Homemade Pizza and Beet Salad

Earlier today, when I went out on my mission to get a pizza stone, and not just any pizza stone but an Emile Henry Pizza Stone from William's Sonoma, I was told that they didn't have any in stock and that it was on back order for another week!  Now yesterday I had started a homemade pizza dough so I knew that I absolutely had to find a way to get this thing today and was pretty much willing to drive wherever I had to to get it. The wonderful store clerk checked into his computer for me and called another store, it turns out there was one left in the entire area and Alderwood (a 20 minute drive away) had it, so it was quickly put on hold for me. Now, pizza stone in hand and safely at home, I feel that this was one of the best purchases that I've ever made!  However, when the woman at the Alderwood store asked if I needed a pizza peel, I should have said yes and brought that home with me as well (read on).
So after anxiously awaiting the one hour to bring the dough to room temperature and another half an hour for the pizza stone to heat in the oven, it was finally time to assemble it!  I spread my homemade pizza sauce (San Marzano tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, Italian seasoning simmered for half an hour) on top, placed a layer of mozzarella cheese on it and it was time to finally try out my stone!!  Well, I had my pizza on top of a well floured and corn mealed baking sheet (without sides) and just assumed that it would slide easily onto the scorching hot stone, boy was I wrong!  After 5 minutes of wrestling this dough onto the stone, because well, the second it gets on the stone it starts to cook and doesn't like to be moved, I was finally able to close the oven door and cook my no longer pretty and round pizza. Needless to say, I will be going back to the store tomorrow for the pizza peel.  After just a mere 10 minutes in the oven, there emerged a little slice of heaven! Perfectly puffed and golden brown.

Meanwhile, I made the beet salad.  After an hour of boiling the quartered (because these were rather huge, even after being quartered) beets, I placed them on a foil lined baking sheet and baked at 450 for 10 minutes, just until they started to caramelize on the outside (or in my case, stick to the foil and not want to come off! I would recommend spraying the foil with some cooking spray). While the beets were in the oven, I made a quick vinaigrette with balsamic vinegar and honey, rinsed some arugula and diced some avocados. To assemble this salad, I placed some arugula drizzled with the vinaigrette on a plate and layered the beets and avocado, then topped with some crumbled goat cheese.

Well, after plating my food and sitting down to take my first bite of this wonderful meal, I realized that I forgot the basil! How could I forget the basil?? I bought a live basil plant from Whole Foods earlier today and it's been giving off it's beautiful aroma in my kitchen all day! I couldn't believe that I had forgotten it, so I quickly got up and put it on the pizza (at this point I had already taken the photo, so unfortunately, you don't get to see the beautiful green on my pizza).  I have to say that I can't imagine eating pizza from anywhere else! The dough was well worth the 24 hour wait and I'd be quite satisfied with just eating the cooked crust and nothing else! However the addition of the simple ingredients brings it to a whole new level of deliciousness. And the salad, well, it was well worth the hour it took to boil the beets. Even Dylan exclaimed, "Mom these beets are awesome!". Dylan has also decided that she no longer wants to order pizza for her birthday party next weekend and requested that I make more homemade pizza's. I'm actually not sure if I will be able to hold out an entire week before making this again though!