Pouting aside. Let's talk pizza!
Let's talk homemade pizza crust!
Let's talk homemade pizza crust covered in basil pesto, tomatoes and cheese!
I have your attention.
So, for my girl's night, I actually made BBQ Chicken Pizza and Potato and Leek Pizza, which I'm not posting. Why, you ask? Because I'm a dork and I forgot to take pictures of them. But because I love you I will put the recipes on here. Along with the pizza we had some Zinfandel (not sure how to spell) that one friend brought. Yeah, we're not wine people; I don't know what to drink with pizza besides a cold beer, but wine is more sophisticated. For dessert we had Triple Chocolate Espresso Cookies.
We watched a girlie movie too. "Summertime" with Katherine Hepburn. It was good. However, it lacked the usual happy ending. Oh well.
So, pizza.
Let's make some dough.
Sprinkle the yeast over some warm water in a bowl and let it hang out.
Put a couple of cups of flour in the bowl of your mixer...wait...what???...you don't have a mixer? Well, how do you expect to watch TV, text, or slack off while your dough mixes? You don't? Ok, well you bulk those mixing muscles, I'm gonna use my mixer.
Sprinkle in some salt.
Side note: I follow The Pioneer Woman. And she takes her pictures kind of like this. Although there is one difference: her nails are always painted and lovely. Mine- not-so-much. I love you Starbucks, but I hate your dress code rules and not letting us have nail polish. Ok, end note.
Now slap that dough hook on the mixer you don't have.
Or grab that trusty wooden spoon and prepare to stir.
As the hook turns, drizzle in some olive oil.
After giving the yeast and water a light stir, add it to the mix.
A blob of doughy-goodness!
Drizzle some olive oil around the inside of the bowl. Probably just twice around.
Place the ball of dough in the bowl then cover it with a moist and place it in a warm place for a couple of hours. My oven wasn't on, but sometimes it's just the warmest place to keep the dough. However, this day the apartment was A LOT warmer than the oven so after a little while when the dough hadn't risen at all I took it out and set it on the stove.
After a couple of hours it will be large enough and you can knead it down into a smaller ball. I put mine in the refrigerator since I wasn't going to use it until the next day. If you do this too, expect it to keep rising in the refrigerator. Mine did. And I had done this before with dough that was only wrapped in plastic and it busted out the sides, so I suggest putting it in a bag that's big enough so it has a little room, but small enough to keep it contained.
If you do put your dough in the refrigerator, make sure you take it out a couple of hours before you're ready to use it, so it has time to get to room temperature.
So, now you're ready to make a pizza.
Toss some flour on the counter and cut the ball of dough in half. Half of the dough makes about a medium-sized pizza. Press your dough out to a circle, or something that resembles a circle. If you make holes, like I did, just use some water and press it back together. Then drizzle a lit olive oil on your pan, and lay down the dough. Then add the desired toppings.
I made a Tomato and Basil Pizza yesterday because I had extra dough and it tasted good in the middle of the day.
I don't really like tomatoes usually, but for some reason on this pizza it's heaven.
And because there are tomatoes my step-dad won't eat it...muahahaha!
This recipe was stolen from the cookbook of The Pioneer Woman.
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