And there was pizza, courtesy of a dear friend who fed us tonight.

And boy, was it good.

Not as good as homemade pizza, of course. Nothing beats that. Still, pizza from Pizza Palace runs a close second. It’s been quite a long time since I had pizza – quite awhile before surgery, as it happens. The issue with pizza throughout the months following treatment was of course the crust. Too much bread. Not enough spit.

Tonight, though, I managed half a slice before my jaws gave out. Not a bad return. As a bonus, it forced me to drink a ton of water to get it down.

This afternoon, when we were debating what everyone wanted to eat tonight, my mom said, right off the bat: pizza. Actually, what she said in full was that she wanted me to make some homemade dough, another batch of the sauce I’d made for the pasta, and then make a pizza from those items with fresh veggies and meat. This will have to wait until after she recovers from her surgery, something we thought would be an in and out deal but which will have her in the hospital overnight. None of us is happy about that, but what can you do?

Since it’s month end these next few days, and since we’re going full out on business-related things prior to mom’s date with the surgeon, there probably won’t be a lot of involved cooking as we wind down July. Next Saturday, we are supposed to head out to a beach house owned by some friends, where yours truly will cook something in their kitchen. Seafood, most likely, as they say they have crab legs and shrimp in the freezer. It will be rather adventurous to cook whatever happens to be on hand in a strange kitchen. Somewhere between now and then, there will be more meals, including helping my sister prep the dinner she’s cooking for a group of her friends at the house of one of those friends. A mini-catering gig, if you will. Next week, I’ll also go buy a bin of tomatoes to make a large batch of sauce, suitable for canning. That should be fun, as it will be the first actual use of the canner. It’s also time to start examining this beer brewing thing…