Mmm... Pizza.

We are a pizza family. We always have been; Brian and I even went out to pizza often when we first started dating.  In fact it became such a regular occurrence that one day we decided we might as well apply for a job at a local pizza restaurant.  We both worked as cooks and servers together during our senior year in high school and again during college breaks.  Oh, those late nights, closing the restaurant!  One might think we would have managed to get tired of pizza after all that. (Free pizzas were a common perk of the job.)  On the contrary, while we quickly tired of the awful grease smell that lingered in our cars from the aprons we would bring home to wash, we never did tire of eating pizza.

When Thomas was born Brian had to take two jobs, so he worked as a manager at a local pizza place for a while, and even then we relied on that free pizza from time to time.  Thomas became an early fan, and as picky an eater as he still is, pizza is one of the few foods he has always liked, though he did go through some spells where he didn't want the cheese, and he still will usually only eat it with pepperoni. As a matter of fact, he's pretty particular about all the details, BUT if you get those details right, he will eat and eat and eat...

For a long time we've been making our own homemade pizza, usually with store-bought dough or crust, and it has always been good, but I recently tried a new recipe for homemade dough.  It wasn't bad, and the boys loved it, so we decided to do it again.  Brian did the grocery shopping that particular week, and he called me from the grocery store to clarify which type of yeast I wanted.  Little did I know that there was such a thing as "pizza yeast."  Of course we had to try it... It was fantastic!  It didn't require any extra time to rise, and it didn't bounce back when stretched.  The recipe on the back of the package was great. The boys couldn't get enough of it... I was sold!

We had it again tonight, and it was SO good.  Usually my favorite pizza recipe is different; I like white pizza, so I have been known to drizzle some olive oil over the crust and then sprinkle on some crushed garlic.  After that I like to add mozzarella and ricotta cheeses, finely chopped fresh spinach, and diced fresh tomatoes.  If we have cooked chicken I will add a little of that too.  YUM.  Tonight I went with what we happened to have on hand.  I made a large cheese/pepperoni pizza for the boys, and Brian and I shared a smaller pizza.  On my half I used regular tomato pizza sauce (not homemade - store brand, actually, all natural), mozzarella, meatballs, fresh tomato, and jalapenos. It was delicious! (Brian had the same but with pepperoni.) 

My tummy is happy.

 

When is our next pizza night again?