Blank Canvas Pizza

As a non-gourmand but sometimes artist, I’d never thought of pizza as a blank canvas. So the name immediately captured my attention. But, beyond encouraging my culinary creativity, I thought their business model was clever. They mail you — or someone you love — 8 frozen pizzas to keep your freezer stocked and your stomach full without schlepping them home yourself. As a Classic, I was attracted to it for practical reasons — I loathe going to the grocery store with my 3 year old. But their College Care Package — what college kid really wants more cheese popcorn in a tin — is what sold me & it’s good for all types.

So while the College Care Package is ingenious and would likely be a godsend to most during prep for finals, an order of Blank Canvas Pizza’s also might make a great new mom gift. Or rather a gift for a mom with a new baby who doesn’t have time to cook for herself or her family. The size of each pizza was also nice because it wasn’t ginormous but also wasn’t that tiny individual size that DiGiorno has. Classics will likely dig and use this website, ditto Organic Structures. I’m also thinking Fun Structures and likely a few Smart Structures. I don’t know why but I just don’t see Organic Freedoms, Fun Freedoms or Smart Freedoms as their number one customers.

I heard about Blank Canvas Pizza through one of my old college friends, who not so coincidentally started it. But, before you go thinking I’m featuring his website merely because he’s a friend, you must know he didn’t solicit our input. He simply included me on a blast email about his new business. I could’ve said, “Way to go! Good for you.” and then deleted the email — which is what Classic Freedoms, Fun Freedoms and Organics do to be nice if their friend just started a totally lame business. But I was intrigued by his business, went on his website, and told him I really loved his idea. The Masterpiece Gallery was such a neat way to build brand loyalty by getting people involved in his brand plus a way to keep your costs low because you’re not manufacturing multiple pizza SKUs. Wait am I veering into extremely boring MBA lingo?? 

After perusing the Masterpiece Gallery, and seeing that people were getting really imaginative with their toppings — one person tried Unagi (barbecued eel) and it was not a great success unsurprisingly — I was ready for a pizza party and knew Kate, my creative Organic Freedom sister, would be able to knock this one out of the park. Organic Freedoms are almost always great brainstormers. Boy was I wrong.

I sent her to the grocery store to get creative pizza toppings and she called me while she was there asking if she should get green peppers, onions and maybe mushrooms. Is it just me or was she having a brain fart? Do ANY of those ingredients remotely sound like creative pizza toppings?? I told her, “Go crazy. Be super creative.” I told her about the guy who used Unagi. Her response? “I don’t understand. Maybe some avocados?” I gave up. Apparently, Organic Freedoms brainstorming talent stops at the grocery store door. Like Superman and kryptonite.

Kate arrived home with papaya as her “crazy” ingredient. We made pizzas for the kids first and they gobbled it up — which DOESN’T always happen with freezer pizza or frankly my freaking homemade pizza. Okay, it’s not totally homemade since I buy frozen dough but it takes effort to spread that dough into a perfect circle. We just did plain for the kids on the regular crust. As for ours, we went the papaya route. We decided to sauté the papaya with some onions. We figured the papaya would taste nasty but it was actually quite good. Very subtle. I think the one thing I might add is a little mozzarella on top with our recipe and it would’ve been cheesy perfection. We even sprinkled potato chips on part of it but you couldn’t really taste them so don’t bother adding them. Why waste the calories?