Pizza Cake!

 Do you think I'm weird? I think my family might have thought so when I told them that Pepperoni Pizza Cake sounded really good. And I think Mrs. Shellee might have when I asked her if I could borrow their rice cooker pot, and put it in the oven. ;)

 Well, you see, I was looking for yummy pie recipes to make for Thanksgiving on the internet, and I saw a picture of Pepperoni Pizza Cake on a lady's site. So, I clicked on it, and beings I really like American Pepperoni Pizza, I thought it looked REALLY good! Here's a picture of the one I found.

 Now, doesn't that look amazing!!! So, I read the recipe, and it wasn't very hard, especially since they used pre-made pizza dough. Well, that doesn't work here, but I wanted to make it really yummy, so I asked the Wilhites for their pizza dough recipe. (Thank you Wilhites!) And I wanted the sauce yummy too, so I got tomato purée instead of just ketchup, and asked the Minks for their tomato sauce recipe. ;) (Thank you Minks!)
 Then, since I really like American pepperoni, and don't think that the pepperoni over here tastes quite the same, I got some bologna and fried it with some pepper on it. (Unfortunately, it didn't taste as close to pepperoni as I had hoped, but it was still good.)
  It's really fun! Mama took some pictures of the process. I needed a pan that was tall enough. The recipe said that a square pan would work, if you couldn't find a round one, but we didn't have a tall square one either. So, I thought of the Wilhites rice cooker pot. They have a different rice cooker now, but still have their old pot around. I texted Mrs. Shellee and asked her if I could use their old rice cooker pot and put it in the oven, and she replied 'Um, I guess so.' ;) I wasn't exactly sure how it would work. The rice pot gets really hot when it cooks the rice, but I didn't know if it would be alright in the oven. I hoped it wouldn't cause some poisonous gasses or something!! Or, that the pot would crack!
  First I mixed up the pizza dough, and then used 2 strips of parchment paper, and lined the pot with it, with the ends hanging out, so I could pull the pizza cake out of the pan. Then the pizza dough only takes 10 minutes to rise, and you don't have to knead it, so that's pretty cool! I rolled the dough out thin, and cut out 5 circles, approximately the circumference of the pot, and baked them for about 10 minutes.
  Then, I rolled out some more dough, in a kinda long, wide strip, with enough dough for it to hang over the edges of the pot. Kristen helped me with this next step. 

  Next, we took one of the baked circles, and cut off some so it would fit, and set it carefully into the bottom of the pan. You see, the dough Kristen and I are working with, is only supposed to cover the sides, and not the bottom. So, you put the baked piece at the very bottom, and this will be the bottom of your cake. We ate the parts of the circles that we cut off, by the way, and they were really good!
  Next came the tomato sauce. It reminded me of when we used to get tomato paste from FBC, and we would mix oil, salt and pepper, and things like that in it for our pizzas a long time ago. :) Then we added the fake pepperoni, and cheese. 

Then another layer. We had to be careful the circle wasn't too big, or it could make holes in the outside dough.

 We kept adding each layer, and then after the last circle had been added, we put the tomato sauce, cheese, and then the "pepperoni". We cut off some of the extra dough that was hanging over, and then folded it over the edges of the "cake". Then into the oven for 20~30 min. I think.

 This is what it looked like when it came out. I was so pleased. :) Thankfully no harm was done to the pot! Or to us either for that matter!

 The parchment paper made it SO EASY to take out! Just pull!

 It was lots of fun to make! I had fun trying new recipes and baking more than normal while I had been off work. ;) I want to try it again some time, but maybe I'll make it ham and corn this time. Ham and corn pizza is one of my homemade favourites. 
 So, anyway, that was a fun variation to our Family Night supper. ;) You should try it sometime!

~Katie~

Working Together

  The little bit of snow we did have has melted, and the ground is drying out. (It snowed yesterday in Wisconsin where Emilie and Ann are, and Ann texted us and sent us pictures. She was SO HAPPY!!!) Daddy and Mama were working outside yesterday, getting some more things cleaned up before winter actually sets in. They gathered up a lot of the leaves to cover the garden for fertilizer.
  So, I ran out and took their picture, because I thought it was cute. :)

Isn't it sweet? <3

~Katie~