For the past 20+ years I've made homemade pizza once a week (on average). It started out when the children were small as a special Friday night 'family night' when Daddy was working so we would all gather with pizza and treats while we watched children friendly movies and then as they got a little older; the TGIF line up sitcoms that included Boy Meets World and Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
As the kids all grew, they all still counted on Friday Movie Night so it continued... even into high school. The number of kids multiplied and we might have 5 or we might have 9 (or more) depending on the weekend. The only change we made was moving movie night to Saturday after our oldest daughter made varsity cheerleader as a Freshman in high school and had to cheer on Friday nights. Word spread among all the kids friends that anyone who wanted to join us for pizza/movie night on Saturday nights was welcome; just simply made 2-3 large pizzas every Saturday at 6:pm for whomever wanted to join us.
Although I still use the same crust recipe, I've since perfected a few things, including our favorite pizza sauce and how to bake them to keep the crust crisp instead of soggy in the center when it's heaped with heavily loaded ingredient list... but it took until last week to realize one more 'ah ha!' moment.
Cardboard.
Often, due to schedules, I will make the pizzas on Friday/Saturday night (either one now that our kids are all older and we aren't held down to sports and part time work schedules for our kids) and the pizzas will be available for 'whenever' anyone wants to eat. It might be right away, fresh from the oven or it might be an hour or more later.
Typically I'd take the pizza out of the oven and set them out either in the pizza pan they were cooked in, or if they were made on a pizza stone, I'd either put the stone out or slide the pizza onto parchment or foil.
The problem with that is that the crust would change in taste and texture as it cooled, and in the instance of parchment or foil, it gathered the condensation from the hot pizza and produced moisture between the crust and the parchment paper, resulting in a soggy or moist crust.
I just never made it a priority to care... until last week.
If you saw the post last week about the Creamy Garlic Alfredo and Spinach Pizza and the Pepperoni Pizza I made that particular night, you can see that I did something different that night... look closely at what the pizza is sitting on in the photo....
As I was taking the pizzas out of the oven (which had been cooked on pizza stones and direct on the rack) I was getting ready to put them on the counter when I suddenly had the thought of putting them on cardboard. I mean, pizza restaurants use cardboard circles and boxes... other than the ability to box them up and transport them, there must be a reason (or so I figured).
I keep random cardboard boxes around the house - slit open and folded flat for easy storage in tiny little slots like between the fridge and cupboard, or behind the shelving unit in the pantry/laundry room so I simply grabbed a flattened cardboard box and laid the two pizzas on it.
I let them cool a couple minutes, sliced them, grabbed a couple to eat and left the rest for my husband when he finished his workout.
What I discovered was when I went back for seconds perhaps a half our later, I loved the texture and taste the crusts still had. They hadn't turned into the bready crust or gotten moisture from the heat condensation. Yay! I loved them! Great flavor and great texture - I determined that from now on I planned to put my homemade pizzas on cardboard.
That's when I got the idea of ordering pizza circles online. And in searching, I found that boxes in most cases were actually more affordable. That also allowed me to brainstorm that making 'freezer' pizzas ahead of time would be a lot easier! I often make up 2-3 pizzas when we only need one or two; and freeze the extra. But the only way I had to freeze it was in the pizza pan so I had to 'use up' my pizza pans in the freezer. This way I realized I could make extra crusts or pizzas and freeze them in the box! Great for stacking, it keeps them organized as well as protected from getting squished like my foil covered pizza pans are.
So I ordered the 14" inch size boxes and got a package of 50.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
And yesterday, when they were delivered, the UPS man said, "Hey Pizza Lady! So, what in the world are you going to do with 50 pizza boxes anyway?"
Ummm... indeed. I know what I'm going to do with them but I didn't really think about how big they were going to be and where I would store them!
I don't know what I was thinking... but they are TALL!
... and wide!!!
I'm THRILLED to have my pizza boxes - you have no idea how something this little just makes me so happy! But... where in the heck do I store 50 flattened pizza boxes? Ha ha.
marshmallows that I order online. Obviously this is the recipe most people use regular store bought marshmallows in, so feel free to use whatever version you wish.
