Friday, August 27, 2010

Pizza Pie

021 copy

Who doesn't enjoy ordering a pizza from time to time? It's fun. It's good. It's convenient after a hard week. A local pizza joint with good pizza and a must have Greek salad or occasionally even Papa John's comes to call. You put your feet up, turn on a movie and not the oven.

But, for those other times we turn our kitchen into a pizzeria. I thought you all might enjoy the recipe.

Make. this. pizza. Three Cheese Garden Pizza. Really. Guys, my kiddos beg for this pizza. In fact Chloe thinks this might be her birthday dinner choice.

This is a Pampered Chef recipe. I love some of their things and some I can do without. Kitchen items that come into this house have to help me and not hinder or just make more clean up. We all have good knife skills, so I don't need every little gadget known to man to get the job done. Their stones are one thing that I adore and have invested in. Not all of them, but enough. They also stand behind their warranty. Wonder how I know that? More than once...

At the PC party we used the refrigerated pizza crust (that the recipe calls for) and the pizza was delicious, but Chloe and I love to work with yeast dough, so we make our own crust. It is like the smell of a gourmet pizza shop in your kitchen.. A quick pizza crust version can be found here. Make sure that you add the right amount of salt. I'm not a careful measurer, but with this dough it is crucial.

Here is our wonderful partially baked pizza crust brushed with olive oil and fresh garlic.

008 copy


Start layering.

013 copy



Ready for the oven.

018 copy

My son is not a super picky eater, but sliced onions and tomatoes would not be on his list of favorites. Mine either, and we both love this pizza. I don't love mushrooms on pizza, but this is another exception. They are not slimy if cut fresh.

A few tweak notes: We usually add spinach and/or bell peppers between the veggies layers. We also use olive oil to brush on the pizza crust instead of vegetable oil.

Oops, I almost didn't get a picture. Only one piece left when I thought of the camera.

020 copy

When I went to run my dishwasher tonight it even smelled like a pizzeria.

p.s. I am in no way affiliated with Pampered Chef, nor was I paid to mention their baking stones.

Christina

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

A touch of my home


I found these pictures today that Christina took one day earlier this year when she ran by my house to visit. It was in the midst of us having just moved, selling our old house, end of school, sick little girl, etc and I was feeling very overwhelmed! Christina spent a few minutes making a couple areas pretty for me while I did the mundane tasks of moving boxes from one room to another and making dinner.

I am so excited to finally have a fireplace and mantle! Of course in this horrid Georgia heat and humidity, it being cool enough to light a fire sounds like light years away...

I love how she mixed the rustic with the glass and mirrors. One of these days I am going to be as talented as my sisters. ;) Until then, well I just have her over to do these things for me!

~Victoria~