Appetizer spread

On the menu this year:

• Bruschetta with tomato-onion topping and artichoke antipasto spread (Trader Joe’s)
• Cheese platter with smoked gouda, peppered cheddar, salami, orange fig marmalade (Sprouts), and various crackers
• Red grapes
• Homemade pizzas topped with pizza sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, proscuitto, and basil
• Spaghetti with meat sauce
• Red velvet cupcakes (Duncan-Hines) with cream cheese frosting (Pillsbury)

Homemade pizza dough was a new challenge for me. I’d not had much luck with yeast in the past. A test-run with pizza dough had proven more Razzie-worthy than Oscar caliber–so I was experiencing a little stage fright.

An attempt at the dough recipe from Rachael Ray’s Open House (which is my favorite of her books in my collection) was a complete failure. Utterly frustrated with the cookbook recipes, I turned to YouTube.

Beautiful pizza before hitting the oven

Success at last! The first video–from Australia–provided the instructions on making pizza dough. It was simple and it WORKED! I had to convert some of the measurements for my American kitchen. In the vid, “AussieGriller” calls for 150 ml of lukewarm water (a little less than 3/4 cup) and 240 grams of flour (1 cup, rounded). The second vid shows a dad prepping homemade dough for baking, rolling it out and applying toppings. So thanks to these two guys, I had three delicious pizzas to serve at our party and I now know how to prep my own pizza dough–which is much cheaper than store bought. (Both videos included below.)

The Captain and I have hosted (or helped host) 2 to 3 parties per year since marrying. We both love entertaining. One of the main things I’ve learned is to give up being a Martha Stewart. I would have loved to make the cupcakes and frosting from scratch–but I knew I wouldn’t have the time or energy to do that AND the pizzas. That’s reality. So…I fell back on the box mix. Likewise, the spaghetti was originally intended to be something called “braided spaghetti bread.” Basically spaghetti wrapped in garlic bread. Alas, the bread dough I bought (Pillsbury’s french bread) did not cut it–so plain old spaghetti and sauce it was.

In the end, our home was clean, we were calm and collected come party time, and our guests enjoyed the company and the food. And to make it even better, this was a fun Oscar year!

Just by having Billy Crystal return as host made this show 10 times better than last year’s awkward flop. The speeches were pithy and the spectacle entertaining. True, perhaps the producers played it safe this time, but it still worked. Meryl Streep finally won after years of nominations–I loved the look of shock on her face. (I know she’s won before but they just had to give in at some point.)

Penelope Cruz gets my vote for best dress–loved the flowing skirt and gorgeous lavender-gray color. Other favorite gowns included Gwyneth Paltrow’s classy white number and Milla Jovovich’s glittering one-shoulder gown. I wish I had a reason to wear gowns like those…and the body to do them justice.

The Artist‘s wins for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director put the cherry on top of our night. For film geeks like us, this was like watching our favorite team win the Superbowl. The Captain and I both fell in love with this black-and-white silent film when we saw it for our Valentine’s date. Not only is the story charming and the actors a delight to watch, but every facet of the film exudes brilliance. I don’t usually lavish that kind of praise on a film (unless it’s Star Wars), but The Artist really deserves the highest praise–and it got it!

Pizza Videos

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Recipe for Homemade Pizza Crust

1 cup warm water

3 cups flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2 teaspoons dry yeast

Place ingredients in bread machine as listed.  Use the dough setting for your machine.  When cycle has completed, put dough on lightly floured surface.  If the dough is too sticky, knead in some more flour to make a moderately stiff dough.  Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces and let rest for 10 minutes.  This is also the time you can form the dough into a ball, place into a freezer bag  and freeze if you do not want to use all of it.

After the 10 minute rest, pat out your dough into a circle that measures 10″ (more or less depending on how thick you like your crust).  I place my dough on a lightly Pam sprayed baking sheet (unless you have a pizza stone then omit the spray) and put in an oven for about 3-5 minutes at 400 degrees.  Then I pull out pizza crust and place my toppings that I like on the crust.  I find my toppings don’t dry out and get over cooked while waiting for my crust to brown up.  You basically give your crust a head start.

This crust is also the one that I use when I make my grilled pizza during the Summer/Fall!

Homemade Pizza Dough

.25 oz dry yeast

1 cup warm water

2 cups flour (it called for bread flour, but all-purpose worked great too!)

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dry basil

extra flour

~Mix yeast and water until yeast is dissolved.  Let set for 10 minutes until it looks creamy.

Mix flour, evoo, salt, sugar, basil, garlic and yeast mixture in a large bowl until it forms a stiff (still sticky!) dough.

Cover and let rise (I left it at room temp.) for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place dough on a floured surface and knead and flatten into your crust shape.

Add pizza sauce and cheese.  Top with your choice of toppings.

Bake for 20 minutes.

You’ll need:

Olive oil, for the saute

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1/2 lb of Baby Portobello mushrooms, chopped

Slowly sauteed veggies

3 small sweet peppers, diced

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tbs fresh basil (or in this case, basil slurry)

2 tbs sun dried tomato jam

kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

1-1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 homemade whole wheat pizza crust recipe for one thick crust pizza

5 oz hot Italian seasoned salami, thinly sliced

12 thin slices of smoked ham, thinly sliced

shredded mozzarella and parmesan, as needed

In a cast iron skillet;

Chopped vegetables were sauteed in olive oil, until onions and vegetables were sweet and beginning to caramelize.  Herbs and spices were then added along with salt, pepper and a slight sprinkling of balsamic vinegar.  They were removed from heat and allowed to cool.

Preheat oven to 375F:

The homemade pizza dough was made using a bread machine (total time 1:20) and then, after putting down a sheet of parchment paper, was spread on a quarter sheet cake pan.  The thin slices of ham were first placed over the dough, then  the cooled vegetables were spooned over the surface, followed by the salami.  Cheese was then sprinkled over other toppings.

Using the parchment paper to pick up the filling laden dough, the stromboli was rolled up “jelly roll” style and the ends were pinched together to seal in the filling. Place stromboli on parchment paper in middle of pan, seam down.  Three slits were made through the top of the rolled dough to allow steam to escape.  Bake for 35 minutes.  Cool for 10-15 minutes before slicing into 1 inch thick pieces.  Enjoy!

The way we like it.

Make that two

I advocate a three step pizza baking process that I think helps get the best results when baking in a home oven on a pizza stone. You don’t have to use my crazy system.  You could just layer all the stuff on and bake the whole thing for 20 minutes but I really think the three step process gets the best results.  Also don’t forget to preheat that pizza stone, it makes a big difference. For this recipe you can use homemade dough and pesto or store bought, it’s your choice.

Homemade pizza dough half a batch or enough store bought for one 9 inch pizza

¼ cup spinach and basil pesto or store bought

1 roasted chicken breast, sliced

Slice toppings into bite sized pieces

1 fresh mozzarella ball, sliced

4 slices of prosciutto diced

1 large tomato, sliced very thin

¼ large red onion, sliced very thin

Parmesan

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees with your pizza stone (if you have one) already inside the oven for at least a half hour. If you have a convection setting on your oven use it. Let your dough come to room temperature if you have been storing it in the fridge.Roll out the dough use either your hand or rolling pin, don’t make the crust to thin. The dough is elastic feeling and may need you to work with it a bit. If it’s keeps springing back into shape allow to rest for 15 minutes and try again.Have a cookie sheet nearby to place the dough on when it’s ready. Before you transfer the pizza sprinkle the cookie sheet and the top of the dough liberally with cornmeal.  Be sure to flip the rolled out dough over when you place it on the cookie sheet so the corn meal is now on the bottom of the pizza.  This will add a nice crunch to the dough and make it so you can slide the pizza off the cookie sheet and on to your heated pizza stone in the oven. Or you can place a clean tea towel on the cookie sheet and dust it with corn meal then place the dough on top so you can use the towel to slide the dough onto the stone, see video here. Here it is my three part baking process…its more work but so worth it. First drizzle the crust with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then layer on the fresh mozzarella; it will not take much cheese as it will spread as it heats. Slide on to the pizza stone and bake for about 5 minutes until the crust gets about half baked and the cheese is nice and bubbly. If the pizza gets stuck on the cookie sheet DO NOT PANIC, bake it on there, and next time add more corn meal to the bottom.Slide the hot pizza out of the oven on to the cookie sheet and add a layer of thin sliced salted tomatoes and dot the tomatoes with pesto, return to the oven on the pizza stone for 3-5 more minutes until the tomatoes look like they have begun to soften, and slide back out.Add all the rest of the toppings: prosciutto, onion, and chicken. Then return the pizza to the oven to bake for 8-10 more minutes until the toppings are cooked and the crust is golden brown.  Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before you slice. Top with grated Parmesan and crushed red pepper if you like.

My aunt and uncle have a good friend that makes the most wonderful stromboli and he gave me very quick directions on how to concoct my own Stromboli the last time I saw him. So with his quick and dirty guide to rolled up pizza-ish goodness I decided to try my hand at this Italian classic.  Stromboli can be a meal or an appetizer but you will almost never have any leftovers. I made mine with my homemade pizza dough that has whole wheat flour in so I feel a little bit better about eating something so decadent.  I serve it with small bowl of basic tomato sauce for dipping. The key with the stromboli is not to over fill and not make the filling to liquid. For a nice dinner add a green salad and glass of Chianti.

Half a batch of homemade pizza dough or enough store bought dough for one 9 inch pizza

3 hot or mild Italian sausages

1 small white onion, sliced

½ a red onion, sliced

1 small zucchini, sliced small and thin

3 cloves of garlic diced or microplaned

2 tbsp Italian spice blend or oregano, basil and thyme

1 cup of spinach chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

4 tbsp tomato paste (the good kind in the tube)

1 cup grated provolone

4-6 oz of fresh mozzarella sliced

Olive Oil

Corn meal and white flower for dusting

Preheat your oven with your pizza stone (if you have one) already inside to 400 degrees. Into a hot pan with a small drizzle of olive oil add your sausage after it has been removed from the casings. Brown the meat chunking it up into bit sized pieces. Then add the 2 colors of onions.

When the onion has had about 5 minutes in the pan add the spices, garlic, and zucchini.  Cook until the zucchini is tender, don’t overcook. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the spinach.

Allow you dough to come to room temperature before you try and roll it out. Roll out the pizza dough so it is a long rectangle about 8 inches wide. Place dough on a cookie sheet dusted with corn meal to keep it from sticking. The corn meal will give added crunch to the crust too.Paint the dough with tomato paste leaving a boarder around the edges without sauce.

Next add the filling putting about 2 or more cups of the filing on the dough. Next layer on the 2 kinds of cheese. If you want to add fresh basil or other spices go for it!

To roll up the dough, start on the end with all the filling and carefully roll it over tucking the edges together.  (Sorry I don’t have step by step photos but I couldn’t roll and photograph at the same time.) Poke a few holes I the dough to let steam escape.

Let the rolled up Stromboli rest for about 20 minutes.  Then put it in the oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and rest for another 10 minutes before you serve.

You pick.

Either way you can’t lose.

I’ve included at the end of this post the homemade pizza crust that I make on a weekly basis because it’s that awesome, and the homemade pizza sauce that I make on a weekly basis because, once again, it’s that awesome. And they are so easy to make. You really should try it.

I saw this pizza recipe from Plain Chicken (another food site that I love, by the way!), and seeing how easy it was, it had to go on my to-make food list (which is getting longer, and longer, and longer. I don’t think I’ll have a problem with blogging about food. Ever.). I tweaked the recipe a bit, using my homemade stuff and was very pleased. So, was Reinman. This will definitely become a staple in our house.

Chicken Pesto Pizza

recipe adapted from Plain Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 premade store bought pizza crust (like Boboli) or homemade pizza crust (1/4 of the recipe at the end of this post)
• 4 frozen chicken breasts
• 4 oz. store bought prepared pesto
• 1/2 cup pizza sauce (recipe at the end of this post)
• 1 & 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions:

1. Throw your frozen chicken breasts and pesto in a crockpot with the setting on low for 6-8 hours or until chicken is completely cooked. (Or you could buy already cooked chicken and mix it with your pesto. I found, though, that leaving my chicken on low in the crock pot all day with the pesto sauce really made the chicken tender and oh, so tasty.)
2. If you have store bought ingredients you can preheat your oven to 450 degrees now. If not, make sure you make your pizza crust a day ahead and chill it in the fridge.
3. Put your store bought dough or homemade dough on a pizza pan, or a pizza stone if you happen to have one. If you’re using the homemade dough, you’ll have to use some extra flour and roll that baby out to the size of your pan or about 12 inches. Spread your sauce on top of dough. Add your mozzarella cheese and then top with chicken. Bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until cheese is golden brown.
4. I should add also that I ended up having extra chicken leftover after I made this pizza but didn’t mind. If you don’t want any leftover chicken, you can half it.
5. Enjoy!

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Homemade Olive Oil Pizza Dough

recipe from My Baking Addiction

Ingredients:

• 2 & 3/4 cups lukewarm water
• 1 & 1/2 T granulated yeast (2 packages)
• 1 & 1/2 T Kosher salt
• 1 T sugar
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 6 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon, mix your yeast, salt, sugar, and oil with the water.
2. Next mix in the flour without kneading. Right now is where a stand mixer comes in handy, but if you don’t have one you can wet your hands in order to incorporate all the flour into the rest of the mix.
3. Transfer dough to a large bowl or lidded food container. Cover (not airtight), and allow to rest at room temp until dough rises and collapses, about 2 hours.
4. You can use the dough immediately or store in the fridge for up to 12 days. I find that the dough is easier to use if it’s chilled.
5. This recipe makes 4-1 lb loafs (or 4- 12 inch pizzas)
6. Enjoy!

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Homemade Pizza Sauce

recipe from Handle the Heat

Ingredients:

• 1 (14.5 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 2 T tomato paste
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 tsp. dried basil
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. fennel seed (I leave this out, only because we don’t have it)
• 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper (I also leave this out. See above reason)
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/8 tsp. sugar
• 1/8 tsp. cayenne pizza
• 1/8 tsp. all spice

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
2. This pizza sauce will make your kitchen smell AWESOME!
3. For me, this sauce is enough for 2 pizzas, so adjust accordingly.
4. Enjoy!

– the Jilb

I was so excited to make my own pizza!  It’s the go to “lazy food” in our house…whenever I’m not in the mood to cook, or we’re in a hurry, or we run out of groceries (I never run out, just occasionally I end up with like 5 things that you can’t make a real meal out of.  For instance: a plum, a kiwi, and half a pound of chorizo do not a balanced meal make.) this is what we always end up having.  We love Papa John’s around here, and I’m certainly not knocking them, but there’s just nothing like making your own.  For one, it’s super duper easy.  Sure the dough has to rise, but you can make it in the morning before work or school and let it rise in your fridge while you go about your day and when you get home all you have to do is take it out, top it, throw it in your oven for about 10 minutes, and Ta Da! Pizza!  The recipe says to let it rise at room temp for about 2 hours until it’s doubled in size, but if you do it in the morning and let it rise slowly in the fridge, it will actually develop a better flavor.  A slow rise really lets the dough become “the best it can be”, and that is true for most breads. Either the warm/fast, or cold/slow methods will work here, with delectable results, so I encourage you all to run home and make your very own pizza as soon as possible.

Pizza Dough - makes one medium-sized thick and fluffy crust. If you prefer thin crust, just halve this.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

3 cups flour (I used bread flour)
2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water (may need up to 1 or 2 tablespoons more)
2 tablespoon olive oil

Mix together the first 3 ingredients in a large bowl.  Add the water and olive oil, and stir until combined and the mixture sort of comes together in a ball with lots of little floury pieces hanging around.  Dump it all out on a lightly floured countertop and knead it all into a cohesive mass.  Only knead it for a minute or two, then lightly oil your bowl, dump the dough back in, turn to coat with oil, cover with a towel or plastic wrap, and go check out the latest on Pinterest – I mean go clean behind your refrigerator or something productive – for a couple of hours until the dough has doubled in size.

Once it has doubled in size, dump it back out on a lightly floured countertop and sort of gently squish it down with the palms of your hands – no punching here – be gentle!  Sort of work it around until it’s shaped like a ball again, and let it sit on your counter under a bowl or plastic wrap for 20 more minutes.  This is really an important step!  If you don’t let it relax, your crust will be tough, and not at all pizza-like.

Preheat your oven to it’s highest setting (preheat your pizza stone, too, if you have one).  Roll out the dough as best you can – this is kind of a chore, since the dough always wants to scrunch back up into itself, but just keep pushing it out with your hands until it’s close to a circle and looks approximately pizza-sized.  Throw on the toppings of your choice, keeping in mind that the more you have the less your crust will rise, so if you like a lot of toppings, keep them thinly sliced.  I don’t have a pizza stone, so I use a pizza pan like this one.  I cover it with parchment paper and sprinkle on a little cornmeal before adding my pizza.  Then just throw it in your oven for about 10 or so minutes, until it looks done.  Enjoy!

After years of buying pre-made pizza dough at the grocery store I decided to attempt pizza dough so I could add some whole wheat flour.  I have no idea why I was buying dough, this is really easy. I also have stopped using tomato sauce because it just makes your crust wet and spongy. The clean flavor of the fresh tomato is refreshing and turns pizza into a light meal that you will not regret in the morning when you step on the scale. Go crazy with toppings use the flavors you like not just traditional pizza ingredients.

2 ¼ ounce envelopes of dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

The crunchy crust is worth the effort

1 cup lukewarm water about 100 degrees

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tbsp yellow corn meal (plus more for dusting bottom of crust)

1 ½ tsp salt

2 tablespoon olive oil

Sprinkle the yeast into ¼ cup of the warm water with the sugar and mix.  Be sure the glass bowl is large enough for the yeast to bloom (it’s going to grow a lot). Let sit for 10 minutes.

Mix the flour, corn meal, and salt in the bowl of either a mixer with bread hook or food processor with a plastic blade. Add the olive oil and the remainder of the water into the yeast mixture. Gradually mix the liquid into the dry ingredients, be careful not to over process if you are using the food processor, it can destroy the gluten in the dough. If needed add more water one tablespoon at a time to help the dough from into a ball. 

Remove from the bowl and on a flowered surface knead the dough a few times and form into a smooth ball.

Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth and place in a warm area, leave it to rise for about an hour until it doubles in volume. My oven has a bread proof setting that works great for this. 

Punch the dough down and knead until smooth, then allow it to rise for another hour and knead again before storing or using. To store either freeze or wrap tightly in plastic wrap in put in the refrigerator. When you remove from the fridge allow the dough to come to room temperature before you roll it out. This recipe is enough for about two 9 inch pizzas.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees with your pizza stone (if you have one) already inside the oven for at least a half hour. You can also do this on the top of a grill outside.

To roll out the dough use either your hand or rolling pin, don’t make the crust to thin. The dough is elastic feeling and may need you to work with it a bit. If it keeps springing back into shape allow to rest for 15 minutes and try again.

Have a cookie sheet nearby to place the dough on when it’s ready. Before you transfer the pizza sprinkle the cookie sheet and the top of the dough liberally with cornmeal.  Be sure to flip the rolled out dough over when you place it on the cookie sheet so the corn meal is now on the bottom of the pizza.  This will add a nice crunch to the dough and make it so you can slide the pizza off the cookie sheet and on to your heated pizza stone in the oven.!!!UPDATE!!! Here is how to use a cloth to keep your pizza from sticking to your cookie sheet or peel, I am just using a basic tea towel that is nice and clean, not a fancy pastry cloth I am still dusting it with the corn meal.

I like a three part baking process…its more work but so worth it. First drizzle the crust with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and any dry spices you want, then layer on the fresh mozzarella and other cheese, it will not take much as the cheese will spread as it heats. 

Slide on to the pizza stone and bake for about 5 minutes until the crust gets about half baked and the cheese is nice and bubbly. If the pizza gets stuck on the cookie sheet DO NOT PANIC, just do this step on the cookie sheet, and next time add more corn meal to the bottom.

Slide the hot pizza out of the oven on to the cookie sheet and add a layer of thin sliced salted tomatoes, return to the oven on the pizza stone for 3-5 more minutes until the tomatoes look like they have begun to soften, and slide back out.

Now the fun begins layer on all your favorite toppings: veggies, Italian meats, and more spices then return to the oven and pizza stone for 8-10 minutes being sure not to let it burn.

The key is not to overdo the topping, and slice all the meats and veggies into small thin slices so they cook before the crust burns.

You could make this a more traditional style pizza using tomato sauce under the cheese but I think the crust is crispier if you use the cheese then sliced fresh tomato method above.

Here are the tricks I found to help me out:  1: Use the whole canned tomatoes, drain them and then crush them, then drain them some more.  They should look very chunky.  2: Some recipes call for raw sausage in the bottom, but I found it worked better cooking it (less greasy, less liquid). 3:  Take the time to make your own crust.  I made this in a 9″ spring form pan, and had enough to make 2 pizzas so we froze 1/2 of the dough to use later.  The better taste is worth the effort.

Since the recipe is from another site, I am just going to link to them to share:

Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

Katie: This turned out awesome! Much better than Gray’s last efforts, so the research was well worth it. The only negative would be that the crust on the sides was a little too thick, so we would recommend making that pretty thin so as not to have this problem. Other than that, it was awesome! The whole, Italian-style tomatoes really make the pizza. (Not to mention the Italian sausage…) We can’t wait to make it again!

I used this dough recipe from allrecipes.com. I believe that any post with 1000+ reviews that has a rating of 4+ stars is worth trying. So that’s why I picked it. Okay, I also picked it because it didn’t require overnight rising. But as usual, I changed it up a little bit, because that’s just how I roll people. So the following recipe is that recipe, but with my adaptations.

WARNING: If you know anything about my recipes, you know that I pretty much wing it. In cooking, you just have to be adventurous. So use this as your guide, but don’t be afraid to eyeball ingredients, change them up, and keep an eye out for how long things should be cooked. Okay, except for the dough itself. When it comes to the ingredients in baking, you kind of want to keep it precise. But as far as cooking the baked good, that’s almost always a crap shoot. So shoot away.

Lots and lots of pizza!

Homemade pizza invokes a lot of precious memories from many people’s childhood and it’s just fun!

It was a project for us in home ec. once to make mini bagel pizzas and then to make english muffin pizzas. My mom probably had to budget in all the english muffins, pepperoni, cheese and tomato sauce we made her buy at the store back then. My brother and I would make an english muffin or a plateful of mini bagel pizzas everyday after school for a couple of years at least, once I hit the sixth grade and was required to take home ec. Seriously. I ate pizza like it was going out of style! I think my mom was only ok with it because we were eating cheese and tomato sauce without adding anything to it, all on her choice of english muffin or bagel. Basically nutritious. Basically.

Once my husband realized how easy it was to shape the dough, he has decided to “apprentice” in our kitchen as our resident pizza dough tosser. So his pizzas come out some crazy shapes! It is pretty easy to shape the dough, it takes a little time to do and then patience to get the technique right, but then you are on the road to pizza-ville!

The only bummer is waiting an hour after you pull the dough out to make it’s about a 5-7 minute wait for them to get baked up then pizza heaven! The topping options are endless and the sizes are just right! Peter suggests making five individual pizzas with one batch of dough which works out nicely, as each individual pizza is the size of a standard dinner plate (depending on your pizza “tossing” or stretching abilities…) or just a hair shy of that, and then it means we have enough for two meals plus whoever gets to snag the last ball of dough either gets a full meal or a snack, if they get caught (red-handed usually!) ….

We have been playing around with toppings and now have pizza about once a week, so we just keep on hand a baggie in the fridge full of mixed toppings to toss on and a baggie of shredded cheese and it’s just a mix of whatever cheeses we used throughout the week, so it’s a delicious mix of many cheeses. One can of crushed tomatoes has lasted us at least twenty pizzas and will probably keep us eating twenty more, so it is certainly a cost-effective meal for any family!

Once you get to the pizza recipes in his cookbook, there are a few variations, sourdough pizza, neo-neopolitan pizza and then 50% whole grain and 100% whole grain. You just substitute out twenty percent of the flour of the recipe given below and then replace it with the flour or whole grain flour of your choice. The possibilities are endless! It’s fantastic!

And it totally justifies my bakers peel purchase! It’s another pet hobby of my husbands now is to brandish the bakers peel and pull the pizzas in and out of the oven. It’s quite fun and its going to be a great tradition to keep around for Mei. In fact, it’s making it so that we prefer to eat these pizzas rather than any store-bought frozen variety.

Before you ask, YES. You can make your own bread sticks with this recipe, stuff your crust, make calzones, …. so many delicious options! So what are you waiting for? Get in the kitchen and make some pizza! But first, enjoy our tasty pictures. They are scratch and sniff (… I wish!)….

shaggy dough

oiled baggies

pizza balls!

ready for a vacation in the fridge

stretched out dough

a few too many toppings...

top view!

BAKED. lends some idea of scale... these were the smallest they got.

Ingredients:

• 5-1/3 C unbleached bread flour
• 2 tsp salt or 1 TBS coarse kosher salt
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 2 TBS or 1-1/2 TBS honey or agave nectar
• 2C + 2 TBS water, at room temperature
• 2 TBS olive oil (optional)

Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl. If using a mixer, use the paddle attachment and mix on the lowest speed for one minute. If mixing by hand, use a large spoon and stir for about one minute until well blended. The dough should be coarse and slightly sticky. Let the dough rest for five minutes to fully hydrate the flour.

Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium-low speed, or continue mixing by hand, for two to three minutes, until the dough is smoother but still soft, supple and somewhere between tacky and sticky.

Spread one teaspoon of olive oil on a work surface, then use a bowl scraper to transfer the dough to the oiled surface. Rub your hands with the oil on the work surface, then stretch and fold the dough one time, reaching under the front end of the dough, stretching it out, then folding it back onto the top of the dough. Do this from the back-end and then from each side, then flip the dough over and tuck it into a ball. DIvide the dough into five equal pieces, each weighing about 8oz. Form each piece into a ball, then place each into a separate sandwich-size freezer bag misted with spray oil. Seal the bag and refrigerate overnight or up to four days, or in the freezer for several months.

About 90 minutes before you plan to bake the pizzas, place the desired number of dough balls on a lightly oiled work surface. WIth oiled hands, stretch and round each piece into a tight ball, then place them on a pan thats been lighly oiled (preferably olive oil). Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature until ready to bake.

About 1 hour before baking the pizzas, preheat the oven and a baking stone as high as they oven will go. If you don’t have a pizza stone, you can assemble the pizzas on baking sheets covered with parchment paper and bake them on the pans. While the oven is preheating, prepare your cheeses, sauce and toppings.

When ready to assemble and bake, put about 1 C of flour in a bowl. Use some of it to dust the work surface, your hands, and the feel, if you have one. Put one of the pizza dough balls in the flour to coat the bottom. Transfer to the work surface and gently tap it down with your fingers to form a disc. Slide the backs of your hands under the dough, then lift it and begin to rotate it, using your thumbs to coax the edges of the dough into a larger circle.

Dont stretch the dough with the backs of your hands or your knuckles, let your thumbs do all of the work; your hands and knuckles merely provide a platform to support the dough.if the dough starts to resist and shrink back, set it on the floured work surface and let it rest for a minute or two. you can move on to another dough ball, repeating the same gentle stretching. COntinue working the dough and resting it as need be until it is about ten to twelve inches in diameter. It should be thicker at the edges than in the center, and the center should be thin but not paper-thin. If the dough rips, you can try to patch it, or you can form it back into a ball, move on to another dough ball and try again in 15-20 minutes.

When the crust is ready to be topped, place it on the floured peel. Use flour rather than cornmeal or semolina as it doesn’t burn as quickly in the oven. Top the pizza as desired, then slide it onto the baking stone. If you aren’t using a baking stone, just put the panned pizza in the oven.

Bake for about four minutes, then use the peel or spatula to rotate the pizza. It will take anywhere from 5-7 minutes for the pizza to fully bake, depending on the oven. The edge should puff up and be a deep golden brown, prehaps even slightly charred. Remove the pizza, garnish as desired, then let it cool for one minute before slicing or serving.

Start by dissolving 1 teaspoon of yeast in 1 1/2 cups of warm water and allow the yeast to proof while you prep the dry ingredients.

Dissolving the yeast in water....

In a large mixing bowl (I use the bowl of my KitchenAid) combine 4 cups of flour (of course I use white whole wheat!) and 1 teaspoon of salt, then pour in 1/3 cup olive oil and stir to combine.

White whole wheat flour (King Arthur brand, of course)

Kosher salt....

Olive oil

Pour the yeast and water mixture into the flour and stir until a ball forms. If you use whole wheat flour, you may need to add just a little bit more water. Once the dough forms a ball, cover it and allow to rise for an hour or two.

Pour the yeast and water mixture into the flour mixture.

Cover and let it rise.....

...for an hour or two. It won't really double in size, but it will "grow" a little, and you'll be able to tell it's a little soft and spongy.

Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a floured surface and knead briefly just to firm it up a little bit. Cut it in half (this recipe makes 2 pizzas-but I often half the recipe or use half and freeze the rest).

It will look pretty ragged at first. Knead it for a couple of minutes.

Until it looks like this!

Now, shape the dough. I start by pressing the dough out into a circle (sometimes I use a rolling pin) then I pick it up and turn it around and around so that it starts to stretch…then I lay it out over an oiled metal pizza pan and stretch it some more (I want to get a job at an authentic pizza shop so I can learn to toss dough!). I like my pizzas super thin, so I really strrrreeeeettttttch it. You don’t have to do that it you don’t want to (duh). Sometimes holes break in my dough, so I just pinch off a little of the edge and fill in the hole.

I like to stretch my dough super-thin over an oiled metal pan.

Turn the dough out onto the pan you will be using to bake (of course, I use my Pampered Chef pizza stone, preheated to 450 degrees). Top as desired and bake at 450 for 8-10 minutes or until desired color is reached.

Prep your toppings ahead of time. Once you turn the dough out onto the preheated stone, you'll want to work quickly to get the pizza in the oven!

I’ll be posting some pizza recipes including toppings soon!

Friday night pizzas have been a long time tradition for my family.  And the funny thing is regardless if anyone is even going to be around to eat the pizza, I continue to come home from work and prepare one!  It’s so routine for me, as a relaxing finale to my work week.  With a glass of wine in hand and my dough has been prepared the day before; my pizza comes together within an hour.   It will be there for my son at any time and leftover slices for lunch over the weekend.  

My son is strictly a meat lover; pepperoni or sausage and frowns and picks off anything other than that!  I, of course, love to experiment and make different types.  While I grew up on the Sicilian thick pizza which my mother made in large rectangular baking sheets, I prefer a thinner crust pizza.  Grilled pizzas are a summer favorite I adore having that extra crispy grilled crust!  But mostly my oven does its magic, using a pizza stone at times, or simply this fantastic pizza screen which is basically a mesh surface that has little barrier for heat, like using nothing at all so the pizza cooks faster than in a pan.  

This veggie topping of roasted cauliflower is first slightly roasted in the oven to soften the cauliflower and then finish roasting on the pizza.  I’ve added in pancetta at times and varied the final topping of fresh herbs from parsley to sage to rosemary.  It’s not an overly cheese pizza, the pine nuts and bread crumbs add a tang and crunch to the pizza.  For a bit of spice, I like to add in crushed red pepper or a drizzle of hot sauce; but that’s just me and my spicy habit.

Roasted Cauliflower Pizza with Roasted Garlic and Pine Nuts

For the roasted cauliflower and garlic:

1 Cauliflower head, cut into florets – about 2 cups of roasted florets are needed per pizza

2 tablespoons olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1 whole garlic, cut in half (should roast quicker cut directly in half)

For the bread crumb topping:

2 tablespoons pine nuts

¼ cup bread crumbs

1 teaspoons dried oregano

2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

For the pizza:

Pizza Dough – see recipe below

2 cups fontina or mozzarella cheese, grated

2-3 tablespoons of freshly chopped parsley, or rosemary or sage

Optional topping of 1/3 cup chopped pitted green olives

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Place the cauliflower florets on a large baking sheet, drizzle over the oil and salt and pepper.  Place the garlic halves cut side down on the sheet.  Roast for 25 minutes, until lightly browned and soft but still crisp as the cauliflower will continue to roast when baking the pizza.  Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the bread crumbs, oregano, parmesan cheese and olive oil mixing together well.  To make the pizza, layer the pizza dough with the Fontina or Mozzarella cheese, then the cauliflower florets.  Squeeze the roasted garlic bulbs around the pizza and top with the bread crumb mixture.  Place in oven and roast until golden brown approximately 10-17 minutes depending on the heat of the oven.  Remove from oven and sprinkle on fresh herbs. 

Pizza Dough

1 envelope dry yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons / ¼ oz)

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 cup warm water (110 degrees)

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

3 cups flour (I have used all purpose white flour, whole wheat white flour, or bread flour or a mix!)

2 tablespoons olive oil (basil or rosemary flavored if available)

Cornmeal or semolina as needed

Using a stand up mixer with dough attachment, dissolve yeast and sugar in the warm water.  Yeast should begin to foam which means it is “alive”.  Should the yeast not begin to foam, toss and begin again as the yeast is not “alive” to proof.  (Make sure the temperature of the water is also not too hot or too cold as this will affect the yeast as well.)  Mix in 2 cups of flour, salt and olive oil.  Knead with the dough attachment for about 5 minutes while slowly adding in the remaining one cup of flour.  Mix for another few minutes as the dough becomes smooth and elastic.    Remove the dough from the mixer and form into a ball with your hands on a floured surface.  Coat with oil and place in a large bowl.  Cover and let rise until doubled, about 2 hours.  If using quick rise yeast, the dough will rise in about 1 hour.  At this point, I normally place the dough in the refrigerator overnight and bring out the next day to rise for 2 hours.  I find that the texture is better when refrigerated overnight as well as finding it easier making pizzas when I prepare the dough ahead of time. 

Preheat oven to 425 – 450 degrees.  If using a pizza peel to slide the pizza into a baking stone, place the baking stone on the bottom rack now to heat at least 15 minutes.  When dough has risen, punch down and let dough rest 10 minutes.  Flatten dough and gently stretching and pulling into shape.  If dough is resistant, wait 5 minutes and begin again.  If using a pizza peel, lightly dust the peel with semolina or cornmeal and place the pizza on the peel.  If not using a peel, place pizza on a lightly oiled pizza pan or pizza screen.   Brush edges with oil and sprinkle with cornmeal (optional).  Add toppings.  Place in oven and bake for approximately 10-17 minutes – depending on the heat of your oven and thickness of your pizza.  Remove and allow to cool at least 5 minutes before cutting.

* When making 2 pizzas, I increase the flour to 4 cups, the water to 1 ½ cups, salt to 1 ½ teaspoons and olive oil to 2 ½ tablespoons.  I do not increase the sugar.  After the dough has risen, divide the dough into two and proceed as above.

Dough

The best pizza doughs are yeast doughs that are allowed to rise in warm temperatures. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. and let the bowl of dough sit on top of the stove to give it a warm place to rise. Next is knowing how to stretch the pizza dough. Pizza restaurants use corn meal on the pizza stretching table to keep the pizza from sticking and hand-stretch the pizza dough from corner to corner. Never flip the dough over; only stretch from one side of the dough. The key is to not over-stretch or over-work the pizza dough. Over-working the pizza dough can give the pizza crust a chewy texture and add air bubbles. Never use a rolling pin to stretch pizza dough. For that added restaurant touch, spread some olive oil on the edge of the crust and sprinkle with garlic salt.
Sauce

Pizza sauce can be sweet, spicy or a combination of the two. Most pizza restaurants use a semi-sweet spicy sauce that is not too thick or too thin. To make pizza sauce at home, cook one can of tomato sauce, 1 tbsp. of sugar, three cloves fresh minced garlic and 2 tbsp. of oregano and basil. Simmer the sauce at medium heat for 30 minutes to give the spices and garlic time to blend. Allow the sauce time to cool before spreading it on the pizza dough. Spread the sauce thin — just enough to barely cover the dough. A common mistake of home cooks is putting too much sauce on the pizza dough, which can make the dough soggy. The sauce should only complement the pizza dough and toppings — not be the main taste.
Toppings

Fresh toppings are imperative to making the ultimate restaurant pizza. Fresh chopped vegetables, meats and cheeses make a huge difference in the taste. Many pizza restaurants use a blend of mozzarella and Romano cheeses to top their pizzas. Mozzarella cheese is probably the best tasting and most common pizza cheese. Fresh mozzarella cheese that you grate yourself will make a huge difference verses using already grated or processed cheese. Try using different combinations of cheese such as mozzarella and Romano or mozzarella and Asiago cheese. If you are topping your pizza with meats that take longer to cook (such as chicken), pre-cook the meat before adding it to the pizza.
Cooking Temperature

Cook pizza quickly at a high temperature for the best results. This sets the crust and browns it without over-cooking the toppings and cheese. Pizza restaurants use special pizza ovens and cooking temperatures in excess of 500 degrees F. For making pizza at home, use an oven temperature of at least 450 degrees F. and pre-heat the oven before cooking the pizza. Place the pizza on the middle rack directly in the center of the oven. For best results, only cook one pizza at a time. The average cooking time for a home-made pizza is 10 to 12 minutes.

Pizza is often stereotyped as a starving college student’s staple food because of its quick delivery and satisfying taste.

But Lauren Pearce and her boyfriend aren’t in college anymore. They were sick of the greasy, unhealthy pizza they had had delivered to their home and couldn’t afford to keep eating gourmet pizzas at restaurants.

So the Arizona-based couple chose to try making their own pizzas at home to have more control over the ingredients and the cost.

“My boyfriend and I decided to start Homemade pizza making our own pizza as part of an overall life change with healthier food, with ingredients that we know, because we made it,” Pearce says.

It was a learning experience. While her first few attempts ended up as some sort of fiasco, Pearce kept trying, and she has learned that the key to success is a combination of healthy ingredients, a high oven temperature and the right equipment.
Choose Your Ingredients Wisely

Young people and families alike can benefit from making pizza at home because of the health benefits of controlling the ingredients in the pizza. With a few simple tricks and tools of the trade, any home can become a professional pizzeria.

“We decided to start making our own pizza to bring more fun and flavor into our healthy diets while saving money,” Pearce says. “We also wanted to have more control over the ingredients we were eating.”

Taking control of the ingredients in your pizza is the key to creating a more nutritional meal. Frozen pizzas often lack vegetable toppings, and delivery pizzas are heavy in fat and grease because of the way they are cooked and the heavy amount of cheese often used.

One way to make a more nutritious pizza is to use vegetables. Chef Jennifer Iserloh, author of “Secrets of a Skinny Chef,” points out that you don’t have to precook most vegetables — they’ll cook when the pizza goes into the oven.

“That’s one mistake that people make — don’t precook those toppings,” Iserloh says. “I find them mushy and gross.”

Another trick is to make a pizza that doesn’t require a lot of cheese. Chef Devin Alexander recommends a barbecue chicken pizza. By adding a lot of chicken, you get protein that can often be missing from a pizza dinner. Another trick: She uses goat cheese in place of mozzarella.

“If you put goat cheese on it, you don’t need nearly as much because, although it’s a little caloric, the flavor is so strong that is goes a lot further,” Alexander says.

Another alternative is to use mozzarella-style almond cheese, which is low in calories and fat. You may find it at some health food and specialty grocery stores.

“If you just eat it off the block, it doesn’t necessarily taste like mozzarella,” Alexander says, “but if you put it on a pizza, it melts so well and tastes great without being greasy.”

Dealing with the Dough

As novice pizza makers, Pearce and her boyfriend learned the hard way that dough needs a lot of love.

“The first time we made pizza, the dough didn’t rise, probably because we didn’t knead it long enough,” Pearce says. “It took us a few times to figure out how much physical labor was needed to get the dough right.”

Iserloh recommends a food processor or a standing mixer for making dough because they eliminate the kneading.

“When you push the dough down, it will bounce back to your finger. That’s how you know it’s ready,” Iserloh advises.

A challenge for Pearce and other at-home pizza makers is getting the crust right.

“First few times we had the temperature too low and got soggy pizza,” says Pearce.

The key to good crust is twofold: heat and a pizza stone.

“A hotter oven bakes your pizza faster and more like a pizzeria pizza,” says Dan Goldstein, author of PizzahomeChef.com. “A faster, hotter baking seems to keep a pizza more vivid and keeps the dough more springy and steamy while creating a more delicate crustiness.”

Chefs recommend that you cook your pizza at the highest temperature possible on your oven—at least 500 degrees.

The best way to get pizzeria-type crust is by using a pizza stone—a flat, ceramic stone that distributes the heat evenly throughout the pizza crust.

“You can make a pizza parlor-quality pizza with a pizza stone,” Alexander says. “If you try to do it in a pan with the exact same ingredients and the exact same calories, it’s going to taste not nearly as good.”

A pizza stone needs to heat up gradually with the oven. Never put a pizza stone in an oven that’s already hot, because it will crack, says Alexander.

After two months of experimenting with cooking pizza at home, Pearce and her boyfriend are hooked. They plan on buying a mixer and pizza stone to make the process even easier.

“It’s been a fun learning experience,” says Pearce, “with each pizza turning out better than the last.”

Now that's what I call a pizza, not those things that come in a box!

That’s right, you read it correctly. We got sick and tired of crappy pizza in our neighborhood (thanks, Gina’s, for changing your menu for the worse), and kept seeing some great grilled pizzas in my food magazines. I figured we’d give it a go—what could go wrong?

Exactly, said The Husband, and refused to try it when friends were over and wanted to do a test run. No problem! Strangely enough, the perfect opportunity came on a Saturday when we thought we had nothing in the fridge to rustle up. The Husband lamented that we had just been near Trader Joe’s and could have picked up some pre-made dough, but I scoffed. I’ve got yeast and flour and I’ll make fresh dough myself, no problems. Even though I always freak out that my dough won’t rise and everything will be ruined, it rarely happens.

We also had some sofrito from Troy’s recipe hiding in the freezer, some prosciutto, some mushrooms, some chevre goat’s cheese, red onion, arugula and fresh heirloom tomatoes. Now the sofrito I had slaved over a few weekends before, and I have to let you know that it is a labor of love. But when Troy tells you to do something one way, you do it that way. This is the man that said, the last time we were at their house for yet another amazing dinner, said “Oh, I didn’t have time to make the gnocchi” as he rolls out some freshly made pasta. What the wha? How many of YOUR friends make pasta from scratch? Anybody? No? That’s what I thought.

This guy cooks an amazing four-course meal for six while whipping up some braised lamb shanks for later in the week. Plus, he’s one test away from being a Master Sommelier. When they call to see if you’re free for dinner, you make yourself free. I don’t care what’s happening—tell your kid you’ll be there for his next graduation. It’s that good.

So, the sauce was halfway made, and I only added more garlic, some chopped onions and this wonderful Greek oregano still on the stem I’d found on our last trip to Santa Barbara, I threw that dough together without the aid of the Kitchen Aid, and off we went. The Husband’s grilling skills were up to the task and we had beautiful crust, deliciously baked toppings, and we never need to order out again.

Of course, please go crazy and add your favorite pizza toppings. I’m just letting you know how we roll.

PIZZA DOUGH

Definitely make your own dough; it does make a difference!

It seemed to make about three pizzas, based on the size of our grill, about a medium.

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water (105-115 degrees F)
1 pkg active dry yeast (2.25 tsp)
1 tsp. honey
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup whole-wheat flour*
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbs. yellow cornmeal

Stir water, yeast and honey in a bowl, let stand for five minutes or so, til it gets all foamy. Put flours into a large bowl; make a well in the center and pour in the yeast mixture.

You can use the Kitchen Aid for this with a dough hook, but I figured it was going to take me 15 minutes to get the bloody thing out from my backyard kitchen cabinet, so I thought I’d just knead by hand. And set the timer, let me tell you, because two minutes feels like 10, and you’ll want to stop before it’s time. You need the full 10 minutes, no cheating. But if you use a Kitchen Aid, it will probably only take about two minutes for the dough to be done.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl and turn to coat. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and put in a warm place. I like to use the oven, since mine has pilot lights that keep it pretty warm all the time. Alternatively, you can heat the oven for a few minutes, turn it off and pop it in there to rise, until doubled in size, about one hour.

Punch down and knead again. Cut into sections and roll into an approximate circle shape. It can look Dali-esque, it’s fine. You want it to look homemade, right?

Use the cornmeal to line your baking sheet or tray to take over to the grill. This will prevent it from sticking to the tray so you don’t cry when you pull it off at the appropriate time just to rip a big hole in your dough.

*The original recipe called for whole-wheat pastry flour, which I didn’t use but will probably try next time.

Who needs a wood-fired oven for pizza? A barbecue will do nicely, thank you.

GRILLING

Sliced prosciutto
Sliced mushrooms
Thinly sliced red onion
Thinly sliced tomatoes
Goat cheese (chevre)
Tomato sauce
Fresh arugula

Heat the ‘cue to about 450 degrees F. If you don’t have a temperature gauge on your grill, use an oven thermometer. Oil that puppy up nice and good (but please don’t use a spray can of oil while the grill is on. I don’t want to be responsible for your demise!)

Throw the dough right on the grill and shut the lid. Let it cook for about 3-4 minutes. Carefully flip it over with a large spatula.

This part is crucial! You need all of your toppings, including sauce, at the ready. As soon as you flip it, start adding your toppings as quick as you can. It’s not easy with the heat coming off the grill, but persist. You can turn the grill down a little while you do this.

Shut the lid again as soon as you’ve finished adding the toppings. It doesn’t have to look pretty! If you’re following the ingredients above, add everything but the arugula. That’s what you throw on when it comes out of the barbeque and you’re ready to serve.

Try to keep the lid shut for about 5 minutes so the toppings cook. Check on it, and check underneath the crust; you don’t want it to burn! Slide that baby on to a tray, cover with handfuls of arugula and eat as soon as possible.

The sofrito cooking.

SOFRITO

10 tomatoes (or more, if you’ve got ‘em)
Olive oil
Garlic
2 bay leaves

This is a pain in the butt, but the result is worth it. Troy did say that Roma tomatoes were easier, and he’s right (natch!). Boil a big pot of water and get another bowl or pot of cold water at the ready. Cut an “X” into the bottom of each tomato. Once the water’s boiling, pop the toms in for 30 seconds, then fish out with a slotted spoon and put in the cold water.

Their skin should start to peel off, and this is where the fun starts. Peel them all, then slice them in half or quarters lengthwise. Scoop out all the bits in the middle, the seeds and all sorts. Now, Troy says that you should keep this, blend it and pass it through cheesecloth to make “tomato water” which you can then make a gelée out of, but that’s a little out of my league. I’ll leave that to Troy!

Once you’ve scraped them all, having not given up in the middle thinking you’d be better off buying this in a can, heat up a nice large frying pan. Put in a ton of olive oil to at least coat the bottom of the pan, then add the tomatoes, 4 or 5 cloves of garlic (or to taste) and the bay leaves. Now let those cook slowly, ever so slowly, for about three hours, stirring now and then to make sure the garlic and bay leaves get around the pan.

Once they’ve all all but dissolved and the garlic mush apart when you push on them with a back of a spoon, it’s done. Now you can store this in the freezer for a while, or go ahead and make some pizza/pasta sauce, recipe below. (Man, this is a long blog!)

PIZZA/PASTA SAUCE

Sofrito
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced or grated
1 Tbs tomato paste
2 Tbs oregano
1 Tbs red pepper flakes (optional, if you don’t like a kick in your sauce)
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Fry the onion in olive oil until softened; add the garlic and cook for about two more minutes. Add the sofrito and the tomato paste and let cook for five minutes. Add the oregano and red pepper and let cook for about 10 minutes on a low heat. Add salt and pepper when it’s just about finished. Voilà!

1. Zucchini and Chickpeas over Linguini adapted from Martha Stewart Everyday Food.  Sadly, I can’t find this recipe on her site,  so I’ll post my version of the recipe tonight.  This is an awesome meatless meal that has a little kick of spice.
2.  Sesame and Peanut Noodles With Snow Peas from Eat Make Read.  Incredibly easy and very fast.  I tried this for the first time last week and was a little heavy-handed with the sauce.  Hopefully a more reserved portion will make the recipe a success this week.
3. Taco Night!  We’ve been digging having tacos once a week.  Tonight I’ll make them with ground turkey and the standard fixings.
4. Farfalle with Sockarooni Sauce and Ground Turkey.  This is one of our busy night staples.  It takes about 20 minutes (mainly because of the pasta cooking time) and is filling and delicious.
5. Balsamic pork chops with sautéed onions and Lentils con Prosciutto.  Our amazing friend Jenn made this for dinner on Saturday and it was crazy good.  I’m totally trying it myself this week.
6. Pizza Night!  We are big pizza fans, so I’m going to try a weekly pizza night!  This week will be our old standby – Ham and Mushroom – with homemade pizza dough.  Wish me luck on the dough thing.
7. Japanese Chicken-Scallion Rice Bowl from EatingWell.com.  I think this looks easy and delicious.  Hopefully my first attempt at making it will be yummy.

So there you have it.

Oh, and if you’re wondering why I number my recipes instead of assigning days, well…I like switching up my plan at the last minute and still serving dinner at 6:00 p.m.  This really saves me on days that I only have 20 minutes to get dinner on the table.

What are you making this week?

In cause you haven’t noticed, Jeff and I make pizza pretty often. But this was seriously one of the best we’ve been in a long time– mostly because the crust turned out ridiculously perfect. While I was at work a few Sundays ago, Jeff was in charge of making the dough. However, he was also brewing beer that day and got a bit distracted and let the dough rise for twice as long as it normally does. The result? Light, airy, perfect dough! Seriously, it was the best mistake ever. We followed the same recipe that we did for this pizza, so if you decide to make your own dough with this recipe, I would definitely consider doubling the rise time. Who knew?

 Sun Dried Tomato and Feta Cheese Pizza Recipe

Makes 4 servings

Print recipe!

Ingredients:

Homemade pizza crust (see this recipe) or store bought

1/2 cup pesto

½ cup mozzarella, grated

¼ cup feta cheese

¼ cup sun dried tomatoes

Steps:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll out pizza dough.

Cover dough with pesto then add grated mozzarella.

Add sun dried tomatoes and then top with feta cheese.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until cheese has melted and crust is golden brown.

Enjoy!