So Tuesday, they closed the schools and sent everyone home…. It wasn’t snowing or icing yet… so, we opened the office and waited for the snow to come.. While waiting for the snow, my Uncle from NYC was driving back to New York and got caught in the blizzard.. so he stopped at my parents house and then surprised me by visiting me at the clinic!!
I was so excited to see him, I haven’t seen him in about 6 years…
SOOOOO, about an hour later it started snowing, so we called our patients that were left, and explained to them that we were closing for the weather, and called the ones for Wednesday and rescheduled them incase the storm was as bad as it was supposed to be…
So we all went back to my parents house for chili…
Then my uncle and I got to talking.. and we decided he should stay the next day… so we made Pizza Dough.. after a long line of begging and pleading done on my part… He agreed to give me the family recipe… NOT before I swore on my life.. that I would never give it out….So we made it together..
We stayed at my parents house until about almost 2 in the morning.. and went home through the snow….
I dreamed of Pizza all night long.. and bread and pastries.. It was a fattening dream… But, I awoke bright and early to run outside and see that…. It didn’t snow as hard as I thought it would, but, Still there was snow on the ground.. and I was wondering if I had to go to work.. when I watched a tractor trailer slide down the road past my house… then I grinned.. because I knew… I had a snow day.. and even better than that…. a snow day filled with baking and family… 🙂
 |
| Morning show off my porch.. |
So, about 9 I roll up to my parents house… I left my house at 8….. and they live 5 miles away….
the road was about pure ice… I slid a few times on the way there.. but I was driving about 30mph…
I came across one of the sheriff’s I knew, stopped for him and he told me that the hill I was about to go down was all ice… so I went down the middle of the road like 5mph.. and then back up the hill and came to another Officer I knew and he told me the road was closed ahead and that I needed to go around.. but, I was so close to my parents street.. I told him that’s where I was going and he let me through, I passed by a jack knifed tractor trailer and checked out the damage.. and rolled up onto my parents street… that’s why it took about an hour to get there…. As I got to my parents house, my dad was leaving because he got a fire call to go out to the end of his street and assist…. he took my truck up there…
but enough for that side story…. When I got there, for one of the first times in my life.. I showed my uncle how to do something in the kitchen.. I made biscuits… and we had that for brunch with eggs and sausage.. and then started on making bread.. bread that needs to rise for 18 hours before you bake it..
 |
| My uncle Laughing at Southern delicacies |
I had a in detail crash course in gluten, yeast interactions with sugar and textures of dough and all things of the culinary greatness of baking bread…. and then we decided to head to Columbia to try to get fresh mozzarella and saparito tomatoes, olives and all other things we needed to make Pizza…
we made it down there, the Highways weren’t bad.. and they finally came and sanded the roads.. so we were pretty much in the clear there…
We got back and it was a pizza Frenzy..
 |
| Candied Bacon and Cherry Pizza… Drizzled with honey |
 |
| Caramelized Mushroom and red onion pizza |
 |
| Traditional Caramelized onion Sicilian pie |
 |
| Rosemary focaccia bread |
 |
| The Dinner Table… |
After another long night, I awoke bright and early to get my parents by 8am, To finish the bread!
We put the bread in the oven.. and 50 minutes later. we had warm Rye bread.. waiting to be cut into…
and OHHH MY GOD… you have no idea what the hell this stuff tasted like..
the crust was thick and crunchy.. and the texture was off the chain…
 |
| Rye bread after taking it out of the oven |
Then I was supervised as I made my favorite Raisin bread… with a twist.. We added pecans to it.. and I was left with explicit directions on how to make it in 18 hours…
I woke up this morning at 5:48 to start on this bread…. and about 7am..
and this is my first “old world” style bread I have ever made… My uncle learned in Italy…
and here is what we had for breakfast.. 🙂
