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Pizza Fit For A King

You know, this whole-working-full-time-thing really puts a crimp in my kitchen doings.  The armada of kitchen appliances on my counter serve as constant reminders of their disuse and neglect.  I dream of happier days when I can spend quality time with them again...and not just on days that begin with a 'S'.

It's quite hard to determine which kitchen appliance is the most indispensable - I use them all often and they all seem equally important.  However, right now, the bread machine is edging out the competition ever-so-slightly.  Here's why: after about ten minutes of prep time, I am rewarded with a nice, warm, moisty-chewy loaf of bread...in a variety of flavors, colors, and textures.  Yes, I have to wait a couple of hours, but that is A-OK!  Also, I've had great luck with pretzel dough.

And now, I can add pizza dough to the list.

The recipe I used called for three cups of all-purpose flour.  However, in my excitement and haste, I'd already dumped in a cup of King Arthur bread flour...meh.  Oh well, I followed that up with two cups of King Arthur whole wheat flour.  With the water, oil, and yeast in already, it was time to press the "Start" button and walk away.  Which I did.  After ninety minutes, I had me a nice little dough ball which I wrapped up and stored in the fridge.

Then, my ten-year-old daughter expressed a desire last night to be the chief food-preparer, so I let her have it.  We unwrapped the chilled dough ball and let it get to room temperature before rolling it out and laying it in a jelly-roll pan.  Then again, I walked away.

Kirby took it from there - she brushed on some garlic-infused olive oil, spread on two cups of our homemade Red Sauce, and then littered the crust with a variety of items, including mushrooms, olives, leftover diced chicken, and mozzarella.  Then she baked it.  Then we ate it.  Then we died and went to pizza heaven.

When we descended from pizza heaven, I vowed to do pizza crust like this every time.

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