Easy As (Pizza) Pie

Back in September, when I had a glut of pizza dough that I was, frankly, too stubborn to throw out, I froze the extra but wondered what in the world I would do with all that dough. In the intervening months, I have been saved more than once by this trove of frozen treasure.

Last night was a good example. I had taken out of the freezer one of the packages of dough and set it in the microwave over the warm oven to thaw when we stepped out to walk Cora around the neighborhood for her late afternoon constitutional. On the way home, we witnessed a terrible scene, two loose pitbulls attacking a cat. We arrived too late on the scene to do anything to save the poor cat but we rushed home, threw Cora to safety in the house and drove back to the scene hoping to at least get a description of the dogs that we could call in to the police, which we did.

My Beloved, being the kind and helpful man that he is, also drove all over the neighborhood trying to spot the pitbulls for the police, warning people that these two dogs were loose, urging them to take their cats indoors and giving rides home to any who were out with their own dogs and far from safety. We heard later that one of the dogs was captured; the other, as far as we know, is still at large. The owner of the cat is inconsolable.

When My Beloved returned home hours later, he was tired to the bone and hungry. We hastily piled goat cheese, sliced, blanched broccoli, leftover bacon and sliced mushrooms onto the rolled-out crust and slid it onto our pizza stone that had been heating in the oven. It made a quick and sustaining meal for two shocked and heartsick animal lovers.