3 Bakers~12 Months~36 Recipes

Whilst blog trolling, I found Farmgirl Fare some time back and became a devoted reader. Now she and a couple of pals are tackling "a year in bread," and while I'm a pretty confident bread baker, I'm also ready for a challenge. In that spirit, I've added their link to the sidebar.

First up is pizza, and pizza is my Hubby's favorite food (he's pictured at left with other unknown pizza dudes at Shakey's Pizza in San Jose, circa 1974). Team member Kevin says that he started his pizza-making career at Shakey's Pizza Parlor, as well. My friend Chris met her first husband working at Shakey's, but I digress. Back in the day, Hubby could eat pizza for three meals a day, but he absolutely hates dealing with the flour after years of wearing it. I've been making focaccia for years and he would often "top" them for me since, he could prep an entire pizza in one minute way back when. Recently, we've been making homemade pizza again as the delivered pies just weren't cutting it for us. We like no-sauce, low cheese pies with toppings that don't sog it up.

I don't know when this month I'll have time to try out the three bakers' different crusts, what with houseguests coming and baby-watch starting. If you have a "skin" in the freezer, pizza is an almost instant dinner, and with a one-hour delivery time in our fair city it is almost faster to make your own.

Today we went to a local winery, Lambert Bridge, to take a wine-blending class with their winemaker. We were given small bottles of 2005 cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot and petite verdot to blend into our own cuvee. I blended one for my grandson and his soon-to-be-born brother and called it "Cates Brothers Blend." Hubby made one for DD Sarah's girlfriend Kristin who was just appointed by Ahhhnold as a San Francisco Superior Court Judge (go figure that, she is not exactly a member of the republican party). We called hers "S.F. Superior Blend."