Author: samneang.sin@gmail.com

This weekend has been one of those weekend I wish I could take away all the bad things and keep only the good things. There are times where you wonder, what is a life? What happens after life? Will I see you again? Will I see her again? Will they remember me? Am I really just a grain in time? These are questions no one has really brought back from the grave (though some claim to but one is always/must be skeptical).

Despite the heartbreaking news of a dear friend, life does move on. In your mind and heart, you carry a memory of them. And you know they are surrounded by loved ones until the end, so there’s a sense of ease and acceptance.

Sadly, the news coincided with my pizza making class that I had booked a month ago (Groupon). I went with a heavy heart, unhappy, tired, and emotionally drained out. But the thing was, it turned out to be a good distraction. I enjoyed it more than I expected.

Slice is a local pizzeria that uses local and organic ingredients and boasts locally crafted ales and beers. Their Pizza 101 class is located in their Greenwich Village location. It’s a small little place that probably only seats 20 people and 4 bar seats. Cute and cozy, there was a constant stream of people coming and going despite it being the Superbowl night.

Class started promptly at 3. My friend and I ordered a ginger lemonade, which was a good start. Not fizzy at all and entirely homemade.

So what was the pizza we made? It was a honey whole wheat 10 inch personal.

Ingredients:

• 2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup white bleached flour
• Garlic salt
• Kosher salt
• Honey
• Olive oil
• Yeast
• 1 cup warm water (more, if too dry)

The flour was already prepped so we just made an indent to pour the dry ingredients (salt). Toss it around and then add the fresh yeast. You really have to work the yeast to break it up so it doesn’t clump and cause weird rising in the dough.

Here, the teacher poured in 1 cup of warm water. We really worked the dough. At one point, I ended up standing up to knead. Why exercise when one can do some arm workouts just working pizza dough?

After kneading it until the wrinkles are gone, we rolled in into one big ball, divided it into two and cleaned the wrinkled with some water. Pour some olive oil to keep the dough soft. One was put away so we could take home. The other was put on top of a stove (do not put on hot service) so that the dough rises in half an hour. Otherwise, room temperature rise takes about 2 hours.

In the meantime, we were served with complimentary merlot wine Widow’s Walk and Asian Cabbage salad with peanut sauce. I’m allergic to most nuts so they kindly gave me hummus and pita. I was starving at this point, having been unable to eat from depression (I’m one of those people who don’t eat when I am sad), so I ordered their Flight of Pizza, which is 4 small slices of their different pizzas.

As I was finishing up, the dough came out. We were told, kitty paw the dough from center out. After which we put on a rack. We added the marinara sauce (recipe is a secret) and tossed some part skim mozzarella cheese (this is the first time I will say, more cheese would have been great) (also, I didn’t know that cheese before sauce is called a Chicago style). Then a tray of toppings were passed around: barbecue chicken, chicken sausage crumble, kalamata olives, red peppers, button mushrooms, and eggplants.

When that was put away, we were served with another glass of wine! Pumphouse red wine. Considering I’m a lightweight, at this point, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to drink anymore.

The pizza cooked for 8 minutes and voila! Honey whole wheat pizza with red peppers, olives, and eggplants!

PS, they served a third glass of wine for free.

PPS, My friend made a mini pizza. The teacher named it Darrell. He was quickly munched up.