Pizza: Our Friday Ritual

Every weekend Mark and I make a meal plan for the week ahead. We only plan our dinners as we build our lunches from leftovers. The plan helps us stay on track and stops us from buying lunch.

We break it down to what kind of meat, veggies, and starch that we want. Only occasionally do we have a specific recipe in mind. Most nights we plan as far as "We are going to have chicken" and the "how" is determined once we're home from work.

Monday nights are usually reserved for "Mark's Choice". This means he gets to figure it out and make supper. We also usually do our grocery shopping on Mondays. We recently decided that subjecting ourselves to an overcrowded busy grocery store on a Saturday was not a fun way to spend the weekend, so we moved our shopping to Monday or Tuesday night. So far it's been much better.

Since I only work a half day on Fridays, they have become "Maria's Choice" for supper. Some Fridays I want something easy and quick so I'll whip up some homemade Macaroni and Cheese, but more often than not, I'll make Pizza.

My Pizza crust recipe is easy. I have two that I use frequently. One is a quick version that doesn't require any rising, and the other needs a 1 hour rise. The most successful version is the 1 hour rise recipe, but both are delicious and make great pizza.

When we make pizza we always make 2. I get to choose the toppings for one, and Mark the other. The last time we made pizza we had a very good pepperoni and veggie pizza followed by a BBQ chicken, bacon and onion pizza (we had a lot of BBQ chicken leftovers). Both were delicious!!

The Pepperoni pizza had Pepperoni, Zucchini, Yellow Peppers and Mozzarella cheese. We used jarred pizza sauce and I usually season the veggies before it goes in the oven with Salt and Pepper.

The BBQ Chicken pizza had a BBQ Sauce base (Cattle Boyz is the best!), lots of BBQ chicken chopped up, bacon that we had cooked earlier, and lots of diced Red Onion and a mix of Mozzarella and Cheddar cheese.

Pizza Crust (1 Hour Rise)

for 2 Medium size pizzas, make for 3 people

in a mixing bowl add:

1/3 cup Water for each person

2 tsp Rapid Rise Yeast

A couple Glugs (that is a standard size measurement, dontchya know) of Olive Oil. If you want to measure, do 2 TBSP.

Add 1/2 cup of flour. Whole Wheat is good. Mix everything together and add another 1/2 cup of flour. Stir.

When the dough is still wet, add 1 tsp Salt.

Keep adding flour 1/2 cup at a time until it comes together. Usually ends up at about 3 cups of flour total.

Knead on the counter for a few minutes. The dough should not stick to your hands. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean tea towel, and let rise 1 hour.

Pre-Heat the oven to 500F. If you've got a pizza stone, let it pre-heat. If you don't, place a baking sheet upside down in the oven to pre-heat.

Punch down and knead until most of the big air bubbles have popped. Divide in 2 and roll out onto Parchment Paper (or if you are well equipped, onto a pizza peel).

Each pizza will roll out to about 12". It should be fairly thin, about 1/8" or so. Stretch it out with your hands letting the weight of the dough pull it thin.

Top with anything your heart desires!

Pop it in the oven, Parchment Paper makes for easier transferring, for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on it. Take it out, let it cool for 30 seconds to 2 minutes (test your patience) and enjoy!