The past couple of weeks I have been talking about countertop materials, and its been fun, I love talking about all things kitchen and bath, but I thought it would be a nice change of pace to maybe talk about something a little more fun and exciting this week, kind of like a break, so to speak. So while making our usual Friday night home made pizza with the family, I thought, what a great topic this would make, and so this post was born.

Sausage pepper and onion pizza

While we make lots of cabinetry for many different rooms in the home, I would say one of the biggest most dominant rooms we make cabinetry for would be the kitchen. We find family to pretty much be the heart of our business, not just making cabinetry, but making cabinetry for families, allowing your home to function better so you have more time for family. I have found that most families “hubs” are in the kitchen. The kitchen brings family and friends together. Think about it, busy families, where do you pass each other between school, work, sports, and meetings? Younger families, kids eat a lot, so where do you find yourself pretty much all day? When you host parties or have friends over, where does everyone tend to gather and stand to talk? And when you smell homemade cookies and a memory of grandma pops in your head, what room are you in? The kitchen. Which is why I find that the kitchen isn’t just a space to make food anymore, its a space that invokes conversation, bonding, creativity, laughter and creates memories. So lets get in the kitchen and make some memories. Even if your so busy that its just once a year.

Keep in mind this is not a food blog, so I don’t have step by step instructions with pictures, I’m really just a good friend sharing a fun thing I do with my family and recommending it to you. So I’ll throw random pictures at you from last nights pizza night, but they are not professional and they are not step by step, I didn’t have time for all those pictures, my kids were hungry! LOL 🙂 I just beleave in our company and what our company does, which is create kitchens and other spaces for families (not clients, families) and we want you and your family or friends to enjoy those spaces, have fun and fellowship. Hopefully this idea of homemade pizza will make your kitchen a fun place to be with your family (no matter their ages) or your friends.

Here at our home, every Friday is pizza night, or almost every Friday. Sometimes we buy pizza from a local pizza shop, because who doesn’t love that? But a lot of the time I make homemade pizza. A lot of people say they don’t have time for that, or are intimidated by making something with yeast, so I just want to encourage you to try it some time, because its not as hard as you think, and its a lot of fun!

Just to give you a background on me and how this came to be, I am a “high maintenance” foodie, who is very particular. I don’t care for chain restaurants and I like my pizza to be quality. I love going to small creative restaurants who serve things like wood fired pizza’s, hand cut french fries, and craft beer on tap, or even better unique breweries who put food combinations together you would never have even thought of. So with all that said, enter my need to create fun, creative, unique pizza’s on a thin crust here at home, so I can enjoy that kind of pizza all the time!

The hardest part for me was finding a good recipe for the perfect thin crust dough. I experimented with probably 50 different pizza dough recipes over the past 2 or 3 years, finally I found one that I love, and I would love to share it with you. I did not create this recipe, I found it from one of my favorite sources, King Arthur Flour, they have a lot of great recipes, so if you don’t like thin crust pizza, they have other good dough recipes for lovers of thicker, softer crusts. But the recipe for the thin crust pizza is amazing, and I have it for you right here https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/ultra-thin-pizza-crust-recipe

Please note: You need those special flours to get the very best restaurant quality pizza dough, if you don’t use them, the pizza will be ok, but if you use them, your pizza will be fabulous!

So once you make your dough, let it rise, roll it out, bake your dough, and then, the real fun begins! I love playing with all the awesome topping options. And when we go out to a restaurant that sells amazing hand crafted pizza I am usually inspired to try the combination at home. ( we don’t go out often, its like once every other month, mom of three here. 🙂 ) Two of my favorite pizza’s were; sautéed mushrooms with a balsamic reduction glaze and fresh rosemary and goat cheese. The other one is the Prosciutto and Fig Pizza from The Foundry Craft Gillery here in Lebanon Pa. (Their pizzas are amazing!) So I have tried to make these pizza’s at home, and had a lot of fun and loved eating them 🙂

The kids have really gotten into this part too. I always let them make a pepperoni pizza, a plain cheese pizza, and a ham and pineapple one, and then I get to make my favorite three. (ok I know that’s a lot of pizza, but I love having this stuff for left overs!) I used to get to stressed out letting the kids help in the kitchen, but they love it so much, even the 4 year old did a great job assembling his cheese pizza, so its worth needing to wipe up the floors and the cabinets and the counters, because it brings them so much joy, and I really hope we are making memories here! 🙂

In case your curious I will share two of our favorite pizzas with you, for inspiration, then you can dream up other fun toppings to create your own masterpieces!

These are NOT really recipes, these are guidelines, have fun with it, you can’t mess up (that bad) 🙂

Peppers, Onions and Sausage

1. drizzle your already partly baked pizza dough with some extra virgin olive oil, then rub the dough with some freshly pressed garlic and sprinkle some sea salt on the dough.
2. then you just want to spread sautéed peppers and onions strategically on the dough, add some crumbled up sausage, diced ham, or even torn up lunch meat ham or turkey, whatever you have in the fridge, it all tastes great! Bacon or pulled pork work great with this too!
3. Now your going to want your cheese. Again, I vary here and flexibility is necessary. Sharp cheese is great, just plain mozzarella works, cheddar gives you a different taste and is good too, or maybe a more soft cheese is your style, even cream cheese tastes great on this!
4. last I top this off with rosemary because I think rosemary compliments these flavors the best, but other herbs would work too. I use dried, because its winter, if I have fresh in the garden, sure thats fabulous, but dried rosemary does not break this recipe.

 tip: If you want something fun and different, spread some pepper jelly on the crust after the oil and garlic, it adds a level of spicy sweetness that is amazing. I always have homemade pepper jelly on hand, but I am sure you can find some in your grocery store too. Mild, or Hot, whichever you prefer. You won’t regret it!

White Pizza with Tomatoes, Parmesan and Basil

1. Again we will start with the drizzling of EVOO and some crushed garlic and sea salt (just a sprinkle)
2. strategically place thinly sliced tomatoes around the pizza crust, sprinkle with basil, fresh basil really makes a difference here, but right now its winter, so I went with caramelized onions this time instead (not even close to the same thing, but I was just messing around).
3. Fresh parmesan on top again, takes this “up a notch” but the parmesan dust in the plastic container works ok to, whatever you have on hand. And if you want it really cheesy, mozzarella yet is nice, but if you are using freshly shaven real parmesan, you really don’t need the mozzarella.

So thats two different pizza ideas, of course there are a lot out there on the web, even pinterest is a great place to get inspiration. Just have fun, make memories, drink wine while making pizza, listen to Italian music, enjoy your kitchen and the people in it. And if you find you need a bigger island or a larger kitchen to fit all your new friends so you can all make more pizzas, Call us 😉

Enjoy!