i hope to blog in more detail about food, recipes, menus and our Wednesday night dinners we have at our home, but until then...you might have to piece it all together. Pizza is a favorite at our home...especially homemade.  I pretty much dislike hate making it because it is a little time intensive.  I have learned some ways to make it easier....here goes:

i make a HUGE recipe of dough for crusts.  this makes a ton....I am not sure exactly how much, because we make pretty large pizzas, but it does make 6 quarter sheet cookie sheet size pizzas (that's what it takes to feed us--2 of  'em).  This is why I can do it--I freeze the rest.  it makes the next time worth the work now.  i got this recipe from my sweet friend, Gail.  And, of course I have had to change it up just a bit, but not the actual recipe....what I do is--I roll the dough out, but before I put it on the pan, I put olive oil, fresh pressed garlic and salt and pepper all over the pan.  it makes the crust nice and spicy/crispy.  Next, you will need to bake the crust (be sure to poke a fork all over it to keep the air bubbles down.  When its done, ( and I intentionally didn't put a time on here--there is so much opinion about how one likes their pizza crusts) put your sauce on--now, I have found a really, cheap, great flavored sauce....we used to try to make our own, but this makes it sooo much easier...Hunts spaghetti sauce, in the traditional flavor.  We do, however, add italian seasoning to it...just a tad.....I like lots of sauce, so I slather it on.  Next comes whatever you choose on it...our faves:  cheese, black olive and veggie...Now that I am married to a meat lover, we MUST have a meat pizza, so I usually get turkey italian sausage, turkey pepperoni and hamburger (don't tell him its turkey) :).  For the veggie, I usually layer fresh spinach leaves, bell peppers, onions, tomato slices shredded carrots or anything else that we have and sounds good...

One of the things the kids have ALWAYS liked doing was making their own...now they like to make calzones and save half for lunch the next day....it makes it fun for all of us and the creativity is always encouraging to me...I need it!!!

here are some pics of our last pizza fest.  I realize you have to look sideways for the last one, but its the only way I could make it fit and it is a great image of them all done...

PIZZA CRUST

1 c hot water (120)

2 T olive oil

1T yeast

1 t sugar

1 t salt

3-3 1/2 C flour

for larger batches :)

6 c water

3/4 c olive oil

6 T yeast

2 T sugar

3 t salt

about 19 c flour--up to 21 cups if needed