Water!

Not an especially pretty picture. This is much more for documentary evidence rather than artistic merit. In the distance, in the right center of the frame. Water! Liquid water! The river surface is melting!

5 March 2011
It's been unseasonably cold this week. Thankfully it hasn't gone below 0! Yesterday, the 4th, was mild and the river surface began melting! It's 45 degrees outside now and the river surface is almost melting before your eyes.

The river took a hard freeze on December 22 and I haven't seen water since. That's usually an indicator of how bad the winter has been. I alternate between calling it a river and calling it a pond. It's actually the Charles River and there's a dam here. When the river moves very slowly it's more of a pond behind the dam and when the river flows swiftly it's more of a river. It's actually quite common to have 4k or 5k gallons of water per second go over the dam. On October 16, 2005, 13k gallons of water per second were going over the dam. That's the record as far as I know. My point of course is that it moves and when it freezes, and stays frozen, because it's moving water, it means it's been an especially cold winter.

Once it completes its thaw it won't freeze again this season!

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I've been meaning to post this recipe for ages. It's an all time favorite. I only cook on weekends and days off. During the week it's mostly sandwiches and hummus and salads. But this is so easy I really don't think of it as "cooking".

Quick and easy weeknight pizza
I can't take complete credit for this. It's actually from, or inspired by, Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. I *hate* the show. But they do have some good recipes. This is from the Thinnest Crust Pizza recipe.

Pre heat your oven to 450.

I use a whole wheat soft taco size (8 inch) tortilla. I paint it with olive oil, scatter on chopped garlic and slices of mini mozarella balls.

I often (not always) dot it with tomato paste (don't overdo it, a little goes a long way on one of these) and then I add some Italian Seasoning and red pepper flakes.

I put it on parchment paper on a half sheet pan and I add some tomato slices, some red onion slices and whatever else I feel like. Usually some mushrooms. Sometimes some olives. Sometimes some bell pepper. Sometimes some salami matchsticks. I usually (always?) grate on some fresh romano and some fresh parmesan.

Put it in the hottest part of your oven for about 7 minutes.

NOTE - parchment can burst into flames somewhere around 450!

Put anything you want on this. Dried herbs, fresh herbs, some chopped fresh basil is nice. So is spinach.

The variations are infinite and I usually have my pizza with a glass of chianti.