The pizza gods are happy.

I don't care what anyone says... once you get out of the cities of New York or Chicago, you're hard-pressed to find great pizza. And by "great," I don't mean pizza that's made by part-time high school kids who follow a diagram and count the number of pepperoni slices that go on each pie.

What I do mean is honest-to-Italian-goodness hand-made pizza with home-made dough, sauce made with a grandmother's recipe, fresh mozzarella cheese, and baked in a hell-hath-no-fury-like-a-real-pizza-oven.

Except for one restaurant in downtown Houston (Star Pizza) we don't usually get pizza anywhere else in this state. It's just not worth the time and the trouble, although we have tried time and again. Yesterday, my husband had to drive into Clear Lake.... and discovered Dan's Pizza Co., in the town of Webster. And let me repeat....... the pizza gods are happy.

Not only was the pizza delicious and worthy of being called a New York-style pie.... my husband brought home two pizzas, which now sit in the fridge.  He ordered a meat-topped pie for himself, and a cheese pie for me. (Can you hear the angels singing as I type?)

When I opened the box, I took one look at the pie and said "Now that's a pie!"  It not only smelled delicious, but it looked delicious, and the aroma of the sauce reminded me of Mr. Pumpernink's Pizza in London. (That Italian restaurant was so good that we ate there five times--- the owner/chef is originally from New York.)

I tasted the teeniest-tiniest slice of the cheese pizza last night when my husband got home.... it heated up nicely in the microwave, but when I have a slice for lunch today, I'll use the oven. Without a doubt, my cheese pie will last longer than my husband's meat pie.... I will have one slice at a time, probably every day for lunch until there are no more slices left in the box.

And then I'll be asking my husband when he's going back to Clear Lake.

---Note about the pie slices..... when I re-heated a small piece in the microwave last night, it was delicious and tasted right-out-of-the-pizza-oven.  Today for lunch, I re-heated the slice in the oven......... the pizza was very good but not as good as last night's zap in the microwave. This particular pizza's crust is just a bit too thin for re-heating in the oven, and the mozzarella didn't stand up to the oven temperature either.  So, Dan's Pizza Co. is still a go-to for pizza from Clear Lake.... I just wouldn't re-heat it in the oven anymore.