So I spent an entire afternoon watching Chopped. It was a pizza episode where the appetizer, entree and dessert were all pizza themed, so naturally I was craving pizza after! If you order a pizza it’ll cost you about $20 unless you get one of those creepy walk-in deals. But why eat a greasy, crap pizza when you could make your own? I know making your own dough sounds hard, but it’s not. You most likely already have all purpose flour at home. If not, go buy some. It goes on sale and you can get a huge bag for under 5 smackers. You probably also have random jars of olives and banana peppers or a few random veggies and perhaps a miscellaneous cheese or meat. Look at what you have in your fridge to save money before embarking on your homemade pizza. Cheese will probably be your most expensive ingredient so try to get it on sale or get more cheese for your buck by opting for a stronger flavoured one. Who said pizza only had to have mozzarella? The one ingredient I didn’t already have on hand was active dry yeast. That cost me 6 dollars and it will last me about 20-30 pizzas. WHAT A STEAL.

OK, now for the crust. I used this recipe but used all purpose flour instead of bread flour. EASY AS (PIZZA) PIE!

http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-as-pie-10-minute-no-rise-thin-crust-pizza-dough-422607

After I rolled it out I put the dough in the oven for 2 minutes to pre-crisp it. Then I smeared a layer or tomato sauce, olives, banana peppers, white cheddar, feta cheese and sliced mushrooms. Bake at 500 for 8 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Let sit for 5 minutes(if you can wait that long) before cutting into it. HOLY TASTY TIME. Next time I’d roll my dough a little bit thinner, but otherwise it was spot on. Way cheaper and healthier than Pizza Hut. (PS, I think Pizza Hut is great, but take it ease on the grease am I right hut man? Yeesh.)

A few days later I had leftover chicken and another hankering for pizza so I made homemade BBQ chicken pizza. DOUBLE PIZZA.

This time I made the crust in advance because my friend Amanda was coming over for dinner and I didn’t want to be elbow deep in flour when she arrived. I put my ball of dough in a bowl, covered it with plastic wrap and tossed it in the fridge until it was ready to be used. When I went to stretch out my dough about an hour later it had more than doubled in size and it looked like a giant mushroom dome trying to escape its plastic cage. To my surprise it was MUCH easier to handle. It rolled so nicely and when it was cooked it ended up being thinner and crispier.

I went a little bit crazy on the toppings and lay down a base of BBQ sauce and hot sauce instead of tomato sauce (crazy, right?) and loaded the crust up with banana peppers, sliced green olives, hot salami, roasted chicken, grated cheddar, sliced  mushrooms and feta cheese. This pizza was a real winner. We downed it with a nice bottle of red wine (Portia, a red wine from Spain provided by Amanda Brooke Perrin) and the good times flowed hard. I wish I had some gross fattening dipping sauce for the crust. I’m a sucker for that garbage garlic sauce you can get at Pizza Pizza. I’m pretty sure it’s made from melted rubber and seasoning but damn it’s good. Can anyone recommend a homemade pizza dipping sauce that won’t kill me in the near future? I’d love to hear it!