Getting tricky with frozen pizza a Halloween treat
Pizza finds its way to my family's dinner table quite often. Frozen, delivery, homemade, semi-homemade; if there's pizza on the table, it gets eaten.
Chances are there will be a pizza on my table, and yours, come Halloween. The spirited holiday ranks third in terms of pizza consumption (behind Super Bowl Sunday and New Year's Day). Here's what's new at the supermarket to help you kick off the first official day of pizza season in style.
• Wolfgang Puck All Natural Pizza: Available in five varieties, these frozen pizzas are a treat for sure. The honey-infused crust crisps nicely; the cheese is divine. Let the kids try the margherita; save the four cheese with tomato and pesto for yourself. ($5.99)
• Pillsbury Thin Crust Pizza Crust: The new kid on the shelf for this refrigerated dough maker, this allows you to make your own pie without waiting for the dough to rise and makes it easy for little goblins to help get dinner on the table. ($2.49 for a roughly 9-by-14-inch crust)
• Home Run Inn Ultra Thin Crust. This area might be famous for its deep-dish pies, but the cracker-crisp crust gets raves in my book. Home Run Inn's latest frozen line features four flavors that come out of the oven just as good as my favorite takeout place. (about $8.49)
Blank canvas: Your favorite frozen cheese pizza can become a palette for creating your own special Halloween pizza. Gina Bolger, granddaughter of the Woodridge-based Home Run Inn Pizza founder, has these suggestions:
• Scary pizza: Use cookie cutters shaped like bats, pumpkins and witches to cut out sliced cheeses. Place the cutouts on your favorite pizza and bake like normal.
• Cat pizza: Use black olives to create two eyes and also a catlike nose and mouth. Use your choice of pepper strips for the whiskers of the cat.
• Jack-o-lantern pizza: Outline the edge of a cheese pizza with sliced pepperoni. Cut eyes, nose and mouth from a red pepper. From a green pepper, cut out a stem or you can use broccoli. Place on the pizza and bake as normal.
Harvest table: Join Rick Petrocelly of Long Grove's Olive Tap as he presents an array of salads, side dishes and accompaniments featuring fall fruits and vegetables and artisanal extra-virgin olive oils and flavored balsamic vinegars.
The class runs from 1 to 3 p.m. today, Oct. 22, at the Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake-Cook Road, Glencoe.
If you can't make it this week, mark Nov. 5 on your calendar. From 1 to 3 p.m., Petrocelly will demonstrate classic Italian holiday appetizers and side dishes.
Classes costs $59 for garden members; $74 for nonmembers. (847) 835-8261 or chicagobotanic.org/school.
Spooky brews: Try the season's pumpkin beers and harvest ales at Durty Nellie's monthly Beer 101 School from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23.
Durty Nellie's beer maven, Pamela Dolezal, will take curious lager lovers on an educational and tasty sampling of 10 seasonal offerings. The class costs $20 and includes small bites. Durty Nellie's is at 180 N. Smith St., Palatine. Reservations required. (847) 358-9150 or durtynellies.com.
Taste test: Think you have a nose for wine? Put your schnoz and your taste buds to the test at Geja's Cafe's 35th annual pro-am wine-tasting contest at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2.
The contest works like this: Eight unmarked carafes of wine are placed before the competitors, who are then challenged to correctly identify the grape, place of origin and vintage of each wine. The high scorer will win a weekend for two to California wine country.
Competitors must be 21 or older and pay a $20 entrance fee. Even if you come out with the lowest score, you get to try eight wines for 20 bucks, so there's really no loser, right?
Call the restaurant, 340 W. Armitage Ave., Chicago, at (773) 281-9101 to sign up.
- Deborah Pankey