What Are Your Food Quirks?

Happy Geek Week, my nerdy brethren. Before I get on with this week’s deliciousness, I have a question.

Does anyone have any weird food quirks? For example, when I have a bag of M&M’s (anything but peanut) I always push two M&M’s together until one cracks. I then consume the lesser M&M and set aside the victor for the next round. This goes on until the last and therefore fittest M&M is left. Then I eat that too.

There are other examples of this curious behavior:

1. Whenever I eat pepperoni pizza I always rip the pepperoni off and set it aside for later instead of eating the whole thing in one go.
2. My co-worker Trevor likes to take Skittles and organize them by color. He then arranges them into a right triangle, with the hypotenuse always being formed from the pile with the most Skittles. He arranges the rest of the colors below the hypotenuse and starts eating from the smallest angle corner. When questioned about his behavior, Trevor says that this method provides the most variety in flavor and that keeps the skittles from getting boring and monotonous in taste.
3. My best friend takes gummy bears and organizes them by color and shape. Deformed and green bears are set to the side to pelt unsuspecting passersby and the rest are consumed according to order dictated by the rainbow with clear always being eaten last.

Are we crazy? Or is this merely a sign of quirkiness and superior intelligence? Each method is, in its own way, artistic and scientific.

I’ve found this to be nerd exclusive behavior. When I asked other people about this they looked at me like I was crazy. Several told me to shut up and just eat my food in the nicest manner possible.

So, am I the only one with food quirks? Or do you guys have a thing for organizing your food too?

Now that my tangent is over I can tell you that this week’s recipe is for pizza. It’s time-consuming but quite fun as you can make pizzas in any shape you like and use any topping you can think of. Plus who doesn’t love pizza? It’s rather festive and steeped in tradition. Tradition being lolling on the couch with my best friends watching all of the LOTR extended edition blu-rays. Because we’re ballas.

Pizza Dough

This recipe is an eye-baller and is down to preference. I personally like a lot of everything, so my pizza is often weighed down with a lot of sauce and cheese. Since people are pretty familiar with the concept of pizza I’m just including the dough recipe. For red sauce, try marinara. The rest is up to you. Don’t abuse your power.

Ingredients
3 cups flour
2 tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. dry active yeast
1 cup tepid water
2 tbsp. olive oil
Cornmeal to help slide pizza into oven

Directions

1. Stir dry ingredients until fully combined. Add water and olive oil, stirring in so that the mixture starts to resemble a ball. When it is far to difficult to stir, dump the entire bowl onto a lightly floured surface and knead into a ball.
2. Knead for only a minute or two. Lightly oil the bowl (or spray it with cooking oil). Dump the dough in, swirling the ball around the bowl until all the sides are coated.
3. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and leave it to rise until it's double in size (about 1-2 hours)
4. When the dough has finished rising, dump it onto a lightly floured surface and gently press the air out of it with the palm of your hands.
5. Fold the piece into a ball shape (it shouldn’t be perfect, just vaguely round), put it in the bowl, and let it sit under the plastic wrap for 20 more minutes.
6. Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal and preheat your oven to the highest temp it will go.
7. Roll out the pizza and toss whatever sauces and toppings catch your fancy.
8. Bake until lightly blistered. This should take about ten minutes but can take up to twenty.

Leave your pizza thoughts and food quirks in the comments!