I go often to Aldi, because they usually have a good-quality milk for $2.54 a gallon, and then it’s cheese-making day. They also have the, for lack of a better term, “finds” aisle, rather half an aisle, which starts out with kitchen gadgets and ends with things like half-body warming blankets or somesuch.

The kitchen gadgets, most of which are made by Crofton, and despite their SHOCKING LOW LOW PRICES, are surprisingly not crap. A reasonably good potato ricer for $4.99 . . . Hard to believe, but I could have lived out the rest of life without a potato ricer, had I had to pay more.

So, damn you, Aldi! A 16 inch pizza pan, nonstick and perforated, for the low low price of $3.99, how could I resist?

Unfortunately I went just before they closed at 9 p.m., but the pizza pan was calling me, and I had to obey . . .

I always have leftover ricotta in the freezer from my cheesely activities. One of these is from a cheese that used annatto (a natural coloring agent), so it’s orangish.

Since the pizza was so ginormous, I decided to do a Quattro Stagioni (four seasons), although not the traditional kind, so there’s shrimp, roasted vegetables, broccoli, and hamburger with feta.

I used some of the feta I had just made the night before with the hamburger. With a sprinkling of the house Italian seasoning . . .

2 a.m. and (finally!) eating pizza, which at an earlier age would only happen if I was drunk. I’m made some not-so-great pizzas in the past, but this was really good, a better sauce (link saved) than I’ve made in the past, and the feta (of which I’ve also made some less than stellar versions in the past) gets thumbs uply. And the pan? More thumbs uply, because the crust was crispy on the bottom and cooked perfectly through.

Yum!

-R