mmm Pizza

UPDATE: don't hold your breath for that pic. My camera's batteries were dead and I was hungry and I accidentally ate it with camera in hand oopsies

Last night I planned on making Chili. It's finally starting to feel like fall and I was in the mood for something warm. After work I stopped by Trader Joe's and quickly changed my mind. They had some of their garlic and basil pizza dough out and I knew right away that my plans were changing and it was pizza night. Making your own pizza dough isn't hard and I could probably mimik their garlic and basil dough pretty easily, but I was hungry and didn't want to deal with waiting for dough to rise, plus it's cheap enough that it's easy enough to justify buying this yummy premade goodness instead of making my own. When TJ's has this dough I always buy the braided marinated mozarella to go with it. The marinated mozzarella is more expensive than the big bags of the cheapie shredded stuff, but when you combine it with the garlic and basil dough it's heavenly. Who am I kidding, I love marinated mozzarella and could eat it all night long and any excuse to buy some is good enough for me.

I'm a fan of good 'ole cheese pizza, I almost never put toppings on it and if I do, it's usually just pineapple. TJ's didn't have any pineapples and I wasn't going to make another grocery store stop so, cheese it was.

I got home, opened my new Pampered Chef pizza stone (thank you Bubba Lucky (my cat) for breaking my old one ... you owe me about $30) and was ready to go. I threw some flour on it, spread the dough out and threw it in the oven at about 325 degrees ... with my old ass gas stove it's always about. Usually I leave it in for about 10-15 mins to make sure the dough cooks before putting the toppings on. My friends wonder why their dough is never fully cooked ... well sillies it's because the toppings heat faster than the dough. Then I made the sauce.

Pizza Sauce (FYI this makes way too much so you may want to freeze it in cupcake tins so you have it for the next time you make pizza)

1 can crushed tomatoes
2 cans tomato paste
a bunch of oregano and italian seasoning
a little salt and pepper
a little sugar (I had confectioners sugar out so I just used that ... yes I know, I'm a freak)
some olive oil
4 cloves of garlic (I love garlic! If you don't think it should be a major food group use less)

Just mix it up, taste and you're good to go

So, after making my sauce, I checked the dough and it still needed a few more minutes so I went into the other room to watch the Red Sox game that Greg and Brady were watching without me. Of course I got sucked in and forgot about my dough. When I finally got around to checking my dough it wasn't burnt, but it was getting there and if I put the sauce and cheese on now it was going to be burnt by the time the cheese melted. Instead of risking it, I tossed it. Luckily I was smart and bought 2 bags of dough. So I started over and made sure to remember to check on it this time (I made them pause the game in the middle of Ortiz's at bat because I didn't want to miss any of the game, but knew I needed to pay attention to the dough this time). Perfect timing, my dough was ready, I threw on some sauce and the cheese and tossed it back in the oven. I also turned down the oven to about 200 because the dough was done, I just needed to heat the sauce and melt the cheese. In about 5-10 mins it was done and boy oh boy was it delish. I just kept eating and eating and eating ... Greg ate and ate, then paused for a piece of cake and went back for one last slice of pizza.

I had pizza for breakfast this morning and have one slice left that I promise to take a pic of before I eat it for lunch ;)