Okay I grew up as an 80’s kid. Little Ceaser’s, pizza Hut, Domino’s, and Hungry Howie’s were the flavor of the day. I made the BookIt Club, every month with my parents encouragement to read. Even so if planning a menu and Pizza comes up our choice is not who do we order from, it’s more like do we have the ingredients or run to the store? You see growing up outside of those awarded pizza’s, we made ours at home by mom and my brothers and me.

If our friends were lucky enough to get some they would come back just for the pizza. That tradition has been passed down. I make it and if we go home we still request her pizza over takeout any day. We still have a traditional round pan, yet we normally make two rectangle baking sheets to feed us all.

The crust is home made from my paternal great grandmothers cook book. We prefer supreme and even people who claim they don’t like some toppings do not complain when they eat them on this pizza. Typically we top ours with olive oil, garlic, ground beef, ham, sausage (if we have it), onion, bell peppers, mushrooms, pepperoni, we usually skip black olives due to salt content. Cheddar cheese ( the sharper the better) mozzarella, and whatever else we have on hand or purchase for….Munster cheese, cherizo, multi color pepers and onion, parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, pepper jack gives quite a kick.

Roll out dough on two baking sheets. We leave it hand toss thickness or thin if watching carbs. Regular tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce to lightly coat dough. Layer Italian season, parmesan, pepper flakes(if desired). Next up are onions, bell peppers, olives, mushrooms. Sausages, ground beef, ham, and anything else we desire before a tight layer of pepperoni. Add yellow then white cheeses in generous quantities. Ours always looks like deep dish, we use plenty of toppings. Into the oven at 350 for 20 minutes. One pie at a time. Cut into about 12 squares and use good spatula to lift weight of slices. Give few minutes to cool. Everyone will crave this and this is better than Pizza Hut, and the most you can buy.

Note: When I said you can involve family it’s a great way to occupy children with supervision. Growing up I always grated cheese, or as oldest used sharp knife to chop veggies. True story… we were visiting my brother from another mother… not really but only time I’ll get to say it, before he deployed over seas. Met my new sister in law..who brought 4 beautiful children into our family. After a long day exploring Savannah, GA. Where they were stationed we retired to our hotel pool for the kids. When the subject of dinner arose it would take about the same amount of time and quite a bit more expensive to feed all of us so we swung into the grocery to get needed supplies. You can buy pizza dough mix you just add water to. I’ve used them before so we decide to buying instead of ingredients to make from scratch. So we get to their house and we all take a task to hurry this along. I cooked on the stove, mom did the crust, she loves making bread, my sister in law supervised 7 and 10 year olds using knives. My brother called from somewhere at front of house and with children’s tasks completed sister went to answer his call.

So mom is ready to roll out and knead this dough so my niece goes to pantry retrieves flour to coat table, hands and rolling pin. So mom scrapes dough out on flowered table. It’s sticky well this can happen even with great dough recpie. So like any good baker she adds more flour. And adds, and adds and she’s asking me since i’ve used the mix and I’m like it never did that with me. Now she’s making these funny noises, and it’s stretching out of bowl like slime and by now my sister in law has come back to investigate the uncontrolled laughter, punctuated with moms eeww sounds.

My father and brother have been drawn as well from hunger and sound effects. Every time she makes 3 to 5 sounds she’s asking me…..and all I can do is laugh as she lets it slide back to bowl. 2 cups of flour and its getting worse not better. We’re now discussing alternatives, when sister in law notices *flour* container and asks where it came from. 7 year old says I got it from pantry and shows her where. As it turns out the exact same container, has powdered sugar in it. She tells them apart by right or left side of pantry. I so wish we had thought to video this! We laughed so hard and the pizza really could have used some pineapple, but we finally got everyone fed.

Memories like these are irreplaceable!

The retelling just does not match the look on moms face as her hands are covered in this slime. I’m so glad my adopted brother got to take this memory with him when he deployed. He came home, but I have yet to see him since our dad passed away. If you ever read this please know that we love and miss you, and we’re still here when you decide to come home. Dad would be so proud of the man you have become, that goes for all my other siblings as well. Sending love to all my siblings and extended family, you’re all loved and I miss you guys so you have to come see me, since I cannot travel those distances yet. How do you make lasting memories with your family? See the recipe on Pintrest! Click here! Mom’s Pizza Recipe