Growing up there was Chef Boyardee pizza on those rare occasions we had extra money. It was fantastic! Back in the 1980’s we didn’t have  pizza joint on every corner nor did we have extra money so the homemade pizza was something we lived for! It was family time in one sense as we got to help our mom “make” the pizza. This usually consisted of us begging for a pepperoni or two, some cheese or pretty much anything we could get our hands on. On those extremely rare occasions that we had money for extra toppings or mozzarella cheese, it was a true treat indeed! I still remember waiting the how-ever many hours it seemed to have the pizza topped and baked when it was really only twenty minutes or so from start to finish.

As a grown up, I don’t eat Chef Boyardee often, only every now and again for nostalgia purposes; however, homemade pizza is still a favorite. On the off chance you don’t know how to make one, I’ll share an easy peasy version using a premade crust. The secret is to get one that is ready to roll-out and then add spices to the crust to make it your own. I used a Kroger crust this time and it had a nice crisp texture on the top layer and side crust when placed on a cooking stone. It was a little sweeter than I normally like and the bottom was not overly crisp due to placing on the baking stone. In hindsight, I should have taken it off the baking stone 10-12 minutes in and it would have crisped it more.

Ingredients

• 1 Kroger roll-out pizza crust
• 16 ounces of mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 package of Hormel pepperoni
• 1/2 jar Mezzetta pizza sauce
• spice blend of garlic powder, oregano, rosemary and thyme
• baking stone

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. Stretch rectangle crust into a circle to fit baking stone. This will make your crust thin and crispy.
3. Add your spice blend. I like to do mine in layers beginning with garlic powder so that I can see each area having a good amount of spice.
4. Pre-bake crust in oven for four minutes and then bring back out. Crust should be slightly firm but not baked and the spices will begin to smell heavenly at this point.
5. Add your sauce, making sure not to cover the edges but right to them.
6. Add pepperoni to taste. I like a lot so I tend to have the whole pizza covered with pepperonis touching each other.
7. Spread the cheese. Again, make sure the side crust is not covered.
8. Bake for 14-17 more minutes until the crust is a darkish brown color and cheese is well melted.
9. Cut, serve and enjoy!