And I call myself a blogger?

It's true, I've been terribly neglectful of this blog. Truth is, just like everyone else in the world, the holidays and life completely took over. No excuse! We've been up to a lot of the same things, working out and teaching a ton, spending family time, and of course getting together with friends.

One tradition we've started is a spin on something we already did. Friday pizza night! So creative, right? The "spin" is that I've been making my own pizza. I've made pizzas before, but usually just bought ready made naan bread and used it as the crust. I've broken my streak with unsuccessful bread recipes with a really easy pizza crust. I also don't have a pizza stone, and thought that it wouldn't come out well. Wrong! I found a really easy method on popsugar (randomly found while googling) that works SO well.

The way to cook the pizza without a stone is really easy, and it totally changes how the crust tastes and looks. Preheat a cookie sheet to 500 for about 10 minutes. When you pull it out, drizzle the sheet with olive oil (I lay down tin foil for easier clean up). Lay your rolled out dough onto the cookie sheet, top with your toppings, and bake. That's it!

The basic dough recipe is:

1 packet dry active yeast
1 Cup warm water
3 Cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 t sugar
2 T olive oil

Combine the first two ingredients in a mixer and let stand for about ten minutes (you're just activating the yeast). Once that starts foaming a bit, add the other ingredients into the mixer with a dough hook attachment. Let it rise for about an hour. I split it in half to make 2 pizzas.

My best pizza yet came from a very complex and difficult combination of ingredients. Not really, it came from a magical item you can find in your local Trader Joe's. Or Trader Giotti's. Their bruschetta is amazing, and it worked perfectly as a pizza "sauce"- chunky and flavorful without being too much like a regular chopped tomato bruschetta. I also use the bread dipping seasoning herb grinder on the left to season the pizza. Sometimes I even throw it into the dough as it mixes.

 

I put a blend of Parmesan and mozzarella on top of the bruschetta, and then baked at 500 for about 10 minutes.

 

 

Connor loves to cook in his new kitchen as well!

 

 

His latest favorite toy is very high tech....a diaper box. It's the simple things!

 

 

Happy weekend!