Every great pizza must start with a great crust, and you need to make this yourself. It is ridiculously easy to make a great crust, as simplicity is the key here. A great crust is about good ingredients and good technique. Lets start with the ingredients. For 4 crusts (9 oz. each) you will need the following:

Pizza Dough

4 ½ c. (20.25 oz.) Unbleached High Gluten, Bread, or All-Purpose Flour (I like King Arthur, found at Trader Joe’s)

1 ¾ tsp. (0.45 oz.) Sea Salt or Kosher Salt

1 tsp. (0.11 oz.) Instant Yeast (Active Dry Yeast)

¼ c. (2 oz.) Olive Oil

1 ¾ c. (14 oz.) Ice Cold Filtered or Bottled Water (Do not use chlorinated water, as it can kill the yeast, and negatively affects the flavor of the crust.)

You will also need some cornmeal or coarse semolina flour for final assembly of your pizza.

Note that I have given you both volume and weight measurements. I strongly suggest you invest in an inexpensive digital kitchen scale (you can find one on eBay for less than $20) for best results. Volume measurements in baking are okay for approximations, but true consistency only comes from weighing. Flour, for example, has different weights when packed, sifted, partially sifted, humidified, dry, and with different grinds, etc. For pizza, it is not so critical, but for other baking it can be the difference between success and failure. Get a scale, and you will not regret it.

On to the preparation. I would recommend using a good stand mixer, such as a KitchenAid with a dough hook attachment, but you can do this by hand as well: …

Speaking of potato salad, I cooked the potatoes too long and ended up making a mashed potato salad. It was really good, a little odd at first eating cold mashed potatoes but hey when you use a ricer the texture is so silky that who can complain.

To be honest, I’m not a potato salad kinda gal but this looked intriguing:

I love the classic mustard based potato salad full of hard boiled eggs and olives. My husband, well, he doesn’t like it. At all. And since summer wouldn’t be complete without potato salad I came up with this recipe for a Loaded Baked Potato Salad. The concept is pretty popular but after making this several times and trying different ingredients (chives, no chives, white cheddar crumbles, no cheese, more or less mayo, etc.) I think I’ve found the right combination. Now we just have to agree on whether it should be served hot or cold!

Loaded Baked Potato Salad

3 lbs. red potatoes, diced
2-3 TBS salt
pepper, to taste
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup green onion, chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

Boil potatoes in salted water until tender. Drain and set aside to cool. Combine mayo and sour cream in a large bowl. Add pepper, onion, cheese and bacon and mix together. Add cooked potatoes and stir until combined. Refrigerate until ready to serve.