Mamma Mia! It's a Homemade Pizza!

Okay, so who are we kidding? Which one of you couldn't murder an entire large pizza all by yourself after a long day of work? Pizza is an amazing gift from God, one in which I indulge in perhaps far too often...

Several months ago, we bought a pizza stone and have been making our own homemade pizzas instead of ordering out. Homemade pizza tastes INFINITELY better because you can cater your pie to your own particular tastes and likes and also, you never have to skimp on da good stuff...

Our most recent pizza making adventure featured an absolutely divine Hawaiian pizza and also a savory veggie and pepperoni invention. Both were affordable to make and also gave us leftovers for lunch the following day!

What you'll need:

• A pizza stone (You can grab one at Target for under $15.00!)
  
• A pizza peel is awesome to have, but you can also use a large cutting board.
  

Hawaiian Pizza

• 3-4 slices of Canadian bacon
• Corn meal
  
• Small container of pineapple
• Small jar of pizza sauce
• 1 lb of pizza dough (we get ours at a local bakery so it is nice and fresh)
• Garlic powder
• Mozzarella cheese (Sargento pre-shredded 2 cup bag)
  
• Pizza Cheese Blend (Sargento pre-shredded 2 cup bag)

Pepperoni & Veggie Pizza

• 1 lb of pizza dough
• Corn meal
• Small jar of pizza sauce
  
• 1/4 lb sandwich-size pepperoni
• Sliced baby portabella mushrooms
• half an onion, sliced/chopped
• A bell pepper
• Mozzarella Cheese
• Pizza Cheese Blend
• Chopped garlic

Recipe:

1. Set oven to preheat at 475 degrees.
2. Place pizza stone in the oven - It is VERY important that the stone heat up with the oven! - If the stone is cold when the pizza goes onto it, the bottom crust will stick and make the pizza nearly impossible to remove - trust me - I've done it...
   
3. Place a generous amount of corn meal onto either your cutting board or pizza peel - the corn meal acts like flourm creating barrier so that the dough does not stick to the wooden surface.
4. Stretch out you dough - I like to hold the dough from my fingers and mostly let gravity do the work of expanding the size by moving the dough around slowly in circles.
5. Pace dough on peel.
6. Coat edges of dough with olive oil.
7. Place pizza sauce onto the dough, leaving a 1/2 inch border for crust.
   

• Hawaiian Pizza

1. Cube Canadian bacon.
2. Cube pineapple.
3. Place a generous layer of mozzarella cheese over the sauce.
4. Add pineapple and Canadian bacon
5. Add anther generous layer of the pizza cheese blend.
6. Sprinkle top with garlic powder.
7. Carefully shimmy pizza off peel onto the pizza stone - as long as you used a good amount of corn meal, you should have no problem with the shimmy move...
8. Cook until crust is golden brown - 15-20 mins
   

• Pepperoni & Veggie Pizza

1. Cut onion into thin circles.
2. Cut Pepper into strips.
3. Place a generous layer of pizza cheese blend onto sauce.
4. Place pepperoni onto the pizza.
5. Add a generous layer of mozzarella cheese onto pepperoni.
   
6. Place onion, baby portabella mushrooms, and pepper onto pizza as desired.
7. Place chopped garlic generously onto top of pizza.
8. Carefully shimmy pizza off peel onto the pizza stone - as long as you used a good amount of corn meal, you should have no problem with the shimmy move...
9. Cook until crust is golden brown - 15-20 mins