One day I realized that kids love pizza, and that we would be eating a lot of pizza in the years to come. So I decided to get really good at making pizza. This is the result! It took a lot of trial and error.

So we can make pizza anytime, I like to buy Mozzerella cheese at CostCo and bag it up with about 2 cups in a sandwich size Ziploc bag. I keep it in the freezer, and then set it out while I'm making pizza dough. It thaws in time to make pizza.


I also love green chile on pizza. In August the stores get fresh Hatch green chile. You can have it roasted right there in front of the store. Then they put the hot, roasted green chile in a giant trash bag. While it's in the bag it steams itself. When you get it home, you get off the peels, remove the seeds and chop it up. Then you can freeze it. I usually only have to get some every 2-3 years because we don't go through it very fast.

We also keep pepperoni, sausage and hamburger in the freezer to use on pizzas.


This dough makes about two full size pizzas, so I usually scale it up by 1 1/2 batch to make three pizzas. You can also use it to make pan pizzas, or a regular sized pizza and a giant pizza on a half sheet pan. The possibilities are endless. You spread olive oil on top and sprinkle garlic salt on top. Then bake it for about 8 minutes. It won't be done, but it will be slightly toasted.
 


Cutting pizza with scissors is really easy!

When it is slightly cooled, I like to lift it off the pizza stone and then cut.


And you can cut like this to make more servings for kids.

Pizza also needs to be served with Ranch Dressing. If your bottle is running low, this is what Dad does to get out the last little bit. Hold on tight!



Our Best Bites Pizza Crust
1 1/2 cup warm (105–115 degrees) water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3–4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1. In a large bowl (the bowl of your mixer, if you have one), combine water, sugar, and yeast. Let stand for 10 minutes or until yeast is bubbly.
2. Add salt and stir. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour and mix well. Gradually add more flour (usually between 3-4 cups, depending on your elevation and your humidity) until dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl and it barely sticks to your finger.
3. Cover and allow to rise for 45 minutes or until doubled in bulk.
4. Preheat your oven (and your pizza stone, if you want) to 425 degrees. While oven is heating, punch down dough and shape into a disc. Spray your work surface, rolling pin, and pizza stone with non-stick cooking spray. Place dough disc onto work surface. Roll and shape into a circle. (Disregard all of this, by the way, if you’re a stinking dough-thrower). Very gently transfer the dough onto your pizza stone and continue to shape up to the edges of the stone.
5. Using a fork, prick several holes in the crust. Drizzle crust with a little olive oil and brush all the way up to the edges. Sprinkle with garlic salt. Both oiling and garlic salting the crust help crisp it up, give it a great flavor, and keep it from getting soggy in the middle.
6. Bake crust in preheated oven for 8-12 minutes or until slightly golden. Remove from oven.
7. Spread a layer of sauce (if desired) over the surface of the crust. Top with whatever toppings you like (I do the flat stuff, i.e. the meat, first). Then sprinkle with oregano.
8. Return crust to oven and bake 10-12 more minutes or until cheese is melty and the crust is golden brown. And there you have it. Beautiful pizza, completely non-doughy in the middle, a little crispy on the edges and chewy on the inside.

Link to Our Best Bites: https://ourbestbites.com/cooking-class-pizza-101/

This is a great pantry meal. Only three ingredients! I keep the meat and buns in the freezer. We like to serve with frozen french fries.

French Onion Burgers
2 pounds ground beef
2 cans Campbell's French Onion Soup
1 package hamburger buns

Cook burgers in a skillet until almost done. Drain grease and then add canned soup. Simmer until done. Serve burgers with onion soup juices.

There's that sad toddler again! They always know when dinner is 20 minutes away and think they will starve to death before dinner is served.


 You can toast your buns. Just butter them up and broil them in the oven.

Here is a great recipe for apples. And it can be for breakfast or dessert! Because you know, apples are fruit and a great breakfast food.

Donna's Apple Crisp
4 c. Jonagold apples, or 1 qt. canned apples
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. flour
3/4 c. quick-cooking oats
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup softened butter
Ice Cream, optional

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 8x8 inch pan with non-stick spray. Put peeled and cut apples in the pan, and add about 1/4 cup water. Mix remaining ingredients and sprinkle over apples. Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake 10 minutes more.

If you're going to reheat in the oven, you can wrap in foil. If you prefer to reheat in the microwave, just freeze them without the foil and then stack in a gallon size Ziploc bag. We microwave them for about 2 minutes on high.

Breakfast Burritos
Tater Tots
Scrambled Eggs
Cheddar Cheese, shredded
Green Chile
Bacon, precooked
Sausage, precooked
Tortillas

Assemble breakfast burritos. Heat in the microwave for 45-60 seconds and enjoy. Or freeze and save for another day! To reheat in the microwave, do not wrap in foil. Microwave for about 2 minutes. Sometimes we wrap in a damp paper towel to help the tortilla stay soft.

We have always enjoyed making gingerbread houses with family and friends. Its the perfect way to use up Halloween candy, and make a humongous mess right in the middle of the holidays. And memories!

Dannie's Royal Icing is the best. One year we tried using meringue powder instead of egg whites and it just didn't hold. Everyone's houses collapsed. Maybe I didn't mix it long enough, but I decided to not mess around anymore. I'm all in with egg whites.

We made 5 modest gingerbread houses this weekend and used 3 boxes of graham crackers (there are four boxes in one case at CostCo). I made two batches of frosting and we had plenty leftover.

Dannie's Royal Icing (aka. Best House Spackle Ever)
6 egg whites
1 tsp. cream of tartar
2 lb. powdered sugar

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar to a froth. Add powdered sugar and stir to combine. Turn mixer to high and beat for 7-10 minutes until very thick, like a heavy paste. Add frosting to quart size freezer bags and seal the top. Cut off a corner of the bag with scissors to make a piping bag.

2011, Age 5, Rapunzel's Tower

2012, Age 6

2015, Age 10 (two Elizabeths!)
2016, Age 11

2018, Age 13

My Mom has always made this syrup, and I love it. Now my kids are hooked on it too. I use it my Cinnamon Rolls and it works great! Its so easy to make a batch.

I had a Tupperware syrup container that Dannie gave me when I got married. One day it got dropped and broke. I contacted a Tupperware lady and she was sorry to tell me she didn't have a replacement, but she had a bigger one I could have! Okay! Ha ha!

Donna's Maple Syrup
1 1/2 cups boiling water
2 1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. maple extract

Pour boiling water over the sugars. Stir until dissolved. Add vanilla and maple extracts and stir to combine.

Now for some pictures from 2013! Slather some Peanut Butter on Chocolate/Chocolate Chip pancakes, and add some maple syrup, whipped cream and MORE chocolate chips, and you'll start to imagine why Jason has pre-diabetes... But you'll also wonder why my family is so skinny.









Does your brown sugar ever get hard and sandy? You need a brown sugar bear! You soak it in water for an hour or so, then pat it dry with a paper towel. Then insert it in your brown sugar container and it stays nice and soft. I have to re-soak the brown sugar bear every so often.