Homemade Pizza!

I have found a new love called Homemade Pizza! There is a Little Caesars Pizza near us and they sell pizza for $5 for a large pepperoni or cheese pizza and so now I cannot make myself pay more for restaurant pizza, but honestly it does not taste that great. It is greasy and the crust tastes a little bit like a cardboard box. My family likes it though, so no more than $5 for a pizza now. Recently my kids wanted pizza and I just could not stand the thought of another slice of greasy cardboard so I decided to make pizza at home. I did not measure out how much money I spent making the pizza, but since I had most of the ingredients (I had to buy pepperoni and mozzarella cheese) I don't think it was much more than $5 and everyone got to choose what they wanted.

The verdict was in and everyone in the whole family said it was the best pizza they had ever eaten! Here is the recipe:

-All Purpose flour - at least 5 cups worth
-1 Jar basic pasta sauce
-Bag of Mozzarella Cheese
-pepperoni, sausage, onions various toppings
-packet of yeast
-Parchment paper
-olive oil

Recipe Directions: (follow along with the video.)
1. Measure 1 and 1/2 cup of warm water, add packet of yeast. Stir and set aside
2. Mix 4 cups flour, 1 spoonful of salt, 1 spoonful of sugar and a little bit of olive oil in big bowl.
3. Add water/yeast mixture. Mix with fork until mainly combined.
4. Knead by folding over and pushing down repeatedly for 10 minutes. If sticky add more flour.
5. Once nice and doughy throughout (see video) put back in bowl, cover with paper towels and set aside. Let rise for 30 minutes if you used regular yeast, 15 minutes if you used quick rise yeast.
6. Make pizza buffet by putting cheese, sauce, and toppings in little bowls and in a line down counter.
7. heat oven to 450 degrees.
8. Put some parchment paper down on a cookie sheet. Cut off a fistful of dough from risen dough. Roll out in a semi round shape. Sprinkle with some salt. Add light layer of sauce, light layer of cheese, any desired toppings, drizzle with olive oil.
9. Cook for 7 minutes or until cheese starts to brown. Cut and serve.

The Perfect Pancake

The Perfect Pancake

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat a griddle to 350 degrees
2. In a cup put the milk and vinegar together and set aside while combining the rest of the ingredients. This will turn the milk curdly into a fake buttermilk.
3. Combine all of the dry ingredients in one bowl and mix together with spoon.
4. Using a whisk combine the melted butter, vanilla, egg and "buttermilk".
5. Put all ingredients together in large bowl and mix until lumps are gone
6. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup drop batter onto heated griddle and cook until bubbles appear.
7. Flip pancakes and cook on other side.

This recipe will yield 10 pancakes. I usually double the recipe for my family of 6. Sometimes we have leftovers that can be frozen and then reheated in the toaster.