Pizza!

My youngest daughter Kaitlin, sat me down one evening last week. She told me she missed the meals I used to make all the time for dinner. She asked me to start incorporating some of her favorites into my weekly rotation.

I missed some of the meals I used to make for them too. They used to help in the preparation in a lot of these meals. Pizza is one such dish. I don't have any pictures of either of the homegirlz making their pizzas. They made me promise not to take any pictures of them and I had to honor their request. We had a blast making pizzas Friday night.

A couple of fun things about making pizza at home is you are only limited by your imagination and everyone can make their pizza their way; there's no right or wrong.

I've posted this dough recipe before when I made Garlic Knots

This is a very easy and delicious pizza dough recipe.

Pizza Dough -

1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)1 envelope active dry yeast1 teaspoon honey2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour1 teaspoon salt, yellow cornmeal, for sprinkling the baking sheet

In a large bowl, combine the water, yeast, honey, and 1 tablespoon oil, stirring to combine. Let sit until the mixture is foamy, about 5 minutes.

Add 1 1/2 cups of the flour and the salt, mixing by hand until it is all incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Continue adding the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, working the dough after each addition, until the dough is smooth but still slightly sticky. You may not need all of the flour.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth but still slightly tacky, 3 to 5 minutes.

Oil a large mixing bowl with remaining olive oil. Place the dough in the bowl, turning to coat with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 1-1/4 hours.

This makes dough for 1 (15-inch) pizza.

We made a standard red sauce pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms, bell pepper and red onion.

Lauren, my oldest daughter said, "Mom, you HAVE to make these everyday for us to eat!".

These are some of the ingredients I like on a pizza.




Brush the pizza dough with extra virgin olive oil. Spread roasted garlic Alfredo sauce on the pizza in lieu of red pizza sauce. This pizza was garnished with 1/2 cup thawed frozen spinach, 4 or 5 cloves of smashed garlic, sliced red onions, sliced orange bell peppers, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms and feta cheese flavored with tomato and basil. YUM!!!!



Lightly grease pizza pan and sprinkle pan lightly with corn meal. Bake at 425 degrees for approximately 15 minutes.

I do want to eat this every day!