A Lucky Accident

     So one day my husband and I were on vacation.  We were living in Pennsylvania at the time and were looking for possible settling down spots in Florida.   We decided to go look around downtown Fort Lauderdale and see if we could find a mall.  We ended up in Las Olas Riverfront shopping district. Quickly we figured out there wasn't much there (at least during the day).  I wanted to go ahead and leave but he had to go to the bathroom and couldn't hold it. 

     I really didn't want to stay there and was kind of annoyed at him.  We managed to find a quick service pizza place called Riverfront N.Y. Style Pizza.  It was small and simple and I wasn't really in the mood for pizza.  Unfortunately he couldn't just use the bathroom; we had to buy something.  

     The pies were displayed in front of you  behind a glass counter and after you made your choice the nice gentleman behind the counter would put them in the oven.  I noticed the pizza didn't have much sauce  or cheese and the crust was very thin, however the slices were very generous.   The prices ranged from three to four dollars a slice so it wasn't a stiff price to pay to use the bathroom. We decided upon a fresh tomato and basil pizza and a drink as the price for his bathroom visit.  I figured nice, simple and hopefully not to heavy because we weren't very hungry.

      Wow! What a surprise when I took that first bite. The crust was thin yes, but there was the right balance of crispy and chewy in your mouth at the same time.  That wonderful crust allowed you to fully taste the flavors of the fresh ripe tomato, basil and cheese.  In most pizza's I have ever tasted the bread overpowered the toppings, and I didn't even know it until that day. There were also a few other spices in there like oregano and pepper that simply enhanced the flavor.  And as for the lack of sauce and cheese, truth be told it didn't bother me. Drowning pizza in cheese and sauce doesn't do anything to make flavor better I realized.  It just packs unnecessary calories to your diet. 
      That day I thought to myself "this is what pizza is supposed to taste like." So even though we were not hungry we ended up buying two more slices to enjoy and I thanked my husband and his tiny bladder.  For anyone reading this, if you are ever in Las Olas Riverfront and are in the mood for some great pizza definitely give this place a shot.  It might not be a great fancy restaurant, but to me the quality of the product measures up to anything you might find in one of those without the price tag.

Hooray for the Late Comers

Whenever you have been out of school for a while you worry about being one of the oldest in the classroom.  I graduated college about seven years ago and haven't taken a class since.  So naturally when I went to orientation this week that was really what had me nervous.  To my surprise there was a good mix of ages there and quite a few that were significantly older than me. 
Unfortunately, society seems to have this picture of what success is really like.  You have to be a doctor or a lawyer or a Naval Officer (ha ha ha) to be "successful in life."  It really is a shame though that people many people suppress their desires to fit in this mold that society cuts out for us. Yet, as I saw this week some people eventually do get tired and decide enough is enough.  They leave their secure "successful" lives to pursue their happiness. 
The culinary student they picked to talk to us was a lady in her late forties.  She lives in student housing and is very active around campus.  This surprised me, just when I thought I was maybe to old to be in any of the student clubs.  She is getting her culinary management degree and graduates soon.  Not only that, but she is talking to a clothing designer about starting a line of chef uniforms.  I could only think "wow!"
So in that crowd of students I wasn't the only one, and once again I remembered why I am going back to school in the first place.  Unlike the first time I went to college my goal isn't to have the best grades or get a really great paying job.  It is to get the skills I need to continue making people happy.
When I was in the service I was stationed over seas.  I saw first hand what a powerful effect a great meal could have on someone's day.  Literally "sometimes food is the only morale they have," was something that often came out of people's mouths.  In those days I began bringing cakes to work.  It took me a few tries to figure out the oven and get a few recipes down, but the effort was worth it.  I showed up with a simply decorated cake baked from scratch and they were as excited as little kids.  Eventually, it came to a point where they would ask me what kind of cake I was bringing next week.  And when I showed up they wouldn't last thirty minutes.  It made me really happy to see them smile and have a little piece of something "homey" while we were away.  I got more satisfaction out of that than many of the things I was doing for the military over seas.
At the end of the day I remembered why I was really happy to be there.  Finally I am doing something I want to do.  Something that will make people around me happier and therefore make the world my son will live in just a tiny bit better.