Make your own Pizza!

On the menu for tonight was Biz's homemade pizza! Usually, she posts her homemade pizzas every Friday night and the pictures always look amazing!

I have no idea what I was waiting around for, I needed to get in there and make my own, too!!! Having a coupon for yeast sealed the deal, so it was added to the grocery list and consequently, the meal plan. No turning back now!

Our toppings of choice were green peppers, red peppers, onions, broccoli, spinach, olives, and my brother and dad's homemade Italian sausage (secret recipe). I was able to prep all of these things ahead of time, which made for a great end-of-the-week dinner. Plus, I got to use up the excess homemade sauce from the parmesan. See? I told you earlier in the week, I had it all down Robin Miller style! Excess sauce, sausage pre-cooked, veggies all prepped... dinner came together literally in minutes!

I prepared the dough, according to Biz's instructions and added a little corn meal to the bottom of the dough, for that "authentic" pizza joint feel. I pre-baked the crusts for about 5 minutes on a cookie sheet, then we each got to work assembling our separate pizzas, as the dough makes enough for 2 pizzas.

Mine was sauce, then a little spinach and the mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. I sprinkled oregano, basil and garlic powder over the cheeses and then worked on the toppings. I added onions, green peppers, red peppers, broccoli and olives. I LOVE olives!!! At the last minute, I decided on a little sausage, too.

Mine went into the oven first, because I slopped all of mine on and was ready to eat! Johnny is a lot more meticulous, so he continued crafting his as mine baked.

Johnny's ended up with the sauce, sausage, spinach, green peppers, red peppers and onions. Then, he put the mozzarella and parmesan cheeses over this. This has got to be a Chicagoland or Midwest thing, because I see that all the time around here, but never anywhere else. Toppings go on TOP - hence "toppings!" But around here, they put all the toppings and then the cheese. So weird to me! He doesn't like crispy broccoli, so cooked his off some in the microwave and that ended up above the cheese. He also chose to forego the olives, which he hates, and the extra sprinkling of spices. He had the creative idea of making a little recess in the middle of his pie, so the center wouldn't get all mushy from all the toppings. It worked out well, browning even in the center.

I like crispy crusts, but not cracker-crispy, so I skipped Biz's advice of baking directly on the rack and baked the remainder on the cookie sheet for about 13-15 minutes longer, until the cheese had melted and started to brown a little.

Yum, yum, and YUM. Two knock-out dinners in a row! Between last night and tonight I must have died and gone to heaven! We will definitely be making homemade pizzas a lot more often, now that I know it's this easy! The dough had that delicious, fresh, yeasty flavor and all of the flavors were hot and gooey and melted together, fresh out of the oven! It's also a great way to use up those last straggling veggies, or any extra meats from the week's leftovers. A kind of gumbo, or stirfry of sorts - just throw everything on the pizza to use it up and not let it go to waste!