He Cooks! – Homemade Pizza Edition
My Husband claims he is a kitchen disaster.
I wouldn’t exactly call him a disaster. But his skill level in the kitchen is not terribly high. Although I really do think he shortchanges himself quite a bit. The Fab Hub has become an expert smoothie maker and he assembles lunch for me and Kidzilla every morning with a great degree of competence. His kitchen skills have improved dramatically since we met.
A few nights ago, we had homemade pizza on the menu for dinner. Nothing fancy – like we don’t make our own crust or anything like that. We had some flatbreads ready to use to make our own personal pizzas. By dinnertime, however, I was struggling to find the motivation to begin chopping ingredients. My hands were in pretty bad shape that day.
I’ve had a whole lot of hand pain this week, which I’m sure has something to do with the cold and the (then) impending snowstorm. I used to chuckle at movies or stories where some crotchety old man would talk about knowing bad weather was coming because his rheumatism was acting up. It’s not quite that amusing any more since I know all too well that my RA does act up when the weather is about to change – usually for the worse. These are the days when this disease is frustrating. I love working in my kitchen, but there are days every now and then when my hands just can’t do it.
Anyway, the Fab Hub quickly volunteered to take over and I was happy to hand over the kitchen to him. Check out the results…
![20140211_190045[1]](http://www.themeaningofme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/20140211_1900451.jpg)
The Hub loaded the flatbread crusts (we used Naan flatbreads) with the perfect amount of sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese. Then everyone got their own personal made-to-order pizzas. Mine was what you see in the photo – kalamata olives, sundried tomatoes, and herbed feta cheese. Zilla had some with sundried tomatoes and also some with pineapple. The Hub went classic with a plain cheese pizza.
The pizzas were great. The crusts were just the right amount of crispy. They weren’t soggy from too much sauce (a problem my pizzas always have) and they looked beautiful. Zilla and I were very impressed and I couldn’t have been more grateful that my hands got a little reprieve. As we marveled at his pizza making talents, he reminded me that when he was in high school he worked at a pizza stand at a local amusement park. I guess he learned a few things. I think I’ll keep that in mind when we do future menu plans – maybe homemade pizza is a great option for when the Fab Dad and Zilla are on their own or when the Mom in our house has an off-duty night.
One of these days I may actually let the Hub do his oregano teriyaki chicken recipe for a He Cooks installment. Maybe. But in the meantime, check out some of his other efforts in the He Cooks series!
Do you do homemade pizza nights in your house? Do you use pre-made crusts or make your own? I’d love to see an easy homemade pizza crust recipe and give it a try. Who is the pizza master in your kitchen?
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Now here I was thinking all along that the Fab Hub was a whiz in the kitchen. I think you just blew his cover. 😉
I love homemade pizza night! We do barbecue chicken (barbecue sauce, roasted deli chicken, and mozz) and white pizza (herbed olive oil, ricotta and mozz, and italian seasonings) over the Pillsbury tube crusts. I am drooling over your olive and feta creation.
I’ve pinned an easy pizza crust recipe that I haven’t tried yet but it promises for a quick, easy crust:
http://www.copilotmom.com/super-fast-pizza-crust/
Let me know if you try it before I do!
We are not huge barbecue sauce fans here, but I see barbecue chicken pizza everywhere! I love the idea of that white one! The olive and feta is great, but I know I read it somewhere – I just can’t remember where!
I am definitely going to check out that crust.
I love homemade pizza and premade crusts are a great shortcut. I also freeze homemade pizza dough so it can be made in a pinch. Yay to the Fab Hub for his emerging kitchen skills!
I have yet to make my own dough, but I’d love to try. But we do love the flatbreads for pizza.
We have had make you own pizza night maybe 5 times ever. I don’t know why I never think to make it. All the kids would love it.
I’m sorry your hands are being such a pain this week.
The pain happens and I just adapt. Like getting the Hub to make pizza. Make your own pizza is great because if you make personals (or split a small crust or whatever), everybody can really do their own thing. And getting the kids in there to assemble their own is grand fun.
We make homemade pizza all the time and I have a great recipe that’s easy and doesn’t have to rise. Here’s the link for the white flour version and the half wheat/half white version.
http://homemakersdaily.com/quick-and-easy-homemade-pizza-dough/
http://homemakersdaily.com/how-to-make-half-wheat-half-white-pizza-dough/#
Seriously, this pizza recipe is great. You can use it for other things, too – like breadsticks, cheesy breadsticks, salt & pepper rolls (recipe on the blog), stuffed bread, etc. It’s really versatile.
Your husband did a great job on the pizzas!
Thanks, Patty! I am definitely going to file that dough recipe and try it. I like the “no rise” part. I’m so impatient. I saw something about stuffed cheesy breadsticks yesterday and thought I’d like to make those, so maybe this will be perfect opportunity. The Hub definitely did a great job on pizzas…maybe we’ll make him the official pizza night guy.
I’m sorry about your RA. It’s nice to have a husband who will step in and help when needed. I NEED to try kalamata olives on pizza now. I love greek olives. I’ve made my own pizza dough in the past, using several recipes, but it is never anything like a pizzeria crust. I’ve kind of just given up and buy pre-made dough from Trader Joes now, which is still not as good as pizzeria crust, but it is so cheap and I don’t have to make it myself.
They were great, Heather. Definitely try it. Mine were sitting in the fridge leftover from some other recipe and I figured why not. I love pretty much any olives. We love the flatbread crusts rather than trying to duplicate pizzeria crust and being disappointed, it’s just different on purpose. Give those a try!
we have pizza night, when we are all in a hurry–it’s usually delivered 😀 kelley at the road goes ever ever on
Well, delivery pizza is still it’s own whole wonderful thing! We do that, too. Something about hot melty pizza from the pizzeria that just can’t be duplicated!
Sorry to hear that your hands are giving you a fit this week and I hope they are better very soon. In the meantime, sounds like your husband is keeping you well fed. Those pizzas sound (and look!) fantastic! We need to do that more here. We’ve done it a couple of times and the kids love it!
The extreme cold is never good for my RA. But the Fab Hub does a great job of taking care of me – and all of us – when I have a day that I’m just out of commission.
The pizzas were great. Would you believe I’ve never put sundried tomatoes on pizza? It was awesome!
With your skill level you could totally do homemade crust. When the kids were growing up, homemade pizza was a near weekly project. My son was actually our crust maker. He perfected the skill early. We would have pizza, then either game night or movies. Such fun.
I got a couple of recommendations for easy pizza crusts – I’m definitely going to give it a try. Maybe I’ll even try tossing it. 🙂
Okay, so I am officially the worst blogger friend ever. I had no idea you dealt with RA. I hate to hear it.
We used to have pizza night once a week, always with the Pioneer Woman’s dough (once you get the hang of it, such a piece of cake! Also, can go in fridge for up to five days…I have stretched it to nine with good results).
So. Umm, I have been doing a ton of research here lately. I don’t know where you stand on the whole gluten-free thing, but there is much evidence that autoimmune diseases can be very well managed by following a version of the GAPS diet. If you’d like, I would be happy to email some (or all!) of what I’ve read.
My RA is not such a big deal. You probably didn’t know because I really don’t talk about it much. I am very well managed and rarely have a flare-up. But sometimes, the environment or something gets the best of me. I can usually pinpoint exactly what the trigger is/was. Right now it’s just the severe cold. And I was too stupid to wear gloves this week after I misplaced one. 🙂
I’ve done aaaaallll the research on autoimmune diseases and every diet everyone thinks will help (or hinder). I’m a reader – it’s what I do. I’ve checked that and about ten other things out with my docs and I can’t say I’m a supporter. Thanks for the suggestion, though. 🙂
Of course you’re a reader. Duh. 🙂
Yeah, kinda can’t help myself. And sometimes I end up reading a few too many things and end up going crazy on the other end of the spectrum. I’ve learned to temper that (most of the time). 🙂
Pizza night at our house usually means frozen since my oldest son doesn’t like homemade pizza crust very well. I may see what he thinks about the flatbread idea for something different. Super easy or not, frozen does get a bit tedious.
We love the flatbreads, Jean. It doesn’t try to be pizza crust, but works really well for just that purpose. Give it a try!
Growing up, for special treats we would have English Muffin pizza nights. Now I much prefer whole wheat pitas as the crust.
This isn’t to say we don’t occasionally make the own dough – we have a bread machine that does all the kneading for us.
I hope your hands are less painful. Glad your wonderful husband was able to come to the rescue!
Oh, we used to do that! Gosh, I can’t even think when the last time I had an English muffin was…pizza’ed or otherwise.
Hands are much better – thank you! Being inside in the warm house for now four days has made a huge difference! 🙂
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