Homemade Pizza

Every woman who aims to cook supper everyday needs a few tricks up her sleeve. We all have days where everything seems to go awry and dinner needs to be something you can make without too much focus. For me, those days mean one of two things...breakfast-for-supper (which revolves around hot biscuits) or pizza. Fortunately, those are sure-fire crowd pleasers around here. 

What I like most about making homemade pizza is that I can make the dough right after school and move on to other things while it rises. I got this recipe from my mom. Growing up, we always loved pizza night!

Pizza Crust

makes 2 regular or 3 thin crusts

1 1/2 c hot water

3 1/2 - 4 c flour

2 t yeast (or one package)

1/2 t salt

Mix half the flour, yeast and salt. Add water and mix for three minutes. Gradually add flour and mix four minutes. Turn out dough into greased bowl and let rise until double in size - about an hour. (To hasten the rising a bit, I place the bowl of dough in the oven with a small pan of boiling water on the rack beneath.)

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and cut into 2 pieces (3 for thin crusts). Roll out onto lightly greased stones or cookie sheets. Add sauce, toppings and cheeses of your choice*. Bake at 350˚ for about 20 minutes or until cheese begins to brown. 

*Instead of tomato sauce, I melt three tablespoons of butter and spread it on the crusts. I sprinkle generous amounts of whatever spices I'm in the mood for (usually sage, oregano, black pepper, pressed garlic and parsley as well as fresh basil leaves) and whatever chopped veggies I have on hand. If I have leftover taco beef or sausage, I'll throw that on, too. With all those flavors, I've really cut back on how much cheese I use. I used to put 8 ounces on each pizza but, these days I'll only do four of mozzarella and add a couple grater turns of fresh parmesan.

If your gang likes cold pizza, the leftovers are great for lunches. It's my kids' favorite!