Thursday: Double Bacon, Crispy Chicken & the Seven-Minute Focaccia Pizza

This morning officially started vacation bacon prep.

We’re leaving in a little over a week for a trip with extended family, and one of the things I like to do leading up to a trip is start doubling—or apparently quadrupling—my bacon whenever I cook it.

So this morning I had four trays of bacon in the oven.

I mean, if you’re cooking one tray, might as well make four, right?

Vacation Bacon

I don’t cook the bacon I’m freezing quite as crisp as I normally would. I par-cook it, let it cool completely, and then portion it into bags for the freezer.

Then on our trip, I can pull out however many slices we need and finish reheating them in the morning.

It’s such an easy way to add some quick protein to breakfast. Bacon with a bagel, cereal, fruit, whatever else we’re having, and I know everyone has something substantial in them before we start the day.

So from now until the trip, every time you see me cooking bacon, assume there’s extra headed to the freezer.

A Kayaking Day

We did a little schoolwork this morning, but my teen had a kayaking trip today, so our schedule was a little different.

I packed a quick lunch for her to bring along, and then she drove us there. She’s still on her learner’s permit, so I got to be the passenger while she drove herself to kayaking. For lunch I put together a chicken wrap using the grilled chicken from earlier this week. I added a small ice pack to her backpack and she was all set.

Then I came home to feed everyone else.

With their older sister gone, the younger kids voted for crispy chicken for lunch. I made chicken nuggets plus some of the crispy chicken fillets I recently bought at Costco, added veggies and fruit, and everyone was happy.

I continued my current streak of eating what I’m calling a non-salad salad.

It’s random cooked protein plus whatever vegetables I have, all thrown into a bowl without any lettuce. Then I add the avocado salsa dressing I’ve been eating all summer.

Avocado Salsa Dressing: Mix avocado salsa with regular salsa, a splash of rice wine vinegar, a little honey, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

I’m boring. I like it. I’m going to keep eating it.

How Long Does Homemade Pizza Actually Take?

But the really interesting thing I did today started before lunch.

I made my half-sheet pan focaccia pizza, and this time I wanted to know exactly how much hands-on work it actually requires.

I’ve always said it’s an easy recipe, but in my head I would have guessed I spend maybe 15 or 20 minutes actually working on it throughout the day.

So I set up a timer.

Every single time I touched the recipe, I started the timer.

When I stopped working, the timer stopped.

No estimating. No cheating.

I mixed the dough and did my folds.

Timer off.

The dough sat there rising while I went about my day.

I drove to pick up my teen from kayaking.

Came home.

Timer on.

I transferred the dough to a parchment-lined half-sheet pan.

Timer off.

Then I took the kids to the pool.

Seven Minutes

When we got home, I turned the timer on for the few seconds it took me to turn on the oven.

Timer off.

Once the oven was preheated, I turned it back on, dimpled the focaccia, added the toppings, and got it ready to bake.

And when I was completely finished, I looked at the timer.

Just over seven minutes.

I was blown away.

Now, I have made this pizza many times. I know the recipe. I’m efficient with it. Someone making it for the first time might spend 10 or 15 minutes actively working.

But even then, that’s really not much time.

The recipe itself stretches over several hours, but I wasn’t standing in my kitchen for several hours making pizza.

I was living my life.

I was driving a teenager to kayaking. We did schoolwork. I fed kids lunch. I picked my teen back up. I took everyone swimming.

And in the little gaps between all of that, I made a giant half-sheet pan of homemade focaccia pizza.

That’s the kind of cooking I love.

Finding the Gaps

I think sometimes we look at a recipe that takes several hours from start to finish and think, “I don’t have several hours to make pizza today.”

Neither did I.

I had seven minutes.

They just weren’t seven consecutive minutes.

That’s the part I find so interesting. There are these tiny pockets throughout the day where you can get something started, walk away, come back for two minutes, walk away again, and eventually dinner is done.

And timing it made me realize that some of the things I routinely cook take even less active work than I thought they did.

Now I want to do this experiment with other recipes because I’m curious how accurate my estimates actually are.

Post-Pool Pizza

We popped some popcorn and headed to the pool for a quick swim after I picked up Fiona from her kayaking trip.

When we got home from the pool, the kids were ready to eat, and they absolutely demolished the focaccia pizza. I did over-cook the pizza by about 4 minutes…I was busy changing the laundry and didn’t reset my timer…oops!

I made some side salads to go with it, and we still ended up with plenty of pizza left for another meal.

I can’t eat the pizza, so I finished some leftovers from last night’s burger bowls. I still had cooked ground beef and vegetables, so I reheated those and called it dinner.

Nothing complicated.

And now we’ve got leftover homemade pizza in the refrigerator, vacation bacon accumulating in the freezer, and another very full day where dinner still happened.

Tomorrow might be Costco day. We have a busy weekend coming up, and I’m thinking getting it done before the weekend may be the move.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings.