For the crust, we use a bread machine, but if you don’t have one, you can go with whatever’s easy for you.  The pizza places will sometimes sell you an uncooked dough, so if you have a favorite place, ask ‘em.

The Bread Machine Recipe (Makes 2lb dough, enough for 2 pies)

4 Cups Bread Flour

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/3 Cups water

1 ¼ tsp active dry yeast

Combine all ingredients in bread machine, set it to “Pizza” or “Dough” setting, and start ‘er up.

When cycle is complete, remove dough, punch down, cover in plastic wrap and let rest for 10 minutes.  Preheat over to 425 degrees.

After 10 minutes, remove plastic, and divide dough in half, and either make 2 pizzas, or freeze one of the halves for use later.

With your hands or a rolling pin, flatten dough to about 18 inches in diameter, and transfer to an oiled pizza pan.  Build up edge of dough.  Poke holes all over the dough.  This’ll keep it from getting those huge air bubbles as it cooks.  Bake the dough by itself for 12 minutes at 425 degrees.  THIS IS CRUCIAL TO GET A PERFECT CRISPY CRUST!

Remove dough from oven, and add toppings.  Cheese, seasonings, sausage, onion, mushrooms… Use whatever you like here.  For sauce, we’ve tried a bunch, and we’ve found Casa Visco makes one we really enjoy.  Once your pizza is topped, return to the oven for another 12 minutes at 425 degrees.

And that’s it!  Take it out, slice it up, and share!  We’re sure you’ll love it.  Don’t forget to leave a comment and let us know how you made out!

And you can always shoot us a note at brett@stayhomeandeat.com

Enjoy!

Brett & Kelly

After a recent job change for Kelly, our household income took a bit of a hit, which required us to take a second look at those extraneous expenditures like the weekly (and sometimes twice-a-week) trip to our favorite restaurant(s).

We were at first a little disappointed with the notion that we’d no longer be able to indulge in our accustomed fashion, but something very interesting has been happening:  We’re actually [gasp!] enjoying staying home and eating!   It’s something fun that we both enjoy and can do together, we can exercise a little creativity, and it doesn’t involve a remote control.  And best of all, we’re realizing just how easy it is to recreate some of our favorite restaurant dishes, and save some money in the process.

And that’s the impetus behind us starting this blog – to share some of our favorite dishes, and show you how much fun you can have with your significant other, while saving money that we, like many others, can ill-afford to part with these days.

We’ve provided videos of these recipes, as well as a more detailed written piece to accompany each one.  We encourage you to try whichever of these dishes strike your fancy, and we hope you’ll share your experiences, your feedback, and your own recipes as well.

Enjoy!

Brett & Kelly Slater