New Kitchen Toys and Pizza!!

I was the lucky recipient of several new kitchen toys for my birthday this year.
My parents got me a Tovolo Spatulart flexible spatula, which should be great for gently lifting bread out of bowls or folding it over while it rises. I have a stiff dough scraper that's incredibly handy, but this one can bend itself to the curve of a bowl. Super cool!

They also sent me a new oven thermometer that measures accurately in the 50-100 degree range, which I really needed for controlling bread rises etc.

And! the fun just doesn't stop, a new kitchen timer (because I'm awful at remembering to set the timer on the microwave).

Marge and Lauren were also super heroes and gave me a cast iron skillet and a pizza stone respectively. I'm thanking them by giving the pizza stone a whirl tonight and cooking up two (hopefully) super tasty pizzas.

Toppings for pizza 1: roasted garlic, olive oil, roasted red peppers, shallots, blue cheese

Toppings for pizza 2: red sauce (organic italian herb), kalamata olives, mushrooms, baby spinach (maybe?), and fresh mozzarella

I can't decide which pizza I want to put the spinach on... We'll see! Both pizzas are (of course) on sourdough crusts that are partially whole wheat. Pizza shells are by far my favorite way to utilize extra sourdough starter. I'll let everyone know how the kitchen gadgets and the pizza stone work out and maybe take some pictures of the pizzas.

Candace and Meg were also wonderful and (separately, because they both brilliantly knew I loved chocolate) gave me an amazing box of chocolates and a chocolate bar that I'll save for a separate post!