Kent’s part starts at 24:55.
Guest Post
Derm Dad Guest Post: Where did the redheads go?
We have a full house for Christmas this year. In addition to our family of four, we have my parents (Grammy and Grandy) and Nicole’s mom (Mimi). Last night, we decided to explore some of the Rockville area’s neighborhood Christmas light displays by driving to a few award-winning houses that Nicole found on the internet. I was excited because it meant that we would be using our Kia Sorento in its full-capacity (seven-passenger) configuration for the first time. Before dark I completely cleaned out, vacuumed, and wiped down the inside of the car. While doing so, I discovered why I hadn’t needed to rake the yard this fall: it seemed as if Adele had taken all the leaves and acorns from the yard and put them on the floorboards! I moved both car seats from the second row to the third row, which eliminated nearly all of our trunk space. After some considerable effort by Nicole leaning over the second row to buckle Everett into his seat in the third row (and a reminder that we decided to buy the attractive SUV rather than a kid-friendly minivan), we were off to see the lights.
After viewing the first two Christmas displays, Grammy spotted a Kohl’s and requested to stop so she could buy Everett some socks for Christmas (which she failed to find earlier that day). So I offloaded the three women (Nicole, Grammy and Mimi) and found a parking spot to wait for them. Adele was given permission to unbuckle so that she could come up to the front seat where Grandy and I were. She went back in forth between Everett in the third row and Grandy and I in the first row of seats while we pleasantly chatted and listened to Christmas music. When she was back with Everett I would occasionally glance into the rearview mirror to see how my two redheads were getting along. During one of those occasions she gave me the impression that she wanted to unbuckle Everett too. Since I thought nothing good could come from unbuckling Everett, I told her not to unbuckle him. A few minutes later, while talking to Grandy, I looked in the rearview mirror and saw no red hair whatsoever. I immediately asked Adele if Everett had fallen – to which she replied “Yes, but he didn’t cry.” I quickly made a Captain America move by doing a backwards somersault on the armrest landing in the second row of seats. At the same time, Mimi called wondering where we were because they had been waiting in the cold and wind for us to pick them up. I told her we would be right there then I looked over the second row of seats to find out where the red hair had gone. I discovered Adele on the floor in front of her seat and Everett kneeling on the floor with his hands propped on the seat. I wanted to get mad that Adele had unbuckled him, but it wasn’t clear when I had told her before not to unbuckle him whether the deed had already been done. Nevertheless, Everett was perfectly all right and I couldn’t help but take a picture of my two cute red heads playing in the third row. Evidently, during the scuffle, Everett had reached into Adele’s mouth and removed the chewing gum that Grammy had given her and it was no where to be found. I’m sure I’ll find a rock-hard little green pebble about six months from now when I next vacuum out the floorboards.
Derm Dad Guest Post: “Of Sports and Men”
For several years now I have sensed my interest in sports may have crossed the line from past-time to idol worship. I have prayed several times that if my heart towards sports was sinful that God might take away my desire for it. Since He did not take the desire away, I assumed that everything was ok. However, the last few months, in the height of football season and now in the beginning of basketball season, I found myself spending most of my free time reading sports articles during the week and many hours watching games on the weekends. Recently, while glued to a football article on the iPad like an alcoholic clinging to his booze, I looked down at my son on the floor who was lying face up, tired of playing by himself with his inanimate toy and verbally expressing his discontent. I realized at that moment that I was choosing to feed my sports addiction over engaging with my son.
My sports addiction has been especially strong this year. Although my favorite college football team (UConn) was doing poorly, I had shifted my energy to a new team. Last week the Kansas State Wildcats were 10-0 and ranked number one in the country. Since Nicole was a graduate of Kansas State, I felt it was legit to jump on the band-wagon. The team’s story was compelling too. In the late 80’s, Kansas State was considered the worst football team in Division I college athletics. They lost 27 straight games and their own players had to go door-to-door in the community to sell tickets. Then they hired a new coach, Bill Snyder. He turned the program completely around. In 1998, during the first year of the BCS, they finished #3 nationally and although eight teams were invited to play in the high profile BCS games (with #1 and #2 playing in the national championship game), K-State was left out because they didn’t have the big name or fan-base. Because of the recognized unfairness in the system that year, the BCS officials created the “Kansas State Rule” which means that the #3 team in the BCS will automatically get to play in a BCS bowl – too late to help Kansas State that year though. Unfortunately the following year, they finished ranked 6th nationally, but once again were left out of the BCS bowls. In 2005, Bill Snyder retired and Kansas State reverted back to their losing ways. A few years later, they fired their new coach and rehired Bill Snyder, bringing him out of retirement. Then this year happened. Their quarterback, Collin Klein, is an outspoken Christian who reminds many of Tim Tebow. He plays very much like Tim Tebow and at least up until last week, was the leading candidate to win the Heisman trophy. Needless to say, there was plenty for me to get excited about this year’s Kansas State team. While rooting for my wife’s alma mater I was rooting for an underdog team that was never taken seriously by the football powers that be and that was now led by a Christian. All they had to do was to win two more games and they were assured of playing in the national championship game. The two teams they had left on their schedule were lowly Baylor (losing record) and a decent Texas team at home. Shouldn’t be any problem since Kansas State had been easily winning games against very good teams all year long.
Last Saturday night Kansas State played the Baylor game. Since I did not get ESPN I could not watch the game when it was being played. However, I was able to watch the replay on the internet on ESPN3. So I woke up early Sunday morning with the rest of the family still asleep so I could watch it. I set up the computer for the game then felt the draw to read my bible before I started watching. One of the passages I read was Jeremiah 16:10-13 “When you tell these people all this and they ask you, ‘Why has the Lord decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the Lord our God?’ then say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors forsook me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying me. So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’” Although my “ancestors” (e.g. father) have no interest in sports, I felt like the rest of the passage was speaking to me. The “other god” that I served was sports and I was convicted about my sin of idol worship. So again I prayed that if God wanted me to give up sports that He would take the desire away. Then I closed my bible and went on to watch my all-important football game. What I witnessed was an inexplicable unraveling of the #1 team in the country to a mediocre team at best and with it I began to see my idol start to crumble. When Kansas State lost, I started to see my love of sports in light of Jeremiah 16:19 “worthless idols of no benefit at all.”
Since my football team idol was smashed and my hopes of them winning a national championship gone, I focused my worship back to my oldest sports idol, UConn Men’s basketball. I had followed UConn basketball closely since I was in middle school when I had my gym locker next to Jeff Calhoun, son of the then new, unproven UConn Head basketball coach Jim Calhoun. Every game seemed like an important event to me. In college I would watch the games on a little black and white TV in my dorm room, ordering Pizza Hut pan pizza as one of my rituals. I saw them win 3 national championships and learned each time that the championships were not enough, I always wanted more. Two years ago, after UConn won their third national championship, I was discussing with my cousin Darren why we rooted for UConn when the only reason we had to root for them was that we were from the same state. We didn’t even graduate from the school and my very remote connection with the coach’s son was insignificant. Besides, coach Calhoun had a reputation as an ornery, cantankerous state celebrity (although when I met him at the Maui invitational in 1999, he was quite friendly and even went out of his way to find his son Jeff in the crowds so we could reconnect – I guess public reputations don’t always tell the full story) who was recently accused and found guilty of not promoting an atmosphere of compliance with NCAA regulations. Furthermore, his players’ academic performance was among the bottom handful in the country. Because of that, they were allowed fewer scholarship players and were declared ineligible for their conference and the NCAA tournaments for the 2012-13 season. It is with this backdrop that Jim Calhoun decided he would retire this year, endorsing the hiring of his two-year assistant coach Kevin Ollie. Kevin Ollie played for Jim Calhoun in the mid-1990’s and then 13 years professionally playing for about as many teams as he did years in the NBA. He was known for his good work ethic, never give up attitude and for his ability to mentor the younger players on his teams. His NBA experience was the only qualification he had to be a head coach for one of the best basketball programs in the country. But the story gets even more interesting. I learned that Coach Ollie is an outspoken Christian. He demands the best of his players and makes sure they represent the team well. On one occasion, one of the players flexed his muscles after a good play. Coach Ollie immediately put a stop to it saying that such displays are not what UConn basketball is all about. How refreshing! Now I finally had a good reason to root for UConn basketball. Unfortunately, they lost many of their best players last year including two NBA lottery picks so they were not expected to be very good this year. They were unranked at the beginning of the season and UConn only gave Coach Ollie a one-year contract because they weren’t sure if he was good enough to be the coach permanently. The team’s first game was the Armed Forces classic in Ramstein, Germany against #13 Michigan State. UConn pulled off the upset making Kevin Ollie’s coaching debut successful. One week later (the night my Kansas State football idol was crushed) UConn took a 3-0 record and a #23 nationally ranking into a game against relative unknown and unranked Quinnipiac in the Paradise Jam classic. The game was not available online so I couldn’t watch it. But with the lights off and my wife asleep in bed next to me, I was able to follow each play as it happened on my iPad. At halftime, UConn surprisingly trailed by a few points. Remembering what happened to my football idol earlier that day, I was afraid of what was going to happen to my basketball idol. I decided I didn’t want to know. I turned off and set the iPad down, metaphorically setting down my idol of sports worship. The next day I did not even check to see who won the game. It didn’t matter. Even now one week later, I do not know who won that game. Thankfully, God has taken most (but not all) of the desire for my idol away. But He did it after I made the decision and took the step of laying it down at His feet. I hope that my heart and my family’s well-being will be better for it.
Sports in and of themselves are not wrong or sinful. People who play sports are not bad and people who watch sports are not bad. I truly hope Collin Klein is successful not in winning games but in representing Christ to those who watch football. Likewise, I hope and pray that Kevin Ollie will be an ambassador for Christ in a state and a school that has turned far away from God. Nevertheless, my concern is for myself and others who watch and follow sports in the wrong way. Many times while watching a UConn basketball game I would shake almost uncontrollably, worried about the outcome of the game even well before “crunch time.” It is easy for us sports fans (more appropriately termed fanatics) to take sports too seriously to the point that it consumes us. When following sports, otherwise a neutral entity, becomes an addiction or an idol it is no longer neutral but sinful. One of the problems with the sports idol is that it often goes unrecognized because sports addictions are not blatantly sinful like pornography or alcoholism. But the addiction of sports can still be destructive. Unfortunately, most sports addicts don’t recognize the destruction. Additionally, we fail to realize that there really isn’t any benefit to our team’s winning. All we get out of it is a fleeting feeling of exhilaration (unless of course someone had a bet on the game in which they may get a financial benefit but that’s another addiction in itself). The brief thrill of victory only leads to a stronger desire for the team to do it again next year. This makes me think of the Yankees, sometimes termed the “evil empire”. Isn’t 25 plus world series wins enough? No, they want more. How much more will make them satisfied? Answer: none.
One of my favorite sports story lines of all time and perhaps my only victory in the battle over my sports addiction up until now came in 2004 and it involved the so-called Evil Empire, the Yankees. The Red Sox had not won a world series in 86 years since they traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees. They called it the “curse of the Babe” and it did seem like they were cursed never again to win a world series – they had several times when they should have won but they always came up short. As a 12-year-old boy in 1986 I watched the ball go through Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner’s legs when they were on the brink of a world series victory. Instead, they lost again. But in 2004, something different happened. They were playing against the Yankees in the American League Championship Series, the winner of which would earn the right to play in the World Series that year. It was the fourth game of a seven game series and the Red Sox had their backs up against the wall down 3 games to none. In the ninth inning, the Yankees brought their best closer in the game to finish off the Red Sox. Shockingly, he failed. No team in baseball had ever come back from being down 3-0 in a seven game series, yet that was exactly happened. The Red Sox stormed back to win the next four games and the series. They then went on to destroy the St. Louis Cardinals in a laugher of a four game sweep in the World Series. The Red Sox victory that year was the only satisfying win I had ever experienced as a sports fan. The curse had been broken and I didn’t care if the Red Sox ever won again (I sure didn’t want them to become like the Yankees who seemed to win every year) As far as I was concerned, there was no need ever to play another Major League baseball game again. I never followed baseball seriously after that and I am happy that the desire to do so is now gone.
My feelings about the Red Sox are not typical of sports fans, nor are they typical of my experience with other sports such as college basketball or football. To me and most fans, sports is like money: the more you win the more you want. I can name team after team, Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State (and yes, UConn) whose fans “have” so many championships that they don’t know what to do with them all. They just know they want more. But now I have found myself wanting more the championships. More than what sports can give me. It’s time for me to be a Jesus fanatic because when Jesus won the victory, His victory was satisfying. Sports don’t benefit me but Jesus’ victory benefits me completely with forgiveness of sins. What sports team can promise that? Not even Notre Dame can promise forgiveness of sins. And unlike Notre Dame or any other sports team, Jesus doesn’t have to go back year after year to try to win again – he did it once and for all, and it was enough.
I’ve tried to think of why I and so many other people (mostly men) enjoy sports so much. There is much about sports that is redeemable. I’ve mentioned a few stories already that make for great “good vs. evil” drama. When we know the stories behind the teams, it makes each game even more meaningful. I think men love to watch sports because it fires up something in their spirit that God created. There is something in a man’s being that longs for a battle, a competition, and a champion. Since most of us do not charge daily into battle (although many are literally fighting for our country as I write), watching sports provides an outlet for us men to satisfy our need for competition. But we have to be careful not to try to use sports to fill our spiritual needs that they were not meant to fill. Only Jesus can satisfy those needs.
Having not seen or read about any sports this week has put my heart at rest. I really feel a sense of freedom that I didn’t even know I was missing. I have much more time now that I can spend with my family and invest in our future. Will I ever watch a football or basketball game again? I hope so, but I don’t know. Perhaps a sports addiction is like alcoholism – one drink and you’re back to the addiction. I hope that’s not the case. I hope that someday I can casually watch a football game or basketball game without living or dying based on the outcome. Because I know that following sports cannot give life but in some cases can bring about a spiritual death. There is too much at stake in my own heart to be ruled by a game. It’s time for God to rule my heart and for me to follow His lead.
Derm Dad Guest Post: “I’m not home yet. This is not where I belong”
Derm Dad’s Journal Entry – 11 November 2012
For some reason, I have not wanted to journal lately. But there is so much going on in life now, that I really feel compelled. A few weeks ago, during our open sharing time at church, I shared the latest insight that I felt the Lord was showing me regarding Everett. I was reading in Isaiah about King Hezekiah who was one of the rare good kings of Israel. He had fallen ill and Isaiah approached him and told him to put his things in order because he was going to die. Hezekiah then appealed to the Lord and pleaded that God save his life because he was a good king and did what God desired. God did spare him and added 15 years to his life. But unfortunately, during those fifteen years Hezekiah had a son named Manasseh who became one of the most wicked kings of all time, leading Israel to sin. When people ask, “why do bad things happen to good people?” the reason is that God knows what’s going on and is in control. What may seem bad to us may have a more eternal purpose. It may have seemed bad that Hezekiah was going to die, but it would have spared Israel the reign of a wicked king had he died when God originally intended. What are 15 years of extra life in view of eternity?
My life application of this lesson pertains to Everett and his soul. What if God knew that Everett was going to rebel from Him and be lost and headed to hell? If he now is not able to understand and make the decision to follow Jesus, I believe God will save him just like he would a child who dies before he is of an accountable age. I would gladly take care of Everett and all his possible handicaps throughout his life knowing that he will go to heaven rather than have him be “normal” and be condemned to hell. Having said that, I certainly do hope and pray that Everett will be able to make a decision for Jesus when he is older. But if he doesn’t, I know he will be in Heaven with Jesus.
Reading the story of Hezekiah and relating it to Everett’s situation also begs the question “should we not have let the neurosurgeons save Everett’s life, that he would have been better off dying?” I believe that we did the right thing in praying for God to save Everett and allowing the doctors to intervene. My number one role as father is to protect my children. We don’t know how Everett will be cognitively, but we know what has happened has a Godly purpose. He is working that purpose through Everett and through our family daily. Although we do not know how Everett’s story will end, we do, however, know how the story of Hezekiah ends, and it’s not with Mannaseh. The story ends with God using the lineage of Hezekiah through Mannaseh to Joseph, the vessel whom God chose to be the legal (but not physical) father and guardian of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ (see Matthew 1). God definitely uses bad situations for good.
Moving on to current events, our unsustainable economy which demands continuous growth, government overspending, and crippling debt seems like it is about to crash big time. The news media is calling it the “fiscal cliff.” In January, one trillion dollars in cuts are supposed to take place, equally distributed among the department of defense and entitlement programs. The thought is that if these cuts are allowed to go through, it will send our already-recessed economy into a tailspin, driving up unemployment and unknown other bad consequences. Unfortunately, the alternative is to borrow more money and further enslave us to our lenders. It is a no-win situation that I think Mitt Romney would have been able to handle better than the current president, but I don’t think he would have made enough of a difference either. The situation has become too large to fix and the government isn’t capable of fixing anything anyway.
We as a family are considering what to do to prepare ourselves for the worst-case scenario. The way we are viewing it is that we need to be able to survive if all power is lost to our household and the food supply to grocery stores is cut off. Would we have enough food or a way to cook it? If food is scarce (because our cities rely on importing food from far away), how will we eat? Will people be fighting to get what little food is available? One of the things we are considering is how we can grow/raise our own food. Unfortunately, we do not yet know where we will be living next summer when I finish residency. There is a chance that we could return to Connecticut where we already own a home in downtown Mystic. We love our house and have been looking forward to returning at some point. Nicole and I have lots of remodel ideas that we can’t wait to get started on. But the question is, does our house on in Mystic have what we would need if there were a total collapse of the economy and food were scarce? It has a wood stove that would allow us to heat our home in the winter without needing oil delivered. All cooking appliances require electricity, however. The wood stove is not set up to cook food on. If we were desperate, we could use our fireplace to hang a kettle like they did in the old days. What about growing our own food? We could probably set up a garden that would provide a good amount of vegetables and chickens which would give us eggs and occasionally meat. A beehive would be nice for honey and other things like beeswax. But what about milk and all the dairy products (yogurt, kefir, cheese) that give us good nutrition? We don’t have enough pasture to sustain a cow, even a miniature Dexter cow. Maybe we could have a goat or two, but even then, I think we would have to go in with our neighbors who have more land (pasture) than we do. Which brings me to another point, the community that we have on Library Street is wonderful and it would be hard to find better neighbors. Nevertheless, we are considering looking for a place that has 5+ acres so that we could start a farm. There are certain financial concerns that would come with buying a new house plus the transaction cost of selling an old house may not make this idea feasible. Nevertheless, I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of a self-sustaining farm but I’ve never considered myself the farming type. However, if the alternative is starving to death, then I think I could bring myself to doing some manual labor. Nicole seems to think that she would be up for it, although I have my doubts that she would have the time and energy to manage a farm with all the domestic responsibilities she currently has.
As the leader of the family, I know that ultimately it is my responsibility to decide what we should do. I know that we need to trust in the Lord as our ultimate supplier and according to His word, “He will supply all our needs.”
Last night we had dinner at the home of our friends from church. Every time they meet, they share a brief word, sing a song or two, and pray. I was asked to share last night and I shared from II Peter 1, which states that God has given us “everything we need for life and godliness.” That’s it– we have everything we NEED. We may not have everything we want but we have everything we need. Unfortunately, this does not solve my dilemma of whether to buy more land or stick with what we’ve got in Mystic, but it gives me the right perspective as I seek the Lord in the matter. I have a recent hit Christian pop song going through my head that summarizes it well. The chorus goes like this “All I know is I’m not home yet. This is not where I belong. Take this world and give me Jesus. This is not where I belong.” Ultimately our home is in heaven. Our hearts need to be where our home is regardless of what happens to us in this temporal world.
Derm Dad Guest Post: My Kidsanity Workout
Here’s another awesome post from my Handsome Hubby a.k.a. Derm Dad.
One of the common side-effects of marriage, and especially family life with kids, is getting out of shape and gaining weight. It is often a matter of priorities. In order to spend enough time with the family, men have less time to themselves. One of the first activities to be sacrificed is exercise. Since many of us find it too difficult to modify our intake to adjust for our lower energy output, we gain weight. Some men resign themselves to an expanding waistline while others vow to fight it, only to find the pounds packing on anyway. Very few are able to maintain a pre-family level of fitness long-term. Unfortunately, I am not one of the select few as I have gained a few pounds and have had to size-up my trousers over the years. However, I have been able to maintain some sort of fitness level thanks to a fitness program designed by me, a Dad, that can help convert family time to fitness time.
My program is called Kidsanity. Like P90X and Insanity, my program involves cross-training calisthenics-type activities that are available in a home setting and don’t require special equipment or gym memberships. But unlike these popular programs, Kidsanity gets your kids involved so that fitness and family time can be one in the same.
The first requirement is to have a kid. The best ages are probably between 1 and 5 years old. It may work for older kids too, but I have no experience with that since mine are still young. Saturday mornings are great for the Kidsanity workout. When the kids wake up it’s time for you to get up and start your workout. It’s important not to let your kids wake up your wife because this is an opportunity for you to serve her by letting her sleep-in, if possible. The first activity that I typically start off with is the toddler-assisted push-up. Caution: if you have back or neck problems, you may want to consider skipping this exercise. Have your toddler lie on your back when you are in the down position. Make sure they’re as far forward as possible without being on your neck, which could cause undue strain. I make sure my toddler keeps legs on-board and holds tightly to my chest instead of choking me. For me, it requires a good effort to do 15-20 push-ups.
Next up, the run. Make sure you have a good jogging stroller with tires sufficiently inflated. Having to push a child-laden stroller takes extra energy. Unfortunately, it will require a modification of your running form somewhat as you cannot use your arms to pump and your stride may be shortened. Note that efficiency is not the goal in this exercise – burning the calories while spending time with family is what you are after. If you can’t go very fast that’s ok, you’re still getting the benefit. When you plan your run, pick a kid’s play park to stop midway through the run. This will serve two purposes. First, it will motivate your child to actually want to go running with you. Second, it will allow you to do some strength training in the middle of your aerobic activity. Take advantage of the outdoors to teach your children as you run. For example, my daughter learned what contrails were before she was three years old because we could see them clearly in the sky during our runs. Unfortunately, teaching while running does require a certain level of fitness as it is not always easy to carry on a conversation with your toddler as you’re huffing and puffing behind the stroller. On many occasions it was all I could do to blurt out the words “No more questions” in between gasps of air.
When you get to the park be creative about how you can use this time to your fitness advantage. The temptation of course is to rest while your toddler hits the jungle gym. Try to keep up with them so you can benefit from the exercise too. For example, my daughter likes to climb up a spiral pole to the top of the slide. After spotting her in case she falls and providing continuous encouragement about making sure she has at least one foot and one hand secure at all times as she climbs, I head over to the fireman’s pole to scale it upwards. Using only my arms, I climb the pole to the top of the slide where I join my daughter in a race down the double slide. It is probably the equivalent of doing 4-5 pull-ups. Every time she goes to the top of the slide (whether it be by climbing the spiral pole or taking one of the stairways), I take the fireman’s pole to give me an upper body workout. After about 10-15 minutes at the park, we head back home for breakfast with mom. If I am extra motivated, I will do another set of toddler-assisted push-ups when I get back, although I usually get the complaint that I am too hot and sweaty at that point.
Other exercises that can be done throughout the day involve wrestling with your kids. At our house, we call it “pile-driver” which was so named because my daughter used to jump on me in a way similar to the pile-driver moves of the old WWF wrestlers. Having a 30-pound toddler use your gut as a trampoline is a nice ab workout. Taking a baby and tossing him in the air 10 times will also give you a nice burn. A few sets of that will give you a good shoulder/upper chest work-out.
There are many ways you can get your kids involved in your own customized Kidsanity workout. All it requires is a little motivation and a little creativity. What do you do to involve your kids in your workouts? Share your ideas in the comments.
You can read all of Derm Dad’s guest posts here.
Derm Dad Guest Post: Pizza Fridays
This is a guest post from my Handsome Hubby a.k.a. Derm Dad.
Pizza Fridays – The story behind the tradition
As a little boy, not unlike many other boys, my favorite food was pizza. My mother would occasionally make it for our family and sometimes we would have it at a restaurant. But that wasn’t often enough for me. I wanted more pizza. So when I was nine years old, my mother agreed to teach me how to make pizza. That way whenever I wanted pizza, and I was willing to make it for the family, we could have it. This was before the days of ready-made crust in the refrigerated section of the grocery store, so I had to make everything from scratch, except for the tomato sauce which was typically from a jar. My goal each time I made pizza was to do everything without any help. However, I frequently remember my mom bailing me out whenever the dough got a tear in it and I was too frustrated to patch it up. It soon became a tradition for me to make pizza for the family every Friday evening while watching Buck Rogers on television. The ingredients that seemed to mark the flavor of my early pizza days was the Ragu spaghetti sauce and fresh herbs from my mom’s garden, usually basil and oregano. My mom would always say “This pizza is the BEST EVER.” She still says that every time she has my homemade pizza.
Adele makes a surprisingly good sous chef.
Making my own pizza opened the door for me to enjoy other types of foods. For example, I never liked peppers and onions before I made my own pizza, but since these are two things that are ubiquitous on pizzas with lots of toppings, I quickly started to like them. It also helped me branch out into other types of recipes. First, I stuck with Italian. I modified the pizza recipe slightly by adding ricotta cheese, folding the dough over the top, and putting the sauce on the outside to make calzone. I learned how to make meatballs, lasagna and even the Italian dessert cannolis. But pizza was always the dish I would go back to as a favorite. In high school, my favorite pizza was Pizza Hut pan pizza. There was something about the thick, greasy, crunchy crust with all the toppings that put me in gastronomical heaven. I would often go to Pizza Hut with my best friends Jay and Kent in Willimantic, CT with the ambition of us each, individually, eating an entire medium specialty pan pizza. I don’t think any of us ever quite pulled it off, but I seem to remember my friend Kent coming the closest when he ate seven of eight pieces. Since I liked Pizza Hut pan pizza so much, I would try to emulate it at home when I made my own pizza. I thought the key to achieving the signature pan pizza was the thick iron pans that they used at Pizza Hut. One time, on our way back from Maine, my parents and I stopped at a Pizza Hut in Brunswick. We asked the waitress if we could buy a pan from them. Just when it looked like the deal was going to go through, the manager backed out and I didn’t get my pan. Instead I had to come up with my own style of pizza that I enjoyed just as much. I had a variety of cooking receptacles including a deep-dish pan, a shallow one with holes in it, and a pizza stone.
Fowl on a pizza! yum! (Nicole’s mom with newborn Everett)
For years I tried to make thick pizza I guess as a by-product of my affinity for the pan pizza. It wasn’t until shortly after I got married, at the age of 33, that I started making thin-crust pizza. That was also the time when I started getting creative with my ingredient choice. Up until then, I was always opposed to putting chicken on pizza, feeling that “fowl” did not belong on my pies. When I learned that the history of pizza was a peasant food consisting of old bread and leftovers, I decided that I would not limit what I put on my pizza as long as the flavors complemented each other. Like stir fry in the Asian community, curry rice in the Indian community, and Jambalaya down south, pizza would be a delicious means for me to use up leftovers. I’ve used such wild ingredients as beets, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, mandarin oranges with Chinese mushrooms and okra. Most of the combinations have been successful, although a few of them I would not repeat. Nicole’s favorite is barbecued chicken with barbecue sauce (instead of red sauce), garlic mashed potatoes, and dollops of yogurt. Lately it seems like I can’t make a pizza without caramelized onions and bacon.
Adele enjoying a simple cheese pizza.
My lovely wife honored me in my love for pizza by getting me additional equipment for one of my birthdays — a pizza rocker knife and a dough-docker for aerating the dough. She tolerated many a smoky Friday night consisting of mad dashes to the smoke detector with a kitchen towel swinging around like a sling to clear the smoke. When I finally got a grill, at 37 years old, I decided to take my skills outdoors. That would eliminate the smoke from the house and keep the heat down during the summer. At first, I decided to use a 15 x 15” pizza grill stone. With the very hot surface of the stone, the crust would quickly burn if I was not careful. I could not precook the crust because it would be black by the time the toppings cooked. Instead, I had to make the pizza and put it all on the stone at once with a pizza peel coated with cornmeal. I learned that if it took me too long to make the pizza on the peel, the oil would soak through the dough (or work its way over the edge and underneath) and would not slide off the peel onto the stone. I have had several disasters of pizzas rolled up unevenly on the stone because it wouldn’t slide off the peel. Finally, I decided to try pizza the Bobby Flay way – put a heavily oiled dough directly onto the grate of the grill. I had always hesitated to do this because I was afraid the pliable dough would dip down between the grates and fall into the flames. To my delight, this did not happen. As long as the grill is hot enough, it bakes so quickly that it maintains its shape and can be removed from the grill (with some care and a big spatula helping it onto the peel). I keep the dough on the grill for about 1.5 minutes before I flip it and put the sauce and toppings on. My wife’s help is essential at this point because I can only have the pizza on for another 2 minutes before it gets burned. Time is of the essence because I need to get the toppings and cheese on with enough time for the cheese to melt evenly. It is a high stress event but the rewards are worth it.
my helper holds the timer
bacon, caramelized onions, and OKRA!
The dough recipe is the same recipe that I use for bread. It is a freshly-milled soaked grain recipe given to me by my wife a few years ago. I won’t go into the details of why it is soaked (ask my wife for the reasons for our unusual cooking methods), but it does take more than 24 hours before it is ready to go. After making a large batch of dough in our Kitchen Aid mixer, I divide it into eight balls which I then freeze for future pizza crusts. The night before we want pizza, I take a bag out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator. Three to four hours before making the pizza, I pull it out of the refrigerator and place it on the counter to warm and rise.
beets, basil and squash from the CSA
The latest family pizza craze is really a spin off of my grilled pizza. I use the same dough but instead of piling on toppings and cheese, I grill just the dough making my version of an Indian Naan bread. My family can then use it, as they do in India, as a utensil to eat vegetables or even meat that are prepared separately (often as leftovers too). I am still perfecting this technique and have now added fresh minced garlic (about 6-7 cloves) and knead it completely into the dough right before I roll it out to be grilled. My wife absolutely loves it. That makes me happy because lately my wife has been off breads which has left me craving it. Now that we both have a bread we like, we have found a happy compromise.
You can read all of Derm Dad’s guest posts here.
