Homemade Pizza Dough/ McCoy's 2nd Birthday Party

I would eat, sleep and breathe pizza if it was as nutritious as kale, it's absolutely my favorite food. Making homemade pizzas with my family has become a yearly favorite tradition. I've hosted several pizza parties for friends and have enjoyed seeing everyone gathered together in the kitchen, cooking and eating to their heart's content. Everyone get's to eat their own custom made creation and feel like a Neapolitan Pizzaiolo/a for the day. 

A pizza party works great in the winter, as the oven warms up the room, without making it stifling hot like it would in the summer. The smell and warmth radiating from the pizzas baking in the oven, makes for a cozy and mouth watering atmosphere. 

My cute little nephew McCoy turns two today and to celebrate, my sister had the family over for a pizza dinner party. She made her own dough, (sometimes we get premade from a local pizza joint) and was sweet enough to cook up several pizzas and share her recipe with me. By the way, my sister Erin is also pregnant with my future niece and blew me away at all the work she put into the party. She's the best Mom, I love seeing the creative touches she adds to events she puts on and her children's birthday parties are no exception.

Since this was a child's party, she kept the ingredients simple and traditional. We had alfredo and traditional red sauce, supreme vegetable toppings and pepperoni. The key to baking perfect crust lies in using a pizza stone as shown above. I suggest purchasing two pizza peels; one for raw pizza dough you can top while the one in the oven bakes. The second peel is to remove the baked pizza from the oven without disrupting the raw dough. Trust me, you will be so greatful to have two for parties. They are reasonably priced on Amazon and worth every dollar.

I'll talk gourmet toppings in a future post, but let's focus on the crust for today. Erin uses this recipe from Fine Cooking, she doubled the recipe and divided each batch into thirds. Her method yields about 6 large pizzas. Cut the recipe into 6 individual balls for personal sized pizzas.

Classic cheese with garlic and herbs it a great starter for everyone to munch on as an appetizer. Serve with marinara dipping sauce.

McCoy approves of his cheesy pizza goodness

Here are some pictures of the rest of the party:

McCoy blowing out the candles on his homemade Oreo cookie cake. Make a wish!

Yummy cookies!

To help the kids expend some of their full throttle energy, I taught them a few yoga moves. Frog position was their favorite, they thought it was hilarious to hop around.

McCoy and Grace hopping around like frogs. Leap, leap!

So serious. :) My little buddy loves to mimic everyone around him right now. He is so cute!

Thanks for sharing in our day! Leave me a comment below and let me know what your favorite pizza toppings are. Happy Monday!