REUBEN PIZZA – ALASKA & MAINE

Maine Sunset

Easy to make Reuben Pizza. The temperature here in the mountains of Maine this past week has been hovering in the mid to upper 50’s during the day and upper 30’s at night. This has been perfect as its darn close to the same temperatures Anchorage Alaska has been experiencing. Why would I care about the temperature in Anchorage? Well I’ll be boarding a plane next Saturday in Portland with the final destination being Alaska. I’ll be spending the next 4+ months in the Price William sound area working on a salmon fishing boat.

Now back to Maine, the past week I’ve been riding my bicycle in the “cool” weather to help acclimate myself for the upcoming Alaskan adventure. It would have just been too harsh to go from the Bahamian tropics to Alaska in one quick plane flight. And with the great cycling, hiking and food here in Maine I’d be a fool to pass up the experience. Not to mention that every piece of warm weather clothing I own is in Maine along with Hamilton Marine the premiere marine store which I will visit next week to buy my “fishing clothes”, specifically Grudens and Xratuff boots.

We’ve been staying in the family camp located in the mountains of Maine. For the most part the camp sits vacant for the winter. The exception is several mice seem to make their way inside, even despite my efforts over the years to “fortify” the camp. I’ve sprayed foam in holes, covered openings with wood, wire and steel but despite my efforts a few of the buggers seem to make it inside. Too say the least Katie is less than fond of sharing the camp with mice and their poop so I set out several very inhumane mouse traps (on a side note there are only two things I know of which Katie is willing to withstand the killing of; mosquitoes and interior residing mice). Low and behold the traps work like magic, mice love peanut butter. I discard the mice off the back deck which are typically picked up by a fox later that night.
Yum

Last night I decided to make a pizza, not just any pizza but a Reuben Pizza. I love Reuben sandwiches so I came up with a recipe based on the sandwich. And after cooking the corned beef I took the leftover fat and covered the mice which I had earlier discarded. The pretense for this was to give whatever decided to dine on the mice a little treat! Last week Katie and I were in Manhattan for 4 nights. In addition to getting to watch several TV shows being shot we were on a pizza quest, searching the city for the best. During the search I discovered that the dough is just as, if not more important, than what goes on top. For this pizza I modified my dough and cooking technique which I’ll discuss more in a future post, let’s just say it’s sensational. Oh and the mice, they were completely gone this morning.