Just HAD to share!

So, I haven't cooked a "from scratch" meal in a couple of weeks because.. well, I've been busy and tired and getting home late and out of town and any other excuse I couldn't come up with off hand.

Thankfully it doesn't take much to satisfy B, so I'm usually ok if I decide to take the night off and just make grilled cheese.. or even worse, ask him to make pancakes--because pancakes have always been the job of the dad in my house, and even though he's not a "dad," I still like for him to do it!

Monday night I went out to eat with some of my YoungLife girls, and when I got home, I found my poor little husband eating oatmeal for dinner (which he was happy about). So I decided I needed to plan out our meals for the next few nights.

For Christmas, my Aunt got me one of my most desired gifts...

Ignore the produce bag and just look at the cookbook. If you don't know about Ree Drummond, AKA The Pioneer Woman, you should. She is a very talented woman, and I just love reading her blog--but don't worry, so do thousands of other people! Well she just came out with a cookbook about 3 or so months ago, and I've wanted it so bad! Then she went on a 6-week book signing tour and I almost called in sick to work to drive to Dallas and go. But thankfully, my Aunt Lynn went for me... and my mom, and my sister, and who knows how many other people, but I'm so excited about it!

and yes, you can be jealous that mine is personalized and autographed.. If you want to read about PW's stop in Dallas, and see a picture of my Aunt Lynn on PW's blog, you can go here, my Aunt is the lady in the second picture, and now she's famous!

So back to my story about my lack of cooking..

Last night I had planned on making pork chops, but I had a little extra time so I decided to make my first thing out of PW's cookbook: Pizza and it was DELICIOUS!

I hadn't planned on taking any pictures, or even sharing any of it with you, but it was so good that I just HAD to!

This is also the first time ever for me to use this cookbook stand.. I usually just lay the recipe on the counter.. or better yet, put it on the fridge with a magnet!

So I started with the crust. I've never made pizza from scratch before so I wasn't sure if my tiny little kitchen could handle it, but it was surprisingly easy!

I whipped out my lovely KitchenAid Mixer (that I have yet to use before last night) and had to find a place to plug it in. I have only two plugs in my kitchen, one for the fridge and microwave, and one for the coffee maker, toaster, and small convection oven (we have to alternate). I opted to unplug the microwave because it's the only plug close to an actual counter top and luckily I discovered my mixer fits sideways in front of the microwave--you have to get creative when you don't have much space!

I got to making the dough (I halved the recipe)
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1/6 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Put the water into a bowl or (like me) larger measuring cup and sprinkle in the yeast.

Then combine the flour and kosher salt into another bowl (or your mixer bowl) and turn mix with an electric mixer on low speed.

Once the dry ingredients are all mixed up, drizzle in the olive oil.

Then, using a spoon, stir the water/yeast mixture really well and slowly add to the flour mixture.

Let the mixer run until it all combines to form a ball.

Now grab a clean bowl and drizzle it with olive oil. Once you've done this, place your ball of dough into the oiled bowl and flip it over to coat it with oil.

Place a moist towel over the bowl and store it in a warm dry place for 1-2 hours.

After you've let it rise a little, take your sheet, in my case just a small cookie sheet or you could use a pizza stone or whatever, and drizzle it with olive oil.

Place your dough on the sheet and use your fingers to spread it out to the desired thickness being sure to make the surface bumpy to receive your toppings.

You can really add whatever toppings you want here, this is just what I chose.
Put on a layer of pesto and then take slices of mozzarella and cover the pizza. Then add roma tomato slices all over the pizza and cover again with mozzarella and top with fresh grated Parmesan cheese!

When I saw this, I decided I needed to share.

And then I turned around and saw this, and decided I needed to share... I got lucky on this picture because I wasn't even looking!

Then I decided to show you the size of my oven. For a counter top oven, it's great.. but that is literally my only oven, so all baked quantities must be small.

Then I decided to show you this one last time..

And the finished product...

YUM! It was so good, I will definitely be making it again! I can hardly wait to get home for lunch to eat the left overs!

I hope you enjoy it! And Christy, I hope you could make it through without feeling nauseous! (She's 6-weeks pregnant with my little niece or nephew!)