Sunday, April 13, 2008

Making Pizza

How do we make a pizza? Montessori Mama gave me this idea. I thought that the pizza box was the icing on the cake so while running my second Sonic run I stopped by Little Caesars. They wanted to charge me the price of a pizza for the stinkin' box. No thank you. Papa John's was not far and they were oh-so-generous.

Thanks, too, for Unplug Your Kids' challenge with food. See what others have done here.

With box in hand, we rolled out the dough. He loves to play with the roller. Then we tore red paper for sauce. This is an exercise in dexterity that is quite frustrating sometimes.
Then add LOTS of cheese. He wanted orange cheese since cheddar is his favorite. Hubby and I prefer mozerella, so making it a family affair, the adults cut small strips of yellow paper while lil man worked with the orange. Since tearing the paper was a bit challenging and it was getting close to dinner we allowed him to use scissors instead of persevering with tearing paper.
Upon completion of our paper pizza we commenced with real ingredients.
super easy pizza dough recipe:

1 package of active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tsp of sugar
1tsp of salt
2 TBSP of vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups of flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in remaining ingredients, beat vigorously 20 strokes. Let rise. This makes one pizza, two giant calzones or four smaller calzones. Sometimes I double the dough recipe and freeze calzones.

Here's an extra yummy sauce if you don't want to buy it:

1/8 c extra virgin olive oil
1/2 onion/diced
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
2-3 TBSP of fresh thyme, chopped
8oz can of tomato sauce
Salt & pepper to taste

In 3 quart pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion & garlic, and cook until soft and light golden brown, about 8-10 minutes. Add the thyme and tomatoes sauce, bring to a boil, stirring often. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until as thick as hot cereal. Season with salt and serve. The sauce holds 1 week in the fridge or up to 6 months in the freezer.

For calzones: roll dough to preferred size. Put sauce, cheese and any other ingredients on one half - but leave an edge of dough showing. Fold other side of dough over and crimp edges together. Sprinkle corn meal on bottom of baking sheet, bake on 400 until lightly golden on top & warm in center.
So, which pizza would you prefer?

12 comments:

Chrissy said...

That looks like a ton of fun...and oh, so tasty! Thanks for the great idea!

MamaGames - Alexa C. said...

That's a fun idea! When my son was little, we made a pizza out of felt pieces so he could re-make it every night at dinner... I'll have to search for that in the closets, because I think my daughter would enjoy it now!

Anonymous said...

I make pizza with that same pan and love it! I've never made my own red sauce but I used to make pesto sauce and use that on the pizza with ricotta and mozzarella.

Anonymous said...

Yummmy! we also make homemade pizza at our home......thanks for the recipe!

Gottfredsen said...

What a wonderful idea. My boys would love doing something like that. The ideas are running now thanks. :)

Anonymous said...

What a creative project!! Thank you for the recipe! :) Looks like your lil guy had a lot of fun doing it!

Garden State Kate said...

Your pizzas both looked yummy!
We enjoy making pizza every week here.We have been doing it together
for so long, P now knows what to do and when. ;-)

reprehriestless warillever said...

Looks like fun!

momandkiddo said...

Both pizzas look delicious!

Anonymous said...

Pizza is not something I ever think of making myself. I don't know why though. Perhaps I should make some of your dough and give it a try! The paper pizza looks fun too. That would have been a great project for next week's "scissors!"

Amber (Bouncing Buttons) said...

I love the paper pizza! My daughter will love doing this! Thank you for sharing!

Destination Mom said...

Julie,

Thanks for the great ideas. I love reading this blog. Next time you need a pizza box, go to Walmart and in their deli section they sell family size pizza's in a pizza box. The pizza is wrapped in plastic, so the box is clean. They are only $6.95 ea. We throw the pizza in the freezer for later, and use the boxes for crafts. The pizza is big enough to feed our family of 5. It's much cheaper than going to a pizza place. They are good pizza's too.

Amy B.

PS. Love the smashing cereal idea. I have 3 boys who will love to do that this afternoon.

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