Mr. Mom

It's been a nice ride, but tomorrow Hubby's life as Mr. Mom (for one whole month!) will end. Back to real wifedom I will return, as he heads across the Charles River for countless hours of full-time business school courses... leaving me to fend for myself once again - making lunches, folding laundry, cooking dinner, walking Dixie...

For the past month, I've been living in luxury with my own personal stay-at-home-husband. Nice, I know :)

Not a single meal have I prepared since moving (do I even admit this?!). I can't lie - it's been excellent...!

Let me share one of the delicious reasons it's been so wonderful. Did I mention Hubby loves cooking? This really works to my benefit most of the time... especially if he's experimenting with a recipe. Recently, he's really perfected homemade pizza.

Mmmmmm.....

Though our little apartment oven only peaks out at 550 degrees, a solid 300 degrees below what Hubby would prefer (in his dream wood-burning pizza oven, nonetheless), he's made do to develop a truly delicious pizza pie. Want to try?

Ingredients
Yields enough dough for 2-3 large pizzas)

Crust
3 C flour
1 packet active dry yeast
1/8 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1 C water

Sauce
San Marzano tomatoes (can is great)
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Toppings
Use your favorites...
We love: mozzarella cheese, salami, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, capers, basil, Kalamata olives (not all together, necessarily - I always think simpler combinations are best)

Kitchen Tools
pizza stone (cookie sheet is fine if you don't have one)
cookie sheet
Cuisinart (or Kitchenaid mixer with dough hook attachment)
large mixing bowl
parchment paper
nonstick cooking spray
fork/potato masher

Directions
Preheat oven to 550 degrees
1 C warm water, approx. 100 degrees (think hot-tub temp... too hot kills the yeast, too cool, yeast doesn't activate)
Stir in 1/8 tsp sugar
Sprinkle packet of yeast on top of water-sugar mixture
Wait 5-7 minutes until you see bubbling action on top
Then mix it all together

Meanwhile...

Place your 3 C flour and1 tsp salt in Cuisinart (or Kitchenaid mixer with dough hook) and turn on Cuisinart
Pour water-sugar-yeast mixture into the Cuisinart atop the flour/salt mixture
Pour in olive oil
Mix until dough-like consistency
Take a large mixing bowl and lightly spray with nonstick spray
Take ball of dough, lightly spray with nonstick spray
Put dough in bowl and place a dry, clean cotton cloth over bowl
Set bowl in warm location (near window, near preheating oven)
Allow dough to rise approx. 1 hour, or until doubled in size
Then punch dough down and allow to rise another 1/2 hour, or until dough doubles in size again

Once dough rises...

Roll out dough and stretch it out on parchment paper over a cookie sheet (have flour handy to keep the dough from sticking)
Brush olive oil over center of crust, and not quite to the edge... leave about 1 inch on the edge untouched
Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste
Spread crushed San Marzano tomatoes (make sure you crush them with a fork or potato masher first for sauce-like consistency)
Top with desired toppings and transport pizza on parchment paper to preheated pizza stone
Flip oven to broil and cook for about 4 minutes
Eat right away

That's it.

Let's have another close-up of that crust:

...great... now I'm hungry :)