Party Pizza Friday!

Believe it or not, I was up by 7:00 a.m. yesterday – on a day off!  That hardly ever happens, so I took advantage and did some laundry and chores.  Next thing I knew it was 9:30 and I was starting to get hungry.

I made breakfast tostadas – two eggs scrambled with spinach and a bit of cheese, topped on two tostadas (each tostada is only 35 calories!) and topped it with my salsa and cilantro.  Oh, and maybe a touch of hot sauce.

Tony?  He rarely eats breakfast.  Really the only time he’ll eat it is when we go out for breakfast, but it’s usually after 10:30.  He boiled some eggs the day before and asked if I could make him an egg salad sandwich.  I don’t like mayo, so I never eat it.  I looked up a “classic egg salad.”  Easy enough, eggs, mayo, celery, mustard, etc.

Sadly, the eggs were hard to peel – maybe because they were still cold?

I brought a taste to Tony to see if it needed more salt or pepper, and he said “what’s the crunchy shit?”  Um, celery.  Turns out when Tony makes his egg salad, there is no celery, but he still liked it.

And he likes it on white bread with lettuce.  I think it would be better on toasted bread, but that’s just me.

Me?  I had a Nathan’s hot dog – best hot dog on the market!

I went to pick up my contacts at the eye doctor, then went to Walmart to have my eye brows threaded – ouch!  I always forget how much that hurts, but it’s short lived – it’s over in a few minutes.   I picked up some spray paint to spray my board for my pictures – they sell the generic brand of paint for only .97 cents a can!

It was dry in a matter of minutes too!  When I came back inside, Tony called me into the living room.  He said “I read the blog  . . . I am okay with having pizza for dinner!”  Woop! 

You can find the step by step instructions here – it’s not as complicated as it looks.  It’s just an America’s Test Kitchen recipe so it’s super detailed.

I do weigh my flour out – 16.25 ounces to be exact.

I suggest you buy loose yeast.  This jar cost $3.83 at Walmart, and it lasts forever in your fridge – 2 1/4 teaspoons is the equivalent to a package of yeast.

The stand mixer does all the work – you’ll know when it’s ready when your bowl is clean on the sides.

After the first rise, you roll out the dough, butter the dough (I reduced the butter to 2 tablespoons this time) and then roll it into an envelope and let it sit in the fridge for an hour.

Tony’s side was mushroom and green olive, my side was baby spinach:

That was kind of a mistake, I normally put the ingredients on top of the sliced cheese, but I got ahead of myself – I scooped off as much of the sauce as I could, then added the sauce and grated Parmesan cheese.  Ready for the oven!  This bakes on the lower third of your oven, at 425 for 25-30 minutes.  You need to let it sit for at least five minutes before cutting.

I put a mushroom and piece of spinach on top of each side so I would know how to cut it.

Holy yum.  I always forget how good this pizza is.  The sauce, the melty cheese, the buttery crust.  You don’t even need to make a trip to Chicago to have authentic deep dish pizza at home!   And Mara has made this using whole wheat flour in the dough and had equally good results.

Today I have to grocery shop and meal plan – I’ll be cooking for people again!  My SIL and bosses will be back from spring break, and my Mom and nephew are coming over for Easter tomorrow.  I know we are having ham, but other than that, not sure what else I’ll have on the menu!

What’s on your Easter menu – I am looking for some different side dishes this year.  Maybe I will jump on Pinterest – I am becoming a Pinterest whore these days!  I still won’t get into Twitter, in fact I tweeted to Mara yesterday and it’s my 4th tweet ever!  Ha!

Enjoy your Easter if you celebrate it – make it a great day and I’ll “see you on Monday.”  I finally made granola clusters and can’t wait to share the recipe with you on Monday!