Vacation pizza is the best kind of pizza

Trader Joe's garlic & herb dough
Homemade tomato/pizza sauce
Swiss-Cheddar smoked cheese
Olives
Fresh Tomato
Red Peppers
Kidney Beans
Onion
Crushed red peppers

yum yum yum.

July 1 - BBQ 'za

Today we triumphed. What was almost a failure turned into a complete success within minutes.

After careful planning and what I thought would work perfectly, we attempted to bbq pizza on a charcoal grill. After trying to light the bbq for maybe 45 minutes (and failing miserably) we reluctantly decided to bake the pizza. I felt defeated. However, after realizing it was in fact, lit and hot, Kristin & I put our pizzas on the grill next to the bread to make bruscetta. It heated the toppings really fast, possibly too fast. It had a completely different taste to any pizza you bake in the oven (obvies). I can't really describe it but I made everybody try it to see what I was talking about. It was just, different. But better than a normal pizza by far. The bruscetta also took on a different flavor, totes next level. We triumphed. I can't wait to do it again.

Pictured below: bbq pizza with Trader Joe's herb dough, olives, artichoke hearts & kidney beans, and bruscetta. I should have taken a picture of the grill marks as you can't really tell that it was bbqed.

03/18/07 - Dinner

We arrived at about 7:30, and left at 9:30. Two hours. This was a debacle. It was the 9/11 of dinners. Rebecca and I get there, Allison and Scott are arguing about a bike lock or something. And we wait for 15 or 20 minutes for the table. We get seated, probably around 8-ish nothing out of the ordinary so far. Order, everything's still cool. But once 8:45 rolls around, we start to wonder 'didn't we order food?' Yeah, we did order food, that's right. We got the salad and breadsticks we ordered, but beyond that we were left to stare longingly at other tables' bountiful pizzas. Kristin was also supposed to get a salad, but she never did.

At 8:56 the waitress comes to us and proudly declares "I heard you should have you food in 4 minutes!" I tell her I'm timing her - not joking. Fifteen minutes later no food. Seventeen minutes later, the food starts to trickle out. First it's Rebecca's baked eggplant thing. Looked like mush. Then it's Alex's slices. Then everyone elses. Lost in all of this are my slices. "Don't worry, they're coming," the waitress tells me. They don't come. She comes back with one slice and says my meal is free. She asks what my other slice was, Sausage. A different waitress comes back with the wrong slice, that I think someone takes quickly. I'm still left with one slice. Eventually my slice comes.

As I'm trying to finish up and get the hell out of there, someone is trying Rebecca's Eggplant Bake and extracts a sizable piece of parchment paper. WTFWTFWTFW FA:SLKJDHALJHWTF IS GOING ON HERE. I can't believe this. This is the worst experience ever. The whole meal is free and we leave. Absurd. Ridiculous. Unfathomable. Ludicrous. Amazing. Retarded. Confounding (yes, confounding). etc etc etc.

The love affair with Telegraph Lanesplitters is over. We even knew two people in the kitchen! One came out and talked to us and we asked if it was busy that night and he said 'no not really.' What? Seriously? Then why did it take so long? At least lie to us to make us feel better. As Allison said, this place has become too cool. A meeting place for mongrels.

3/17/07 - Dinner

PIzza My Heart is a decent pizzeria. Top slices (though soggy sometimes) but it's really about their collection of vintage longboards hanging from the ceiling. I want to steal them for a day, go surf, and return them later at night. Tudors, Takayama, Augusts...all priceless, pristene, unridden logs.

Oh, and I caught dad sneaking a slice of pesto with pine nuts under the 'stache. There wasn't a stray bit of cheese, pesto, or tomato sauce to be found in his whiskers. He's been doing the 'stache dodge for the past 39 years and rarely does one capture the majesty of a seasoned veteran in action. And, no, he doesn't use product in there; no waxing or brushing either. That thing is a free for all, untrimmed, au natural, and most importantly, Epic.

03/06/07 - Lunch

Lunch!