Urban Decay

Good morning! And may I also say, “Thank you?”

That’s seemingly out of nowhere, I know, but I’ve doing this thing lately where I say “thank you” all day, every day, all throughout my day, and you know, I’ve been considerably happier. ? It helps a lot if you’re living through a pandemic during fire season as you’re waiting for your power to go out for days without any notice (there’s been a lot going on here, like everywhere else in the world).

I don’t necessarily direct the “thank you” to a particular person, either. I say it out loud or in my head for anything and everything. When I wake up in the morning, I’ll think to myself, “Thanks, bed! Thanks for giving me a good night’s sleep.” And when I get out of bed and start walking toward the bathroom, I’m like “Thanks, feet, for workin’ hard and getting me where I need to go today.”

Then, once I’m in the bathroom and I remember how the bathroom in the old apartment where I lived before this place was always freezing because it was built in the 1920s and had poor insulation and no central heating, I think, “Oh, thank you, bathroom, for being so warm and for having hot water” (because last year at this time, our water heater broke, and that was a hoot).

Anyway, you get the picture. Thank you, all day, every day.

So, thank you. ?

Thank you for being you, and thank you for swinging by today, which leads me to, ellipses-dot-dot-dot…Trader Joe’s! All paths lead to Trader Joe’s, don’t they?

I found these really cute thank you cards there…

They’re so cheerful and colorful, and I like that they’re a little bit corny, but not too corny. And they’re only 99 cents each, so they’re super cute and super affordable!

I’ve been going shopping at Trader Joe’s for years, but I only recently started buying their cards (I KNOW). The cards in my store are sort of tucked away next to the doors on a wall by the customer service desk, which is partially blocked off by the plants, which makes it a challenge to fit a cart back there, so I forget they’re there sometimes. But a couple weeks ago someone moved the card display into the middle of the store, and bam! LOVE.

Anyway, next time you’re there, look for the cards. They might be in a weird spot, but they’re worth tracking down.

Oh, and so while I was at TJ’s the last time, I was craving pizza, so I picked up a bag of their pre-made pizza dough and a few accoutrements…

I posted a picture of the pizza dough after rolling it out (and before adding toppings) on Instagram and got a surprising number of questions about how to get the dough flat.

(Please ignore the shape. I know it looks like naan. LOL! I never quite go for perfection with my pizza shape. I take what I can get.)

When I worked at the bakery for a hot second, I was repeatedly victimized by dough on a daily basis. Seriously, dough of any kind does not want to be your friend. Dough’s main goal in life is to do the opposite of whatever you want it to do, hahaha!

But there are still ways to get it to listen to you. For this pizza dough, which is really sticky, it helps to use a lot of flour when you’re working with it, and to use more than you think you need. Like, an almost obnoxious amount.

Cover the surface where you’ll be rolling out the dough with flour. I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper, sprinkled some flour on top, wiped it all over the parchment paper with my hands, and then rolled the dough directly on top of the paper with a rolling pin.

Before you use the rolling pin, rub flour all over it, too. Then roll the dough until you hit your desired thickness.

By the way, I used Trader Joe’s refrigerated pizza sauce, sliced fresh mozzarella (not the shredded kind in a bag, but the kind that’s shaped like a big ball) and sliced garden tomatoes. When the pizza was done, I put a ton of fresh basil on top, because like the Beyoncé song says, “If you like it, you should’ve put some basil on it.”

OK, so maybe not the exact lyrics…
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