Tomato-Pepperoni Soup

     Page One Hundred Thirty-Three.
     So, I'm still dog-sitting Archie the dog. One week down, two to go. The tomatoes in the backyard are taking over the city and I'm trying to eat them or give them away as fast as I can, but there are just sooooo many of them I finally had to get serious.
     I picked all the ripe Roma (plum) tomatoes and cooked them up, or cooked them down, however you want to phrase it.
     I sauteed some carrots, onions, celery, garlic, parsnips and red pepper. Simultaneously, I parboiled and peeled the tomatoes. I then added the peeled tomatoes to the vegetables, then put in some some pepper, basil, oregano, sage, thyme, bay leaf, anchovy pates, beef concentrate and sliced pepperoni. That all cooked for a long time. Then, I removed all the vegetables, leaving in the pepperoni and viola! tomato-pepperoni soup. It was just about one of the best things I've ever eaten. It's basically just pepperoni pizza minus the dough and cheese. In fact, if eaten with some cheesy focaccia bread, the mouth experience would probably be quite similar to pizza. But this was substantially reduced fat. And it was just too tasty to be true.

Frech Bread Pizzas

     Page Ninety-Three.
     I'll tell you what ALWAYS sells when trying to feed hungry teenaged boys. Fresh French Bread pizza. And they're just about the easiest things to make, too.
     Go to your favorite bakery or grocery store and purchase a couple of fresh, full-sized loaves of French bread. Also, buy a couple of cans of your preferred pizza sauce, some mozzarella cheese and whatever toppings your kids like: pepperoni, sausage, onions, mushrooms, olives, what have you. Bring the whole mess home and put everything out on your counter.
     Slice the loaves in half and the top half you'll have to level off. So, put the top half on the counter, crust side down and look to see what you'll have to carefully trim off so it sits evenly. Once that's done, just assemble everything as you like. If you go in for onions or sausage, you'll have to cook those things up. But that notwithstanding, put on the sauce, then cheese, then everything else. Place on a cookie sheet and then pop in the preheated 425 degree oven for about 13 minutes.* Viola! These things are so good it's just crazy. They're surprisingly economical, too.
     There's a very famous brand of frozen French Bread Pizza. Those are perfectly okay for a teenaged boy... until he tastes the real thing. Be prepared, once he tastes the ones that you make fresh, he'll never go back to frozen. You'll have to make these things a lot. But his birthday gift to you will be bigger. He'll still be a bi-polar teenaged boy, but he'll occasionally be a little nicer to you, when he wants these things.
    



*Trick #1: Assemble pizzas on the cookie sheet so you don't have to move them around too much prior to baking.
 Trick #2: Don't overload stuff on the bread. It'll just fall off. Use just a little of this and just a little of that. Don't worry, it'll add up.