Friday Night...Pizza Night

In my new favorite book, I got a few ideas of things that we could do together as a family. One tradition that they talked about in the book is to have Friday night be pizza night. I also found a great pizza recipe this month in the magazine that we get called "Family Fun" and wanted to try it out. I loved the pizza night idea because I really wanted something for Haken to look forward to during the week that was special to our family. I think that Shad and I really enjoy it too because it has given us a chance to cook and create together. Haken doesn't really like the "grown up" pizza's that we make, so we always make him a little pepperoni and olive pizza just for him.

WEEK #1: February 25th, 2011

The first week we did this was 3 weeks ago and we made the pizza from the "Family Fun" magazine: "BLT pizza" I always get this when we go to the California Pizza Kitchen so I thought we should try making it. Unfortunately, we were soooo hungry by the time we finished it that I forgot to get a picture. Here is the one from the magazine:

It really did look EXACTLY like this.

We also had purple jigglers as a treat for dessert. Haken's first time doing that. He had a blast!

Here is the recipe from the magazine for the pizza if anyone is interested, including the dough:

BLT pizza

Dough ingredients:

1/2 cup warm water

1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

1/2 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting

1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for coating

Topping ingredients:

9 strips bacon

2 Tb. Dijon mustard

4 ounces Jarlsberg, shredded (Our cheese selection in town in lacking. We just used just a little mozz. cheese instead)

2 ounces Parmesan cheese

2 medium tomatoes, halved, seeded, and diced

1 Tb. mayonnaise (we used half spicy mayo that we had- I'd recommend it!)

1/2 Tb. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 cups finely shredded romaine lettuce

Directions:

Pour the water into a medium bowl, stir in the yeast, sugar, and salt. Set the mixture aside until it's foamy, about 5 minutes. Add the flour and oil and stir until a dough begins to form. Gather the dough into a ball. On a clean dry work surface dusted with flour, knead the dough until it's smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. (or just put

it in your Kitchenaid and sit back and watch, like I did). If the dough gets sticky, add flour 1 Tb. at a time. Form the dough into a ball. Rub the inside of a large bowl with olive oil. Put the dough in the bowl and turn to coat it with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm place until the dough's bulk has doubled, about 1 1/2 hours. (to shorten raising time use the microwave as an incubator. Microwave 2 cups of water until boiling. Place the covered bowl of dough beside the water, shut the door, and let the dough rise.) Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Slice the bacon crosswise into 1/2 inch wide pieces, then fry it in a large skillet over medium heat until it's lightly browned but not crisp, about 6 minutes. Transfer the meat to a plate lined with paper towels. Lightly grease an 11 by 17 inch baking sheet with olive oil. Transfer th

e dough to the sheet. Use your fingertips and palms to dimple and press the dough into a 10-11 inch circle. Evenly spreading the mustard over the dough, leaving a 1/8 inch border. Scatter both cheeses, the tomatoes, and the bacon on top. Bake the pizza, rotating the pan halfway through, until the crust is lightly browned, the cheese has melted, and the bacon is crisp, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce. Add the lettuce and toss to coat it. Transfer the pizza to a cutting board and let cool for 5 minutes. Top with the lettuce, mixture and cut the pizza into eight wedges.

WEEK #2: March 4, 2011

We liked the California Pizza Kitchen recipe knock off so much we decided to search for more like it on the internet. We found their pizza crust recipe here and here (the second one is much more detailed and includes a recipe for their whole wheat dough). It turned out amazing and was worth making the night before and sticking in the fridge. However, Shad still thinks he prefers the one from last week with the oodles of oil in it.

The pizza this week is not one of their recipes, but it SHOULD be because it is amazing! I got it off the internet here. It is called the "Ultimate California Mood Doggie Pizza." It has a pesto sauce underneath layers of grilled chicken breasts, marinated artichoke hearts, and sun dried tomatoes. Again, we couldn't find the cheese it called for (goat cheese) in our little town so we just opted for the classic mozz. cheese. Still amazing! We forgot to take a picture before we ate some, (we were starving again!) but here is what it looked like half eaten:

This is also our first experience using a pizza stone thanks to my friend Ashley who just GAVE us her brand new one, never been used!! We are a big fan of it, just had to figure out how to transfer the pizza without making a huge mess in the oven...Shad is very creative.

Haken's boring pepperoni and olive again....

WEEK #3

This week we decided that we needed to share the love a little bit and invited some friends. We invited the Hardy's from across the street (she's the one who gave us the pizza stone, so it was a great way to say thanks!) We made the pizza's and they brought the healthy salad and fruit. This time we made three pizzas: Pepperoni for the kids (and Ashley), our lovely Moon Doggie pizza from last week, and the BBQ chicken recipe from the California Pizza Kitchen. The BBQ chicken is again one of my favs from the pizza kitchen, so we had to try it. I got the recipe here and I have to say that it turned out EXACTLY as it tastes at the restaurant. We used our favorite bbq sauce, Famous Daves, of course. Here's a picture (yes, we waited this time before digging in). We didn't take pictures of the other pizza's because we had the same ones last week.

Haken sneaking a chocolate cookie with his friend Chloe. They have so much fun together playing "Prince and Princess." It's so cute!

So, there is our last three week of "Pizza night" in a nutshell! If you have any pizza suggestions let me know, we will run out of new ideas soon and could use them. Also, if you are up for sharing pizza night with us, we would love to have you!