This is probably completely no big deal to most people out there – but to me TODAY – I was able to accomplish something remarkable. You see for YEARS I have had what I like to call a black thumb for anything with YEAST. If you can have a green thumb for plants – than you can have a black thumb for baking with yeast – and thats what I had. It seemed like no matter what I tried – everything I touched that had yeast in it would FAIL MISERABLY.
Let me give you an example. For a family get together one time – I was assigned to bring rolls. Easy enough right? So I BOUGHT those lovely Rhodes rolls from the store and followed the directions. But for some crazy reason – our rolls ended up being little hard hockey pucks because they NEVER ROSE – even after HOURS of waiting for them.
So a few years down the road – I tried again after talking to my sister in law who every week would make them for Sunday dinner. I again bought Rhodes rolls and this time left them out in my muffin tins while I went to church (her suggestion) but when I got back – not only were they all over my muffin tins but they were all over my kitchen too! The little darlings had decided to expand so much that they were like the lockness monster oozing out over everything! Yikes!
And those are just a few experiences I’ve had when using things with yeast. Heck, if I can’t even get the store bought rolls to work – why even ATTEMPT making something from scratch? That obviously would be MUCH MUCH harder, right?! So I just decided that me and yeast didn’t get along and bless my wonderful husbands heart – he is absolutely completely okay with buying the Pillsbury flaky biscuits and having those for Sunday dinner instead of making rolls. In fact he likes the easy rolls only a tad bit less than his Mothers homemade rolls – so I pretty much lucked out on that one and easy has worked for us.
BUT…this week I was again confronted with the need to try my hand again at making something with yeast – when my sweet six year old little boy looked up at me with stars in his eyes and oh so sweetly asked me if we could make homemade pizza for his birthday this next week. My first reaction was just to try to convince him to go OUT for pizza on his birthday – but then I decided it was time. Time to confront a fear of mine and overcome it. My fear of YEAST.
So today was the day (not Branson’s birthday) but the day I would attempt to conquer my fear (and give myself a trial run). I went to the store – had to ask two people where to even find yeast – then proceeded to buy two different kinds not knowing which was the one I needed. Then I also had to go get all the stuff for on top of the pizza like the sauce – toppings – cheese – etc AND some pizza pans since I had NONE. And $25 later (I bought 3 pans in different sizes) I was geared with my pizza making tool belt and all set.
I had earlier emailed my wonderful friend Lori Muir who was kind enough to share with me her killer pizza dough recipe and I had also spent probably an hour online just reading about different doughs, sauces, and pizza making techniques so I would have some semblance of a clue to what I was doing. And so at 3:30 this afternoon I set to work. And I am happy to say (after a phone call to Lori and her amazing help) that I was able to make my FIRST HOMEMADE PIZZA from SCRATCH! Yay!
The best part though…was that it tasted FANTASTIC! The dough was perfect (I owe it all to Lori) and everything was so flavorful. Like I said – I know this is probably no big deal to most people out there – but to me it meant that YEAST can be my friend. That it does not have to be my enemy and that we can maybe just possibly get along. However, I have decided that frozen Digornio’s (which we LOVE) or picking up a $5 pizza from Little Ceasars WILL still be the norm at our house – because as good as this pizza was – it is definitely NOT a fast and easy (or cheap) meal. But it is one that will be fun to make memories with on special occasions with the kids.
Anyway, here are some pictures of our pizza’s. I let Branson invite his friend Eden over for the night to make pizza’s with us – so all the kids made their own. As you can see Pepperoni was the favorite and each of the kids loved spreading their own sauce, throwing handfuls of cheese on, and then laying their pepperoni.
After they were done I used the rest of the dough to make a large Canadian bacon and olive pizza (my favorite) and then to make a dessert pizza with butter cinnamon and sugar. Yum!
There were LOTS of happy faces with this meal!
Thanks again Lori for sharing your wonderful recipe, wisdom, and for talking me through the process on the phone! I am so lucky to have you in my life!