Our Tradition :: Pizza & Margarita Night!

{For just two weeks, we are handing over our computers to the men in our lives and turning this little piece of the world wide web into Houston Dads Blog!  Read along with their joys and their struggles, and find out why we are so very thankful to have these awesome dads in our lives.}

Every Thursday night {almost} without fail, my wife and I have done Pizza and Margarita Night.  {Not always margaritas, but pretty much always pizza.} I don’t remember exactly when it started, but I remember it was in our first apartment and we didn’t have DVR.  Andrea would yell at me from the living room that The Office was back on, and I’d run with our margarita refills spilling all over my hand and relax into our favorite Thursday night lineup.  Pizza and Margarita Night has outlived The Office, countless disasters and romances on Grey’s Anatomy, not one but two additions to our family, and at least one try at the Adkins diet {yes, we made carb-friendly pizza…no you don’t want that recipe}.

Over the years, our recipes have gone through ALOT of change.  We’ve gone from the best ingredients to the cheapest ingredients and everything in between.  The treasures that we have ended up with are just right for the budget and perfect for our taste!

First, though, I want to let everyone know about the greatest recipe I discovered…quite by accident.  You see, since Pizza and Margarita Night started all those years ago, I’ve considered Thursday night as the start of my weekend.  I’ve looked forward to it for as long as I can remember since getting married, and almost every single one of my friends and work colleagues knows about it. {Most have even asked to be invited at some time or another!}  Point is, Pizza and Margarita Night has always kinda given me a 3-day weekend with my wonderful bride Andrea. Through all the changes, substitution, diets, vacations, homes, apartments, and interruptions – this “accidental” recipe was perfected.  The beautiful woman I met years ago…and me.  WE decided to make it special.  It never mattered if it was Thursday night, Wednesday night, Chinese food {pregnancy craving}, mock-tails, no electricity {Hurricane IKE}, Totinos pizza, or homemade pizza…the real ingredients are the same – 1 part Andrea + 1 part Brandon {although we’ve obviously garnished our lives with a little Claire and Daisy to sweeten it up a bit too}. Life is so much better when you take the time to make the little things special.

So without further adieu…the recipes.

The dough.

:: Ingredients ::

4 cups of flour {You can’t use wheat flour as a substitute, Andrea tried this one time and it was terrible.}

1 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons salt

2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast {You can buy the container or buy it by the packet. This is the measurement for one packet.}

2 1/2 teaspoons of olive oil

1 1/2 cups of *warm* water

:: Directions ::

Mix warm water and sugar together and sprinkle the yeast on top. Let it sit for 5 minutes. {You will see it foam, this is the yeast working.} Mix in the rest of the ingredients until you have a doughy ball. Spray a bowl with non stick spray and put the dough in it. Cover it with a kitchen towel and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Once it has “risen”, you can roll it out on a well floured surface and make it into your pizza dough.

Head’s up – you will see tiny bubbles appear in the dough as you roll it out. This means the sitting dough is starting to rise. {And will make the pizza fluffy when cooking.}

We like our pizza thin, so this recipe makes 3 pizzas for us. You can make all the pizzas now or freeze some of the leftover dough to use later.

The pizza.

:: Ingredients ::

pizza dough {See recipe above.}

pizza sauce

cheese

additional toppings

:: Directions ::

Once your pizza dough is rolled out and into shape, add pizza sauce, cheese, and toppings.

For best results, we like to use a pizza stone and cook out on the grill. I heated up our Weber to about 500 degrees with the pizza stone in the grill the entire time so it comes up to temp with the grill.

Slide the pizza on the hot pizza stone. It only takes about 6 minutes to cook. This recipe will give you an amazing crispy crust pizza.

{If you don’t want to fool with the grill, just bake at 450 degrees for about 12 minutes.}

The frozen one.

:: Ingredients ::

1/2 can frozen limeade {found in the frozen food section}

6 oz 100% agave tequila {Reposado – it gives a lot less headaches and is always a bit smoother.}

2 oz triple sec {I’ve always gone with a brandy-based liqueur like a Grand Marnier, but first try the much cheaper version called Gran Gala.}

:: Directions ::

Pour into a blender and add ice cubes to fill to the same level as the liquid.

Blend.

Top off each glass with shot of orange liqueur and a squeeze of lime.

The one on the rocks.  {Also the skinny-ish one.}

3 parts 100% agave tequila

2 parts fresh lime juice

1 part triple sec

:: Directions ::

Mix, pour, and serve.

I hope you enjoy these recipes – they are great! But for me it’s not really about the food or drinks…it’s about us. Sharing something each week together. And it’s never too late for your family to start something similar!

Do you have a similar tradition in your house? If so, we’d love to hear!