Saturday, January 30, 2016

Storm Front and Chicago-Style Pizza

Storm Front
By Jim Butcher


Chicago-style Pizza! I've finally had it! Just not in Chicago. The last time I was in Chicago was for a several hour layover with my mom on our way to Italy. We drank coffee at Intelligentsia, and she bought a purple hair straightener from a friendly Italian guy outside the Lego store. (I tease her for this because we were backpacking, and that seemed like a lot of extra weight, considering we hadn't even left the states! But I'm the one who came back with a bag of toasted barley and an antique coffee grinder, so maybe I'm in no position to judge...) Anyway. What with the impromptu hair-straightening session, we did not have time for pizza.

I'll get back to the recipe after introducing you to Storm Front by Jim Butcher. Books by Jim Butcher were all over my Christmas list, but I had to wait until a few weeks ago to get my “hands” on one—in the form of an audio book rented from the library.

Storm Front is a hard-boiled fantasy novel. Its protagonist, Harry Dresden, is a cynical wizard/detective who walks a thankless and unprofitable line between the “real” world and a world of vampires, demons, talking skulls, etc. Most of Dresden's fellow-Chicagoans have no clue that the world is not as they assume it to be. Thankfully, Dresden has a contact in the Chicago police department who believes in him just enough to call for his help with a baffling and excessively gory case.

Dresden's inner monologue made me laugh out loud at times, and it keeps the novel from being too dark and cynical. Storm Front is not a book for children. Seductive women and shocking corpses abound, so keep that in mind. I just want to mention that since the previous three books on this blog would probably all be found in the young adult section. :)

Returning to the pizza—Dresden is from Chicago, but more importantly, he pays some fairies for information in pizza. I don't know that the book specified it to be deep dish, but I've made 'the usual' pizza before and wanted to try something new!

Now, I promise I won't do this very often, but I neglected to take pictures while making this. Also, I pretty much followed the original recipe found at the Sally's Baking Addiction blog step-by-step. She has a ton of photos on her blog and very detailed instructions. So I'm just going to send you over there if you want to make this :) (Plus, I doubt that mine turned out as well as hers anyway, since it was my first attempt!) The only real change I made was using a shallot instead of an onion because we are now a shallot family.

Next time, I may skip the sauce and toppings altogether, and just eat some melted cheese on top of the crust. That is my favorite part—but it's all incredible!


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