Made me Happy, Though

I know everyone thinks the space heater miracle is stupid, so I’ll make things worse.

Until February 12, I’ll be putting in an hour of prayer every day, in the middle of the afternoon. Today when I went in to get started, I noticed that MY NEW SPACE HEATER WAS NOT WORKING. I moved it to another outlet and fiddled with it. No dice.

I could have gone to the hardware store and held hostages until they got me a new heater, but I reminded myself that there is always a reward for doing the right thing, and I got down to prayer. Eventually, I got around to the heater. I prayed that I would be able to get it to work.

And before I finished praying, I heard a little sound like “ting,” and I turned the heater on, and it ran.

I’m not kidding. And it gets weirder. After a while, the heater started to go WAAAAHHHHWAHWAHWAH for some unknown reason, and since the prayer session was still underway, I prayed that I would be able to fix it. And while I was lying there, I reached over and moved it a little bit, and it quit making the noise.

By now I figured I could get anything I asked for. But I managed to restrain myself and ask for things my family and I actually needed and which I figured would please God. Otherwise I might be typing this from inside a Bentley, with Aisha Tyler in the passenger seat.

The heater made a little more noise later on, but I believe I have it figured out, and anyway, it works.

I thought it might be silly to tell this story, because there probably is such a thing as meaningless coincidence, but then I thought it would be worse to have a prayer answered and not give credit. We’re supposed to pray about little unimportant things as well as major items, so why shouldn’t God answer?

Dinner was excellent. I made a pizza with two thirds divine Costco mozzarella and one third extra sharp cheddar. I think 20% cheddar would be perfect, but this was very good. The cheddar threw off a little more fat than I really wanted, and it made the pie slightly more acidic than it should have been, but other than that, it was great. Reducing the amount should fix it. Making the cheese more acidic, by adding cheddar, may allow me to cut back on the vinegar in the sauce.

I can’t get over that amazing Costco cheese. I’ve used Grande, which has no bad points, but I honestly think Costco is better. I believe I paid $2.15 per pound. Grande is over four bucks per pound online, plus shipping. One of these days I’ll find a way to beat Stanislaus sauce with supermarket ingredients, and they’ll have to put me away to keep me from eating pizza nine times a day.

I think I’ve settled on a crust formula. I’m omitting the fat INSIDE the dough and applying oil OUTSIDE while it rises. That way, the crust doesn’t crack and tear while you toss it, but you don’t get the flavor of rancid oil. It seems like nearly all olive oil has a slightly rancid taste, which is exacerbated when you use it inside bread dough. Maybe I’m wrong.

The crust was much better than the last one I made. I used this:

1 cup bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 rounded teaspoon dry yeast
~4 ounces water

I ran it through the food processor earlier in the day, and then I oiled it and stuck it in a Pyrex dish in the fridge until I needed it. I think lowering the yeast from a tablespoon was a good move, and I think the time in the fridge did the dough some good. It tossed perfectly, except for a pinhole which was easily fixed. When you keep oil out of the dough, the bread flavor really comes through.

If you’re not putting pepper in your dough, you’re missing out. It doesn’t taste like pepper when you bake it. It tastes more like cherries. You have to try it to understand. I leave it out of garlic rolls, but it’s a must in pizza dough.

I cook so well these days I don’t really have much motivation to make anything new. I guess cooking is like that. There are only so many dishes a person wants to make well. It’s not like music, where you could write a new piece every day and never be satisfied.