Work has been really busy and stressful lately, which means the Sunday Scaries have been activated. I mentioned here recently that Husband and I are working on eating at home more since Austin has gotten a lot more expensive since we first moved away in 2019. We still enjoy eating out for a couple of meals on weekends and exploring new restaurants, but it’s been really great saving money and making meals at home. We’ve recently brought homemade pizza back into our rotation of meals. A couple of months ago, we ordered pizza and after the delivery charge and tip, it was FIFTY DOLLARS. FIFTY. DOLLARS. And I’m not talking lovingly handcrafted, bougie artisanal pizza- this was just a Meat Lover’s and Hawaiian pizza from FUCKING PAPA JOHN’S.

Lately I’ve been making homemade pizzas on Sunday nights, and I’ve been enjoying it very much. I find the same comfort in making my own dough and sauces as I do with crafting. It allows me to focus on something tactile. I can’t check my phone while I knead the dough or carefully roll the edges into a crust.

I’ve mentioned here that I love slice of life blogs – not in the “USE CODE JENATX FOR 30% OFF THIS PESTO SAUCE” lifestyle blog kind of way, where every facet of the blogger’s life can be purchased by clicking on a sponsored link. I just mean in more simple comforts – sharing hobbies and photos of pretty flowers and a meal. In that vein, I thought I’d share my pizza-making process with you!

A couple of qualifiers:

1. I am a beginner at this. So if you’re like, “But Jen! Your dough is dense or whatever,” I do not care! KEEP IT TO YOURSELF. That is not the point of my sharing this blog with everyone.
2. I have zero interest in starting or maintaining a food blog. Cooking during the week is out of necessity and not joy, and my enjoyment of pizza making is an anomaly.
3. My photos are shitty. There’s no way around it. Since this is not a food blog, there was no care made with the the lighting or styling. Let’s just roll with it.

This week’s recipe was adapted from the Potato and Burrata Cheese Pizza from Half Baked Harvest’s Super Simple cookbook. This pizza can truly be a kitchen sink recipe, but we did order a potato and mozzarella cheese from HEB’s pickup since all our potatoes were past their prime. (And mozzarella cheese was cheaper than burrata).

First, I got the dough all rolled out (I told you the photos are shitty but HERE YOU GO).

I forgot to order pesto sauce for pickup, so I made my own. We had some arugula lying around that needed to be used, so I took that, olive oil, a lil lemon juice, and sesame seeds (since I didn’t have walnuts or pine nuts) and shoved them in a blender. Was it the best pesto sauce of your life? No, but it was emulsified flavored greens, so it was adequate.

Next I added the potatoes and cheese. The potatoes are a little oxidized. Also? Everything I’ve read about mandolins involves severely cutting fingers at some point, so a mandolin was NOT used to slice these buddies. I also added Everything Bagel spice per the recipe, which is a little weird? But we’re also eating potatoes on a pizza, so don’t question it? It works.

Bake that sucker for 10 minutes, then add the mozzarella cheese on at the end. Try not to eat all the mozzarella cheese before it goes on the pizza.

Bake for another 5 minutes, then YAY. YOU HAVE SOME PIZZA TO EAT.

Enjoy!