A Daisy Garden

I was craving pizza last night,

but I’ve been away and haven’t had time for grocery shopping,

so I just used what I had in my fridge & pantry…

The result was an interesting (but tasty) combination
of some random items I normally would never consider putting on pizza.

I started out by making the dough for the crust.

I actually love this part.

Peeking inside the bowl…

I love the smell of dough, and when I let it rise
and come back, it’s amazing how it’s doubled it size!

I cover the bowl with a light-weight towel and forget about it for about an hour.

It’s pretty cool how it grows and becomes so soft.

I love this part, too… Now I get to play with the dough
and form the pizza crust.

It reminds me of playing with Play Dough! 🙂

When the dough has risen, I put a little bit of flour on the counter
and I either roll it out to the size I want, or I just plop it onto the greased
pizza pan (or cookie sheet, in this case).

I like this part, too!  I use my fingers to softly spread the dough
over the cookie sheet.

Someday I’ll buy a pizza pan!

These are the simple ingredients I used on the curst.

First, I sprinkle garlic powder over the crust,
then I spread olive oil on that.

Then I pour some of the sauce…
Sometimes I make my own sauce, but this time I just decided to make things easy.

I use this cheese for sandwiches…

I’ve never used this one on  pizza before, but it works well
if you like some heat.

I think it would’ve worked out fine…
…but I also put some hot chiles (in lieu of red/green peppers)…
In my defense, …I was tired, hungry, sleepy, exhausted,…
I wasn’t thinking.
…let’s just say the pizza was HOT!
But delicious.

These are the toppings I came up with in my limited pantry:

Corn (I know! I know! It’s not traditionally a pizza topping, but…
I was desperate,…what can I say?)
Black beans (same excuse as with the corn)
Chiles (I didn’t have any red or green peppers so I thought this was the next best thing)
Black olives
Meatballs (Leftover from last night’s dinner) Cut into quarters.

After the cheese, I put the meatballs…

Then the corn…

Black beans,…

Black olives, and green chiles…

I’m SO glad I had this cheese!!

I sprinkled it all over the pizza.

It actually looked pretty good.

I baked it for about 20 minutes at 425 degrees.

I was surprised at the flavor.

I didn’t expect it to be so spicy
—-(I’d forgotten about the cheese slices underneath everything)

I didn’t expect to like the mixture of the toppings as much as I did.
—-(maybe the fact that I was so hungry had something to do with it?)

 The crust was crispy on the outside and soft on the center.

It was tasty and just what I was craving.

Not as good as the Pizzeria, but a little healthier.  🙂

It’s really not difficult to make pizza
and it’s fun!

Hope you’ll give it a try!

Daisy

RECIPE FOR PIZZA CRUST:
1 cup warm water
1 envelope active dry yeast
1 Tb sugar

I warm the water in the microwave;
warm enough but not hot.
Then I add a tablespoon of sugar to the water,
add the yeast, and use a whisk to mix it well.
Let it sit for about 5 minutes, until bubbly.

While the yeast is working, I mix the dry ingredients:
3 cups bread flour
1 Tb sugar
2 Tb olive oil

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, until a dough begins to form.
Transfer to floured surface and knead until soft and smooth.
Place in greased (with olive oil) bowl, and let rise for one hour.
Remove from bowl and either roll dough or use fingers to desired
shape in pizza pan or cookie sheet.

Top crust with your favorite toppings and sauce.
Bake for 20 minutes at 425 degrees, in preheated oven.
Enjoy!