After a lengthy winter (for usually balmy Durham), the recent arrival of warm weather has caused a SURGE of greens in my garden. I was a bit over-zealous in March when I planted spring crops (er twelve Romaine plants and six spinach), and now, I can frequently be seen toting bags of freshly-picked lettuce to work and bequeathing it to friends willing to eat a lot of salad. Combined with the arrival of everything fresh at the farmers market, I have to exercise a lot of control to make sure I’m using up these greens before they go to waste. I tire of salads quickly, so I thought I’d try a different take.

In a move that surprised me, the staunch supporter of cheese pizza with as few toppings as possible, this flatbread pizza has almost nothing on it except vegetables. I coupled a large wad of my most recent harvest of spinach leaves with some young onions and green garlic, two ingredients I rarely work with but was curious to explore.

And because I couldn’t quite bring myself to omit cheese entirely, just a bit of asiago, which is ever the friend of garlic-y, onion-y things.

Though the toppings were mostly unfamiliar to me, the process for transforming them into  a meal is much the same as most pizzas and flatbreads I make. Rolled out dough, something saucy (olive oil in this case), and some really satisfying sprinkling of ingredients to form a mosaic of color and texture. Truly, I love the look of a raw pizza.

While I was a bit nervous to try it at first, I was pleasantly surprised. The onion and garlic give this pizza a wonderful bite, and it’s a great way to use up bounties of spring spinach. And though it’s really more like a flatbread than a pizza in my mind (the internet seems very confused on the definition) due to the small amount of cheese, I wouldn’t even increase it.

Which may be the first time I’ve ever said this pizza has just enough cheese.

First time for everything, right?

Spring Greens Flatbread Pizza

makes one 12-14″ flatbread

one batch pizza dough
1 T + 2 T olive oil
2 c fresh spinach leaves, roughly chopped and lightly packed
2 spring onions, whites and greens
2 stalks green garlic
2/3 c grated asiago cheese
1/2 tsp freshly-ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 425°F. Prepare pizza dough as instructed. While dough raises after mixing, trim the stems off of the spinach leaves and chop roughly. Thinly chop the whites of the onions. Chop the onion greens until you have about 1/2 cup. Thinly chop the whites of the green garlic and chop a bit more to form small pieces.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan. Add the spinach and whites of the onions to the pan and toss for about three minutes until spinach is lightly wilted. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.

Roll out dough on a floured surface and transfer to a cutting board sprinkled with corn meal. Spread remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the surface of the dough. Top with spinach & onion mixture, green garlic, grated asiago, and onion greens. Sprinkle black pepper over the entire flatbread.

Bake flatbread on a pizza stone (or fake it!) for 10-12 minutes until edges have browned. Slice and serve immediately.

Last week, I started a giveaway for a copy of The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook signed by Deb Perelman, the esteemed food blogger and author of the book! The book is full of recipes for every occasion, thoughtful commentary, and useful kitchen tips. I love my copy and am excited to share!

And the lucky winner is… Diane H, whose favorite breakfast is fruit pie! (Check your e-mail so we can arrange the shipping of the book!)

Thanks to everyone who participated! Get out there and get cooking!

The internet is full of food blogs, and though I’ve been a bit busy for leisurely reading lately, I read quite a few of them. I love to see what other bloggers are cooking, writing, and photographing; each one is hugely inspiring. One of my favorites — I adapt quite a few recipes from her posts — is Smitten Kitchen, crafted by the clever, snarky, and talented Deb Perelman. Her site is gorgeous, her archives well-organized, and if you’ve never taken a look, I highly recommend it. In fact, Smitten Kitchen was the first food blog I ever read, and was a major source of inspiration for me to start a food blog of my own.

Today is a special day here at 30 Pounds of Apples… it’s my two-year blogoversary! And to celebrate, I have a copy of The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook — signed by Deb Perelman herself — to give away to one of you!

Last fall, Deb’s work jumped out of the internet and onto my bookshelf when she released a cookbook. After receiving a copy as a Christmas gift from my fabulous sister, I spent quite a bit of time and many post-its paging through her book marking up recipes I wanted to try. And this one, for these luscious, savory breakfast buns, was at the top of the list.

These buns. Whoa. A combination of soft bread dough, sharp, bubbly cheese, and zingy onion, these are PURE delight. Admittedly, the dough is a little time-consuming due to the lengthy raises, but the wait is totally worth it.

Rather like a cinnamon roll, these buns wrap filling up in a swirl of soft dough. Though the original recipe makes larger buns, I wanted to make batch of mini cheddar buns. The primary difference? Rather than rolling out a large square of dough, I rolled out a long, narrow rectangle. Then, the best part: the FILLING.

Once the filling is spread out, it’s just a simple matter of making one long, skinny log roll of cheesy goodness. Start on the long edge and carefully inch your way across until you have a perfect spiral of bread and cheese. Then, using a serrated knife, the log is chopped into little buns.

After a ride in the oven, the little buns pop out puffy, warm, and bubbling with cheese.

The magic of this filling is the union, really, of the cheeses and onions. As the buns cook, the onions caramelize slightly as the cheeses melt, giving a sweet but zingy flavor that sets these apart from other cheese breads I’ve had before.

This was the first recipe I tried from the gorgeous Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, but if this one is any indication, the rest of her recipes are likely to be pretty darn good.

In February, Deb made a stop in Raleigh for the second leg of her book tour, and I went with a couple of friends to hear her chat about her book, answer questions, and sign books. And guess what? Not only did she sign my copy (squeee!), but I bought another copy that she was gracious enough to sign for one of you!

GIVEAWAY CLOSED: How to Win The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

1. Leave one comment on this post to answer this question: What is your favorite breakfast food?
2. BONUS! To enter twice, head on over to 30 Pounds of Apples on Facebook and like the page. Then, come back to this post and leave me a comment saying you liked the Facebook page, and you’ll be entered twice. Fancy! (New likes only, but thanks to all the early adopters!)
3. Enter before 11:59pm EST on Sunday, April 28. Winners will be announced on Monday, April 29.
4. Open to US residents only (sorry to my international readers, shipping is so dang expensive!)

Mini Cheddar Swirl Buns
Adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

3 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 T granulated sugar
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 c milk
1/4 c melted butter, cooled to the touch
3/4 c grated onion
3/4 c grated sharp cheddar cheese
3/4 c grated asiago cheese
1 tsp dried dill weed
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
additional 1 T melted butter for brushing

Combine the flour, salt, black pepper, and sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer and mix with a fork. In a separate bowl, whisk together the yeast and milk until yeast is dissolved. Pour the yeast mixture and melted butter into the mixer bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until loosely combined. Place the dough hook on the mixer and knead on low speed for 6-8 minutes until a smooth ball of dough is formed. You can also knead by hand on a floured surface for 8-10 minutes. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let dough rest until it doubles, about 2 hours.

When the dough has about 15 minutes left to raise, combine grated onions and cheeses, dill weed, sea salt, and black pepper and mix well. Remove dough from bowl and roll out on a floured surface into a long, narrow rectangle about 8-by-24-inches in size. Spread filling evenly across the dough, leaving a half-inch border on all sides. Carefully roll up the dough along the one of the long sides to form a long, narrow log. Cut the log into 3/4″ segments using a sharp serrated knife, which should yield 32-36 pieces.

Spray a 9-by-13-inch pan and an additional 8-by-8-inch pan with cooking spray.  Place the pieces into the pans leaving about 1/2″ of space between them. Melt butter and brush the tops of the buns. Cover the pans with plastic wrap and allow to raise for about an hour in a warm place.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Remove plastic wrap from pans and bake for about 25 minutes until tops are golden and the cheese is slightly bubbly.

Best served immediately, but they also reheat nicely for several days after baking.

The last three days, I think I’ve been on my first faux-cation. That’s right. A vacation that’s not real. It’s not like I’m actually even on vacation but just not going anywhere, which is a staycation. I’m not on one of those. I just emerged from one of the more intense periods of work I’ve ever experienced, culminating in a hugely successful film festival. It was fun in that mind-bending, 17-hour work day sort of way, ya know? Rewarding, exhilarating, but exhausting. And since we wrapped up late on Sunday night, it has been nearly impossible to force myself to do ANY activity that remotely resembles work: putting dishes in the dishwasher, cooking at all (seriously, I feel like I’m at the beach, we’ve been eating at restaurants with patios to take advantage of the nice weather), grocery shopping, nothing. Each time I’ve tried to get something done, I drift into daydreams of real beach vacations, lazy days in the sun, and the slower pace that simply MUST be coming soon.

But I miss you guys. I miss testing recipes, playing with food, editing photos, and writing to you. So I finally got myself back on track, though admittedly, the “recipe” that follows is vacation-inspired, and possible even in a stress-triggered faux-cation.

I made some dang strawberry ice.

Why? Because summer is coming, which brings lemonade. And strawberry lemonade is the best lemonade, and hiding strawberries in ice cubes seemed like fun! It’s an easy, splashy way to step up your beverage game at summer cookouts and spring brunches. And all you need to make it is ice, sugar, water, and your favorite ice cube tray.

Now I know what you’re thinking: why do I need to add sugar to strawberries that are going to be in an ice cube? Aren’t they sweet enough already? And the truth is yes, they probably are. But adding just a little bit of sugar to fresh-cut berries will allow their juices to release, providing a slurry of perfectly sweet strawberry juice in every ice cube. It will be the first thing to melt when added to your drink, giving an instant strawberry surge to your lemonade, sparkling water, or other favorite beverage.

The strawberries are divided into the cubes and then topped off with water (obviously). I froze mine overnight, but if you have small ice cube trays and a killer freezer, you might be able to get away with a shorter period of time.

And then, you have ice! Scarlet-studded gems of just a bit of sweet and just a lot of fruit. They will freeze solid, but may be a bit sticky (sugar doesn’t freeze) on the outsides. Admittedly, I think I was prepping the photo above just before Kevin Ware’s leg broke, and I got a bit distracted. Hence the puddles. So I promise they won’t melt immediately, but once they’re out of the tray, into the drinks they should go.

On vacations and faux-cations for all.

Strawberry Ice
Adapted unabashedly from Joy the Baker

1 pint fresh strawberries
2 T granulated sugar
water

Slice strawberries into small pieces and place in a small bowl. Sprinkle with sugar and stir gently with a spoon. Set aside in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to allow berries to release their juices. Spoon berries into an ice cube tray, evenly distributing them until used up, filling each cavity about 3/4 full. Add water to tray until each cavity is full. Freeze overnight.

Use cubes to chill lemonade, sparkling water, or any other strawberry-worthy cold beverage.

There are some foods that have always been magic to me. Tortillas, croissants, tortellini, cream puffs… those dreamy little bites that all seem borderline impossible for a person in a home kitchen to make. Incidentally, jam also mystified me. Perhaps it was really the canning part that seemed so out of reach, for until a couple years ago, I never canned my own.

I’ve learned, however, that jam is actually quite simple to make, and it doesn’t necessarily require large batches and canning. It seems you can boil together almost any fruit and have jam in a matter of minutes, ready to serve warm or to store in the fridge for many days.

This treat is a celebration of quick jam, a blend of two early harbingers of spring: strawberry and rhubarb.

While bundled stalks of rhubarb have graced the tables of the farmers market since early February, strawberries have only recently returned to the scene. Last week, a few pints of these precious red fruits have appeared between towers of broccoli and leafy greens, and just like every year, I could hardly wait to get my hands on some.

Last year, I triumphed in making a strawberry rhubarb pie (though not without a disastrous first attempt), but I wanted to try something quick, something easy, and something delightfully simple this year to celebrate the return of this masterful pair. A baguette and block of goat cheese seemed like the perfect vehicle for a gently cooked blend of the fruits.

These little toasts would be welcome at numerous occasions. A quick breakfast, a lengthy brunch, or even dessert are excellent venues. The barely sweetened jam is nicely balanced by the creamy goat cheese and a crisp bite of bread.

In a way, I can hardly believe I’m posting this as a recipe. But sometimes it is the simplest combinations of food that are the most satisfying. And a delicious way to welcome in the spring

Strawberry Rhubarb & Goat Cheese Toasts
Adapted generously from Rock Recipes

2 c chopped strawberries
1 1/2 chopped rhubarb
1/2 c sugar
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 baguette, thinly sliced
1 T unsalted butter
4-5 oz goat cheese

Combine strawberries, rhubarb, and sugar in a medium pot over medium-high heat. Stir often and boil gently for 10-15 minutes. To test set, spoon a few drops of jam onto a plate and place in the freezer for a few minutes. Quick jam should be runny but not fluid. Stir in the balsamic vinegar and cook for a minute more, then remove from the heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 250°F. Thinly slice baguette at an angle, each slice a quarter of an inch. Spread slices out on a cookie sheet. Melt the butter and brush it lightly over each slice of baguette. Bake for 5-6 minutes or until crust is lightly browned.

Serve warm toasts with goat cheese and a spoonful of quick jam.

It’s been a little bit nuts around here. A thrilling combination of crunch time at work, a few too many personal commitments, and many of my previous daylight-hours devoted to recipes that didn’t turn out to be blog-worthy has created a bit of a lull here in 30 Pounds land. It’s amazing how days can slither into weeks when you’re busy.

In times like this, I work really hard to avoid the temptation of picking up take-out on the way home from work every night. I make a plan for every meal I want to cook that week and buy all the groceries required. Many of these meals are combinations that have never made the site: a simply cooked pork chop, wild rice, and sauteed vegetables, for instance. But to really defeat the take-out temptation, I’ve been resorting lately to my FAVORITES.

Since starting this blog, I’ve discovered some truly magical meals that taste, every time, just as miraculous as the first bite. Here are a few of the meals I come back to, again and again, because I know them well enough to whip them up without a fuss and I know they will trump the take-out.

Penne alla Vodka. Chopping shallots, garlic, and parsley is the only labor intensive element to this delightful meal. It’s been one of our favorites for years, a dish that I not only make during busy moments like this but also as a centerpiece at dinner parties and group meals. There are few pastas that I enjoy so much as this one.

Stir Fry. This is not the first time I’ve featured stir fry as a go-to food for busy times. If I’ve already cut up my broccoli and cauliflower, I can have this dinner on the table in less than half an hour. I don’t even make rice with it most of the time, just a giant pan full of lightly sauced vegetables. No stir fry is ever the same in my house as I tend to use whatever veggies, nuts, or mushrooms I have on hand. I might even through meat or shrimp in there, but my favorites are just veggies.

Chili. Fast, filling, warm, and makes tons of leftovers. I never particularly cared for it growing up, but now I make it rather frequently. I love it with a quick batch of cornbread, but saltine crackers are also a very satisfying sidekick.

Chicken Fajitas. Though I admittedly make this more in the summer when peppers and corn are in season, there is no faster way to achieve a little Tex Mex in your own kitchen than a batch of these. I like to make extra peppers & onions and then use the leftovers in quesadillas in the days following this meal.

Pizza. Like stir fry, this is another meal I can put together with whatever I happen to have on hand. Pesto, barbecue sauce, marinara, alfredo: each sauce lends itself to toppings galore. I have a quick crust recipe that I really, really love, and while I prefer to cook mine on my pizza stone, you can totally do it without.

Four Cheese Fettuccine. This post started with a pasta, and it ends with one too. I know that gluten-free is all the rage these days, but pasta will never relinquish the hold it has on my heart and soul. This fettuccine is a show-stopper in this house, and you can usually find Brad scraping the last bits of sauce from the pot with a slice of bread. It’s quick to make, and there’s even some flexibility with the cheeses you can include.

What do you cook when time is short? Do you have some go-to favorites as well?

Brad and I sometimes grapple a bit when it comes to ordering pizza. Brad likes lots of toppings: meats, mushrooms, onions, veggies, goat cheese, herbs… and I actually like those, too. But if I ever have a choice, if I’m ever ordering pizza just for me, I get cheese. Beautiful, glorious, unadulterated cheese pizza.

But the shocking truth is that until last week, I’ve never made a cheese pizza at home. I know. I know. I can’t explain myself. I’ve been making pizza regularly now for a couple of years, but I’ve always dressed it up. It was high time I build my own perfect cheese pizza from scratch.

This pizza started with my go-to pizza crust recipe. I have another crust that I really love, but I only make it when I have excess whey from a batch of homemade mozzarella. This recipe, on the other hand, is super-easy to whip up when you need dinner in less than an hour. It’s a no-fuss crust that requires little resting time and rolls out easily.

And on this soft spread of dough? Cheeeeeeese!

Mozzarella, parmesan, and asiago form the trifecta of awesome atop this particular pizza. Mozzarella is the classic pizza topper, but I love the punchy, sharp flavor provided by the two harder aged cheeses.

I also used a batch of the pizza sauce I canned last summer. I don’t exactly know what possessed me to can this sauce in half-pint sizes, but it was BRILLIANT. One jar gave me just the right amount for this little pizza of mine.

The result was a cheese pizza worth making all the time.

Can you add any manner of toppings to this? Of course you can. But if cheese pizza is your favorite too, stand up against the toppings! Defend the cheese! And then eat as much as you want of it, because this is YOUR pizza.

Three Cheese Pizza

Makes one 12-inch thin-crust pizza

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 T instant dry yeast
1 T sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c warm water

3/4 c pizza sauce (your favorite!)
2 c grated mozzarella cheese
2/3 c grated asiago cheese
2/3 c grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

If you’re using a pizza stone, place it on a center rack in a cold oven. Preheat oven to 450°F. Sift together flour, yeast, sugar, and salt into a large bowl. Add water and mix with a fork until a dough is formed. You may have to abandon the fork and switch to using your hands before a dough is fully formed. Dough should be slightly sticky. Knead lightly on a floured surface for about five minutes. Form dough into a ball and cover with a damp cloth while you prepare the rest of your pizza ingredients.

Grate all cheeses and grind black pepper. Once the dough has rested for a few minutes, roll it out on a floured surface until it is about 1/4″ thick. Sprinkle a cutting board with corn meal and transfer the crust to the board. Spread pizza sauce evenly across the surface of the dough, leaving about 1/2″ of space around the edges. Sprinkle the three cheeses evenly over the pizza: first the mozzarella, then the asiago, then the parmesan. Finally, sprinkle the pepper over the pizza.

Slide the oven rack with the pizza stone out of the oven, and gently transfer the pizza to the stone before sliding the rack back inside. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the edges of the crust are browning and the cheese is bubbly and starting to brown. Carefully remove the pizza stone from the oven and slide the pizza onto a cutting board. Slice into pieces and serve hot.

I don’t have a rice cooker. I also don’t let that stop me from making fluffy mounds of rice. And since I appear to be in the mood for cooking dishes that work nicely with this versatile grain, I thought I’d tell you how I go about making a batch of rice quickly, easily, and without anything you don’t already have.

Rice, as you know, starts as solid grains with the potential to develop into light, airy morsels of goodness when cooked well. The internet seems to be full of horror stories about rice cooking that turn these grains into batches of starchy paste or edible kernels still solid in the middle and decidedly un-fluffy, and rice cookers are offered as the suggestion for remedying these problems. I learned to cook rice, from my mom, with nothing more than a pot and a lid, and I’ve always been pleased with the result. Plus, the method is really easy: in fact, the hardest part is leaving it alone so the rice can do its job.

Here’s what to do:

1. Start with a medium-sized pot that has a lid. You’ll also need a dry measuring cup and, you know, some rice.

2. Add rice and water to the pot in a ratio of 1:2. I usually use one cup of rice and two cups of water. Add a big pinch of salt and give it one stir.

3. Place the pot, uncovered, on the stove over medium heat and bring to a boil. Once the water  has reached a rolling boil, reduce the heat to a low simmer and cover immediately, allowing the rice to stay warm while it absorbs the water. Do not stir the rice. Let me repeat that: DO NOT STIR THE RICE. Stirring the rice at this stage will release the starches, giving you a gooey, sticky mess.

After 18-20 minutes, remove the lid and check the bottom of the pan with a fork to ensure that there is no standing water in the bottom.

4. Once you know the water has all been absorbed, replace the lid and remove from the heat. Allow to rest for about 5 minutes.

5. When you are ready to serve, fluff the rice with a fork and serve warm. The result is a pot full of light and fluffy rice that’s done in less than 30 minutes!

Don’t worry if you make too much for dinner… you can always turn the leftovers into a fantastic breakfast.

What is your favorite way to use rice?

The food-focused internet is positively abuzz with recipes for Chinese dumplings, stir fries, and noodles to celebrate the Chinese New Year. It doesn’t seem to matter what I’ve packed to eat for the day: just a few minutes skimming my Google Reader has me craving Chinese food well before lunchtime.

Aside from vegetable-packed stir fries (and an occasional, unbelievably tasty batch of potstickers), I don’t cook a lot of Chinese food at home. Most recipes tend to call for ingredients that I don’t usually have on hand, and it’s soooooo easy to order takeout. But I was recently invited by a fellow blogger, Diana of Appetite for China, to participate in a “Virtual Potluck” to celebrate the New Year and the release of her new cookbook, The Chinese Takeout Cookbook. She posted six sneak-peek recipes from the book on her site. And my only task? Make one, adapted it to my own needs, and post! How could I resist?

There have always been two things that I’ve found daunting about making a dish like General Tso’s. The first is the large number of ingredients that I don’t cook with frequently and don’t keep on hand as staples. It turns out, though, that was a ridiculous thing to find daunting. Each and every ingredients was readily available at the grocery store, and I used such tiny amounts that I will be able to make many, many more batches of this meal before I need to buy more.

The other daunting factor was that of deep-frying chicken. If I want to make this meal frequently, I can’t use three cups of oil every time. But I still want the crisp, crunchy shell that makes this dish so appealing.

After a quick soak in marinade, I still battered the chicken in cornstarch, but I found that pan-frying it in a few tablespoons of oil gave me plenty of crisp and plenty of crunch, but without the excess of frying oil. Totally feasible on a week night, on lots of week nights.

As I tasted my first bite of this spicy, tangy meal, I wondered why it took me so long to try it out. I’m guessing it won’t be very long at all before I make it again.

To those of you celebrating the Year of the Snake this week, Happy New Year! To those of you who are not, Happy Homemade Takeout!

General Tso’s Chicken
Adapted from Appetite for China

Serves 2

For the Marinade
1/2 T soy sauce
1/2 T cooking sherry
1 egg white
8 oz skinless boneless chicken breast, cut into one-inch cubes

In a medium bowl, whisk together soy sauce, cooking sherry, and egg white. Cut chicken into one-inch cubes and add to the marinade, mixing well with a fork, and set aside for at least 10 minutes while you prepare the sauce.

For the Sauce
3 T chicken stock
1 T tomato paste
3/4 T soy sauce
3/4 T rice vinegar
1 tsp hoisin sauce
1/2 tsp chili paste
1 tsp vegetable oil
3/4 T sugar
1 tsp cornstarch

Whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.

Coating and Cooking
about 3/4 c cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4-5 T vegetable oil
1/4 tsp chili flakes
2 cloves garlic, minced
sesame seeds for garnish
scallion greens, sliced thinly, for garnish

In a pie plate or other deep plate, mix together corn starch, salt, and black pepper. Scoop chicken out of the marinade and place in the cornstarch, turning and mixing until all pieces are coated. The mixture will be somewhat sticky.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the chicken pieces to the pan. Toss the chicken as it cooks, making sure that all sides of the pieces are crispy. Cook the chicken for 10-15 minutes until golden-brown and crispy. Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towels. Pour excess oil out of the pan but do not wipe clean.

Return pan to the heat. Add minced garlic and chili flakes to the pan and toss gently for about 20 seconds. Add sauce to the pan and allow to thicken for about 30 seconds. Turn off the heat and return chicken to the pan. Toss chicken until thoroughly coated.

Serve over a bed of rice, garnished with sesame seeds and scallion greens.

I can’t really express in words how much I love pizza. The enormous quantities of free pizza I ate at college events (and, let’s be honest, continue to eat at college events) has never quelled my craving for crispy pizza crust topped with any manner of sauces, cheeses, meats, pineapple, spinach… gaaaah. I really love pizza.

And I really love that I can make it at home. No, I don’t have a 900°F pizza oven. And yes, I do have a pizza stone. But! I didn’t until only a couple years ago, and though I really love my pizza stone, I’m here to tell you that you can cook beautiful, crispy-bottomed, bubbly-topped pizza at home TONIGHT with no pizza stone.

Here’s how:

1. Take two large cookie sheets and nest them together. Place them on a center rack of a cold oven upside-down. Heat the oven to 475°F. Preheating the pans in this way will allow the pizza to cook from the ambient heat in the oven but will allow the crust to become crispy from contact with the hot pan, similar to using a pizza stone.

2. Prepare your pizza dough (I have a wonderfully easy recipe here). While it rises, cut a sheet of parchment paper the size of the cookie sheet and place it on a cutting board. Sprinkle with corn meal.

3. Roll out the pizza dough on a floured surface and transfer it to the cornmeal-sprinkled parchment paper.

4. Add toppings to your pizza as desired. Leave about half an inch of space around the edges of the crust.

5. Open the oven and slide the rack with the trays out slightly. Gently slide the parchment and pizza off of the cutting board onto the cookie sheet bottom. Don’t worry, you can bake parchment paper!

6. Bake the pizza for 10-15 minutes until the edges of the crust are browning and the cheese is bubbling and developing golden-brown spots. Remove the pizza from the oven and carefully slide the pizza onto a cutting board. Slice into pieces and eat!

See that? That is a crisp, beautiful pizza crust. The pre-heated cookie sheets help to form this crispy treat, while the ambient heat in the oven cooks the rest of the pizza.

Now if you have the space, I do recommend buying a pizza stone. I really love mine, and it’s great to make a round pizza every once in a while. There are a whole bunch of other tips to help you work with a pizza stone, but that will make for another How To’sday!

In the meantime, even without the stone, you can still make a dang good homemade pizza.

What are your favorite pizza toppings? Do you have a favorite pizza crust recipe?