Pepperoni Pizza Crescents

If you have a tube of crescent rolls and pizza toppings in the fridge, you can create these little pepperoni pizza crescents in a flash.  Theyare perfect for a simple lunch or dinner for your kids, an after school snack, or as an appetizer for a football party (Go Cowboys!).  Your kids can do all the hard work and feel proud they made their own meal. Of course, make sure an adult is the hot oven operator.

Ingredients:

1 tube Crescent rolls (8 count)
pepperoni slices, cut into strips
shredded mozzarella
Italian seasoning
garlic powder
marinara or ranch for dipping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray. 

Unroll all the Crescents and separate the triangles.  Lay some pepperoni strips and sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese on each triangle.  Beginning at the base of the triangle, roll up to the small tip.  Place on baking sheet and sprinkle with Italian seasoning and garlic powder.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown.  Serve with a side of marinara or ranch for dipping.  Enjoy!

Calzones Your Way

Calzones are a favorite quick to go meal from our local Italian restaurant.  We call in the order and hubby picks it up.  We get to pick our favorite toppings that are stuffed inside pizza crust.  A side of marinara for dipping completes it.  This is my first time making calzones at home.  It was just like making pizza and fun for the kids.  These would also be fun to make mini and serve as appetizers.

I used the recipe for pizza dough from The Pioneer Woman's Cookbook.  I added some extra seasonings and used a little whole wheat flour, and it turned out perfect.  This will be my new pizza dough recipe from now on.

Pizza Dough:
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
4  cups all purpose flour (can also substitute 1/4 cup whole wheat for white flour)
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/3 cup olive oil, plus more for oiling bowl

In a small glass bowl, add the warm water and sprinkle in the yeast.  Let sit for 5 minutes.  Add the sugar and stir. 

In a large stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, add flour, salt, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder.  Turn on low to mix in spices.  Slowly drizzle in the olive oil.  Add the water/yeast mixture and mix on medium speed.  Let the mixer kneed the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.

Drizzle some olive oil into large glass or metal bowl and use your hand to rub all around bottom and sides.  Form the dough into a ball, add it to the oiled bowl, and turn to oil on all sides.  Cover with a damp kitchen towel or tightly with plastic wrap and place in a warm area until doubled in size, about 1-2 hours.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Sprinkle some corn meal onto a large pizza pan or baking sheet.

To make calzones, pinch off a piece of pizza dough and roll into a ball.  Spread flour on a work surface and roll dough out into a large circle, being careful not to roll too thin.  

Set out all your toppings, and let your family pile them up on their individual calzone.  Place toppings on 1/2 of the dough, leaving a 1/2 inch border. 

The toppings we used this time were:

mozzarella cheese
ricotta cheese
pepperoni
canadian bacon
cooked Italian sausage
green peppers
red onions
jalapenos

Fold the empty side of pizza dough over the toppings.  Roll the edges up and pinch together to seal, using your fingers like you would for a pie crust.  Sprinkle top with Italian seasoning and garlic powder, if desired. 

Use a spatula to transfer to prepared baking sheet.  You can even use a paring knife to carve your initials into the top so they don't get mixed up.

Bake for 12 minutes, or until crust is lightly browned.  Serve with a side of marinara for dipping.  Enjoy!

Easy Dinner Idea: Kid's Cookie Cutter Pizzas

My family wanted to make "Pizzas Your Way" for dinner.  I made the dough using my Pizza Dough recipe plain (without Italian seasonings).  You can also use refrigerated pizza dough or your favorite pizzaria's purchased dough.  I simply rolled out some of the pizza dough for thin pizza and used all of our larger cookie cutters to make different pizza shapes.  

Then we topped them with homemade marinara, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, and canadian bacon. 

The girls really enjoyed picking out which pizzas they were going to eat...butterfly, snail, dragonfly, pig, gingerbread man, frog, or flowers.  And they were all able to eat 3 pizzas each.

This is more of an idea than a recipe...Enjoy!

Pepperoni, Mushroom, and Caramelized Onion Pizza

Let me just say that I forgot to take an "After" picture of my hot from the oven pizza.  I was absolutely starving since my pizza was the last one out of 4 that I made!

My favorite pizza toppings are pepperoni and mushrooms.  Now that we are cooking individual pizzas at home, I don't have to compromise with anybody else.  I made this pizza the other night while my husband had a philly cheese steak pizza and my kids had a pepperoni and a plain cheese pizza.  It was delicious!

This makes a large 12 inch pizza.  The one pictured above is much smaller so I used half the ingredients to make an individual serving. 

Ingredients:

Italian Pizza Crust
1/2 cup marinara
2 T olive oil
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
1 white onion, sliced
pepperoni slices
2 cups mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Saute mushrooms in 1 T olive oil until slightly tender.  Remove from pan and set aside.  Add another 1 T olive oil and mushrooms to the pan and cook until carmelized, about 15 minutes.  Remove from the heat and add to the mushrooms. 

Prepare pizza crust as directed.  Spread marinara sauce over dough.  Layer on the mushroom and onion mixture, mozzarella cheese, and then pepperoni slices.

Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted.  Enjoy!

Philly Cheese Steak Pizza

My husband is a huge baseball fan.  He's been collecting baseball memorabilia since he was a little kid.  He dreams of visiting all of his favorite baseball parks.  But with kids, work, and all of life's other responsibilities, his dream has been put on hold for now.  I wanted to fulfill a portion of my husband's dreams, so about 4 years ago, I  called up his boss and asked if he would give Todd a few days off....how could his boss say "NO" to me?  I told him of my plans to surprise Todd with a trip to Boston so we could watch the Red Sox play at Fenway Park.

So my plan began.  I made our travel arrangements, purchased game day tickets (just in case it was sold out as many afternoon games are at Fenway), arranged for childcare, and planned a surprise party.  I ordered a baseball decorated cake that read "Boston Red Sox", decorated our living room with baseball cutouts and lots of red and white balloons and streamers, and laid out the baseball tickets on our kitchen table.  We yelled "SURPRISE" when he walked in the door from a long day at work and he was really confused.  I had to break it all down for him.  And he was shocked I called his boss and arranged all of this without his knowledge.  I did give him a day's notice so he could get everything lined out at work and have plenty of time to pack.

It was a lot of fun for just the two of us to get out of town together and enjoy Boston.  There is so much history, culture, and diversity in Boston.  The ballpark was incredible!  The fans are die hard fans!  And the food was delicious!  We ate in Little Italy, Chinatown, and many pubs.  My husband's favorite meal was the Philly cheese steak pizza he ate at a restaurant just outside of Fenway Park.  We rode the subway to Fenway and arrived several hours early with the rest of Boston's die hard fans.  We had pizza on the patio of Cask 'n Flagon, which is right outside of the ballpark behind home base.  

My husband has been dreaming of that Philly cheese steak pizza ever since and finally got another taste at home.

Ingredients:

1 white onion, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
4 oz. deli roast beef, shaved
3 T Worchestershire sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups grated mozzarella
5-6 slices provolone

Italian Pizza Crust

In a skillet, saute the onions, green peppers, mushrooms, salt, and pepper in olive oil until cooked through.  Add the roast beef and cook another 3 minutes.  Add Worchestershire sauce, stir, and remove from heat.  Brush prepared pizza crust with 3 T olive oil and crushed garlic.  Top with the meat and vegetable mixture.  Sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese over top, and layer on provolone slices. 

If you par-baked the pizza crust, bake at 400-425 degrees for 12-15 minutes until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted.  If you did not parbake the crust, the cooking time will need to be increased by about 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.  Enjoy!

Italian Pizza Crust

My husband wanted to make individual homemade pizzas for dinner last night.  I made the pizza dough using some Rapid Rise Yeast.  The dough was ready to top and bake within 30 minutes.  This recipe makes 2 12-inch thin crust pizzas.  

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
1 envelope Fleischmann's RapidRise Yeast
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp rosemary (optional)
1 cup very warm water (120-130 degrees)
2 T olive oil
Cornmeal (for pizza pan)

Combine 3 cups flour, undissolved yeast, salt, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and rosemary in a large bowl.  Measure out 1 cup of water in a glass measuring cup and heat in the microwave for about 20 seconds.  Use a thermometer to make sure it's between 120-130 degrees; otherwise, the yeast will not activate properly.  Add the very warm water and olive oil to the dry mixture.  Stir to combine.  You want a nice soft dough so you might need a little more flour or water.

Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 4-6 minutes.  Form into a ball and put into a large glass bowl coated in olive oil.  Turn the dough over to coat the other side with olive oil.  Cover with a dry towel and place in the oven to rise until it doubles in size, about 20 minutes or so.

Divide the dough in half and form into balls.  Roll each dough out to fit desired size pizza pans. 

Coat pizza pans with olive oil and sprinkle with cornmeal to prevent the dough from sticking.  Place rolled out pizza dough on pan and continue with your pizza making. 

To make cheese stuffed crust, place mozzarella cheese sticks around the perimeter of the pizza dough and fold the edges over and pinch to seal shut.  My kids really enjoyed it and ate all of their crust.  They won't normally eat the crust.

Note:  For a CRISPIER thin crust pizza, parbake the pizza dough at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and arrange toppings.  Return to the oven and bake for another 12-15 minutes until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown.  Enoy!

It's Not Delivery...It's DiGiorno!

No, seriously, it's DiGiorno!  I made some homemade pizza dough for the first time ever.  Bread recipes (anything involving using yeast) totally intimidates me.  I don't know why.  This is a simple pizza dough that you can make in the morning and let rise until you're ready to make pizzas for lunch.  My big girl Taylor helped me knead the dough.

I made some pizza sauce and I had some extra homemade BBQ sauce leftover from our smoked brisket last week.  I laid out everybody's favorite toppings and we all made our own pizzas.  My girls and I made mini pizzas and my husband, a.k.a. "Big Daddy", made a 12 inch pizza.  He kept going back to the kitchen and putting a few slices on his plate, and before long, it was all gone.  He said he shared with Jordyn, but come on, she's a 3 year old that takes little bites.  I'm just happy he enjoyed it.  He's picky about his pizza since he's a true Italian.  I rolled his dough out really thin, since that's the way he likes it.

Ingredients for Pizza Dough:

1 cup warm water (between 100-110 degrees)
1 package active dry yeast (1/4 oz.)
3 cups all purpose flour
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp sugar

In a mixing bowl, combine the yeast, warm water, and sugar.  Stir and let sit for about 10 minutes, until the top becomes frothy and foamy.  Add the olive oil, salt, and flour.  Stir together until it starts to come together.  Pour out onto clean countertop and knead the dough until smooth and firm, about 10 minutes.  If you're lucky and have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, you can use the dough attachment and it only takes about 5 minutes.  Otherwise, get ready for a great arm workout.  Use the heels of your hands and really work the dough.  When the dough is smooth, form into a ball.  Transfer to a bowl coated lightly in olive oil, and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size, about 1 1/2-2 hours.  I put it in the oven since it was really humid from raining the day before. 

After the dough has doubled in size, remove it from the bowl and divide into three equal sections (if you want 3-12 inch pizzas). Form each section of dough into a ball by rolling it under the palm of your hand to create a smooth surface. Transfer the dough to a baking sheet and cover with a damp towel.  Allow the dough to rise again for about 30 minutes.

Stretch or roll the dough out as thin as you'd like (recommend 12 inch circles).  Add sauce and your favorite toppings. Bake at 425°F until golden brown and crispy, about 12-15 minutes for a large pizza.

We made pizza 4 ways:

Salami, Pepperoni and Canadian Bacon Pizza (Big Daddy's)

BBQ Chicken Pizza (Big Mama's)

Girls Pizzas: BBQ Canadian Bacon Pizza & Canadian Bacon and BBQ Chicken Pizza

The prepared pizza dough disks can be refrigerator in zip lock storage bags for 2 days, or frozen for 2 weeks.  My husband wants to have a pizza party and let everybody make their own.  Sounds like a fun Sunday afternoon to me!  Pizza, football, and family...what more can you ask for?