The Sandwich That Made Me Cry...and Pizza!

When coming up with ideas for dinners without Anthony, I stated to think about all the things that he doesn’t like (eggplant, mushroom, pineapple). Then I remembered a pizza that my friend mentioned. While it sounds like a weird combination, I could totally see why it would be great. This is why I decided to make a Pineapple and Jalapeno Pizza. Pineapple used to be my topping of choice on pizza and it wasn’t always available. I’ve suggested pineapple on pizza to Anthony before, but he is not into the fruit on pizza thing. Luckily I found a recipe online for this exact pizza. At least some people have good taste out there!


The recipe calls for store bought dough (I had a small thought of making my own crust, but it seemed like too much work). I picked up wheat pizza dough from Wegmans. You can either just stretch the dough by hand over your pizza pan or roll it out with a rolling pin. I stretched it by hand (one less item to wash!) and tried to get it as evenly spread out as I possibly could. Then you make an easy pizza sauce (you could just buy pizza sauce to make this even easier) using a can of tomato sauce, olive oil, 1 clove of garlic chopped, and chopped basil, thyme, and parsley. Spread this over the pizza dough, than add mozzarella and parmesan cheese (1/2 of each). Top the cheese with pineapple (1 large can) and jalapenos (1 can), than add the rest of the cheese. Bake it in the oven for 30 minutes (at least). Mine was in the oven for 35 minutes.

Final Product:

I'm from New Jersey (we like thin crust!) so the crust on this pizza was too thick for me. That fact alone makes me want to try to make my own crust next time. Even though the crust was thick, it was actually pretty good considering it was store bought. I loved, loved, loved the pineapple with the jalapeno. The combination of the sweet and spicy was perfect. Too much cheese for my taste, but with a few little changes this recipe can be perfect!

A few days ago I really wanted to make a vegetable sandwich with eggplant, portabella mushroom and roasted red peppers. I tried combining two different recipes for said sandwich; one where the veggies are grilled the other where they are sautéed. Disaster ensued and it wasn’t just because I was trying to make something up on my own. The first issue was when I decided this would work without using the grill. I thought it best not to try to grill stuff when Anthony wasn’t home, I didn’t want to blow myself up. So I figured why not just pan fry these things (thinking back now I don’t even know why I thought of that, all that oil on a sandwich = yuck). When I took the portabella mushroom out of the fridge it was a little soggy around the edges and when I took the gills out it was starting to break at the edges. I should have just stopped there, but instead I got my eggplant ready. I put some oil in a pan and added half of the mushroom and two slices of eggplant. Another bad idea was adding the roasted red pepper to the hot pan, it started making a popping sound and was sticking to the pan. I pulled that out right away. Meanwhile the mushroom somehow managed to start burning and the smoke detector started shrilling. Everything was way too oily, the mushroom was way too burned and when taking the red pepper out of the pan half of it fell on the floor. Then I when I tried to cut the bread I discovered it was way too hard; I couldn’t even cut it (this is why I don’t like shopping ahead of time!). I got so angry and frustrated with all of it that I took everything and threw it all in the garbage! There is not final product picture for this one. I thought about taking a picture of the trash, but that wouldn’t have been very attractive.


I had been defeated by the cooking. It finally did me in; to the point that I swore I would not be cooking for the entire rest of the time that I was dining alone. Lack of sleep, coupled with being bored sent me over the edge and I ended up in tears over a vegetable sandwich. A sandwich!! I heated up some leftover pizza and took some deep breaths. Is this it? Am I through with all of it? Done?


I really did think I was and then a miracle happened. Last night I got my act together and managed to put a meal together. The recipe was horrible, so horrible I’m not even going to post it, but I cooked. I didn’t let the whole issue of the night before make me lose my confidence in my ability to cook a basic meal.


Here’s a picture of my recovery meal.

It is fettuccini tossed in a mixture of tomato paste, olive oil, garlic, and hot pepper flakes with salad greens added to it. Why? Who knows! Was it good? Not really, but I was happy. Happy that I moved on from the disaster of the day before and had the will to continue on with my cooking adventure.


Can’t wait to see what I come up with for next week. It’s my last dining alone week, so it should be interesting.