Faith, Folklore, and Friends

Making pizza..... Roll out the pizza crust to desired shape and thickness.  We like thin crust.  I have nothing against round pizza, but I like to do things 'out of the box' some days.  In other words, I couldn't find my round pizza pan. Spread with pizza sauce.  Mine is tomato paste with some Italian seasoning mixed in. Eight ounces of fresh mozzarella cheese , cut in thin slices. Cover the cheese with sauteed onion slices. Add some cooked country sausage and mushrooms. Add lots of black olives. . . and some smoked sausage. Of course, the joy of pizza is that you can put anything you want on it.  Except for the crust, I have never made the same recipe twice. Bake at 400 degrees until done...about 12-15 minutes. Yummy.  It is even better warmed up the next day.

There's no way you can make good corn bread dressing without sage. My mother never grew oregano, rosemary, or basil.  She didn't have clumps of chives or thyme.  But like most all the people we knew, she had sage growing in a garden corner.  You had to have sage to season  pork sausage and Thanksgiving dressing. This is what real sage looks like--not that powdery stuff that comes from the store.  This fresh sage is so pungent that a little goes a long way.  Two chopped leaves are plenty for a big pan of dressing.  It tastes so much better than the canned powder. This sage has been growing in a container by the garage for three years now.  We have had a hard freeze already, and it is fine.  It can be dried by picking the leaves off and storing them in a dry place, but I can see no reason to do that because it stays green all year here. I'll be happy to share a leaf with you if you want to try the real thing in your dressing to...