John's Incredible Pizza

Hello CQ Fans,



Recently we have received several letters asking us to do a show about pizza. Many of you want to know how it is made. Well.... ask and you shall receive :) This week we did a shoot at John's Incredible Pizza and learned all about how they make this favorite dish. They gave the CQ crew access to all of the behind the scenes action. We literally started from scratch, beginning with the dough making process, to the baking and then to the eating (truly my favorite part). Did you know that there are 6 ingredients that go into dough? Can you name them?

One thing that I learned about myself is that I am surprisingly good at tossing dough. I think I surprised everyone around me, but I knew I could do it. Not a single bit of dough hit the floor. Yes!!!

The CQ crew even got to develop our very own Curiosity Quest pizza. We each added our own choice of topping. It turned out to be a garlic pesto pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms, canadian bacon, olives, and a quarter of the pizza had jalepenos, at Brad's request. It was delicious. I think John should seriously consider adding it to their menu :) If you ever go, you should see if they will make it for you. The only problem was that I piled the toppings on so high that the pizza couldn't cook completely right. But we didn't care. It was fabulous!

Anyway, we had a blast and really appreciate John's Incredible Pizza allowing us to mess up their kitchen and learn all about pizza. At John's Incredible they don't just make pizza though. Aside from their pizza, I fell in love with their cinnamon rolls. I won't disclose how many I ate, but let's just say it was far too many :) My sweet tooth definitely got the best of me, as it usually does.

This show will be airing this spring, but to get just a small taste of it I have included a couple minutes of behind the scenes footage. You can see how much fun we really have on these shoots. My crew rocks!




Stay Curious!
~Joel

Happy New Year!

Hey everyone, Happy New Year to you all! What is my New Year's resolution you may ask? It is to try to blog more often. I vow to do a better job of letting all of our fans know what Curiosity Quest is up to.

We are already 2 weeks into 2010. Where is the time going? Well, for the staff of Curiosity Quest it is flying by quickly. Before I get into what is up and coming, let me highlight some of our latest quests.

December was a very busy month for us. We shot 3 episodes. We first went to the Red Rock Climbing Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, where I learned all about indoor rock climbing. Let me tell you, I had a blast. Our co-host, and manager of the facility, Bill McLemore was kind enough to show us the ropes, literally :) I learned all about the art of tying knots, a vital skill in this business, as well as the steps of belaying. The biggest challenge of the day? Climbing at a 45 degree angle. Bill made it look so easy, but for me it was ridiculously difficult, and if I am to be honest, unsuccessful. Oh well, a host has to be humble right?


December also took the CQ crew to the Orange County Fire Authority in Southern California where I had the distinct honor of learning how firefighters are trained. Ok, so nearly every little boy dreams about being a firefighter right? Well, I was no exception. So, it was like living out a childhood fantasy, well, ....... except it was much harder than it was in my fantasy :) I always knew that being a firefighter was hard work, but I have a renewed respect for how truly difficult this job is. What they put their bodies through is truly remarkable. By the end of the shoot, I was exhausted. I don't know, .... maybe there is a career change in my future? All of the firefighters that were training me said that I did a great job, but I am sure that they were just trying to make me feel better about the fact that I was completely out of breath. Ha, ha!

Our last shoot of the year took us to Snow Summit Mountain Resort, in California where I learned how they keep a mountain in prime skiing conditions in the warm California sunshine. I learned how snow is made. We have had to start some shoots early, but this was, by far, the earliest shoot we have ever done. We started at 2:30 a.m. on the mountain. Yes, we were tired and freezing, but surrounded by beauty. There is nothing like watching the sunrise on the mountain. This was no ordinary shoot. I got to play! Snowball fights, jumping in the snow, sliding on my stomach and snowboarding. Ahhhhh, I love my job.

Our new, exciting season starts airing, here in California, in February and around the nation in the Summer. Look for our first episodes on how arena floors are changed  and snowmaking. Can't wait to share these awesome shows with you.

Thank you for all the hundreds of letters that we get every month that continue to inspire me and my crew and puts us on the path for incredible quests. We couldn't do it without you.

Keep writing. We are looking for "green" ideas right now. We would like to find letters that think outside of the box. We have focused a lot on recycling, but we are now ready to tackle bigger and better ideas of "going green". There are so many ways out there to help our planet. What are you curious about?

In the meantime,
Stay Curious

~Joel