Cooking 102

OMG!  Another cooking story!

For this one, I need to go back a few lifetimes ago.  You know I love to tell a back story.

I have posted previously about my friends Ruth and Jeff in Ripley New York.  Being from Erie Pennsylvania, Ripley was just about 30 minutes away so we were almost like neighbors!  We all met at a club where I used to tend bar while Jeff was in the band that played on Saturday nights.  Ruth would come in to support the band and Saturday night by Saturday night by Saturday night, the three of us got to be great friends.

One Saturday, Ruth couldn't get a baby sitter for their boys so she stayed home.  I closed the bar up at 3:00 am and Jeff had the great idea that I should follow him home for breakfast!  Ok, I thought that was probably not a great idea following a married man home.  I had visions of waking a wife up at 4:00 in the morning and getting chased out of the house with a frying pan!

But, just as Jeff predicted, Ruth was happy to see me, even at that ungodly hour of the morning.  She got up, had breakfast with us, then I headed home and they went to bed.  That was the first late night/early morning breakfast of many that we've had during our time at that club.

One Saturday, the three of us headed back to Ripley and Ruth left to take the babysitter home.  That left Jeff in charge of breakfast.  Hey, I never said we had award winning breakfasts!  It was just FOOD at 4:00 in the morning!

This one particular Saturday night/Sunday morning, Jeff decided to show his cooking skills and bake us a frozen pizza for breakfast.  Winner all the way!  Hey, it wasn't my house so I wasn't paying that much attention.  He threw the pizza in the oven and we were sitting at the dining room table waiting for the buzzer.  I'm not sure what came first, Ruth coming home from taking the babysitter home or the smoke alarm going off.  Yeah, there was a LOT of smoke.  I guess Jeff didn't read the directions that you need to remove that piece of cardboard from the pizza before baking it!  Did I mention that there was a lot of smoke??

I wouldn't swear to it but I really don't think that stopped us from eating the pizza.

The best part of this story is the fact that Ruth and I have been able to bust his chops about his breakfast/pizza making skills (or lack thereof!).  He's gotten ribbed about this at least 100 times over the last 20 years!  It's always a good go-to joke.

Fast forward to present time.  The other day, Ron made US a frozen pizza for dinner.  We used one of the cool pans that Phil got me just for pizza making.  I don't think Ron believed me when I told him that he could cut the pizza on the very pan he used to cook the pizza.  He handed me the knife and said to cut away.

I gotta tell you, that was the most difficult time I ever had cutting a pizza.  This pizza did NOT want to cut through.

Eventually, I found the problem.

While he didn't set the smoke alarms off, he did bake up one piece of cardboard.

So, we had a soggy bottom pizza.  As you can see, we still ate it all!  And before Ron threw away the evidence, I asked Ron to hold on!  I told him I needed pictures!! 

Jeff, this one is for you!