Posts Tagged ‘pizza’

15 Years and Cold Pizza

Today is my and Kara’s 15th wedding anniversary. Our tradition, since our first anniversary, has been to mark the occasion with cold pizza and good red wine.

Why, you ask?

Our wedding day, like most, was one of joyful chaos. We didn’t get to eat much at our reception, which we were told is typical. Consequently, when we got home that night, we were ravenous. But because we were planning to leave soon for a honeymoon, there was not much to eat in the fridge.

Except for a few slices of cold pizza. Which we promptly scorfed.

The following year, we’d planned a nice night out for our first anniversary. That plan was scuttled when I woke up feeling under the weather. I recovered my health and my appetite later that evening, but by then it was too late to go out. So we foraged in the fridge and found … cold pizza.

Thus a tradition was born.

Because this year’s anniversary is one that ends in a five or a zero, we have something special planned. An excellent brick-oven pizza with all of our favorite toppings awaits us in our fridge, as do desserts from local bakery Gian Piero. For our wine, we have a superb 2006 Fuligni Brunello di Montalcino that we’ve been saving for this occasion. To dress the table I procured a bouquet of 15 roses — one for each year of our marriage so far.

Here’s to many more wonderful years of cold ’za and vino fina. I love you, Kara.

Eleven Years and Cold Pizza

dave_kara_sepia_cropToday marks the eleventh anniversary of the best decision of my life — the day I married my wife, Kara. As is our tradition, we will be feasting tonight on cold pizza (with a good bottle of red wine to wash it down). This year’s pizzas are a capricciosa and a salsiciotta from Eataly in Manhattan. I think tonight’s wine will be the 2012 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon.

As for the day so far, we got up early, grabbed breakfast at a local restaurant, then drove out to the North Fork of Long Island to visit some wineries. Today we tasted (and bought) wines from Sparkling Pointe, Osprey’s Dominion, Pindar, and Jamesport Vineyards. In total, we came home with roughly a dozen bottles, most of which are now chilling comfortably in our wine refrigerator or nestled in one of our wine racks.

Later this spring (or perhaps this summer, depending upon our schedules), we hope to make another jaunt out to the North Fork to visit McCall Wines, Paumanok Vineyards, Raphael Winery, and Macari Vineyards.

Soon it will be time for pizza, wine, and maybe some lighthearted television entertainment.

And tomorrow we embark on Day 1 of Year 12.

Last Night’s Pizzas

Last night, Kara embarked upon a culinary experiment: home-made pizza. She made her own dough from scratch, and we topped it with tasty fresh ingredients. The results were spectacular and delicious.

Both pizzas started with a layer of vodka sauce and whole-milk mozzarella cheese.

The first pie was topped with marinated artichokes, pitted-and-sliced Calamata olives, sliced grape tomatoes fresh from our terrace garden, and chunks of organic goat cheese:

Our second pie was topped with fresh arugula, cooked shrimp, and pitted-and-sliced Calamata olives:

Both were completely awesome fresh from the oven, and just as tasty today cold from the fridge.

We’ll definitely be making pizza again sometime soon.

Five Years and Cold Pizza

Today, Kara and I celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary.  She’s taking the day off from work, and we’ll be hanging out together in the city. Maybe we’ll catch a show in Manhattan; we’re definitely planning on getting sushi for dinner.

We’ll have to figure out the “cold pizza” thing, though.

On our wedding night, we returned home at around 1AM, both of us ravenous. All we had in the fridge was leftover cold pizza. We sat together on the bed and scorfed it.

One year later, on our first anniversary, completely by coincidence we found ourselves again enjoying cold leftover pizza. We figured that meant it should be a tradition.

So, in the years that followed, the night before our anniversary, we would order pizza and make sure to save some for the next night.

Tonight, she had to work late, and I was called away for an event in the city. By the time we both got home, it was too late to order pizza. Whatever shall we do?

I have a plan.

If I can delay our leaving the house until early afternoon, I can have a pizza delivered and put it in the fridge. Then she and I can go into town, have our day, see our show, and eat our sushi. Then we can come home and share our traditional slice of cold anniversary pizza.

I know, it’s a peculiar “tradition” … but it’s ours.