You live in Dallas Texas. You are the mother of two. Summer is almost over. You are about to send your oldest daughter to first grade. You want to eek the most out of every summer night you have left with her. You are my sister.

Your favorite pizza recipe comes from Boz, the green bear next door. His recipe for Double Peppy Pizza has never failed you. But he is a children’s TV show character, after all, and you think it’s time to try a real recipe. You’ve been making pizza for years; you can handle it. Your daughter’s almost in first grade; she can handle it.

But tonight is meet the teacher night. You’ve measured all the ingredients with a first grader and a toddler. You’ve kneaded the dough. It’s been rising for an hour and now you can’t roll it out. You’re going to have to call Pizza Hut. But you pull yourself together; you stretch the dough out.

The pizza turns out fine. You feel good about sneaking some vegetable toppings in on your toddler. You feel even better about finally meeting the teacher. But next time, you’ll stick with Boz.

To read Boz’s Double Peppy Pizza Recipe and my sister’s own comments, click more.

I do not care what recipes I find for pizza crust on this blog or anywhere else — I will always stand by Boz. You can always trust a green bear when it comes to food! And, as a bonus, the left over sauce makes a great second meal served over angel hair pasta with some parmesan on top (my kids and husband won’t eat it, but I love it!).

Double Peppy Pizza

Sauce

• 1 pound (or more) peeled tomatoes (canned is fine)
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• ¼ cup (or more) finely chopped onion
• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 1 Tb tomato paste
• 1 pinch of sugar
• 1 Tb fresh, chopped basil (and/or oregano)
• salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the onions and garlic, cooking until they’re soft. Put the tomatoes in a bowl with the tomato paste and squish them up with your fingers. (This is especially fun for kids, unless they’re like mine and won’t have anything to do with touching it!) Stir into the skillet with the onions and garlic and add the basil and sugar. Stir occasionally for 30 minutes while it thickens up.

Dough

• 2 ¾ cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 cup of warm water (hot bath temp)
• 1 Tb olive oil

In a small bowl, mix the yeast, sugar and ¼ cup of hot water. Leave the mixture about 10 minutes until it gets frothy. Add the yeast mix to the flour along with the rest of the water and the oil. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. To keep from getting sticky, you can put a little oil on your hands and of course a little flour on the counter. Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap  Leave it in a nice warm spot for 45 minutes to rise. Preheat oven to 425.

Uncover the dough, and squish it flat onto a cookie sheet or pizza stone. Push the dough out from the center to the edges. Pinch up the edges. Brush the dough with a little olive oil. Prebake for about 10 minutes, top with sauce, 12 oz mozzarella cheese or combination, and any vegetables you wanna throw on to make yourself feel healthy (you might be surprised at how good green beans are on pizza!). Bake about 10 more minutes or until cheese is golden brown.

What else can I do with leftover pepperoni and mozzarella? Pizza sandwiches. Pepperoni, ham, basil, grilled onion, tomato, and tomato sauce on toasted bread. Enough said.

I probably told Glenn a dozen times, “It smells like Pizza Hut in here!” Homemade pizza has been a staple for us since we started cooking together. A few years ago, our friend Nick Vidoni taught us how to make a really excellent honey wheat crust. Out of love for Nick and for tradition, I rarely let Glenn stray from that recipe. This weekend, we were out of wheat flour so Glenn got to make his pick. It was phenominal, smelled and tasted like Pizza Hut (in the best possible way).

Glenn used the basic pizza dough recipe found on page 752 of the New, Improved, All-Purpose 1997 edition of the Joy of Cooking (aka the modern, renegade edition). Those of you who know about Joy know that the most valuable part of the recipe is the commentary and that it would take me way to long to copy it all out here, so go look it up. Those of you who don’t know about Joy need to stop everything and go pick up a copy. (Research the editions first to make sure you get the right fit for you.)

Our old standby from Nick Vidoni goes something like this:

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 pkg dry active yeast or 1.5 tsp instant yeast
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 Tb honey
• .25 tsp salt
• 1.5 cups wheat flour
• 1.5 cups all purpose flour
• Mix in order listed above. Knead ten minutes. Place dough in a clean bowl coated with olive oil and cover. Let rise about one hour. Divide into two crusts, roll out, pre-bake at 375 for about ten minutes, top, bake at 375 for about fifteen minutes.

Top it with whatever you want, but remember — better ingredients, better pizza.