Rosie And Mr. Hawthorne Make Another Pizza And Rosie Makes Pizza Sauce.

NOTICE: Viewers using Internet Explorer will be unable to view this blog properly. Don't ask me why. It's a damn computer. For proper viewing and to allow you to get the most out of my blog, please use a different browser. I recommend Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. Now, back to my regularly scheduled blog post. One of the most versatile foods there is is the pizza. You start with a clean canvas - the dough - and you can add all sorts of beautiful colors and textures and flavors to create a masterpiece. I made my basic pizza dough recipe. Click here if you need the directions.

I imagine Youngest Hawthorne will polish this off when he gets home later tonight. (I made this last Friday in case anyone actually cares about the time line here.) I wasn't planning on blogging about this, so I don't have step by steps for you. Sorry.

Rosie's Pizza Sauce 1/2 onion, chopped 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped 3 tomatoes, peeled and chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 14.5 ounce can tomato sauce 2 fresh bay leaves (or 1 dried) 3 TB fresh oregano, chopped (or 1 TB dried) 1 TB fresh thyme, chopped (or 1 tsp dried) 3 TB fresh parsley (Don't even bother with dried parsley.) 1 tsp fennel seeds Saute the onions and peppers in ELBOO (That's Extra Light Bertolli Olive Oil!) for about a minute, then add in the tomatoes and garlic for another minute. Pour in the tomato sauce and add the fresh herbs, and let simmer over very low heat, uncovered for at least 30 minutes to allow the flavors to develop. If it thickens too much, you can add in some water. At the end, add in the fennel seeds.

Mr. Hawthorne started on some of our toppings. He cooked some ground pork sausage, some sliced turkey kielbasa, and sliced pepperoni. Rosie Tip #259: About the pepperoni. I never put pepperoni sliced right off the log onto my pizza. I spread them out on a paper towel on a plate and nuke them in the microwave for about 30 seconds. (Time depends on how many slices you have.) Blot with paper towel. This gets a lot of the grease out. The paper towels soak up the grease, as opposed to your pizza becoming a grease-laden pie.

Mr. Hawthorne chopped a green bell pepper and a red anaheim pepper from the garden. I had a container of black olives in the fridge and Mr. H. got out a can of mushrooms. Sadly I had no fresh shrooms. This will have to do.

I had spread out the pizza dough, forked it, and let it rise a bit in a warm oven. Mr. Hawthorne is pouring a little olive oil over the surface before baking the crust. 425 degrees until the crust is browned.

Slices of pepper jack and mozzarella cheeses.

Mr. Hawthorne always likes to put a layer of cheese on the crust.

Then he spreads out the sauce. And we like it thin.

Toppings go on.

We didn't use all of the tomato sauce or all of the pizza dough, so both are going into the fridge to wait for my next post.

Toppings are on.

Mr. Hawthorne grates more cheese on top.

Bake in a 425 degree oven for 15-17 minutes.

Check out the crust. Thin and crispy.

A grating of Parmesan over top.

And it's pizza time!

Youngest Hawthorne even put his seal of approval on this.