Recipes!

Some of our family's favorite recipes came from our closest friends. I love getting new recipes and thought I would start sharing some of my favorites with you. I would love to get some of your favorites too!

With school starting, Bret's crazy schedule, and soccer practice/games things have been a little crazy around here. To try and avoid picking up fast food on the way home for dinner we have trying to cook a little ahead. So when Bret grills chicken breasts or pork chops we make extra and then use them again later in the week for another meal. When we have extra chicken breasts one of our favorite second meals is BBQ chicken pizza. Even my kids will eat it. For the longest time though the big hang up for us was the pizza crust. Although we love Bomboli we have to remember to pick one up at the grocery store and we have to use it before it goes bad which is usually only a few days. So when we had dinner at a friends house and found out that the amazing pizza crust we were eating was homemade I knew I had to have the recipe. The recipe is big enough for two pizza stone round pizzas. Unless we are having guests for dinner I usually cut the recipe in half for our family.

Pizza Dough

5c flour
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp sugar
4 Tbsp oil
1 c water
1/2 c warm water
2 pkgs yeast (4 1/2 tsp)

Stir together the warm water, yeast, and an extra sprinkle of sugar (proofing the yeast which basically means waiting until the yeast dissolves and bubbles up). Mix in remaining ingredients until a soft sticky dough forms. Knead. Oil the bread and bowel. Let rise until double.

Add your sauce and toppings. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes. We like our crust a little crispy so I let it bake just a little longer until it was nice and golden brown.

*My husband and friend didn't believe me when I told them I made the crust myself.