SHOW & RECIPE FOR OCT. 27

PIZZAS FROM CALIFORNIA
One night about 20 years ago, we found ourselves hungry in Beverly Hills – and wandered into the very first California Pizza Kitchen. Loosely inspired by the kinds of things Wolfgang Puck and his ilk were doing – putting anything and everything on a pizza – CPK grew to a powerful national restaurant presence, with a frozen pizza line in your supermarket. For the recent opening of CPK in River Oaks, we sat down with founders Larry Flax and Rick Rosenfeld to talk about the whys and wherefores of great pizza.

BACK ON THE BUS
Well, OK, more like a luxury RV, actually. That’s what Fred Noe of Jim Beam and its higher-end bourbon brethren was doing when he poured through Houston recently. He was celebrating National Bourbon Month, naturally, but also paying homage to the fact that Texans buy more of his best stuff than anybody else in America. With a bit of a tasting, as is our habit in the Grape & Grain segment, we get Fred to tell us all about what makes a great bourbon – and just why bourbon from his neck of the woods in Kentucky is the Great American Spirit.

“INTER” AND SIGN IN, PLEASE
Most people know William Shakespeare wrote some really famous plays, and quite a few people have heard whisperings that maybe things were not always what they seemed – that maybe somebody else wrote those plays, etc. Yet not too many of us know or understand The Bard well enough to concoct a “Da Vinci Code”-style thriller around the mysteries – called “secrets” by the marketing department, of course - that have attached themselves to Hamlet, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar and the rest. Our final guest today is the author of the terrific new mystery “Interred With Their Bones.”

This Week’s Delicious Mischief Recipe…
SMOKED SAUSAGE QUESO

3/4 pound Texas smoked sausage
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup finely chopped red onion
½ cup finely chopped green bell pepper
3 cups heavy cream
2 ½ cups shredded Monterey Jack
2 ½ cups shredded Pepper Jack
2 teaspoons cornstarch, dissolved in 2 teaspoons water
½ cup chopped green onions
Tortilla chips

In a food processor, pulse the sausage into a fine crumble. Heat the olive oil in a skillet and brown the sausage over medium-high heat. Add the onion and bell pepper, stirring until caramelized, 4-5 minutes. Add the cream, reduce heat to medium and whisk to incorporate. Gradually add in the cheese, stirring until melted and incorporated. Thicken with the dissolved cornstarch. Garnish with green onion. Serve in a bowl with tortilla chops. Serves 10-12.