Pizza Bread and Wisdom from the Scarecrow

"It must be inconvenient to be made of flesh," said the Scarecrow, thoughtfully, "for you must sleep, and eat and drink. However, you have brains, and it is worth a lot of bother to be able to think properly." ~Scarecrow from "The Wizard of Oz"

So true! Unfortunately I concentrate too much on the "sleep, and eat and drink" part of life. When I remember that I feed my family so we can live happy, and learn and grow - it helps take the inconvenience out of it. In other words, when I think about the "why" of the daily things I do it all just makes more sense. Which puts me in mind of a great talk by President Uchtdorf.

"My dear sisters, seek out the majesty, the beauty, and the exhilarating joy of the “why” of the the gospel of Jesus Christ." 

  

And thereby the majesty, beauty and exhilaration of the "why" in our everyday life! I love it when things just click together! 

On that note, here's a recipe for Pizza Bread. It's one of those things that my mom would make for us kids, and we just knew she loved us! 

2 1/4 C warm water

2 packages active dry yeast (or 2 scant Tbls.)

1 T sugar

1 T salt

1 T softened butter

6 1/2 C all-purpose flour (approximate)

18 thin slices Provolone cheese (we always just use shredded mozzarella, or pizza cheese)

1 1/2 C chopped pepperoni (or plain old sliced pepperoni - whatever you prefer)

1 egg, beaten

Measure warm water into a large bowl. Sprinkle in yeast and stir or let sit until dissolved. Add sugar, salt, butter and 3 cups flour. Beat until smooth.

Stir in enough additional flour to make a soft dough. On lightly floured surface knead until smooth and elastic - about 10 minutes. Put it back in the bowl, cover, and let rest in a warm place until doubled - about an hour. (don't you love that bread needs to be a warm place! It just screams "LIFE" to me, but that's another post another time)

Punch it down and divide into 3 equal pieces. Roll one piece into a large rectangle (12x8 or so). Top with pepperoni and cheese, and roll it all up. Pinch the dough at the ends and along the seam to seal it.

Repeat with the other dough pieces. Place each loaf on a cookie sheet, cover and let rise until doubled (another hour or so).

Slash tops diagonally and brush loaves with the beaten egg (this is purely for presentation, but the egg makes the tops golden brown and yummy looking). Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes, or until done. Serve warm - or cold - or room temperature - it's delicious! 

You can see that I got more egg on the 2 than on the one by itself, that's why it's lighter in color. I don't have a pastry brush, so I had to use my fingers, thus the inconsistent results. But it tasted great just the same! Happy normal day everyone!