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?