Into the wild

The girls trekked cautiously back to their campsite, holding their newly scavenged food, salivating at the thought of finally eating after the day's hard work. Fire built, logs collected, they commenced to the cooking at hand. With a sizzle and a pop and a flick of the wrist, the girls collectively cooked a scrumptious meal for 8 starving individuals (themselves) and sat victoriously around the fire of their creation.

In my back yard, in the suburban south.

So maybe we weren't quite in the wilderness. Maybe we cooked our food in a fire pit over a fire made with a mix of wood, charcoal, and newspaper. Maybe we weren't roughin' it (prepared our food in the AC, brought out the beach chairs to sit on, had pitchers of lemonade and real plates..) But we weren't exactly sticking to your mainstream delivery or oven-baked delicacy either.  And really, WHO'S COUNTIN?!

Circumstances aside, two days ago, my friends and I made one of the most delicious camp-foods known to man (and woman): THE PITA PIZZA.

This pizza is really an art. It must be prepared over a wood-burning (or charcoal is fine, too) fire place, outside, in a skillet. It does NOT taste quite the same if you bake it inside (pinky promise).  You must prepare it with butter (margarine is fine too) and use the WHOLE stick by the end of the preparation (unless you're preparing like 1 pizza, which is pathetic).

Here's our recipe (to feed 8)
2 6-pack of pitas (the kind that open up)
2 bags of mixed Italian cheeses**
1/2 lb mozzarella cheese (we ran out of our mixed pack AND the mozzarella is more in-line with the trail prep)**
2 cans tomato paste (Hunts)
1 large pack of pepperoni
1 stick of butter

**feel free to add more cheese. That's just a bare minimum that we scavenged from the fridges in my house, in reality we would have liked to have MUCH more cheese. Specifically, more mozzarella, but c'est la vie! Do whatcha want.**

materials:
skillet
spatula
plate/large rock/something to place finished pizzas on
can opener (if you're in a kitchen...if not, use the knife)
knife
guitar (and someone who can play and entertain while you're cooking, of course)

what to do: 
note- this preparation goes EXTREMELY quickly if it is performed as an assembly line and is really best shared with at least 1 other person
pre-prep:
prepare your fire and get it H.O.T.
Make sure someone is monitoring the fire while you're preparing the pitas (this is where your other person comes in)

step 1 (I'm using steps like Martha Stewart does, except I'm not cramming 10 steps into one. We'll take it step by step #realtalk)
Cut/break pitas in half and, using knife, slit them open into a pocket. DON'T CUT THE SIDES if you can help it. Place cut pitas into a pile.

step 2
Using knife or can opener, open up tomato paste and spread medium layer on 1 of the sides of the pita pocket (top or bottom...)

step 3
Place 4-6 pepperonis inside the pita, sticking them to the paste so they stay put.

step 4
sprinkle (or pile in, if you wish) the cheese (pronounced chez)

step 5
Using spatula, cut off a bit of butter (a nice sized pat, not quite a whole tablespoon) and place it to sizzle in the skillet. Spread it around and then place 2 of the pita pizzas on the skillet. Flip every so often until golden brown (but blackened still tastes good too!). Repeat with all of the pita pizzas.

step 6
Stop cooking and try not to enjoy them. I hope you fail.


Cooking those pizzas was the perfect summer evening- we cooked, we talked, we laughed, we played guitar, and we sang. And to top it off, of course, we roasted marshmallows until the moon was high and our eyes were shutting.

Life is good.