Making a Heart-Shaped Pizza for Valentine’s Day!

Well, hello, and welcome to “At Home Today.” And it’s a very special program because we’re celebrating Valentine’s Day, the day of love. You say, “Arlene, gimme a definition for love.” You know, that’s an age old question. Everybody says, “Give me a definition.” It’s hard to put into words, but when you’re in love, you know it, you really do. We’re gonna talk more about that because my very special guests today are Renee and David Basel, who’ve been married for 10 years, and guess what? Their marriage is still on fire if you know what I mean. So they’re gonna give us some hints today of how they’ve kept that going and how David pampers the life out of Renee. And of course she does to him too. But I don’t wanna be gossiping here at all. This is gonna be a fun program and we’re gonna cook. Dave’s gonna make some really interesting things, like how about a nice crème brulée that your husband fixes for you for Valentine’s Day, or maybe a very special pizza. Or how about a smoothie? Those smoothies are really big now. Oh, they’re so good. We’re gonna come back and get started with our special celebration of love in just a moment. But first here’s today’s At Home hint. Here’s today’s At Home definition, Braise. A cooking method by which food is first browned in fat, then cooked tightly covered in a small amount of liquid at low heat for a lengthy period of time. If you’ve got a helpful hint or definition you’d like to share with us, send your hint to At Home hints, Cornerstone Television, Wall, Pennsylvania, 1-5-1-4-8-1-4-9-9. Welcome to At Home as I said. And I have to welcome our very special guests Renee and David, we’re so glad you guys are here.

We’re glad to be here.

We’re glad to be here. Thank you very much.

This is so nice. I’ve known Renee since she was like a pup.

[Renee] A long time.

Yes, more years than either one of us wanna think about. And David, I just met-

Just before we got married. I remember coming up and we’d all go out to eat.

At a birthday party or something like that. Oh my goodness.

We had fun.

That was a few years ago. But you know what was neat? Your wedding was just one of the most beautiful weddings I’ve ever been to because it gave a lot of planning and a lot of thought. And that stems from a fact that you both have a deep love for one another.

Absolutely. Yes?

And after 10 years it still lasts.

Absolutely.

And I know it takes time, it takes an effort to make it last, right? It isn’t like, “Okay, we’re married, so everything’s gonna be fine.” You work at it.

Right.

And it’s a treasure.

It’s easy work. Cause it pays off. It pays off in great benefits.

Benefits are great, huh?

Absolutely.

So we thought that what we would do today, they’ve kept Valentine’s cards for 10 years. Well David has. You’d have to be here to know what’s going on there, and then David’s gonna share some of the fun things you do to keep the fire going in their marriage.

We’ll make it easy for the husbands out there to do something special for their wife for Valentine’s Day or anytime that it’s not gonna make them all crazy trying to do a whole bunch of details. Just very simple things.

Cause if it’s too complicated, then they feel like they can’t try.

Absolutely.

But you know what? Also, I mean, this is wonderful what you’re doing, but a little card or a note under a pillow.

He’s done that. Start on February 1st up till Valentine’s day, every day I get something and it’s just a little something. Like I’ll open the fridge, I’ll open the fridge and a card will be in there.

Now let’s not get ridiculous. No.

When we first got married, I started doing that and I thought, “Oh, I’m gonna have to sustain this for our whole lives. We’re gonna be in trouble.” But so far so good.

I’m glad he doesn’t though. I look forward to it.

Of course. Because every woman likes to have that feeling that someone cares enough, your husband cares enough to do something special for you. Okay, David, you’re gonna get started with, and you make this for Renee, what’s this called?

Well, this is my heart-shaped pizza. Now, I come from an Italian background and our love language is, “I love you, therefore I feed you.” So that’s what we’re gonna do here. And it’s very, very simple to make. And the key to it is the fact that it’s shaped in a heart and it just tells that person that you love, doesn’t even have to be a wife or a husband. It could be anybody. You can just tell ’em that you love them.

Okay. So you’re gonna first make the dough, right?

Yes, the dough. That’s how we start. So if you have a bread machine, if your wife has a bread machine and you haven’t used it yet, it’s very easy to do. You can do this by hand as well. But you just take about seven or eight ounces of water and this needs to be room temperature. Everything needs to be room temperature, okay? So get it outta the refrigerator, whatever you need to do beforehand. Put that in the, I don’t know what they call this, the tank or the bread pan or whatever. And that’s seven or eight ounces of water and then three cups of all purpose flour, just regular flour, you can do the bleach-

You’re gonna mix this the same way, mix it in the same sequence if you don’t have a bread machine.

Right.

So you do that in a bowl the same way.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes. And then a little bit of olive oil. This is about two tablespoons of olive oil.

[Arlene] That makes it good.

Okay. And this is for the pizza deal. There’s salt in it too. This is about half a teaspoon of salt.

[Arlene] Right, you need that. For flavor.

Yeah, it does. But what I really like to do to really zing it up with the pizza dough is to add a little bit of garlic salt or garlic powder. And that makes it almost like a garlic bread for the pizza to be on, it’s great. And my favorite, now you’d think that my favorite, being my last name being Basel would be basil, but I like oregano cause I’m Italian.

But then his name isn’t David Oregano.

And this ends up looking kind weird when the dough’s done because, “What are those in there?” But it’s oregano, it’s very good. And then just grab one of these packages of active dry yeast. And you put in about a teaspoon and a half.

[Arlene] Oh, then you don’t use the whole package then.

Well, if you want it more doughy, you’d have to use the whole package. But just about a teaspoon and a half.

Now, how many pizzas is this dough gonna make?

This is just one.

Well, one pizza. Like one big pizza or a small?

It’s fairly large.

[Arlene] Like a 12 inch pizza, maybe that size?

It’s hard to measure when it’s shaped like a heart.

Yeah, that’s true.

And that’s it.

So that would go in there?

That’s all it is. Then you just put it in the bread machine.

[Arlene] And let it do it’s thing.

And set it in there. And all you have to do, I don’t know if you can see this or not, but you hit the menu and it goes to the dough setting. And then you hit start.

[Arlene] And that’s it. And then how long will it take that to do it?

It’s about an hour and a half because it kneads it first. And then it lets it rise. And you can do the same thing by hand in a bowl.

Just putting it in a bowl-

And knead it for about 10 minutes.

Okay.

Get it really kneaded up there.

Now show us what you get.

All right, then when it comes out, this is how it pulls out of the bread machine. And then at that point you just kind of shape it. You don’t need a rolling pin or anything. You just shape it.

[Arlene] He’s gonna work on the pizza dough.

Make it into a heart.

Okay. And you pull that. So I have a question to ask you.

[Renee] Yeah.

How did you know that he was the one that you like really loved?

It was love at first sight.

[Arlene] Was it?

Yeah.

[Arlene] Really?

I saw him across the campus at college.

[Arlene] In college?

Yeah. We met at bible college.

[Arlene] Right.

And I saw him across the campus.

[Arlene] And then you knew?

Yeah, I did. Without a shadow of a doubt.

But then you didn’t get together right then there, huh?

No, no.

[David] It took me a while to come around.

Cause you chased him.

I was the stalker.

Oh, you were the stalker.

I really was. Nobody believes that. He had a full head of hair then.

She wouldn’t stalk me now.

I would see him interacting with other people and I was watching his personality from a distance.

[Arlene] And you liked what you saw.

Yes, I loved what I saw. And so then I went up to him and said, “You need me.”

That’s exactly right. All right. Now show me some of the cards and some of the special little things that he’s done for you.

Like I said, he does something every day. He started the year we got engaged. And then I didn’t know, I thought it was just something he did that year we got engaged, and then every year starting February 1st, I’ll find something. I might find a CD playing in the car when I get in the car of our favorite songs or I like funky looking flowers. I don’t like your normal every day, they gotta be Dr. Suessy.

Some of them weird.

Yes.

[David] Birds of paradise.

Probably birds of paradise. He bought me, they’re called fingers, cactus. It’s a finger cactus and they looked like fingers and he told me I could never kill it. Cause I’m not good with plants. And so that’s sitting on my desk one day, it’s probably like a $1, $1.50, but yeah.

It’s the thought that-

It’s the thought, yes. And one morning when I got ready to go to work, he had made this cup.

It’s a travel cup.

It’s a travel cup and he had put my coffee in it.

Let me show this up-close. Look at this. They’re all kind of, I don’t know.

[Renee] He had taken the picture that we’ve had through the years.

If you can come here a little closer maybe and you can see the photos of them all through different places they’ve been. But the couples, always the two of them together, which is really neat.

And I have that with me all the time. Whenever I’ve done shows, things like that, that they’re always like, “Oh, I love the cup.”

Yeah. Because you know what, what did this cost? Maybe 10 bucks probably at the most.

[David] Not even. Very inexpensive.

And yet, how long ago did you get this?

I got that about three years ago.

See? And you’re still carrying it around and everybody loves it.

Everywhere and they’re all surprised when I say my husband made it for me. They’re like, “You’re kidding. Your husband made it?”

Whose husband does that?

And he does little things like that for me every day. Like he’ll bring coffee up to me when I’m putting my makeup on. You know, little things like that.

And you know what that means so much. Well, I guess what we’re trying to convey here is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to make something happen special for your wife or your husband. All you have to do is put a little bit of your heart into a little thing like get a cup of coffee. Like when Paul, I know recently he’s had some problems with his lungs and stuff, and tea was very soothing. If I’d wake up in the middle of the night, I’d go and make him a cup of tea because I knew that if I was moving around, he’d get awake. And if he got awake, then he would need to get settled down and I’d have to give him a cup of tea. But those are the things that love talks about. The Bible says that love is kind. Love is gentle, but also said that God is love. God is love. You want a definition? God is love. He is the personification of what love’s all about. It’s God. So when you think about a character of someone that really loves somebody, if we think about God, then we know what we’re supposed to be doing. And I know that you reciprocate for him too, right?

I try to.

So what’s one of the neat things that you’ve done?

What’s one of the neat things I’ve done?

How quickly she forgot.

She’s very good at that. It’s always little things. I especially like just little phone calls, just calling to say love you. Yeah, that’s the best. That’s my favorite.

It doesn’t have to be a planned thing. It’s not something, and I think when we carry each other in our hearts, our heart speaks to us all day about that person that we love and then we need to be listening to it. Okay, we’re gonna take a break because he has to do something with that pizza soon as we come back. We’ll be back in just a minute. If you’re just joining us, welcome, because we’re celebrating the day of love. Valentine’s Day with two of my favorite people, Renee and David Basel, and David, let’s take a look at that heart-shaped pizza crust.

It’s just a labor of love, whatever shape it ends up. I tried to get it to look like a heart. Spread a little bit of olive oil on it. If you have a pastry brush or you can even do it by hand, very easy, then the sauce goes on.

[Arlene] Now, what sauce is that? Just regular?

You can buy pizza sauce. You can even use spaghetti sauce. You kind of may need to taste it. Sometimes the spaghetti sauce doesn’t have as much flavor as the pizza sauce. And then just the back of a spoon, just spread out the sauce. I love a lot of sauce, so. Actually Renee doesn’t, but I do.

I don’t either.

I’m sorry.

It’s a woman thing. We don’t like it all over our clothes-

Very easily, just get yourself one of these packages it’ll stay right on there two cups of cheese. But, they’re very difficult to open.

Don’t you like us to help? Oh, okay.

You just spread that around you?

[Arlene] You don’t pre-bake the crust then, huh, Dave?

No. I did get this neat little pan, it has the little, it’s almost like a grate, that cooks the bottom of the- I love that. And then a little bit of onion. I love a little onion on the pizza.

Onion.

Just a couple slices on there.

It adds such flavor, doesn’t it?

Nothing real intense. Again, a little bit of this oregano. I just love that on my pizza. And it really helps add the flavor. And then you just go crazy with the pepperoni or whatever toppings you want.

[Arlene] Like mushrooms, green onion?

If you do sausage, you have to brown the sausage first and drain it but the pepperoni is very easy. I love that. And that’s it. And then as soon as it’s all done, just pop it in.

What temperature are we doing?

400 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes.

[Arlene] That’s all?

That’s it. And you got yourself a Valentine’s pizza.

Now Dave, if you don’t have that rack that you’re cooking on, whatever we call that thing, screen, would you put it on a regular cookie sheet?

A cooking stone or a regular cookie sheet is fine. And you just have to watch it a little bit, cause you want, it depends on how, if you like your crust crusty or you know-

[Arlene] While he’s doing that-

[Renee] I was surprised that diamond he first-

I bet, yeah.

It’s shaped like a heart! It’s the little things. It’s normal pizza.

And now, something special for dessert. Now that was simple. That was just kind of an everyday meal.

Now, this is one of my all-time favorites.

And it’s it’s crème brulée and people think, “Oh, crème brulée, you get in a restaurant, it’s so hard to make.” It is the simplest thing in the whole wide world.

[Arlene] So, three ingredients, right?

Absolutely, and some people make it a lot harder than it is but this is a very simple recipe. Anybody can do this. You just take your bowl here. You, you take two of these heavy creams. It’s basically-

[Arlene] It’s not for the diet person.

No. It’s two cups of heavy cream.

[Arlene] Now that’s not half and half, folks. That’s heavy cream. Cause you could whip that into whipped cream, couldn’t you?

Yes. Yes.

Okay. So, there’s two cups of that. What else?

Yes. And then you take egg yolks. And put the eggs, you have to separate them and put the-

The egg whites in there or the yolks?

Just the yolks, so you need five of those. And you know how to separate ’em, guys. Just like this.

[Arlene] Yum yum.

[David] And you put five of those in there.

[Arlene] Right into the cream?

[David] Yep. Right into the cream. And a half a cup of sugar.

[Arlene] That’s all.

[David] That’s it.

Half a cup. Wow.

And then you just whisk that together. Or you can stir it or whatever you want. Just mix it together.

Here’s a whisk right in here. Give him this one.

We didn’t have our whisk handy, I’m sorry.

Here we go. Sorry.

And then, the yolks, there’s five yolks in there, two cups of heavy cream, and half a cup of sugar. And when that’s done, you pour it into what these are called is ramekins. You can even use just like a baking dish, if you have like a Pyrex pan, you don’t even have to do it individually.

To do individuals. Right.

But you pour it into that. And I don’t have enough yolks in here, but I’ll just show you. You just pour it in. And I just like to mix it, between each one of the ramekins.

Cause you wanna keep the eggs and everything incorporated together, you don’t want the cream in one and the eggs in the other.

Right. And this is a little secret. Make sure the ramekins are evenly spread on the pan. And then just give a little water in here.

[Arlene] Oh, you do it in a water bath?

[David] Yeah. It’s called the water bath and it keeps it all nice and moist when it’s baking and it doesn’t crack that way.

[Arlene] Did you know that if you’re doing a cheesecake and your cheesecake cracks across the top, it’s cause it’s too dry, if you do it in a water bath, it won’t?

[Renee] No, I did not.

Yeah. That’s the same thing. That’s really nice to know because you have this beautiful cake with a big crack. And then how long is that baking and at what temperature?

This bakes for about 80 minutes. 70 to 80 minutes at a real cool oven. 275.

Oh really cool.

I forgot too, you can put a little vanilla in there as well or any other flavorings if you like-

Almond or whatever.

Yeah, some people even put a tablespoon of instant coffee to make a mocha flavor. That’s really good.

All right. And then when that bakes show us what you have.

This is it when it’s completed and baked. And then you have to do what really crème brulée is all about. In fact, over there in that box there is the raw sugar. If someone will get that for me.

Talk us through it while we’re-

The thing about crème brulée is there’s the custard underneath and then there’s this hard shell of sugar on it. And use Sugar in the Raw, you can use brown sugar or regular sugar, but I prefer the way this ends up. And this Sugar in the Raw, you just put it on there.

[Arlene] What is Sugar in the Raw?

I guess it’s just raw sugar before they actually refine it into the granulated sugar and stuff like that. And you just kind of mix it around like that and then you put it on there a little bit and you get a nice-

[Arlene] Naked sugar.

[David] Naked sugar.

That’s a love joke.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, but we’re in the kitchen. Remember, we’re in the kitchen with Arlene.

[David] Isn’t that love begins in the kitchen?

You always talk about love in the kitchen.

I do, this is true.

You just spread that out evenly here. Again, after this comes out of the oven you want to let it cool. And let it cool to room temperature. And then, I like to put it in the refrigerator because I don’t like it soupy. I’d rather have it nice and firm.

[Arlene] You want to set up?

Yeah.

Now you didn’t grease those or anything before you put that-

No. Just pour it right in.

Great.

And then what you do with this is you put it under the broiler. Now some people use a blow torch. Now that’s a manly thing you’re supposed to do, you know, Tim the Toolman thing, but for this it’s very easy, you just pop it in.

Put that in, sure.

Now you wanna do a little bit of water bath on this too. Just because the pan tends to pop and move all over the place when you’re doing that.

[Arlene] So we have crème brulée, we have the pizza going, and unfortunately we’re running out of time, you realize that how quickly this went. Go ahead.

All you do is you put it under the broiler and let that sugar caramelize and you gotta watch it really carefully. Even leave the door open and little bit because it only takes a couple of minutes to do that. And if you don’t do it quick, you’re gonna have a little bit of smoke happening.

[Arlene] Yeah, I don’t like that.

[David] So you don’t want that.

And then you’ve ruined something you’ve spent a lot of time preparing. I don’t like that either.

So once it’s caramelized, it turns out great. And it has that nice hard, and you put it back in the refrigerator. I like it back in the refrigerator after that.

Okay. So, we talked you through those two things. When we can back, we’re gonna show you the smoothie and we’re gonna be in the dining room. You don’t wanna miss the ending of our Valentine show. Stay with us. We’ll be right back. Well, we’re in the dining room with our very special guest. And I want you to see the intimate dinner that David prepared.

Yep.

Show us the- Look at this pizza, it’s so cute.

The heart-shaped pizza-

Why don’t you cut a little piece of that?

Made just for the love of my wife. Just cut through it real easy.

[Arlene] The pampered one.

[Renee] Now that I’ve trained up my husband and the way he should go.

Ooh. I don’t know. She’s changing the scriptures around, Arlene.

She certainly is. And you know what happens when people do that? Not a good sign. She also made the smoothie. Let me just show this. Look at that smoothie. We’re gonna include the recipe for the smoothies too.

[David] Very easy.

Yum, yum. This would be great if you like that with that pizza, huh? And show us your crème brulée.

Crème brulée right here with that nice hard shell.

See that hard crust on there?

You just break through that to get to the custard underneath and it’s just delicious.

[Renee] Let me get a bite of that.

[David] You want a bite of this?

So that’s crème brulée with wonderful berries that enhances the-

Coffee.

So this is a lovely intimate dinner and you have some dipping sauces down there?

Well, the crust is so nice and thick, that once you’re done with the pizza, you can dip in the olive oil with the oregano and then dip it in the cheese, or you can use the sauce.

[Renee] He likes the sauce.

There you go. Well, that’s what it’s all about. So you make everybody happy, huh? Well, they certainly made me happy, and I’m really glad that they were here today.

It’s our pleasure. Thank you.

And more 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 more years until Jesus comes. Happiness for both of you.

Thank you.

And may God bless your lives in ways that you’ve not even thought.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I’m gonna get out of this dining room because this is an intimate dinner and I’m not invited. I have to go find Paul. So we’re just gonna let them help themselves. We’re so glad you joined us today. Be sure to join us the next time because it wouldn’t the same without you. Enjoy.

Thank you, Arlene. I’m gonna have some of this pizza. That’s for you, for my love. All my love shaped like a heart pizza. Love you.

Love you.

Let’s eat.

That’s the best pizza in the world.

I know.

[Announcer] Furnishings provided by Levin Furniture featuring Lane’s Country Living collection. Food provided by Jordan Banana Company, wholesalers of fresh food and vegetables, in Dravosburg, Pennsylvania.

[Announcer 2] Cornerstone Television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.