Confessions of a Bad Dad - Sunburn

Forgive me Blogger, I have sinned. It's been 27 days since my last confession.

We've spent the last three days down in Ephraim, UT for the wife's work conference. There's not much to do down there - especially when the hotel's cable and internet go out due to overuse since the hotel is not often full. So to pass the time I took baby to the local playground, where we were joined by the Desperate Housewives of Sanpete County. Twelve young Mormon mommies with their kids (with names like Stockton, Miranda, and 3 Brinleys) hung out at the park with baby and me. I probably looked like a homeless bum with my beard and crazy hair, but at least I had a kid with me. Without baby I definitely would have been arrested for being a creep.

So while we were at the park, I heard one of the moms telling her kid to put on sunscreen and I had a fleeting thought that I should have put some on baby. But we were only out there a few hours and I never burn after only a few hours.

Turns out that babies are different than big people and their skin burns faster. Who knew? Now baby is very pink and mommy is mad.

Pizzeria Seven Twelve Review

Last night we finally made it to Pizzeria Seven Twelve in Orem for my wife's birthday dinner.

We started with an asparagus and egg plate ($7). It came with 8ish spears of asparagus well-seasoned and roasted with cheese and topped with an egg (sunny side up). I've seen egg and asparagus served together before, but I'd never had it. It was really good. My wife even enjoyed it and she'd been dissuading me from cooking it for weeks.

My wife ordered the pecorino, red onion, nicoise tapenade, walnuts, and mozzarella pizza ($15). It was one of the more exotic-sounding pizzas on the menu, and was very tasty. The flavors worked well together and the crunchy texture of the walnut did not distract from the experience as I feared it might.

I ordered the speck, soppressata, garlic, tomato sauce, and mozzarella pizza ($13). It was a more traditional choice and did not disappoint when it came to the flavors of the toppings. I love the thin crust that P 712 has created; the middle of the pizza is like a thick flour tortilla. The outer rim of the crust can get a bit crunchy and was burned in a few spots, but that's what happens when you cook in a brick oven and not a conveyor belt.

My only criticism of P 712 is that the toppings on the speck pizza were a little lacking in quantity. I understand that one doesn't pile up the toppings on a thin crust pizza, but I was definitely left wanting more. More speck, more soppressata, more sauce, and more cheese. It was as though the toppings were applied with a paint brush - just an even thin layer of each. Enough of each topping to whet my appetite, but not enough to satisfy it. I'd also prefer a pizza with more topping space and less crust space, which is to say that for the size of the pizza (radius = 1), the toppings were probably .75-.8 and the crust was probably .25-.2, where I prefer a smaller crust (.1-.15).

All in all we really enjoyed P 712 and will most likely return. My wife was a little hesitant to try it out, knowing that it's owned and managed by the same team that runs Communal, but we're glad we did. Pizzeria Seven Twelve definitely executes the sustainable farming/local ingredients idea much better than Communal. The food is great and reasonably priced. We paid about the same for two pizzas at P 712 as we did for one (larger) pizza in NYC at Capizzi, Lombardi's, or Grimaldi's.