I beat Mangia at their own game.

Haha! Finally! I did it. I beat Mangia at their own game. I've been at this recipe for years and failure after failure has finally brought me a victory.

I have figured out Mangia's spinach stuffed pizza. Previous failures have included: too watery, not enough cheese, too much cheese, where are the onions?, whoa that's too many onions, that's a lot of sauce, still too watery, thick crust, and so on. Until now...

My pizza crust, divided into two, with it's vessel behind it.

Pressed a whole dough into the cast iron skillet. Fill with cooked (and drained really well) spinach, cooked onion and mushroom, and cheese. I used mozzarella, parmesan and Simon's provologne.

Here's where I've screwed up in the past. Tonight I added a thin crust layer. I also screwed up by adding sauce. Then I realized my mistake and scrapped it off. I put it in a 450 degree oven for 6 minutes to parbake. Afterwards, I added the sauce and a little more cheese and baked for another 12 minutes and booya- stuffed pizza.

Twas tasty.

Video we never posted

This was back when Simon just started walking. Callie was showing Simon how much she hates the Mailman, and Simon joined in.

pictures we might've missed

Simon's taken a lot of good pictures over the past year and change. Here are some shots that we might not have posted the first time around.

Drove a lot today, or was it yesterday

More pics taken while driving from Arkie to Wiscy from the dashboard of this beast:

That's for you, George.

St. Louis has the Silver Arch, we have the Silver Archway

That's for you, Sarah M.

Miller Park

Milwaukee, USA

Hammer down, big daddy

You hit 30 and it's time to hit the open road. Just you, the rented yellow dog and the entire set of Bunk Bed Brothers - opening in Milwaukee on October 7th.

A lunch usually fit for the second Friday in October. It's a good warmup.



Sadly, my route took me through Oklahoma. You know you've got a long way to go when the Garmin pans out and you can see "The United States of America" as your reference point.



They love Kevin Durant more than I do in Oklahoma.

I'm making camp here in Fayetteville for the night before moving on to the Bloomington, IL area. In my hotel room was a Northwest Arkansas magazine. Totally appropriate. What struck me as a little off was that the "education issue" seen above has Razorback football on the cover.

Goodbye Land O Lakes

With the conference over, and most everyone gone, I took in some sights within walking distance of the hotel.

Had breakfast at Mickey's Diner. It was featured on Alton Brown's Feasting on Asphalt where the night guy cooked everything on a tiny cooktop in record speed.

Fortunately my seat at the counter was right in front of the cooktop. The cook never stopped. He said we probably wouldn't get to sit down until 3pm (it was 9:30am).

Stopped off at the Haberdashery for a new bowler hat, but they were closed. Next time.

When you're at an arts conference where folks are selling shows, one thing you notice is that there's a musical for everything. Everything. Billie Joel songs... "Moving Out"... Learning the meaning of life from a puppet? "Avenue Q" ... Exploiting the need to go number one... "Urinetown." Those are the popular ones!

And then there's "Deer Camp - The Musical." Definitely a niche audience.

Minnesota, dontchaknow!

I've seen the natural beauty of Minnesota when I visited the boundary waters about 10 years ago, so it was about time to find the un-natural beauty that the twin cities has to offer. Or rather I'm here on business and I'm not going to stay put in the hotel when I'm in a new city...

The sun rising over the mighty Mississip. Even this far north, the river is still huge. I went for a run along it and it is seriously a sight....

However, it isn't nearly as awesome as The Most Dangerous Polka Band. We went to dinner with some other agents and presenters at a Polish place in Minneapolis called Nye's Polonaise and it was for real.

I'm not sure what makes them "the most dangerous polka band" as they're pretty entrenched on their two foot by six foot stage.

Not being one to shy away from native cuisine, I went for the kielbasa, sauerkraut and pierogies. Some of those pierogies had prunes in the middle. I avoided them.

And of course me, with the Most Dangerous Polka Band. I didn't get too close for I feared what might happen if I did.

Haircut time

Every morning, we'd get the same results. Bedhead + banana = untameable hair for the rest of the day. If Simon added oatmeal to the mix, a bath was the only solution.

So, we took Simon to get his first big boy haircut by a professional.

Football's here

Simon's second football season has finally rolled around.

Simon's not quite ready to take in a game on TV, so we utilized the picture-in-picture setting.

Erinn and Simon work on a sandwich at the tailgate.

Mark and Henry at the tailgate.