Valentine's Pizza

Holidays mean... food, in my household! Today I made pizza, but instead of shaping it into a rectangle, I made 2 hearts - a small heart just of cheese for my son and spicy sausage, green pepper and red onion for DH and myself. Mmmm, mmmm good! You guys get the photo of the rectangle one from last week because the heart shaped ones were eaten too quickly to photograph! And I bought my son a card which he is very happy with. And he, of course (being 5 1/2 years old) made me many, many cards! He made them at school, at Sunday school and at home. Such a cheerful little guy and so proud of his creations. This is the 1st year that he has been able to write a message on them, how exciting!
*
At school my son celebrated Valentine's Day on Wednesday... so he had a little party then. I sent in goodie bags with a home-made molasses cookie, a few chocolate kisses, lollypop and pencil. Plus, I made 2 cakes for the party... have you ever heard of it before? You make a white cake from a mix and then poke it full of holes and pour jello over it - refrigerate, and then frost with pudding/cool whip topping. I used cherry jello to make it red. Well anyway, the kids liked it!
*
Traditionally we like a chocolate fondu on Valentine's Day, but we are saving it for later in the week this year. It has been a busy week and today is super busy so I think that I will just enjoy it so much more later in the week when I am more rested.
*
Anyway - here are is my favorite recipe for pizza! It is actually pretty easy to make and I hope you will give it a try. The dough makes a BIG pizza, as you can see from the photo above, but you can make 2 smaller pizzas just as well. I don't have a pizza plate or stone - I just shape it and put it on a large cookie sheet lined with parchment paper - works fine.
*
You might want to make the dough 1st and then the sauce!
*
PIZZA SAUCE
*
1 can tomato sauce (regular size can)
1 can tomato paste (those little ones)
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp. parsley
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
*
Mix altogether in a blender. This is going to make way too much sauce for 1 pizza, but really, I hate to use 1/2 or 1/4 can of anything - the rest always goes to waste. So, just portion out the left-overs and freeze. Adjust seasonings to your own families taste, but this is what I have found works for me. Don't skip the brown sugar though!
*
PIZZA DOUGH
*
3 cups flour
2 TBS olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 TBS sugar
1 cup warm water
1 TBS yeast (or 1 packette)
1 tsp garlic powder
*
I mix my water/yeast and set it in a warm spot for about 5 minutes. Mix all the ingredients in blender with a dough hook for maybe 3 minutes. The dough should be elastic, slightly sticky - like bread. Add more water/or flour as needed - about 1 tsp at a time because it goes together fast!
*
Spray bowl with cooking spray. Put your dough in there, turn it over (so top side is greased) and set in warm spot to rise for 1/2 hour.
*
Roll out dough. I roll mine out on a lightly floured counter using just my hands. Mine is never a perfect shape - just go with it! I give mine a ridge on the edges. Put on parchment lined cookie tray. Take a fork and poke it in an even pattern. Bake in a pre-heated oven 375 degrees for about 7 minutes.
*
Take out of oven and spread with sauce. My son likes just a little sauce, I like more -- whatever works for you.
*
Bake 5 more minutes.
*
Take out of oven and add toppings (except the cheese!)
*
Bake 5 more minutes.
*
Take out and spread shredded mozz. cheese on top. Turn the heat down to 350 and bake another 5 minutes or until the bottom of the crust is a faint tan, the edges a nice color and the cheese melted. If you like thicker crust, then pre-bake the dough a little longer than the 7 minutes in order to get the dough evenly cooked without crisping the cheese. You can just ignore that top photo bit where I crisped the cheese a wee bit. Not too badly, but still crisped which is why I now save the cheese for the last 5 minutes. Perfection, I tell you... but no photos to prove it. Ah, but that is the proof itself, no?
*
My son was so happy with heart shaped pizza's today that he wants them again next week. He watched me make the sauce and I was explaining that my secret ingredient was brown sugar - takes the acidity out of the tomatoes. When we were eating and I asked him to tell DH the secret ingredient, he told him - Momma puts love in her pizza. Awwww!!!