Barbecue Pizza

The Mad Scientist Recommends Barbecue Pizza and Coleslaw!

The Mad Scientist loved winter when we lived in Minneapolis.  His reasons were twofold, broomball and the fact that the cold weather kept drunk people from congregating on our street corner and starting fights.

Now that we live in North Carolina, he's not such a huge fan of the winter as it seems to imply just two things: rain and high heating costs.  We pay out the nose for electricity here in North Carolina, and it seems as though we have absolutely zero energy saving appliances in the house.  Since our HOA isn't too keen on us putting in Geothermal heating*, we've decided to keep our house at a crisp 64 degrees F.  *It is totally impractical for us to have geothermal heating in a town home, but its also expressly forbidden.

Both the Mad Scientist and I bundle up when we are indoors, and he has even taken to wearing his stocking cap (aka tobaggan according to the North Carolinians).  In and of itself, this isn't so bad, but it does make him feel cooped up and a certain disdain for winter that he's never felt before.  It's interesting for me to watch his reaction to the winter.  He spends a lot more time on the weather app on his phone, giving me constant updates about the state of the rain (he is not a farmer, so this should not matter), he's started drinking coffee in the morning, and his best compliment for food is, "this warms me to the bones...So Tasty!!!"

Do you know what compliment he gave to me tonight? That's right, he told me that the meal warmed him to the bones.  This would be great, but I fear that the ongoing rain is affecting him mentally because tonight's meal was barbecue pork pizza topped with coleslaw.  The tangy zip of the coleslaw marries deliciously with the sweet decadence of pulled pork and barbecue sauce and melty cheese on a pizza crust, but warms you to the bones?  I usually don't think of coleslaw as a particularly warming dish.

Nonetheless, this meal is delicious!  The barbecue pizza is hazily connected to a pizza chain called Mellow Mushroom.  I think its funny that the connection is hazy because Mellow Mushroom is unabashedly punny with smoking weed and tripping on LSD (doing drugs is illegal and not recommended, but joking about them is highly encouraged on this blog).  If my memory serves me correctly, I actually had a barbecue chicken pizza at Mellow Mushroom, but it wasn't topped with coleslaw.  Topping pizza with Salads is something that a few college friends did, and I followed suit with this recipe.

Barbecue Pizza with Coleslaw

Ingredients:
For the Coleslaw
1/4 head of cabbage thinly sliced
1/4 Red onion thinly sliced
1 Carrot shredded (use a vegetable peeler!)
14C of Mayo (or 1/4 cup if you prefer normal portions- Thanks everyone)
1T Mustard
2T White Vinegar
1T Sour Cream
Sugar to taste (I used 1 heaping Tablespoon)
Salt to taste

1.  Mix everything together and allow it to marinate for about 30 minutes while you prep the pizza.

For the Pizza:
2t Fast Acting Yeast
1C Warm Water
2.5C Flour (split)
2T Honey
2T Olive Oil
1T Garlic Powder

1/2C Pulled Pork
1/4C Barbecue Sauce
4 oz Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
3 oz Tomato Sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 425
2. Combine Yeast and warm water and mix to allow yeast to dissolve
3. Add Honey, oil, garlic powder and 2 cups of flour and mix thoroughly
4. Knead dough for 1-2 minutes then let it rest for 10 minutes
5. Press dough into pizza crust
6. Top with tomato sauce, barbecue sauce, pulled pork and cheese
7. Bake 15-18 minutes
8. Top with coleslaw and serve