Homemade Pizza

Tonight was pizza night, and I decided to make homemade pizzas to go along with our theme of enjoying our meals around our table. I have much more control over what goes into our food when I prepare it. Having said that, there is something to be said for having some great Queso and having no idea what they put in it-I want to eat it in a warm flour tortilla, not marry it.

A funny story about pizza and me: I did not like pizza until I was 17. When I was in pre-k, I smelled a pizza scratch-n-sniff sticker and it made me sick to my stomach. Or it could be that I was already coming down with a stomach bug and the pizza sticker was an unlucky coincidence. Either way, I would not eat pizza for more than a decade. I finally caved when I was a lifeguard and my friends ordered some pizza from Little Caesar's. My lunch of a pear, pretzels, and half a sandwich did not smell as good as the pizza. There are days that I wish I never tried that pizza. And maybe chocolate chip cookies and donuts from Shipley's. And white queso. You get the picture.

I had never considered making my own pizza until Neil and I came to visit Boston last winter. Our new friends made four different homemade pizzas in our honor: pepperoni, cheese, bbq chicken, and pesto (maybe with chicken-I can't remember.) We were sold on the idea. I tried making my own pizza dough many times last spring. Let me tell you that I can make much better pizza dough than regular bread. My favorite pizza to make is a supreme pizza. I will include that "recipe" even though I do not make it often.

Fortunately for my lazy self, Trader Joe's has an amazing pre-made, refrigerated pizza dough for $.99. IMO, there is no reason for me to make pizza dough as long as I live in Needham. For those of you who do not live near a Trader Joe's, I'm sorry to tease you. I will post a pizza dough recipe another time. The key to the pizza is a Pampered Chef Pizza Stone or a generic pizza stone. I have one of each. I can tell a difference with the Pampered Chef stone vs our $5 generic stone, but not much of one. I made two pizzas and we have leftovers from that little amount.

Pizza:

1 Trader Joe's Whole Wheat pizza dough
1 TJ regular white pizza dough
1 jar TJ Pizza Sauce
1 bag part-skim mozzarella cheese
1 pkg pepperoni
flour, as needed
corn meal, as needed

1. Set the pizza dough on the counter, not near the oven, and set the timer for 15 min. Preheat the oven to 425F. Assemble your ingredients.
2. Place the pizza stone in the warm oven until the timer goes off for the dough. When the timer goes off, flour the counter top, put a little on your rolling pin, and roll out the pizza dough. Make sure to spread it fairly thin-1/2" thick, if possible. You may like to stretch the dough out with your knuckles, from the underside. This also gets rid of excess flour.
3. Sprinkle cornmeal on the warm pizza stone, lay the pizza on top, and put it in the oven for 4-6 minutes or until the dough bubbles a little.
4. When the timer goes off, take the pizza out, spread pizza sauce all over, making sure to leave a crust. Sprinkle heavily with cheese. Place pepperoni in a circle pattern on the pizza.
5. Bake the pizza for 4-6 more minutes, depending on the thickness of the pizza.

Options:
Cheese pizza: don't put any toppings on
Supreme pizza: canadian bacon, cut into triangles or small pieces, thinly sliced green peppers, thinly sliced mushrooms
BBQ pizza: spread bbq sauce on warm pizza instead of a tomato-based sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella or monterrey jack cheese. sautee a chicken breast in grapeseed oil, slice into bite-size pieces and place on pizza. Sprinkle with more cheese.
Pesto pizza: spread pesto on warm pizza, top with mozzarella cheese and sliced chicken, if desired.

The children had crudite and ranch dressing. I made myself my favorite salad. I generally make this salad with feta cheese. Some people use goat cheese, but ew. No pun intended. I happened to have queso fresco leftover from the fish tacos, and it is now my favorite cheese. It is so creamy and goes so well with the sweet flavors in this salad. I'll probably never use feta again. Except for the next time that is all I have. And I only ever buy low-fat feta, just fyi.

romaine lettuce or fresh baby spinach, 1 cup
carrots and celery sliced, however much you like
1 large strawberry sliced
queso fresco, 1/2 ounce, crumbled
Ken's Fat-Free Raspberry Pecan Vinaigrette, 1-1.5 T

Toss the lettuce with the vegetables and strawberries. Toss with as little salad dressing as you can manage so that you won't wilt the lettuce. Use your fingers to crumble the queso fresco over the salad. Yum! If you have craisins and pecan or walnut pieces in your fridge, throw some in. I avoid cucumbers in this salad because they really soak up the pink dressing. So does the cheese, but it looks cool, and does not absorb it as quickly as the cucumbers do.

My final tip is for flouring a surface for pizza or sugar cookies. Place Gladwrap, sticky side down, on the counter, and sprinkle your flour on that. It's a much easier way, less messy, that actually using your counter top.