My Wish Came True!

I was outside early one morning recently, watering my front yard flowers when I saw a US Mail truck pull up in front of my house. The mailman handed this large and heavy "One Day Express" package to me. I was puzzled as to what could it be, and seeing all the "perishable" warnings that were all over the package I immediately went inside to open it.

Whatever was inside was well protected within a Styrofoam container that contained ice packs.

Removing the ice packs I saw that it was pizza from New York! If you remember, I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago called "What Do I Miss Most About New York City?"  At the end of the post, I stated that I was most yearning for a slice of New York City Pizza! As an early "special" birthday gift, my older brother and sister-in-law sent me pizza from New York as a gift!

The instructions sheets inside the box. (This photo, and all photos on my blog can be enlarged by clicking on the photo and then clicking on it again when it opens on a new tab.) My brother found a Long Island Pizzeria that also ships pizza, as well as other specialty items, all around the US and the world! They aptly call this "New York Flying Pizza"!  Information from their web site states:

"Our customers would constantly tell us about their relatives who moved away and how they miss New York Style Pizza. They would tell us “you can’t get good New York style pizza anywhere but New York”, being in the New York restaurant business all our lives we knew this to be true. We heard this daily, finally, we decided to do something about it and we started NY Flying Pizza in order to get New York style pizza to all our friends, family and loved ones. Everyone is finally able to order New York Pizza online."

Opening the box, I saw my brother and sister-in-law generously gifted me with not just one pizza, but two pizzas!  The pizzas were "par cooked" in the Flying Pizza brick oven and then frozen for shipping. All I had to do is preheat my oven and place the pizza directly on the rack to finish cooking. The top pizza is a Sicilian style pizza. It has a thick crust and is covered with sauce and lots of imported Italian cheese.

Since it was on top, we cooked this pizza first and shared it with our daughter and son-in-law. 

I sprinkled my own combination of pizza spices on top.  Ahhhhh---it tasted heavenly! I was immediately transported back in time and space to a NY pizzeria! The aroma, looks, and taste were authentic. There is just something about the crust of a NY pizza slice that makes it taste extra special.

The second pizza is called "Grandma Pizza."  It is a thin crust pizza covered with mozzarella and splashed with San Marzano tomatoes and fresh basil.

We cooked this a few days later and again invited our daughter and son-in-law to share the pie with us.

It was another delicious taste of New York!  I have no affiliation with Flying Pizza, and I am not being compensated in any way by them for this post. This was just a wonderful early birthday treat to me from my big brother and sister-in-law who read my blog post and wanted to give me a surprise that I'd always remember for my upcoming "special decade" birthday!  Thank you so much J and S!  You really made us all so happy to have a delicious taste of pizza from New York to enjoy one more time!  I love you both!

It has been absolutely beautiful here lately -- blue skies and temperatures in the 70s and 80s, although it may warm up, even more, this week.  Not having much humidity in the air makes such a big difference with my comfort level--I love it!  The air has been full of the fragrance of lilacs this week--so many of my neighbors have beautiful mature lilac bushes. I could not resist taking many photos of them to enjoy!