This past Tuesday I helped out at the Orono Public Library by showing the teen group how to make video book trailers using Animoto.  Great group of kids who caught on very quickly and really enjoyed the pizza afterwards.  It got me thinking about pizza (surprise, surprise).  My Swiss Italian grandmother didn't learn to make pizza until she came to the U.S. and hers was very different from any I've ever had.  I have tried to reproduce the soft dough with a topping that was shy on tomatoes but included lots of sausage, fennel seed, rosemary and parmesan cheese.  Italians think American pizza has way too much cheese although you will see blobs of great fresh mozzarella on the famous "pizza margherita" named after a queen.  I usually make this on the grill in the summer.  I have my husband, Mark, (hereafter referred to as The Captain) start a charcoal fire on the old Lodge hibachi.  I roll out small, misshapen pieces of dough and oil one side with olive oil.  Lay it out on the grill, oil the top and turn it over in less than a minute - just as soon as you see grill marks.  Lay it off to one side of the grill and turn quickly a couple more times.   I use a plain passata (unherbed tomato puree) that I make with fresh tomatoes in the summer but you can use Pomi tomato puree or even fresh tomato slices.  Top with some great farmers' market mozz or slices of Italian burrata and some fresh basil.  Let the cheese just begin to melt and there 'ya go!  There is a great new cheese shop in Belfast called "Eat More Cheese" and they have burrata.  Appleton Creamery makes fresh mozz and Olde Oak has both regular and smoked mozz so stock up.  Olde Oak is at the Bangor Thursday market as well.   COMOC (Crown of Maine Organic Cooperative) now makes a frozen organic pizza dough which you can order if you are member of the Orono Local Buying Club but you can use any dough or make your own. I'll try to get a picture before I post this.  May not be my own if the weather doesn't cooperate!

On Sunday we are off for a week of vacation in SW Harbor.  For someone like me, the packing of foodstuffs is always a problem (well not really as much for me as for The Captain)  but since we go from SW directly on to our sailboat for a few days the dilemma is expanded.  How much to take?  How much to buy there?  What will the markets have?  What about our favorite quietside restaurants?  Will a gallon of olive oil be enough? I'll visit local farmers' markets and be on the lookout for great food everywhere.  Tough job but someone has to blog it.   Stay tuned for the play-by-play.