Homemade Pizza. Well, almost.

I love pizza.  It’s my favorite food, and has been for most of my life.  I can virtually always eat pizza.  And every once in a while I make homemade pizza for a little change up.  Well mostly homemade.  I buy the box with the crust mix and sauce, because I’m not interested in making sauce.  And I like how the crust from this particular box tastes.  And the sauce for that matter.  Anyway, here it is:

Homemade Pizza (Hamburger and Mushroom)

1 box Chef Boyardee Cheese Pizza Kit

1/2 pound ground beef

1 can sliced mushrooms – you can use fresh, but I prefer the canned ones for pizza, myself.

1 4-cup size bag of shredded mozzarella cheese/pizza cheese blend.  You’ll need a bit of extra if you have kids to occupy.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.  Follow the diredtions on the box for preparing the dough.  You’ll need some freaky-hot water, a bowl and a fork.  Well, I like to use a fork, maybe you’d rather use a spoon.  Whatever.

Once the dough is prepared, pour a bit of oil over and roll the dough ball around so it’s lightly covered.

Once the dough is mixed, the box says to place it in a warm place for 5 minutes to allow it to rise a bit.  I always run some freaky-hot water into the sink, and set the bowl in the water and cover it with a napkin or paper towel.  That works just fine.

Meanwhile, give the kids each a litttle bowl of shredded cheese to keep them from wanting to be too helpful.  Because kids that are too helpful, lead to crabby Mommies.

Once the kids are occuppied, get the dough from its warm place and put it on your greased pan.  And spread it out.  Just like you’re a real pizza maker.

And prick it with a fork all over.  Here’s the most important step:  PUT THE CRUST IN THE OVEN.  RIGHT NOW.  BEFORE THERE ARE ANY INGREDIENTS ON IT. Pre-baking the crust is what makes the pizza turn out right.  The box does NOT tell you to do this.  So, you can throw the box away now, because it’s worthless past this point.

While the crust is in the oven, brown your hamburger, and drain your mushrooms.  That’s about the right amount of time for pre-baking.

Take the crust out of the oven.

Spread the sauce.  I recommend shaking the can of sauce before you open it.  Otherwise there’s a little separation issue.

Put HALF the browned hamburger on the pizza.  Unless you’re my Dad, then use two pounds instead of half of one pound.   They like their pizza meat-y.

Evenly distribute the mushrooms.

Use whatever cheese is left after filling the kid’s cups a couple times to keep them occupied.

Put the pizza back in the oven.  Show Tim the pizza baking and giggle at his joy.

Meanwhile, put the other half pound of browned hamburger in a ziplock (I double bag), and toss it in the freezer for the next pizza you make.  One pound is a perfect amount for two pizzas in this house.

Watch the pizza and remove from the oven when the cheese is just bubbly-brown on the edges and top.  That’s about 10-15 minutes.  I don’t really know, becasue really  I just keep peeking in on it.

 Slice and serve.  Like this.