Thursday, March 6, 2014

THE ART OF PIZZA!!

I have never made pizza from scratch in my life!!  Having Miss Terry's recipe book and Nick's ravings of how good it is, I put it at the top of the list of things to make!!

It's not hard to do, it just takes a little time.  This is not something you can put together at the last minute, but with a little planning over a couple of days, you'll have one of the freshest, best tasting pizzas ever!!  I made the dough a few days ago and let it sit in the fridge so it would develop a little more flavor.
I followed Terry's recipe to the tee, even making my own fresh sauce, with tomatoes from a can.  Who knew how easy this was and what an amazingly fresh tasting sauce I could actually make with my own two hands.  THIS will be a keeper for pasta as well as pizza!!  I gathered all my ingredients and chopped and hacked until I was ready for the dough.  I've got bacon, fresh tomatoes, pre-cooked onions and mushrooms, olives, provolone and mozzarella.  YUM YUM!!!!  Snacking all the way, I pressed the dough out on a sheet of parchment paper spread out on the "bottom" of my sheet pan.  That way it would slide right on to the pizza stone preheated in the oven.
Jessie wasn't the least bit impressed!!!
I should have taken a few more pictures, but my hands were covered with oil, cornmeal and cheese!!  Once I had everything on the dough, I popped it in the oven.  At this point, things started to go wrong!!  There is an order of things when it comes to pizza ... and my world suddenly became unbalanced!!  First, ALWAYS put the bacon on last so it becomes crisp, and second,  I chose to use fresh mozzarella, which I probably should have shredded first ... it didn't really want to melt.  Third, it's probably not necessary to precook the mushrooms, because they pretty much disappeared completely!

When I pressed the dough into a circle, it went perfectly and STAYED where I put it!!!  I got this, I said to myself, except I really hadn't "got this" and left the dough a tad too thick.  I baked it in my oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.  Not done.  I baked it at 450 for another 10 minutes.  Not done.  I cranked it up to 500 for ANOTHER 10 minutes and it finally started to brown nicely ... on one end.  I quickly discovered that my oven is MUCH hotter in the back, so I attempted to turn the pizza around for even cooking.  Well you can imagine the disaster that became!!!  After cleaning up cheese and sauce that spilled on the open door, I set the timer for another 5 minutes ... and VOILA!!!  PIZZA!!!  I sprinkled it with a little basil and let it sit for a few minutes.  Looks pretty good, huh???  IT WAS AWESOME!!!
I don't think you can mess up using this recipe and setting your oven to the highest possible temperature at the start!!!  The crust was crispy, crunchy and tasty ... just like I want pizza to be, and the sauce the best ever!!!  All thanks to this beautiful lady who is sharing her recipes for fantastic food (available at the Kindle store in Amazon).  I would let it sit a little longer though .... I burned the roof of my mouth on the first bite ... but it was well worth it!!!
Next up ..... Mrs Fields (as in the cookies) Carrot Cake, followed by Miss Terry's shredded beef!!!  I can't wait!!!

2 comments:

  1. Glad you enjoyed the pizza. It's delicious.

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  2. Get your own Part D plan from Humana. I get my drugs from the VA which qualifies but Kathy, like you, is very healthy. A 60 day supply cost us $5. at Costco. But she needed a Part D plan. We went with Humana and it cost us 22.80 a month. Just a thought.

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