Brooklynne and I are going through a stage where we really like making homemade pizzas. The cool thing about this is that you can experiment with finnding the perfect crust, you can mix and match as many toppings as you want, and it is a good way to use up small portions of leftover stuff from the fridge.

My favorite combo is a knock-off of the Belle Rach Pizza from McKenzie River Pizza Company in Bozeman: a white sauce (usually sundried tomato alfedo), a mixture of spinach and basil, red onions, black beans, barbeque chicken, and cheese. Here's a recipe for a basic crust that we like.

Pre-heat the oven to 475. Dissolve one pack of dry active yeast in 1 1/3 cups of warm water (let it stand about five minutes). Then add

1 tbsp. salt,
1 tbsp. sugar,
2 tbsp. olive oil,
3 3/4 cups flour.

mix this for a minute or two until everything is mixed together and then kneed the dough until it is smooth. Put the dough in a bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place for an hour (you should probaly put some olive oil in the bowl and roll the dough in it to make sure the dough doesn't stick to the bowl). Then punch the dough down and roll it out on a floured surface. This will make one thick-crust or two thin-crust pizzas. Turn up the edges and dimple the raw crust to keep it from bubbling. Put on your desired toppings, and bake for 12 minutes. If you like thin crusts, and you only need one pizza, instead of halving the ingrediants, you can make two crusts, leave the second untopped, and freeze it after baking. Another hint--leave the pizza stone in the oven while pre-heating, or if you don't have a stone, spread cornmill on your pan to prevent sticking.