Mr. Hawthorne Makes Truly Excellent Pizza.

We Hawthornes love our pizzas.

Mr. Hawthorne is doing the honors tonight, but with a slight twist. Make your basic pizza dough: First proof your yeast with a sprinkling of sugar in about 1/2 - 2/3 cup of warm water. Then slowly add in bread flour, maybe a cup, incorporating it well, until you have a nice pliable dough.

Now here's the twist: Instead of letting it rise, Mr. Hawthorne immediately pressed the dough into a cast iron skillet.

Then he set the skillet on the stove top over low heat ...

... and we watched it bubble and rise.

When the crust got nice and crusty and bubbly ...

... he started on his toppings. First, a layer of packaged shredded cheese, which I don't particularly care for, but we use it for it's Semi-Ho qualities. It's quick and easy. It just doesn't deliver the flavor of freshly grated cheese, it's dried out, and it doesn't melt nicely.

A little swirl of tomato sauce.

Oregano.

A little granulated garlic.

Sliced black olives. Mr. Hawthorne fried up some sausage patties ...

... and crumbled them on top.

Peppers.

Red onion.

Tomatoes.

Looking good.

More cheese.

Thank you, Mr. Hawthorne,

for grating the real stuff on top.

Ready for the oven. 425 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Nice brown bottom.

A little extra grated Parmesan on top.

For a quick homemade pizza, this is the ticket.

Don't you prefer pizza to hurricane crap?

Wonderful crust. Thin and crispy.

I love gooey cheese.

Thanks, Mr. Hawthorne, for another terrific pizza.