Tag: Pizza Express

Pizza Making

An illustrated account of a pizza making event to remind folks of my existence, and of course a regular photo gallery. Everything should be back to normal email and internet wise from Monday afternoon.

My internet and email situation will be back to normal on Monday. This Sunday just gone I took part in a pizza making session for autistic adults at the King’s Lynn branch of Pizza Express. The body of this post describes the process.

FROM DOUGH TO PIZZA

Pizza making in these sessions does not start absolutely from scratch – we have preprepared dough to work with. When we get to it we have the following starting position…

an ellipsoid lump of very sticky dough surrounded by flour.

The first stage is to dust the dough (which would otherwise be too sticky to work with) with flour. Then one uses fingers to flatten out the edge of the dough, leaving a dome in the middle (at this stage the dough should be about the same size and shape as a fried egg). Next the dome has to be flattened with the palm of the hand, and then the now flat piece of dough needs to be worked on until it is roughly circular and not too different in size from the tray in which it will be cooked. It then needs to be inserted into the tray, and manipulated once in so that it covers the entire base, and there is a small rise up the side of the tray to keep all the toppings in…

The pizza base ready for the addition of the toppings.

The first addition to the base is a ladleful of tomato puree (Pizza Express do not allow for the making of ‘white pizzas’), which has to be spread out evenly using the back of a spoon…

Next come the optional toppings, the first two of which I accepted being mushrooms and olives…

Then came the meat toppings, of which I accepted pepperoni and passed on the rest…

The penultimate addition when all the optional toppings are in place is the cheese, without which of course it would not be a pizza…

Finally, for those who want it comes that classic Mediterranean flavour enhancer, oregano. For those who, like me, opted to accept this, you take it in your non-dominant hand so that you can sprinkle it evenly over your pizza with your dominant hand…

The pizza, now ready for cooking.

A few minutes later the pizza was ready for eating, and it was excellent.

The pizza, cooked and ready to be eaten.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

It is early in the year for hares to be out and about (the Lewis Carroll character is ‘The March Hare’ for a reason), but here are two in a single shot.

County Championship Action Resumes

A brief look at the resumption of the county championship, an account of a ‘Make your own pizza’ session arranged by the West Norfolk Autism Group and a photo gallery.

After a break for The Hundred and The One Day Cup the County Championship has resumed. I am following developments at The Oval where Surrey host Warwickshire (although at the moment only by way of cricinfo – I am listening to commentary on the third T20I between England and New Zealand.

THREE HALF CENTURIES FOR SURREY

Surrey are batting first, and are faring reasonably well. Ben Foakes has just become the third Surrey batter to reach 50, after an aggressive innings by Jamie Smith and much less aggressive one from Sibley, although 65 off 174 is not slow by the opener’s regular standards. I missed the morning session due having a commitment elsewhere, though it is fairly clear from what the commentators have had to say that Ed Barnard has been the best of the Warwickshire bowlers so far. Tea is now being taken, with Surrey 224-4.

MAKE YOUR OWN PIZZA

This morning the West Norfolk Autism Group had a Make Your Own Pizza session for adults, hosted by Pizza Express in King’s Lynn town centre. We started with a lump of dough which had been turned into a pizza base. This process was quite tricky, but I managed to get it done. Once the base was in the baking tray in which it would be cooked the next step was to create a barrier by elevating the edge of the base (as close to the very edge as possible). Then came the application of tomato puree, which was the one element with which I required a little assistance. Then came the selection of ingredients – in my case I said yes to mushrooms, pepperoni and olives and no to the rest (ham, chicken, two types of pepper, both too hot for my tastes, spiced beef and goats cheese), after which it was time add the mozzarella, which needed to be distributed as evenly as possible. Before the cooking there was on e more thing to do – to name our pizzas. I was very pleased with my creation and ate every scrap of it.

The pizza, ready for cooking
The cooked pizza.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A cormorant swimming in the pond nearest my house – not a regular haunt of these birds.

Links and Coins

INTRODUCTION

I have a lot of interesting links to share, and some pictures from today at work.

LOTS OF LINKS

These links cover a wide range of stories. Each link will be preceded by some accompanying text.

First up, a really good story featuring Pizza Express. Please visit samedifference and read the full story.

Next, courtesy of the canary comes this story about the UN warning the Tories that their Trade Union Bill could be in breach of international law. It certainly sinks of double standards – OK to form a government on 37% of a 66% turn out but to go on strike you need 40% all those entitled to vote to vote yes.

My third selection comes courtesy of Tax Research UK and refers to the possible nationalisation of banks, arguing that unlike in 2008 it must be a proper nationalisation this time, and the bankers cannot be left in control again.

SOME POTENTIAL IDEAS FOR MY WEBSITE

The last two links and one picture are all stuff that could soon be featuring on my London transport themed website:

From visitlondon comes this listing of “31 free things to do with kids” which has lots of potential.

The folks at disabledgo have provided their top 10 of places to visit in the London Borough of Havering.

As a segue, here is a poster advertising skating at Cheshunt, which could be a nucleus of a post on the website…

Cheshunt

SOME PICTURES FROM TODAY AT WORK