Quan Li Great Caricature Artist Near Times Square

I was walking towards Times Square heading to Port Authority to take the bus home from NYC. I stopped to watch the caricature artists. I had a little bit of time until I had to catch the bus. I noticed one man that drew a great caricature of someone else. I asked the man if he could do draw a caricature of me holding a pizza and to not include all the age lines on my face. Quan Li drew a great caricature of me in a short amount of time. Quan Li is a great artist in my opinion. I was greatly pleased in the caricature he drew of me. I am going to hang the caricature at my small pizzas stand. If Quan Li ever sees this post, I hope he gets in contact with me. Thanks so much Quan Li!! Quan used different charcoals to do the caricature.

Norma

New Sign for market since the one ripped that Dave made for me

The sign that my friend Dave made me for outside of market ripped (the paper sign part was made on butcher paper) this past Tuesday from the windy conditions outside.  I painted both sides of the sign white and did try to paint the sign somewhat like Dave made the sign in the first place, but since I am not an artist like Dave is I can not draw like he does.  The two-sided sign is one heavy bugger to move for me.

I purchased a few Italian tomato plants, some different peppers and two basil plants to plant outside when the danger of frost is over.

Norma

Some Detroit Style Pizzas made Tuesday

These are photos of some of the Detroit style pizzas that were made Tuesday, 2 pictures of the regular metal spatula I use to take the Detroit style pizzas out of the steel pan (included is the metal spatula without the wood handle that I tried).  The metal spatula without the wooden handle seemed to work better I think because it is a little thinner.  I want to look and see if I can find a thinner spatula to made sure the caramelized edges are loose before removing the pizza from the pan.  A different Detroit style pizza (Steve’s Smokey Joe) was made yesterday.  It had applewood smoked bacon fresh from market (baked in the oven), skin brushed with garlic herb infused olive oil,  AMPI mild white cheddar, applewood smoked Gouda cheese, blend of mozzarella, garlic Alfredo sauce and a sprinkling of Greek oregano on top.  A customer ordered a 4-square mushroom and pepperoni pizza.  Another Detroit style pizza had cut up basil placed on the skin, cheddar and blend of mozzarellas, Mesquite chicken and fire roasted tomatoes (Marco Pollo).

I forgot to take photos of the pizza made with the frozen dough ball, but it didn’t rise as much in height in the bake, but the bottom did brown and the edges did caramelize.  I don’t think frozen dough balls are going to work for this style of pizza.

These Detroit style pizzas were made with the dough I had mixed at market with the regular hydration I have been using.

Norma

More Detroit style pizzas from yesterday at market

I am still trying different dressings for the Detroit style pizzas at market.  I tried a sausage meatball with roasted red peppers, regular sliced thin mushrooms and Greek oregano yesterday.  To me the mushrooms didn’t seem to water-off too much and they seemed to bake a decent color in the longer bake of a Detroit style pizza.  That pizza was made from one of the dough balls that was stored in a plastic bag.  The first picture is what the dough balls in the plastic bags looked like yesterday morning.  The second to the last pizza of the day was also made with one of the dough balls in the plastic bag.  It seems like the plastic bags work out okay for fermenting the Detroit style dough balls.  I saved one of the dough balls in the plastic bags to see if it is frozen and then defrosted next week if there is any possibility that it will work okay in the tempering period and the final bake.  I sure don’t know how a dough with this high amount of yeast will work out the next week if it is frozen.

I also was watching yesterday somewhat how these Detroit style pizza bake.  I want to try and understand if not using enough cheese on the edges makes the final pizza puffier in the edges.  I noticed that while watching one Detroit style pizza bake closer that the edges of the pizza do first rise in the bake and then the middle of the pizza rises later.  I guess that is from the perimeter of the edges of the steel pan getting hotter faster, but am not sure.  I also purposely didn’t apply sauce to the edges on the one pizza with half cheese and sauce on one side and cheese sauce and pepperoni on the other side.  It can be seen how the edges without the sauce does seem to puff up better when no sauce is applied.

I also just tried my regular pepperoni on top of the Detroit style pizzas yesterday on a few pizzas and my regular pepperoni does work out okay in the longer bake time.

I am lucky that I can purchase just about any fresh veggies at market to try for different dressings, but soon I will have to decide on what dressings to use regularly.

I also tried out a 3 meat pizza with veggies yesterday.  The 3 meats were sliced meatballs, spicy cappicola ham and salami.  That worked out okay too.

The tempering time in the Hatco Unit at 45 minutes seems about right at about 104 degrees F.  I don’t know if I up the temperature some if the doughs will temper faster though.

More customers were introduced to Detroit style pizzas yesterday and from the opinions I heard they were favorable that customers do like a Detroit style pizza when they taste one.

Norma

Garlic Alfredo sauce on Lehmann dough pizzas now with veggies 8/2012

I decided this week I am going to try a sell my regular pizzas with a different topping, in addition of what I am now making. Since I already make Greek style pizzas with veggies, I thought I would just used the same veggies and use garlic Alfredo sauce as the base, instead of tomato sauce. I have no idea why, but when I made the different dressing pizza with the garlic Alfredo sauce the rims of the pizzas became bigger and they seemed to brown different on the rims. The only problem of trying to offer a new dressing on my pizzas is I am not sure if I can keep up with trying to offer them and also how my space in my pizza holding cabinet will work out. I am curious if anyone knows why when a different sauce is used why the rims would be different when using the same dough? The pictures of the different dressings pizzas where taken one in mid morning and one in the late afternoon, so how the dough fermented I wouldn’t think would make the difference. Last pictures are of one pizza made after the different dressing pizza late in the afternoon.

Norma

New Sign for outside Area #4 at Root's Market-Norma's Pizza 6/22/2012

Dave the one maintenance man at market made a really neat sign to tell of the food vendors in Area # 4. Our end of the building is one of the slowest for customers in the whole market. I know because I was in Area #2 for a long while. I talked to the manager at market many times and asked him how we can get more customer traffic back in our area. I do hang a banner across the back of my van on market day that says fresh hot pizza and made-up signs for the 9 bulletin boards around market, but customers usually go on their normal routes and don’t vary a lot from them. The manager at Root’s Market did ask Dave to make the sign. Our parking lot behind my pizza stand does hold many cars and vehicles, but there are also a lot of other parking lots at market. It also doesn’t help customer traffic that the man beside my stand doesn’t want anyone coming in the door beside my stand. He puts up a no exit, not enter sign. There have been some disagreements between me and the man beside me about not letting customers come in that door. I pay for half the space at that door and he pays for the other half space. There are no other access doors at market that are blocked, expect for ones that go directly into vendors stands.


Thanks Dave for the great signs!! I sure appreciated the sign! :)  Dave showed me the sign today and they will be there Tuesday.

Norma