on homemade pizza...

Last weekend I was up to my elbows in dough for a good portion of it.  (And I didn't mind in the least.)  We got Little Bub to bed early on Friday evening and then Hub and I spent some time together in the kitchen making a few delicious pizzas.  If I had to choose a favorite piece of kitchen equipment, the pizza stone may just be it.  It makes homemade pizza and bread so much better, so amazing!  There is nothing quite like homemade pizza dough (which really is very simple...this is the recipe I use except I only do half) baked on a pizza stone...the flavor, the crispness, the texture...can't be matched!  I get a little dramatic when we make homemade pizza.  I rave on and on between bites.  And I say things like every Friday night should be "homemade pizza night!"  (But it is that good!)

After making pizzas from scratch several times now, we've learned a few things and we have our method down pretty good.  (Our first few times were full of messy/frustrating/marriage-testing moments.)  This time I realized that I've never actually read the recipe for "baking the pizzas" beyond just "making the dough" part.  That is where Hub comes in.  He controls the oven, how long to bake them, everything from that point on.  And so he's never actually read the recipe before that point.  My job is to get the dough ready and on the peel.  He comes in next with the toppings.  And I take it from there to get the pizza into the oven.  He sets the timer, controls the heat, and keeps a close eye on when he thinks its done.  Combined I guess we make a pretty good team because the pizzas turn out wonderful.  We've learned along the way not to make the pizzas too big or too loaded or we have trouble sliding them off the pizza peel  (we like this peel).  And we've learned to leave a little bit of pizza dough hanging off the edge of the peel to grip onto the stone for a smoother transfer.  And we've also learned to experiment and try crazy things on this pizza dough.

The first kind of pizza we made was a margarita-style pizza (first photo) topped with fresh basil from the garden.  It was fresh and delicious, if not a little bit basic.  The other kind was a new pizza we made (inspired by one we've had here):  a BBQ chicken pizza with banana peppers.  That's the one Hub is seen making here.  I admit, I was extremely skeptical at first when Hub first ordered this pizza.  But a little bite here and there won me over.  And our homemade version was even better!  We topped it with fresh arugula from the garden which added a nice little bite.  

Then, I woke up bright and early Saturday morning with little baby and decided to make cinnamon rolls from scratch.  Apparently I hadn't yet spent enough time with flour on my hands from the night before.  But these are truly worth it.  Yum!  And to me, the weekends are for slowing down a bit and enjoying really good food with those I love!