Pizza Pizza

       Jason and I woke up at 4:30AM today and decided we wanted to spend our day lazy.  The rest of our weekend we had pretty much gone everywhere.  Friday was date night and ate at Ruby’s at the end of Seal Beach Pier.  (Quick FYI - their Stawberry Banana Shake was to die for.)  Saturday, we went for a drive and spent 3 hours at Bass Pro Shop.  (Another FYI - Bass Pro is Jason’s Heaven and Disneyland.)

      So today, we didn't want to go anywhere, not even leave the house for a quick bite, but really craved pizza.  Jason suggested we make our own – how hard can it be right?  It’s bread and cheese.   I told him I guess it can’t be that hard.  So, end result is we made our first homemade pizza from scratch.  And it came out sooo good.  

I dropped the teaspoon in the dry mixture while posing.  I am one class act. I know.

First, let me ramble about the bread:

     I find bread making to be a very satisfying process.  Not all bread is the same and not all dough is the same.  It all begins with the same main ingredients, but different dough require different processes and TLC to bring them to full term.  (pregnancy pun.)  

      This pizza dough, for example,  threw me off for a minute because when I mixed the warm water with the dry ingredients, the two wanted little to do with each other.  The dough that was mixing looked like torn up wood chips, so we added another 1/3C water to get the dough to knead together in the mixer.  But it was still no dice.  So, I took this dough’s life into my own hands (literally…) and kneaded the dough myself, careful to really stretch the dough and expand the gluten.  This dough had behaved like nothing I had seen before, and I was a little worried it wouldn't proof correctly.  But Jason reminded me that, really, it was a win,win because if it didn't proof, we would just have thin crust pizza.  Brilliant Man.

But, all worry was for not.  After 45 minutes in the oven the dough had doubled it’s size.  Success at the Lentz’s.

Documentation that Jason thrives at "Hulk Smashing" the dough.  

ZEE PIZZA:

     Everything else went completely according to our “umm, we are just doing this by whim here…” Sunday attitude.  Typically, a winning attitude, we have found.  We also came to the conclusion that pizza is pizza is pizza.  I guess some would argue semantics of tradition and region. But to us, The Lentz Pizza is a no sauce pizza. 

      We minced garlic, layered it on top of the dough.  Massaged olive oil into it as the next ingredient.  Sprinkled some salt and red pepper.  Next we added shredded Cheddar cheese and Monterrey Jack cheese because that is what we had available.  That was it.  Live simple.

     Next we tossed it in the oven preheated to 450 F for 15 minutes. While baking, Jason made a reduction of canned, roasted and diced tomatoes with Peppercorn Ranch.  We would rather dip into our sauce.  Screw your pizza rules :)

After 15 minutes this moment happened.

STUD.

Check out those air bubbles!

So good it should be illegal.  Living simple prevailed. 

 Cheers!