 |
| wrapped homemade brown 'n serve pizza |
We're plowing through our rotation of canned vegetables. This week, we made creamed spinach with some of those canned leafy greens. My daughter prepared it, adding a topping of Parmesan cheese over each serving. Delicious -- we all loved it!
I roasted a whole chicken this week and managed 3 dinners from the bird, 1 lunch of chicken noodle soup, and enough stock for our upcoming Thanksgiving side dishes.
And we made desserts twice this week -- one a no-bake bar cookie and the second a cake. Both of these lasted for several days.
One of the side effects of this pandemic is that many of us are cooking dinners at home much, much more than normal. Sharing our weekly menus may provide much-needed inspiration for each other, as we find ourselves more and more drained from this experience. As you can see, my menus are all pretty simple and rely heavily on our pantry staples.
Needing some family fun time, our foursome decided to make every Friday evening pizza and movie night. I make a pizza and we rotate who chooses the movie. Making a pizza from scratch each week adds up to a lot of work. However, making one large batch of dough and sauce for several pizzas at a time saves work over making small batches each week.
I bake the first pizza for us to eat right away, using a hot oven (about 400 degrees F) so that the bottom is crispy and the cheese and toppings are bubbly and golden. I prepare the rest of the pizzas as brown 'n serve pies. When I reheat them later they brown and crisp up without over-browning, like those dinner rolls which are pale but cooked when you buy them to be toasted in the oven at home.
 |
| underside of part whole wheat pizza before second bake time |
I follow similar suggestions for brown 'n serve pizzas as I do for homemade brown 'n serve rolls. To make brown 'n serve pizza, I prepare the whole pizzas as I would for immediate consumption, except I bake them at a lower temperature. My goal is to bake the dough fully and melt the cheese, but not brown either.
 |
| topside of pizza before second bake time |
To do this, I bake the topped pizza on a baking sheet at 350 degrees F (until the crust is thoroughly cooked, but the toppings and cheese have not reached the point of browning), about 18-20 minutes, depending on thickness and toppings. After cooling for about 30 minutes, I wrap the extra pizzas in plastic wrap and freeze.
To reheat, I thaw the pizzas on the counter for about 45 minutes then brown them on an oven rack (no pan) for about 9-11 minutes at 380 degrees F. They turn out perfectly.
Brown 'n serve pizza are my homemade version of commercial frozen pizza. I spend a couple of hours one afternoon to make enough pizza for several easy dinners without sacrificing any of the fresh-baked flavor or texture upon reheating.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!
