Last night, we made sushi. Sort of. This was the result of my first attempt –
Chotto sad, no? My poor ikura nigiri looks like a drunken salaryman sprawled on a Tokyo subway platform. Now THAT’S authentic!
At one point, I got up to get myself a drink and came back – to discover someone had taken my seat –
The great thing is that whenever I tell her to get down, she always throws me the same “Check out the crazy guy” look, then settles in and gets comfy –
Today, in my bid to try every burger on the menu, we were back at Romer’s Burger for lunch. Following up on a suggestion from actor Patrick Gilmore, SGU’s Dale Volker (who proudly lays claim to “discovering” Romer’s like he’s Hernando de Soto bragging about finding el Rio del Espiritu Santo), I started my meal with the R Tomato and Fresh Basil Soup with grilled panini cheese croutons…
And, yes, it tastes as amazing as it looks. Onto the burger. Today, I elected to go with the Wickedly Deadly Cheeseburger –
All-natural beef, plenty of cheese, red onion, Tuscan greens, tarragon Russian dressing. Good, and even though I had it with mushrooms, I still think the Magic Mushroom Burger is tops on the menu. At one point, Akemi attempted to eat an oversized olive with the utmost modesty…
I thought she looked so ridiculous that I started laughing, then choking, which got her laughing. Then she admonished me, claiming it was very rude of me to cough up a lungful of San Pellegrino in public.
We went shopping for ingredients, then went home and made pizza.
Now making pizza is like raising a child.
- In the beginning it requires all sorts of attention and coddling to the point where you seriously consider whether it’s really worth the effort.
- But late in its infancy, it’s something to be proud of.
By the way, that was my Pizza #1: Caramelized sweet onions and garlic, green pepper, jalapenos, St. Andre cheese, chevre, tomato sauce, and boar bacon.
Akemi made an excellent Margarita Pizza…
And my Pizza #2: Figs, fresh cream, buffalo mozzarella, caramelized shallots, foie gras, and white truffle oil…
All in all, a fun way to spend your day – provided your definition of fun includes burning your fingers, burning your mouth, burning your eyes, cutting yourself, waiting around impatiently for your dough to rise, using every pot, pan, and utensil in your kitchen, washing every pot, pan, and utensil in your kitchen, eating potentially undercooked dough that will sit in the pit of your stomach like a bocce ball, and realizing that pizza stones are bullshit and you should’ve just saved your money and baked your pizza on a cookie sheet.
Hey Joe
You can always gauge how much fun you had in the kitchen by how many things had to get washed. By the sounds of it you had fun indeed!
Elminster
How does Boar Bacon taste and which was your favourite of the three? I am a huge fan of the Margarita.
Love Pizza #2! Creative ingredients! I bet it tasted great!
I had fun realizing pizza stones were BS, back when I first learned what a pizza stone was and spent my money on ice cream instead.
We use very few dishes when we make pizza. Lay frozen dough ball ($1) from Sam’s Club on counter to thaw/rise. Stretch dough onto cookie sheet. Use spoon to spread canned sauce. Let 3 & 5 yr. old spread out toppings.
So, cookie sheet, spoon, pizza cutter, plates. Not many dishes, but still a huge mess when you have children throwing mozzarella around. Then again, they always make messes somewhere when I’m making dinner so we come out even.
In your bid to try every burger, are you going to try the veggie one too? Although I suppose it’s more of an “option” to the standard, rather than its own burger, so you technically wouldn’t have to…
…and not a dessert in sight. Good for you!! All three pizza’s look REALLY good, but that last pizza (with figs), oooh man that’s the one I would really want to try.
That’s a pretty good first attempt at sushi. I’m surprised you haven’t made it before.
Lulu is such a little sweetie!!
Hope you’re enjoying the long weekend!!
Have a Good One!!
Kymm
Hi Joe,
Love that last paragraph! The fig pizza, it looks delicious!
Oh, a question from Mr. Deni. This could have been asked before, so my apologies if it has. Are the Wraith ambidextrous? Can they feed from either hand?
Have a good night!
How did you get Lulu to just sit in a chair at the table? A chair is just a stepping stone up onto the table for my crazy dog. She would have been dancing on the table eating/grabing/stealing everything in sight.
My vote goes to your pizza #2. Looks delish. And, speaking of boar, we had some wonderful boar sausages for dinner this weekend. Good stuff. How is boar bacon different from regular bacon?
@B.A.G.: No need to apologize for not listing all the professions. As the wife of a 2-finger typist, I understand the need to be concise 😉 I understand the gist of what you were getting at, and just wanted to add in my 2 cents, FWIW. I totally agree with what you say… Chinese parents simply want their kids to do well in life and to live well, and in their minds, the way to achieve that is to have a good education, and to be a professional. Unfortunately, doing the kind of work that simply makes you happy (without a great deal of financial reward) is a bit of a foreign concept to most Chinese parents, as they usually tend towards the practical.
A hamburger with actual beef. Excellent. Sounds delicious. As for making the pizza from scratch, very impressive. Don’t think I could have waited for the dough to go through its life cycle before calling in for delivery from one of the myriad of pizza places.
Dog pictures are always appreciated also. So, how long did it take before you were allowed to sit down in your own chair? Just trying to figure out the pack order at the household…thanks for sharing and looking forward to the discussion on Masked.
@Deni
Yes they are as we saw in Season 3 episode 7 common ground. I believe it was when they were out in the woods Todd fed on both Genii at once.
So I was just watching “Vegas” from Atlantis and something confuses me.. I know that the Wraith have psychic abilities which are limited to reading each others minds. But as it was said “thankfully they can’t seem to read the minds of humans” so how was this Wraith able to get inside peoples minds to be really good at poker.. I mean we know that if you have Wraith DNA such as Teyla they can get inside your mind and manipulate you to an extent and even control you that’s if she connects with them first… This tactic was used by Michael to have Teyla release him from his restraints.. But other than Teyla it has never happened to regular people.. So how is this possible for this Wraith?
Your almost-California-rolls look good and I think you made a fair job with the ikura.
Mmmmmmm. Homemade pizza. Very nice indeed! They look delicious, if a bit topping heavy (your first one). Pizza stones are tricky: they don’t work unless you get them good and hot before you put the pizza on. Honestly, I usually bake my pizza on a cookie sheet dusted with cornmeal and save the pizza stone for crisping the crust when I reheat it. But that assumes that you have left-overs.
Hey! Speaking of Bill the B.A.G: I was just watching the first episodes of Dexter – is Mr. Bill the crime scene tech?
When we did pizzas in class, we just used the cast iron skillets. Putting food release and cornmeal along the bottom and sides work wonders…
it was a god day kansas city bbq beef ribs and chicago style pizza. found out that i prefer kansas city style BBQ sauce. What is your preferred BBQ sauce Joe?
You know I was thinking about how Stargate Command is below N.O.R.A.D.. Then I was thinking about SG-1 and how many times they had to evacuate.. Doesn’t that suck for the N.O.R.A.D people.. I mean having to evacuate all the time and most likely not know why.. Lol.. Kind of like in Atlantis how they had to evacuate Teyla’s people from the mainland all the time.. Except they knew why, but still.. It just kind of made me laugh. 😀
Holy moly – that burger looks delicious. I succumbed to a Big Mac today, and my stomach is not pleased. But it did like the veggie Numero Uno pizza I had yesterday. And yes I’m pigging out, it’s a holiday weekend, I deserve it. But your pizza was missing the magic ingredient…pineapple.
Since tomorrow’s a holiday, I’m taking some time to read Masked. It’s the only day I’ll have, and I’ll only be able to get through a few of the stories, but I’m really looking forward to it. When are comments due?
BAG needs to lose the scientist angle and become the plucky comic relief. Bill is hilarious!
I was wondering if Bill was in the press corp in the first season of Battlestar Galactica, “The Hand of God?”
@Joe: You forgot the part where you have to beat the crap out of the pizza dough and roll over it with authority. It tries to rebel by curling over your rolling pin, but you just throw more flour on it, demanding it submit to your authority. Sometimes it just falls apart and you’re trying to help piece it back together so it can be whole again, too. That is the part between 16-18 years old, you know, the “Drama Years.”
(P.S. I’m joking. I don’t even believe in spanking. Just having some fun.)
Good looking Pizza.
Joe, thanks for the B.A.G. Q and A. I’m now a fan of B.A.G. Too bad he was only in “Faith” and somewhere in SGA’s first 3 seasons.
@ B.A.G. My mom’s only half-Japanese (I’m a quarter) and she says “I told you so” a lot too. Sometimes it seems like she’ll say that every chance she gets. Now she doesn’t even have to say the words, it comes across in just a look since I’ve become so accustomed to it. Thanks for participating in the Q and A.
Just bought SGU 1.5 and really enjoying it. Commentaries are pretty funny, informational, and generally entertaining.
Hi Joe.
Are you aware that Netflix has disabled HD streaming for SGU episodes?
Rest assured, I’ve logged the necessary complaint to the Netflix admins.
Can you or MGM/Syfy lean on Netflix to restore HD streaming for SGU Season 1?
Is my mouth watering? Yep.
Just curious, Joe, if this hasn’t been asked already, do you have a favorite fast food franchise? I’m a bit partial to KFC, because their chicken tastes so good!
Also, do you listen to any trailer music? Some of it is pretty awesome, if you haven’t yet, i’d suggest you check out Two Steps From Hell’s album “Invincible”, which contains some incredibly epic and awesome tracks i’m sure that you might enjoy 🙂
Congratulations Joe for taking the initiative to make pizza at home. It may have been coincidence, but I recommended taking this plunge awhile back.
I apologize for not mentioning the dangers that you should avoid touching hot things with your fingers, eating things before they have cooled to a reasonable temperature, cooking food all the way through, and the importance of safety glasses when staring into a hot oven. (If you burned your eyes another way, you’re doing it wrong. 😛 )
One thing to remember is that it’s a learning experience. It gets easier as you work the kinks out and get better at it. Also, there is no dishonor in buying your dough. That consistency allows more experimentation with toppings to get a feel for how many veggies you can get away with without making the dough soggy. A thinner crust limits the chances of uncooked dough. I can’t really comment on your topping choices since I don’t think I know what many of them taste like.
So, something I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while from Wormhole Xtreme: Why is it that when someone is “out of phase” that they can walk through walls without falling through the floor? I’m not sure that has ever really been answered. 😉
On a side note, pass on to Mr. Butt that he was most appropriately obsequious. Excellent tack for staying employable while life brings you such unintended notoriety. I was thinking while reading his responses that his newfound celebrity might have actually limited his chances for background work on SGU. You can’t really use him as a background character in other situations if he’s stuck on another planet and has such a vocal fanbase, can you? If you still used humanoid aliens, I’d suggest using him in various disguises and making him the actor equivalent of SG1’s pineapple. 🙂 I’m just hoping you can find a way to employ the poor guy in the same manner that he would have been otherwise without having to wait for the plotline to return to the folks left on that planet. A vocal online fanbase is all fine and good, but it don’t put foie gras on the table.
If the plotline is returning to the people left on that planet early in the season so this isn’t an issue, please don’t tell me about it. I don’t want to know.
As always, thanks for the blog!
If you have a bread maker you can cut down on the mess.
I demonstrate a certain brand pizza oven and they’ll do your pizzas in 5 minutes flat. I kid you not.
http://www.newwavekitchenappliances.com.au/
I demo all these products and the response to the black oven has been phenomenal in the last 6 yrs…so it’s the biggest selling oven in Australia..
I tell the audience that a pizza stone is only as good as your oven and to achieve the best result, you need three things ;
heat – the oven I demonstrate hits 300 C
blackness – get that pizza stone black!!!
ventilation so the moisture escapes and doesn’t sink into the base. The typical oven has seals on the door and tends to trap in moisture.
A good pizza stone is made of powdered ceramic that’s compacted to a stone. They’re designed to suck up that moisture from the base like (insert dirty thought here).
Wish you had the same electricity plugs etc as we do because I would send you one 🙂
I dont know what pizza stones are but my sister bought a stone cookie sheet by pampered chef and it was awesome, so we bought one and us it for everything. Expensive compared to regular cookie sheets but totally worth it, I havent b
urned anything since we got it.
@Mr Anonymous
Who cares. I mean really just be thankful that they put Stargate Sg-1, Atlantis, and Universe on there. And besides there’s really not that much difference anyways.
I just ate, and now I’m hungry again.
@paloosa, I tend to agree that a pizza is not a pizza until pineapple is added. Joe, is pizza #1 really piled as high as it looks?
Coucou!!!! un dernière coucou du Médoc avant mon départ pour Paris!!!
Toute m’a famille m’emmène à la gare, lol c’est sure q’uil vont pleurer =S..mon chien est triste aussi, ça se voit, j’espere que d’ici la Toussaint il ne m’aura pas oublié.
Je ne sais pas quand j’aurai internet à Paris, mais dès que ça sera le cas je me je précipiterai sur votre blog pour vous dire comment ce passe ma vie parisienne, en tout cas je ne vous oublie pas, j’ai prit avec moi la photo dédicacée.
A bientôt!
Anais qui vous adore!
Yummm! You’re making me hungry again. 😉 The sushi you made looks good. I would eat it. 🙂 The margarita pizza looks delicious.
I don’t know what you’re on about, Joe. That sushi and nigiri look delicious! I especially like how there’s a large fish-to-rice ratio with the former. Who needs rice, really?
On the other hand, the pizzas look less Awesome. I should know – my mom makes her own. Now, perhaps I’m just being shallow in thinking that the rounder a pizza is the better it tastes, but I don’t think so. Did you spin the pizza dough above your head like stereotypes say you should? Did you?!
But I digress. The real question is: did Lulu have a taste of your creations? 😉
Meanwhile, I got inspired today and made a fan trailer for SGU Season 1. I forgot whether it was fan fiction or fan music videos that you were legally bound to ignore, Joe, but come on, the laws are made to be broken.
Anyway, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKnjgVVqPQg
Enjoy, everyone!
Hi,
Since the Naquadria issue seems to be a prominent part of SGU, any chance those back in the Milky Way will take a trip to Jonas Quinn’s homeworld?
If so, if not seeing him in a cameo, any chance there might be a reference to Jonas by name & his naquadria work, or finding out simply what happened to him after the Ori invasion?
Don’t you ever get tired of eating?
Hey Joe are you still collecting questions for the cute girl from SyFy?
If so;
Why is the lack of Stargate movies being blamed on a poor DVD sales market? Yet with each season they release 2-half seasons, a complete one and inevitably a series set.
That look Lulu gives you is the same one my 2-year-old nephew gives us when we tell him what to do. “What? Crazy people. I’m not listening to you.”
*falls over, howling with laughter*
I have lived this particular experience so many times over 🙂
Just add sugar burns, fondant dye that never comes out and a belly full of trimmed pastry ends that feels like it will stay there until the end of days.
Hmm my pizza stone is great for all non burned crusty baked goods.
hey Billy BAG = Greatest! Q&A!!! EVER!!!!!! LMFAO!!!!! If that doesn’t help to up your stock then eff em all.
DD
Hey Mr. M.
Do you know if they plan on splitting season two into two parts like season one? IE 2.0 – 2.5.
Any chance we can expect a Q&A with the Stunt Coordinator, Prop Department, or Costume Department sometime in the future?
Getting antsy about your trip to Japan yet?
@PG15
That was the best trailer I’ve ever seen. It was almost more intense than the show. Amazing job!
That sushi doesn’t look that bad lol. And nice ending.. I died laughing!
So I’ve decided to re-watch Stargate Universe on Netflix 😀 And I’m not even 15 minutes in before I already have a question lol… In Air part 1 Dr. Rush says “The Design is clearly Ancient, in the truest sense of the word. Launched hundreds of thousands of years ago. Faster than light, yet not through hyperspace. Who knows how far it’s traveled.”
So faster than light, yet not through hyperspace means what? That it’s not as fast as hyperspace, but still faster than light? Or is it just an earlier design meaning hyperspace technology wasn’t invented yet? Or what?
Martin Gero mentioned on the Brain Storm commentary that you had to keep downgrading the cameras you used each season to save money, have to had to do this for season 2 of SGU?
Would anyone think I’m a freak because I don’t like cheese? I always get a wierd look from a McDonalds employee when I tell them not to put cheese on my burger.
Question for the mailbag… if I’m allowed. If this has been asked before I deepply apologize (force me to eat a block of cheese as punishment)
Q. In Air, the CO2 scrubbers had some black crap on them which seemed to eat away at Rush’s pencil when he was examining it. When Franklin is sitting under the grate, does a drop of that stuff melt a hole in his shirt?
I swear he has a hole on his shoulder way before he’s shot by the loveable marine.
I think ‘A’ for effort and well…
At least you’re a great writer!
What’s up with no french version of SGU ? I looked up the availaible DVD and french is only “subtitle” ?
I visited a local Fish and Chip shop this evening. The lady in front of me ordered Pizza and chips. It seems that they dip the ready made pizza in batter and deep fry it.
I get indigestion just thinking about it.
😉
Susan
☂☂☂ it must be summer here in Scotland – the rain is warm. ☂☂☂
susan the tartan turtle: Deep fried pizza? Sounds like a southern dish. Kind of like deep fried snickers bars, deep fried Twinkies, deep fried pickles and etc. I can feel the type 2 diabetes coming on just thinking of those.
Mr. M.: The food looks amazing! You even have me thinking of giving sushi another try…I would have to hunt up a sushi person to go with me and that might be hard here in the land of deep fried____.
Love the dog picture!
PG15: WOW!!!!
Okay, I would definitely eat the “Tomato and Fresh Basil Soup with grilled panini cheese croutons”, but pizza with figs?! =shudder=
My pizza taste tends to the non-adventurous, tried and true. Basic dough, thin & crispy with red pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, salt, pepper, basil & oregano and either sliced mushrooms or pepperoni toppers.
Soon after moving from Brooklyn to New Jersey, I discovered my favorite pizzeria family had also relocated — to my new neighborhood! I have been enjoying their Brooklyn-style pizza lo’ these many years.
Echoing many here, I also enjoyed reading Mr. Bill Y.W. Butt’s blog answers! I salute his dedicated work as a brave background extra! Go Bill!
2cats
@susan the tartan turtle – Ahhh, that sounds like a little bit of heaven in a deep fryer!
Elminster
I think the key to great pizza dough is a really hot oven. A pizza stone is worthless without the kiln to go with it. I make pizza at least once a week, and I make do with a regular ol’ gas oven and a cookie sheet. Rumor has it someone in my neighborhood has built an outdoor wood-fired oven that goes up to 800 degrees F. Could you build one of those in your back yard, Joe?
Your for-legged kitchen supervisor is too cute!
PMMom,
Yes, i was a reporter on “Battlestar Galactica”!! Have a nice day!!!
Cody,
Hopefully i will be in more SGU!! You can try to see me on other shows, but don’t blink, ha!! Ha!! Thank you for reading the Q&A, i am glad you liked it!!
Take care!!
Dear Bloomgate,
Thanks for your comments about my supply of foie gras, because I was thinking about the same thing. I could still be a background on SGU, they just have to hide me very well. Behind a tree, under a rock, in a box, or maybe under Chloe’s bed!!! Hey, it’s o.k., because I am used to not working for the past 2 years. It has been slow, but life goes on!! I just have to tell my daughter, no more foie gras, we just have to get by with shark fins, life of a starving actor!!
Take care!!!
Dear drideboer,
Thanks for your vote of confidence!! Love you man!!!!
Take care!!!
PG15,
Wow!! What a trailer!! Good job!!! Where was B.A.G. In the trailer?? Ha!! Ha!!
Take care!!
Just to let my friends know, I left some more replies on the Sept. 4th Q&A!! Thanks from your humble servant!!
Well I had trouble getting on bored with supporting you B.A.G… I mean no offense or anything, but you were so well hidden under those rocks and behind those trees and in that brief case of wonder that I didn’t even recognize you when I heard about the B.A.G. thing… Sorry 🙁 But after reading that amazingly funny Q&A I am now on board with it 😀 I am in the process of re-watching Stargate Universe before season 2 so I will be watching for you.. Also I’ve been reading that Gateworld forum and it is so funny! Anyways thanks for taking the time to talk to your fans.
Your proud supporter,
-Nate
Dear Joe,
Is Stargate showing in Taiwan?? One of my friends want to know, thank you!!!