Pizza Enhancements

Pizza enhancements, this is what my husband calls them.  It all happened quite by accident.  When our kids were home, I would keep frozen pizzas for late night snacks.  One night, Gary and I wanted some pizza and it was his bright idea to use one of the frozen pizzas and enhance it.  It really turned out great.

My favorite, all time pizza place is Hideaway Pizza in Norman, Oklahoma.  It probably doesn't compare with Chicago or New York but for the Midwest it's heaven to me.  My favorite is the Tulsa Hurricane.  It's Canadian bacon, pineapple, jalapeno peppers.....oh my gosh, wonderful!

So, we had pizza enhancements last night and of course, after we had eaten half of them, I thought you might like to hear about them.

This is what I do.  I usually buy Red Baron Pizzas.  One plain cheese and one with pepperoni. With the plain cheese I make the Tulsa Hurricane, 4 slices of very, very thin slice ham diced, pineapple tidbits, pickled or fresh jalapenos and top with mozzarella cheese. On pepperoni pizza I add about a cup of hamburger meat that I have fried with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. If there is any grease I always drain it. I add diced green peppers, purple onion or whatever onion you have on hand, sliced green olives and top with mozzarella cheese. You could add mushrooms but Gary doesn't like them so I leave them off. I have also made a pizza from the plain cheese where I fry about 3 or 4 pieces of bacon, drain and crumble, one chicken breast, baked and diced, fresh baby spinach about 1/2 cup and top with mozzarella cheese.  Oh, one thing I forgot, I always sprinkle Parmesan cheese on the pizza before I start adding toppings.

These really are delicious, the crust is lacking but the toppings make up for it.  As you can tell, you can add whatever you like on a pizza.  A lot of times, I may be out of mozzarella cheese and I have used Monterrey jack, pepper jack and even a little cheddar to make up the difference and it was still very good.

I bake these at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the cheese starts to turn golden brown.

Giada, on the Food Network, has said you can buy pizza dough from a pizza business.  I have never tried this.  I am going to try it because I would like to make a calzone and I really don't want to take the time to make pizza dough.