My husband, the masked avenger

So yesterday we headed outside to the deck in the late afternoon to enjoy the sun and a Saturday afternoon mojito. Lately I had noticed an increase in the number of wasps in our yard, but didn't think much of it.

As I was showing S a picture of a desk in a magazine, he suddenly shoots out of his chair swearing and yelling. A wasp had stung him in his temple. As we headed inside to tend him, I pointed out that there must be a nest nearby, probably under the deck. Last year we had one on the front of the garage and a small one over at the neighbors. S pointed out that he was under the deck about 3 weeks ago and there was nothing, but that he'd look around.

Normally, bugs aren't a big deal to me - but since I am allergic to bee/wasp bites, it becomes a bit more of an issue if there is a nest in close proximity to the house. So S went under the deck and found this right under where our table is:

Note that the nest is as long as the beams! Every time we'd walk outside, we must have been jostling the boards and pissing these things off! So after a bit of research, wasps become dormant in the dark and you can remove the nest with little chance of being bit. So late last night, after a glass of wine, S headed outside with me watching from the window. Note: he was not really a "masked" avenger....that was just my fantasy.

The wasp nest is now in a big rubbermaid bin at the end of the yard - we'll have to figure out a way to dispose of it now!

On to the food! I know I've been lax with posting lately. After the kitchen renos and having a week of "poor me" attitude, I think I am back in the swing for cooking again. A few years ago I had come across a Cooking Light recipe for deep dish pizza that still catches my eye.

I am pretty lazy when it comes to pizza, I tend to do my quickie biscuit crust and move on. I don't know why I ever shied away from yeast crusts, as this was quick to come together. While I waited for the dough to rise, I got the topping all cooked up.

We went with the topping from the recipe - a mixture of spicy Italian sausage, zucchini, onions and mushrooms.

Loved the topping, and loved that the pizza looked exactly like deep dish. The crust tasted good, but it was kind of tough. Time to start experimenting with yeast pizza crusts I guess. Would I make this again, yes, but possibly with a different crust recipe. Or maybe I wouldn't bake it so long and it would turn out "tender"?

You can find the recipe HERE.