Saddling Up with the Cowboy Pizza

This week the wife and I have decided to co-op the blog. She wanted to tell you about the pizza, and I wanted to tell you about how I lied to you last week. I'll start.

Last week I stated, "we decided to try something this week we've never done before - grilling a pizza." This is partially true in that we had never grilled a pizza before. But as it turns out, we had forgotten about a little sidebar during an afternoon trip to Lowe's a few years back. On that day, there were some people sitting outside the entrance and they were grilling pizza and giving it away for free. For free! We had a couple of slices, and it was delicious. It also happens to be the first time we ever tried a Papa Murphy's pizza, because that's exactly who the folks grilling all that pizza were with. And now we've come full circle, because this week we cooked up the very same pizza - The Cowboy.

"Courage is being scared to death, but taking the time to finish your slice of pizza anyway."

- John Wayne

Take it away, wife! ...

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I've got to admit, so far we've been playing it pretty safe in our weekly pizza choices. Most of the pizzas we’ve tried have either been the monthly special or ones we’ve been dying to taste. However, this week we decided to be more adventurous. More daring. More brave. And the pizza that lived up to that kind of hype is rather appropriately named “The Cowboy.” It comes loaded up with pepperoni, Italian sausage, mushrooms, black olives, red pizza sauce, and an herb & cheese blend that is sprinkled all over the top.

Our pizza working its way down the line
(with a Combo Magnifico bring up the rear, it appears)

She's back! And still smiling! We love going
to the South Rutherford Papa Murphy's.

I tend to be a pickier eater than the hubs. There’s not much I could put in front of him that he wouldn’t eat, as he’s proven by eating every single meal I’ve made for him since we’ve been together, no matter how creative the recipe. But the one ingredient that always makes me cringe on a pizza is black olives (shudder). One of the stipulations we’ve given ourselves with our weekly pizzas is to order the pizzas as-is. We may go light on an ingredient, but we leave none out. So if you take a look at the pizza below, you’ll see that by my definition it is loaded with black olives. So buck up, cowgirl!

Presenting "The Cowboy"

Up close with all the toppings

That being said, when the hubs picked up the pizza, an essential ingredient was almost left off, and no, it wasn’t the olives (sigh). Right before the pizza was wrapped, one of the employees realized they'd forgotten to put the “herb and cheese blend” all over the top.  “Oh, glad I caught that!,”  she exclaimed. “This pizza is good anyway, but the blend is what really makes it!” and it was immediately remedied. And she was definitely right.

Family-sized and full of flavor. It's ready!

A little obsessed with macro shots? Maybe. But that is some good looking pizza!

Depth check! This is a pretty standard sized pizza this week.
Family-sized with a regular crust.

So for all my hesitation, I just have to say believe it or not, the olives were really good. Apparently I have been missing out for years. Or maybe I just needed the exact combination of hearty meatiness with earthy veggies and herbs. The olives added a bit of a salty taste, but the mushrooms counteracted that nicely (interjection from the hubs: he says he found the olives kind of meaty tasting when on the pizza. Meaty olives ... ooo-kay. His weird taste buds aside, he really liked them on the pizza, though he's still not a fan of eating olives by themselves, either). There was a solid portion of sausage and pepperoni, which in my book is always good. The red sauce was just the right hint of sweet tomato to compliment the flavors. The herb and cheese blend definitely made the pizza, though. I don’t even have a clue what’s in it, but whatever it is, it’s great. It added the complexity and variety that made me want seconds of this pizza. All in all, it was a great tasting and well-rounded pizza this week!

All sliced up!

Guess which slice is the hubs'?

First-person perspective on dinner!