Starting off little..

Since my dad told me that I was on my own I decided that before I jump into anything wild and crazy, that I'd start off simple. I have never cooked a thing from scratch, ever. Therefore, I wanted to make something fool proof. What better than pizza? I know, I know. It's not fear factor food, but for me, it's the first true, real meal that I have cooked and completed from scratch.

I found this recipe online and it turned out really good.

Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe

Prep time: 2 hours Cook time: 30 minutes
Pizza Dough: Makes enough dough for two 10-12 inch pizzas

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups warm water (105°F-115°F)
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry yeast
3 1/2 cups bread flour)
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar

In a large bowl of a heavy duty electric mixer, add the warm water. Sprinkle on the yeast and let sit for 5 minutes until the yeast is dissolved. Stir to dissolve completely if needed at the end of 5 minutes. Attach a mixing paddle to the mixer. Mix in the olive oil, flour, salt and sugar on low speed for about a minute. Remove the mixing paddle and replace with a dough hook. Knead using the mixer and dough hook, on low to medium speed, until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. If you don't have a mixer, you can mix and knead by hand. If the dough seems a little too wet, sprinkle on a bit more flour.

These are the instructions from online. I don't have an electric mixer, I got to do it by hand. Fun at first, but got annoying really fast.

Place ball of dough in a bowl that has been coated lightly with olive oil. Turn the dough around in the bowl so that it gets coated with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap. Let sit in a warm place (75-85°F) until it doubles in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

When my dough was ready I put it on a cookie sheet. I sprayed the cookie sheet with Pam so it didn't get stuck. I just used a tomato/pizza sauce you can buy at your local grocery store, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. I baked the pizza at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes. You can bake it for 20 minutes, or check on it to see when it turns golden brown.

The only problem I ran into was that the dough was uneven in some places, leaving it under cooked it some areas. It was the best pizza in the world but, I like it. I had a sense of accomplishment because I did it, all by myself! :)