Homemade Pizza Makes Me a Super Cool Auntie

I admit it. I want to be a known as the cool Auntie, and I think having my nieces and nephew over to make homemade pizza yesterday just might have earned me that title at least for a day or two. By the end of the day I thought to myself, "I hardly got anything done today." But a another voice came quickly behind and said, "Don't be foolish. You did the most important thing of all which is to give the gift of time and love to some very cool nieces and a very cool nephew.

Motivational picture to keep reading.

Yeast scared me. I thought yeast was something that only women who tied their hair in buns and wore long skirts, aprons, and bonnets used. But guess what? Yeast isn't scary and 30 year-old aunties in jeans and a t-shirt assisted by a 12 year-old nephew in cargo shorts and a t-shirt can use it with ease! I want to share with you this super fast and easy homemade crust that I found on the Money Saving Mom. I'll tell you about our pizza through pictures and post the recipe in its entirety at the bottom of this post.

Gather your ingredients for the crust.

Check to see if your water is between 105 -115 degrees Fahrenheit(thank goodness for spell check on that word! No wonder everybody just puts F)

Empty the yeast into a bowl and add the warm water to dissolve the not scary at all yeast. And be glad you are not wearing a bun and bonnet.





Knead the dough for about 5 minutes on a well floured surface like wax paper.





I'm sure he's really glad he doesn't have to wear a long skirt and bonnet.





Roll out the dough onto a greased cookie sheet and spread the sauce. Belting out the tune "O Solo Mio" while your spreading is fun too.





Add your favorite toppings and make sure that the helpers are wearing old shirts so that it doesn't matter if they get sauce on them. I sorta forgot that one! I guess maybe I should wear an apron at least.





The proud pizza makers ages 5 and 12. I think my 3 year-old helper was off making Lego cookies.




Yep, here she is feeding Pooh a cookie. She did a great job of helping eat the pizza though. Three pieces to be exact! Oh to have the metabolism of a 3 year-old.




Pizza Crust:

1 Tbsp. active dry yeast

1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1-2 tsp. of Italian seasoning (optional)

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

2 1/2 cups flour

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Add the rest of the ingredients in and mix.
Dump onto a floured surface .
Knead into a smooth dough (five minutes or so).
Roll out and press down onto a greased pizza pan.
Add toppings.

Bake at 450 degrees F. for around 12-15 minutes until the crust looks crispy and lightly browned.

By the way, you can make up a double or triple batch of the pizza crust dough and freeze the extras if you don't need it. This speeds up the preparation even more as all you have to do is pull out a bag of dough in the morning and then put the pizza together right before you're ready to eat. (I have not tried freezing it yet.)

So my helpers went home with full bellies and stained clothes, but most of all I hope I have stained their hearts with a big red glob of Auntie love because I love them very, very much.