FRIDAY NIGHT IS PIZZA NIGHT!!

Come on over if you want - Friday night is pizza night at our house. A new pizza joint opened up at the train station months and months ago and we decided to try it out because it was cheap. Well the taste was good as well so pretty soon Fridays became pizza night at our house.

Then last month for book club we read this book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It was so interesting. A book about a family who decides for one year to only buy local produce, meat, and grains and live off the land. Only eating foods when they are in season - yes that means no watermelon in the middle of winter (it doesn't taste good then anyway). Not only did they reduce their carbon footprint, but they survived and ate well. This book made me miss home and my garden. I read it just when I should be getting my garden ready for planting. I haven't planted a garden here and I truly miss it. I miss getting my hands dirty and watching things grow. I miss walking outside on a summer night as the heat of the day is fading and picking peas and eating them right then and there fresh from the garden. I miss bottling, canning, and freezing things and eating my own produce through the winter. I miss all of those things and keep telling Kev we better be settled and in a house by Spring next year so I can plant a garden - a girl can always dream right?

Anyway, why am I telling you about this book? Well they had a Friday night pizza night as well and a recipe for pizza dough. For those of you who don't know all through high school. I worked at a pizza place and even know how to throw the dough in the air to stretch it out. My parents used to always make us homemade pizza growing up as well. That week I tried out the pizza dough recipe and we made our own pizza from scratch. Well now that has become the tradition for Friday night pizza night. Homemade pizza and sometimes a movie. It has shown me that cooking isn't always a chore. The kids love to come put their own toppings on and boy does it taste good.

Here is the dough recipe if you want your own pizza night: (better yet if you want to join us give me a call bring your own toppings and we can have a big pizza night party!)

makes 2 12" pizzas

3t yeast

1 1/2 c warm water

3T olive oil

1 t salt

2 1/2 c white flour

2 c whole wheat flour

(I don't just use 4 1/2 cups of white flour as I don't' have wheat flour)

dissolve the yeast in the warm water

knead everything together

let raise 30-40 minutes

then you simply roll them out into pizza shapes and add your toppings

bake pizza 425 degrees for 20 mins

I do realize that it probably isn't saving me any money by making my own pizza - but the memories I hope my kids will treasure for a lifetime. Maybe in 20 years we will be sitting around and they will be talking about fond childhood memories and our Friday night pizza night will come up in conversation. That is my hope.