Surviving a Tropical Storm with Homemade Pizza

A smoker will put up with
anything for a cigarette.

As Hurricane Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm, she decided to visit Canada and brought severe storms to Montreal.  We woke up Sunday to the downpour of rain and umbrella breaking winds.  It was clear this would be a day for staying indoors, comfortably seated on the safety of our sofa.  When Adam asked what movie to put on, I told him I wanted to watch something that was "kind of serious, quirky, with a bit of drama, and some comedy."  Adam quickly deduced that this meant we should watch Dr. Who (he's good like that).  I had yet to watch the first half of this season and the new episodes of the second half are just beginning, so this was the time to catch up.


With a marathon of Dr. Who on the agenda and Irene creating havoc outside our door, it would be important to have delicious food readily available.  We decided it would be the perfect opportunity to make a pizza from scratch.  An ambitious decision, because we have the worst luck making pizzas together.  Whether using a pre-made dough or a frozen pizza, something always seems to go wrong.  Things get burned, crusts meld to the pan, and we end up with an inedible mess.


I was able to quickly mix together a pizza dough with the help of our KitchenAid mixer (hooray for wedding gifts!).  We multitasked and let the dough rise during an eventful episode of Dr. Who, then Adam got to work punching down the dough and chopping up the toppings.  Adam gets very serious about his pizzas, so I was only allowed to grate some cheese and document the process with photos.  The pizza went into the oven and Adam carefully monitored its progress while I tossed together a caesar salad.  With high hopes and fingers crossed, the pizza was ready in twenty minutes and we sampled our hardwork.  Nothing had burned, the pizza lifted easily out of the pan, and it tasted delicious.  Our pizza curse had been broken - it was the best pizza we have ever made!

Compared to our friends on the east coast, we experienced limited destruction from Irene.  In Montreal, falling branches damaged cars, high winds brought down windows from a downtown high rise, and many were without power.  We were lucky and only experienced two power outages.  Both times, power immediately came back within seconds.  But nothing that could keep us from eating well and getting caught up with Dr. Who.