Christmas Eve

Ok,

I was bummed out in the last post, but we really don't have any problems.  Kids are healthy, employed, wife is normally pretty happy with me, etc.

So, I should share our little Christmas Eve thing...  Homemade Pizzas...

I have traveled the world many times over, and my one thing I like to do is try pizzas everywhere I go to see how they differ.  By far, the best pizza I ever had was in Paris on the Champs des Elysses one Christmas Eve.  Jambon and champignon with some light sauce and fresh mozzarella...  Yum (oh, and of course an 8 dollar Coke with 1 cube of ice).  Only thing better would have been to eat that pizza at home.  I probably topped this off with a crepe "complete".  Ouf, fromage, salt, pepper, yummy.  The French know how to eat almost as well as the Italians... (although the best food in the world is actually El Salvador). 
So, here it is...

Pizza dough...

3 cups unbleached flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 pkg yeast
1/4 cup EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL (don't skimp on this)
1 cup warm water

Let that rise for a couple hours, and then roll it out as flat as you can...

450 degree oven (or hotter if you can), pizza stone, PARCHMENT PAPER (works better than cornmeal, which burns and smokes at temps greater than 450F)

We all get to pick our toppings. 
You should not put things like BBQ sauce or pineapple on your pizza... 

Kids stick with simple stuff.  Cheese and bacon...

Here is our favorite...

Fresh ball mozarella
Comte cheese (from Costco, it's a hard cheese you can grate)
Very Very light sauce, or just some chopped tomatoes
Salt
extra virgin olive oil (got some in Artentina that is awesome)
shaved Boarshead Prosciutto ham (it's expensive...deal with it)

bake for 6 minutes and then watch it till crust starts to change color.

top it with COLD fresh chopped Arugula (known as Rocket to some)

This pizza will change your life....

Remind  me when I download those photos and I will attach a pic of it later...

Merry Christmas!

PS, also spent 3 hours digging drain trenches trying to get all the water out of the plumbing trenches.  Windy, rainy, cold... Fun.  But, I have talked the plumber and concrete guys into both showing up on the 26th (yes, a Saturday).  So I want to have this thing as dry as I can...