Homemade Pizza a la Cabbage Ranch

Sunday night is pizza night here at Cabbage Ranch.  By Sunday evening we've usually run all our errands, finished riding horses, the house is (theoretically) clean, and attention finally shifts to meal planning for the week ahead, and a fun dinner together.

We don't live all that far outside the boundaries of civilization, but there is definitely no such thing as delivery pizza out here.  I love pizza, and that situation wasn't too bueno with me at first, but now I'm glad.  Life's challenges only make you stronger, you know? 

Without living in the boonies, I wouldn't have started making my own pizza.  And in turn, making my own pizza made me a better person.

[cue music: Wind Beneath My Wings]

Anyhow.

I started out using the Betty Crocker pizza crust packets, but when I ran out of them one day I resorted to the recipe in my trusty old Joy of Cooking.  That crust was better- and easier- than the packets.  But it wasn't quite perfect in a what.is.up. kinda way because that crust required two stages of baking (before and after adding toppings) and was too crunchy.   

Then, I tried The Pioneer Woman's pizza crust.

It has become the foundation for my pizza paradigm.

Once you try it, it will become yours, too.  You've been warned.  Don't try it unless you're ready for it.  But trust me when I say you are. 

Making your own crust is easy and fast.  It seriously takes me about five minutes (even with a baby on my hip although that's become so normal it's like what I imagine having a third eye might be like- distracting at first but really after a while how could you have ever lived without it?), and the hardest part used to be remembering to buy the yeast packets.  So you know what I did?  I bought a jar of yeast.  Now I am never without my little friends. 

Word to the yeast.

So Sunday nights I throw together some flour, salt, and olive oil, then stir in a yeast/water mixture.  Knead it a few times, because [wait for it]

It's nice to be kneaded.

...and put it on the back of the stove to rise for a little while. 

While that magic happens, I usually start dinner number two, which is often a crockpot meat or bean-based dish that will cook all night and get thrown in the fridge as I dash out the door Monday morning. 

The Pioneer Woman's pizza crust recipe calls for it to rise for at least an hour, and it really is best that way.  BUT due to unforeseen conditions- and by unforeseen I mean I didn't foresee my life this hectic or multitasked to the Nth degree and I definitely didn't foresee the challenge of buttoning my jeans some days- I've even skipped that step and it turned out fine. 

When I'm ready to make pizzas, I get out my oldest and most venerable cookie sheets and rub them with a little olive oil.  (Don't try to substitute cooking spray, take it from me.  You need the olive oil for a good texture.) 

Divide the dough in half, then stretch and pat each half into a thin sheet.

Open a jar of your favorite tomato sauce.  We like to use pasta sauce, because then I don't have to remember to buy pizza sauce.  It's all about me.

Spread about 3/4 cup of sauce on each pizza.

Grab grated mozzerella, thinly sliced roma tomatoes, pepperoni, a sliced cooked sausage (leftovers, unite!), and fresh basil.  If you have some parmesan, that makes it double plus good. 

Layer everything on until it's just how you want it.  I love being able to control the amount and quality of the ingredients we eat.  Cabbage is a straight-up pepperoni man, but Beep and I like all different toppings and sauces.  She and I are both huge fans of pesto subbed for tomato sauce, topped with mozzerella, parmesan and tomatoes.

Bake for 10-14 minutes, depending on how browned you like your pizza.  Around this ranch, we're 14ers.

About this time your baby will start pointing and whining for cheese and if you have a husband named Cabbage, he will too.  He likes this pizza in a big way.

But wait!  There's more!  Sprinkle with fresh basil.  I chopped it, cuz I don't want big leaves and I'm the boss of this here pizza.  Round these parts.  In this frontier town. 

After it cools a few minutes, I cut it into small pieces, pile them on a wooden platter, and we all dig in.  It's Sunday night!

One of the beautiful things about this recipe is that it stores well, and when feeding the three of us it makes enough for this meal plus a generous amount of leftovers.  We have it again for another dinner.  Or a couple of lunches.  Or breakfast.  Whatever.

The important thing is, it's your pizza, done how you like it, and it's totally something you can do for yourself and anyone else you want to let onto your pizza ranch.  Enjoy!

Childlike Wonder

This photo slays me.

I'm dying, it's so cute. 

Beep doesn't care much for tv, but give the kid a chicken or a pump handle, and she's fascinated. 

So currently, I struggle to get normal housework done without tripping over her because she's bored.  On the other hand, if we ever stumble across a flux capacitor and said flux capacitor delivers us to the 1890s she'll be a great help.

Done Up In Mud

My plan today was to ride Sam, and I'm sure he was on the same page.  Unfortunately, his leg was not.

His left front leg (on the right side of this photo) was injured and swollen.  Ouch.

Who knows how it happened.  Another horse could have kicked him when they were turned out, or he may have even clipped (kicked) himself at some point.  It's just another one of those things. 

When I ran my hands over the swelling I couldn't feel any heat, which was good.  Even better, the abrasion revealed no puncture wound.  It just needs a little TLC for a few days.

Fortunately, Sam likes attention and is typically a very good patient.  It was off to the wash rack with Gimpy for some hydrotherapy, a.k.a. cold hosing.  It's literally just cold hose water running over the swelling for 5-10 minutes.  I try to multitask water usage during a drought, so I added some suds for his weekly bath. 

The sunshine revealed a better look at the hurt sausage with a cankle leg. 

Look at that horse.  He was so grateful for the attention he didn't even mind when I snickered at his injury.

When we were done with cold hosing, I let him graze for a few minutes while he dried.  Then I assembled a few cankle-reducing implements.

That's a tub of sticky, clay-based medicated poultice (also called mud), of which I am a huge fan.  Some people prefer to use ointments, but I love poultice.  Unlike some chemicals, which can scald a horse's skin, it never does any harm; and I think it works beautifully. 

Also pictured above is a green wrap, a plastic shopping bag, and a white standing wrap underneath it all.  I'm gonna do Sam up in mud.

I had to use the shopping bag to cover my hand.  Because I'm out of plastic gloves and too memory impaired to remember to buy more.  For a year.  L-A-M-E.

Memory impairments dealt with, I started by grabbing a big palmful of the poultice, which I smeared thinly down the outside of his leg from the knee down to the ankle.

Most of the swelling was on the inside of his limb, but I figure it's all part of the same lower leg, and swelling tends to move around as hours go by.  Better to stay ahead of it.

Around the inside, staying away from the scrape itself, and back to the outside to smooth and apply more as needed.

 Meanwhile, my baby may or may not have tasted the poultice. 

Once the mud was on, I debated applying a paper or plastic liner before the cloth wrap, but decided against it.  I will rue this decision when I try to wash that wrap, which will be sticky and evil and impossible to clean. 

Rue it, I tell you.

Then I wound the white standing wrap around his leg, followed by the green wrap.  I don't have a picture of it because my photographer was distracted talking to someone else.  (*Ahem* Cabbage!)  The photographer's pay will be summarily cut.

A side note: leg wraps should be done only by someone experienced, or with good supervision. A bad wrap job, or the wrong kind of wrap, or a wrap left on too long, can cause serious damage to tissues.  I give this wrap an A-.  I'm a perfectionist, and I'm a little rusty. 

Wrap complete, Cankles was then turned back in his stall to take it easy and basically watch soaps, eat bonbons, and live it up until his leg looks better. 

And that's it.  Sam's done up in mud.  Hopefully it'll look better tomorrow, and then we'll start all over again.

What's your vote: do you use poultice or ointment?  Did you remember to get more latex gloves and if so can I borrow yours?