A long time ago, way before kids, I was invited to a chef’s kitchen experience. It was a chance to spend an evening with friends and wine in the kitchen of a classically trained baker in…Athens, Ohio?
We were going to make pizzas!
Athens in 1998 was filled with dreads, plaid, cargo short and new age hippies. I can’t remember the name of the bakery or the gentleman who hosted us but I can tell you about this pizza he made because I recreate it nearly every two weeks for my kids and husband. The reason it is so easily made is because I always have the ingredients on hand. I bet you do too.
I named it hippie pizza.
It is legend.
You won’t even have to drive down a long dirt road in the middle of a national forest to get to his bakery where he fashioned an old mining shaft into a chimney for his oven and ask yourself…”Am I being lured here tonight…to die?”
I have dumbed it down for a ten minute prep, (if that) and a fifteen minute bake time but you will appreciate it on a busy night. I will also include a “hippie homage” with how you can modify it to be a little “higher brow” which will result in a lengthier time to prepare it. I make mine with our kitchen staples. You can modify your recipe with the staples that your family enjoys.
Hippie Pizza
First, go to Pandora and put on the Lisa Loeb station
Ingredients:
Boboli Crust or any premade pizza crust (I keep them frozen after I buy them when they go on sale)
Hippie Version: Homemade flatbread ready to top
Extra virgin olive oil
Red onions sliced paper thin
Sun-dried tomatoes julienned (I buy them in a jar with spices)
Hippie Version: Make your own sun-dried tomatoes (bahhahaa!)
Baby spinach
Portabella mushroom diced
Five cheese Italian
Hippie Version: chunks of smoked mozzarella
Directions:
-Set oven to 450 degrees
-Place pizza crust on a stone or sheet.
-Drizzle extra virgin olive oil onto the bread. Don’t give it a bath and rub it all the way to the edges and even over where there would be a crust. This pizza will have no crust.
– Top in this order so that the ingredients flavor the EVOO as they cook. Remember to top the bread from edge to edge.
Onion
Sun-dried tomatoes
Mushrooms
Spinach
Cheese
Place it in the oven for 12-15 minutes depending on your preference.

I know this is a “party pizza” because you can see I keep using the same stone by the brown cheese sprinkles on the stone from the previous pizza.
I like mine cooked a little longer to let the flavors really escape into each other.
SLICE!
I don’t heat the pizza stone before I start cooking because this is my “FAST go to recipe” and ain’t nobody got time to heat a stone when you have three starving kids.
I also make this as an appetizer for parties by prepping them and baking them throughout the evening so they are always warm. I slice them into squares and leave them on the hot stone.
A problem arises when I make them folks get filled up before dinner because they can’t stop eating them. It is also one of my vegetarian dish for parties.
I also attribute our kids great eating habits to this recipe because this was the only pizza they had when they were kids and because of it they love healthy toppings now.
There you go, a food post because…we eat.
Abbie Gale
All That Makes You…
allthatmakesyou.com
You may also like…
What Mother’s of Boys Know about how to build an egg incubator out of a nightstand (please don’t think I am serious because this is really funny story about our son who ACTUALLY did this without us knowing.) I get weekly requests for the directions on how to do this from people. Bahahha!
PS Are you still listening to the Lisa Loeb station? If you are you are in a good mood. I am.
First off, I adore Lisa Loeb! Second, I’m a sucker for any pizza with sun-dried tomatoes! Sounds yumtastic!
Artney @ My Pretty Brown recently posted…Super Shred Week 3: Shape It Up!
This looks delicious. I haven’t made pizza at home in ages. Definitely think we’ll add this to our list of activities to do over Spring Break.
K. Elizabeth (YUMMommy) recently posted…Monster High: Haunted {Giveaway}