Pizza!

Note the tongue out in anticipation!
Busy making a "pizza face"

My cousin Liz (blog link to the left) wrote a pizza crust recipe that is a favorite of theirs and asked us to share our favorite. Several people added their favorites under her comments (Although Aunt Carole still hasn't posted her pizza crust recipe...and she's the first one I remember making home made pizza with, start from scratch! Still have the recipe and use it occasionally!). Here's my contribution, along with a pizza recipe using the crust.

This is from the Ball Blue Book:
Herb Pizza Crust

2 TBS sugar

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

dissolve yeast and sugar in water, let sit until foamy

Combine together:

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup bread flour

1 TBS coarse salt (I use sea salt, Watkins, of course!)

1 TBS basil (again, Watkins)

1 TBS oregano (Watkins, definitely!)

1 TBS thyme (Watkins, what else?)

Add 3 TBS olive oil to dry ingredients, then stir in yeast mixture. Stir until dough forms; shape into ball, place into greased bowl, cover and let rise 45 minutes or so until double in size.

Punch down and divide into 3 balls, letting them rise another 30-45 minutes.

You can use the dough right away, or flatten on a cardboard round, cover tightly, and freeze.
Bake at 450 for 10 minutes, reduce heat and bake at 400 for another 10 minutes.

I usually substitute half of the white flour for whole wheat and also add about 1/4 cup cracked wheat. I've also added rosemary and other herbs...it's totally yummy!

The kids LOVE to help make this with me and it's really easy for little hands to accomplish!

Herb Margherita Pizza (again, from Ball Blue Book)

1 pizza crust from above recipe (unbaked)

8 Roma tomatoes, sliced crosswise

8 stems asparagus, steamed until fork tender, then cut into 2" pieces (Carter's asparagus, if you can get it!)

Coarse sale and freshly ground pepper (again, what else but Watkins?)

4 TBS olive oil, divided

8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

Arrange sliced tomatoes on pizza crust. Add aspargus. Season with salt and pepper, if desired. Drizzle 3 TBS olive oil on top. Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake at 450 for 10 minutes, reduce oven to 400 and bake an additional 10 minutes. Remove, and drizzle with remaining olive oil (I've not done this with the olive oil, but it probably does add flavor...with calories!)