A Southern Exposure: 'Round Here

I've been a little busy lately.

You see, I've discovered the Harry Potter series. And I've loved every second of it. I'm not sure why I've never read the books before now...when the books and movies came out, my siblings were pretty young and my parents made the "no Harry Potter" decision that many families made. And that was fine with me, I don't remember ever pining to see the movies or read the books. As I got older, I guess I forgot about Harry. When one of the movies would come out, there would be a big uproar, people would dress up and show up at the theater in robes, wands in hand....and I still didn't catch on.

Right after we got married, one of the books was released (don't remember which one) and I happened to go to Wal-Mart the night it was released. I was standing next to a huge display of a life-size Harry and a gargantuan pile of HP books, thumbing through a different book, when a man ran up to the display, frantically turned to the last page of the new book, looked at me and screamed, "HE'S NOT DEAD! HE'S NOT DEAD! I KNEW IT!!" Then he ran off.

That was about the extent of my experience with Harry Potter. One day a month or so ago, I came across this blog entry by Andrew Peterson. It was so poignant, so beautifully written, that I knew I had to get my hands on those books. My brother-in-law was gracious enough to let me borrow his collection, and before the end of the first chapter of the first book, I was hooked. I don't feel that I can say anything more than Andrew Peterson said about the books except for, "Yes!" Read the article. Read the books. I loved them.

So, on that note, a few weeks ago, I found myself alone on a Friday night with nothing to do except make a tomato basil pizza and watch the first Harry Potter movie.

Ever had tomato basil pizza? It's one of my favorites but has been deemed "not manly enough" by Scott, so it's one that I have eat alone. You need a pizza crust drizzled with olive oil and lightly sprinkled with garlic salt.

Sliced plum or roma tomatoes...or whatever kind you happened to have on hand.

Thinly sliced fresh basil leaves.

Layer it with good mozzarella...not the cheap stuff! For really good pizza, you need the mozzarella that comes from the deli or the specialty cases with the fancy cheeses in the front of the grocery store.