine the cereals, candy, pretzels and nuts. Spread in a thin layer on wax or parchment paper. Melt chocolate over a double boiler (or slowly in microwave in short increments on 50% power) until smooth. Pour melted chocolate over mix and toss to coat. Allow to harden and store in baggies or an airtight container.

I usually buy enough ingredients to use all of the cereal, but I warn you- it makes a LOT of mix. However, my coworkers and I normally don't struggle to finish it all over a work week. I can eat this stuff until I am sick to my stomach and then I eat a bit more. Oh, the joys of busy season.

So, does bribery work on you?