Homemade Frozen Pizzas

I love pizza. It's so flexible; there aren't really any rules.  Have a base, sauce, and some toppings - and go wild.  Last Sunday afternoon, I took a little time and made up a few pizzas (6 to be exact) to keep in the freezer for busy nights.

I made a triple batch of basic pizza dough from Vegetarian Meat & Potatoes, using half unbleached all-purpose and half wheat flour (next time I'll use bread flour).  I also threw in 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed.  After it was done rising, I split the dough in half, then split each half into 3 equal pieces.

I rolled each one out on a floured surface until about 1/4 inch thick and poked holes in the dough with a fork (to prevent bubbles from forming).

I then put them on a greased baking sheet and cooked at 425F for 12 minutes or so.  Once out of the oven, I let the crusts cool and then froze them for several hours.  (If you wanted to, you could just leave the pizza crusts plain for now, then pull one out and add toppings when you're ready to bake and eat it.)

After the crusts were frozen, I pulled them out and added the toppings.  I made 3 kinds of pizza:
1. Potato-Broccoli: thinly sliced Klondike Rose potatoes and finely chopped broccoli over a basic tomato sauce

2. Pineapple-Sauerkraut: OK I know this one sounds weird, but try it before you decide.  Sauerkraut, diced canned pineapple, and finely diced broccoli over basic tomato sauce

3. Garlic-Agave: There's a local pizza restaurant that makes a garlic-honey pizza, and everyone raves about it.  It's basically minced garlic and alfredo sauce topped with shredded mozzarella, and then you drizzle honey over it.  I used bechamel sauce instead of the alfredo, agave nectar instead of the honey, and left off the mozzarella.  This pizza also received a sprinkling of finely diced broccoli - can you tell broccoli was on sale last week?  Sadly, I don't have a photo of this one, but it was delicious!

After all the pizzas had their toppings (I made 2 of each kind), I stuck them back in the freezer on a cookie sheet for several hours.  Once the toppings were frozen, I put them in individual bags and stacked them in the freezer.  When you're ready to bake one, just preheat the oven to 425F (with the pizza stone in the oven during preheating, if you're using one), then put the frozen pizza on a pizza stone or cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes.Voila!  Frozen pizza made any way you want it!

Here come the holidays

Yesterday we had the first snowfall of the season.  Luckily we only had a little flurry of snowflakes; nothing like the 9+ inches other places received.  It was enough, though, to awaken my holiday spirit.  I may not care much for the ice and frigid temperatures that will be here before too long, but I still manage to love Thanksgiving and Christmas.

A big part of the holidays for me is the baking.  My mom doesn't bake at all the rest of the year, but at Christmas even she pulls out the cookie sheets and candy thermometer.  As for me, well, I probably go overboard.  But by the time I disperse the goodies to friends and family, the remainder doesn't even last until the new year.  Here's what I'll be making this year:
- cashew cinnamon brittle
- peppermint bark
- fudge
- decorated sugar cookies
- zimtsterne (German cinnamon cookies)
- lebkuchen (German honey-molasses cookies)
- vanilkove rohlicky (Czech crescent cookies)
- vanocka (Czech holiday bread)

I'm 1/2 German and 1/4 Czech, so that's why I have some traditional recipes from each of those countries.  I went to Germany this summer and met some of my (distant) relatives.  It was great, and I like to have little reminders of my roots around.  Especially during Christmas, when it's all about family.

Biological Control: Asian Wasps and the Emerald Ash Borer

The emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) is a pest introduced to the US from Asia. The larvae are deadly to ash trees, which are a popular tree with residential developers because they grow quickly to give newly-built neighborhoods that appealing lush, tree-lined quality. This beetle has been slowly but surely expanding its range in the US. Because it is not native to North America, our ash trees have little natural resistance; insecticide success has been hit-or-miss in protecting the trees. As a result, Minnesota recently released Asian stingless wasps as a potential biological control.  The hope is the wasps, which lay their eggs in ash borer larvae, will slow the beetle’s expansion.

As an ecologist by training, I generally agree with the concept of biological control (using natural enemies to reduce or mitigate pest effects) as it applies to native pests – and therefore native enemies. I get concerned when critters are “imported” to control an invasive pest, for several reasons:

1. Multicolored Asian lady beetle (Harmonia axyridis) in the US: These were brought to the US from Asia to help control aphids and other soft-bodied insects. In Asia, these beetles hibernate in the cracks and crevices of cliff faces; however, many of the areas in which they were released in the US don’t have cliffs. As a result, the Asian lady beetle itself is now considered a nuisance pest species when they concentrate in and around buildings in the fall, looking for good hibernation spots. It is also displacing our native ladybugs in some areas of the US.

2. Cane toad (Bufo marinus) in Australia: The cane toad was brought to Queensland, Australia, in an attempt to control the greyback cane beetle (Dermolepida albohirtum). These beetles are native to Australia and love to eat sugarcane, much to farmers’ dismay. It sounds like the perfect scenario – the cane toad will eat the cane beetles, thus protecting the sugarcane crop without the use of pesticides. As it turns out, however, the cane toad will eat anything it can fit its mouth around – including insects, frogs, small reptiles, mammals, and birds. In fact, the only thing the cane toad doesn’t seem to be eating much of is the cane beetle! This is because the beetles spend most of their time at the top of plant, far out of the reach of the toad. The cane toad has now spread into the neighboring state of New South Wales and the Northern Territory, and it is thought to be an important factor in the decline of many native animals.

There are other examples of biological control gone wrong, but those two came to mind first.

So let’s say the Asian wasp is successful. It lays its eggs in the emerald ash borer larvae, killing the larvae and preventing or at least impeding the spread of the borer. Those wasp eggs hatch and grow into adult wasps, which then want to lay eggs of their own. If there aren’t enough emerald ash borers around, will these wasps switch to native beetles? What will we have to introduce in the future to control the Asian wasp?