Sure, his pieces aren’t everyone’s cup of tea (you certainly wouldn’t find one in our apartment). However, what surely can’t be argued about is the fact that Mr. Ross was one of a kind character on public television who developed a “formula” for producing quick oil paintings of landscapes.
What he was probably just as well known for, were his commentaries, along the lines of (try to imagine a calm, soothing voice) “hey it’s your world, you can draw a tree here if you want to, do you want to? let’s draw a happy little tree right here…, let’s give the tree a friend, everybody needs a friend”…and so on. We cracked up over his monologues so hard we had tears in our eyes and our sides started hurting. What was this guy smoking?
Craig and Dagi had invited us over to join them and a bunch of friends for a Bob Ross inspired Sunday brunch – in a very comfy atmosphere, a (I kid you not) Bob Ross studio and (go figure!) plenty of delicious food. To coax and pass the fierce bouncer, we brought mini pizza, spinach-tartlets and blueberry-waffles…
The hosts had done an amazing job in organizing and setting up the brunch buffet, leaving little to be wished for. From a to-die-for-cheese-platter, various tarts and quiches, prosciutti, fruit salad, little extravaganzas such as hot fig mustard and on top the best “Bircher Müsli” I have ever had (Dagi, you promised me the recipe… ;). Did I mention the fantastic champagne? Oh boy! Can’t have brunch in Bavaria without plenty of “Weißwürst und Brez’n” to go with it, so we had those, too. I could have eaten all day!! Food happiness all-around!
Fun things: His Taekwondo friends made Craig (successfully!) break some wood in front of all of us. Thinking about it again, I believe to have seen a few tiny pearls of sweat on his forehead ;)
A new talent is proving his skills and may -with a little refinement- become the new Bob Ross. Way to go Carol!
Mini pizza
Lightly mix fresh yeast, sugar and lukewarm water. Allow to rise for about 30 minutes.
Put the flour and the salt in a separate mixing bowl, add the olive oil, make a well in the center and add the yeast mixture. Knead by hand or use your kitchen mixer (dough hook) and if necessary add more flour to keep the dough from sticking, until it becomes smooth and elastic. Dust with a little flour, cover with a clean dish towel and let rise in a warm place again for roughly an hour.
Punch down and knead dough by hand for about a minute, roll out thinly, dusting the board with flour as necessary. How thin, really depends on how you like it best: thin and crisp or a little thicker…up to you. Use a cookie cutter to stamp out your mini pizza shapes (we used diameter of 8cm/3inch).
Place them on your baking tray, lined with parchment paper (I prefer to use a pizza stone, but for the many little ones a good ol’ tray makes handling them much easier). Arrange your toppings on each individual pizza and bake in the preheated oven for 5-8 min. at 220 °C/430 °F. For the toppings, we’ve tried the following combinations: mascarpone gorgonzola – pears – honey (our favorite), goat cheese – figs – pine nuts, feta – roasted bell-peppers – green olives – pine nuts, pesto – salame – yellow cherry tomatoes – parmesan – fresh thyme.
Enjoy hot or cold.
Info: The recipe for the pizza dough used here isn’t any different from what I use when making our regular sized pizza. The time the dough needs to rise is key, so taking a shortcut will likely be at the expense of quality. Other than that there’s not much mystery in it and it certainly doesn’t require rocket science to make an amazing pizza!
Mini Pizza
Recipe source: own creation
Prep time: 45min., dough rising 1,5 h, baking: 5-8 min. (220 °C/430 °F)
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Ingredients (yields about 22-26 mini pizza):
15g fresh yeast
3 tbsp lukewarm water
a pinch of sugar
3 tbsp olive oil
250g flour
1/4 - 1/2 tsp salt
250ml lukewarm water
toppings as desired, e.g. mascarpone gorgonzola - pears - honey (our favorite), goat cheese - figs - pine nuts, feta - roasted bell-peppers - green olives - pine nuts, pesto - salame - yellow cherry tomatoes - parmesan - fresh thyme
Feb 23rd,
2006
I could hear Bob's voice narrating the whole post! What a nice gathering, great food and great company!