Homemade pizza using a cast iron skillet.

So, being a mom, one of my biggest goals is to make sure when my son leaves this home, he knows how to cook. My entire extended family is passionate about cooking, and even before I was born my parents owned a diner. Food is in my DNA and I've always believed that a person's love is in every meal that they make. I was fourteen when my mom died, but luckily she had taught me a few things. I wished that I'd learned more of her recipes, she didn't write anything down. But I knew a few and over the years the tastes and memories of some of my favorite dishes have stayed with me. I've been able to finally recreate some of those dishes for my own child. Starting with a base recipe and then altering it until I got it as close to what I could remember as possible. My father was also pretty great in the kitchen.

I want my son to learn as much from me as possible and hopefully love it just as much as I do. So for lunch yesterday I had him help me cook one of his favorites-pizza.

We made the dough from scratch using the recipe from the link below. (Use 2 teaspoons of sugar, not tablespoons).

www.marthastewart.com/332275/basic-pizza-dough

Here's the link to my Pinterest recipe board as well:

www.pinterest.com/jkindle05/guess-whos-coming-to-dinner/

        

                                

After making the dough, we made 2 pizzas. I've found that using a cast iron skillet is very easy for this. 

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. 

Oil a cast iron skillet with olive oil

Take some of your dough and spread it out in your pan. I prefer a thinner crust and the dough recipe yields enough for 5. Separate your dough, wrap in plastic wrap, then put into a ziplock to freeze. 

For his pizza we used Rago pizza sauce (surely not the best out there, use your favorite sauce) 

Shredded mozzarella

Then pepperoni.

Bake for 15 minutes.

For crisper crust, put the skillet on the stove top over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. 

I love Alfredo pizza. First steps are the same.

I really like Classico brand five cheese sauce. 

Saute 2 cups of fresh spinach with one clove of garlic chopped in a hot pan with olive oil.

Spread out the sauce over the pizza dough.

Top with shredded mozzarella

Put about 1/4 of the amount of shredded parmesan on top of the mozzarella.

Then spread the sauteed spinach and garlic evenly over the pizza. 

Optional: cooked chicken and other veggies. 

Bake 15 minutes.

Crisp crust on the stove top.

This picture is before I baked the pizza, I forgot to take one after. I had red bell peppers on here but I actually like this recipe better without them. Would love to try mushrooms on here the next time.