Welcome to week four of me posting at least one time a week in 2014. This is also week four of Reddit’s 52 Weeks of Cooking challenge. This week’s theme is, Ingredient You Hated as a Kid.

I spent all week thinking about this challenge. I was so stumped, that I called my Dad, and my Sister, and asked them if they remembered if I had any foods that I did not care for as a child. My Dad did not remember any foods that I did not eat. My Sister told me she ate everything as a child, but she could not remember any of my food aversions. I could not think of anything that I disliked, until I went out to lunch with a dear friend. We had a leisurely walk with our kids to 3rd Street Pizza, and I ordered a salad for myself, go figure (almost never happens friends). 3rd Street Pizza happens to have yummy salads. My friend was ordering a salad too. She heard me ask the nice man at the counter who was helping us to please leave off the onions. She questioned me about me leaving the onions off my salad. I told her they were kind of smelly, and we were going to be chatting, so I left them off.

I have been thinking of our conversation ever since. I thought back and realized that I have almost always asked people to leave the onions off of food. I do love onions now, and have for years, but I believe as a child I did not like them, because they were smelly. So there you have it friends, I found my ingredient, onions. My dish, in honor of 3rd Street Pizza’s delicious food, is caramelized onion pizza.

This pizza dough is the same dough that Dominic has always made, and now that I always make.

I never thought of onions were beautiful, until we grew, harvested, and processed our own, two years ago.

Oakhill Organics stored yellow onions are very tasty cooked, but are also delicious picked in vinegar, or raw and sliced thin in salads and slaws.

Butter, onions and a pinch of Kosher Salt on medium heat for twenty to thirty minutes produces the most amazing caramelized onions on earth.

Don’t you just want to take a spoon to them?

I used my whole milk ricotta cheese recipe from the book, “Home Cheese Making” by Ricki Carroll. I did not have the time to make the Mozzarella recipe from the same book, so I purchased it and shredded it in a food processor. I made my quick healthy pizza sauce recipe, 2 Tbsp raw coconut oil, 1 jar of homemade tomato sauce, 1 small beet peeled and chopped, 1 medium carrot peeled and chopped, 2 whole peeled garlic cloves, 1 parsnip peeled and chopped, 1/4 tsp dried basil, 1/4 tsp dried oregano. Put coconut oil and chopped vegetables and garlic cloves in pan. Stir until coconut oil is melted and is coating all vegetables. Add tomato sauce and herbs, ans stir to combine. Bring all ingredients to boil. Turn heat down and simmer for 30 minutes or until vegetables are fork tender. Hand blend all ingredients til smooth, and ladle onto par baked crust.

I poked holes in the crust with a fork, and then par baked the crust at 450 degrees  for seven minutes, turning pan around halfway through. Then I heavily sauced, applied onions, and cheese, and popped it back in the oven for about ten minutes, or until the crust had a little color to it, and the cheese was melted, and bubbling.

My girls and I ate this for dinner last night, with a little salad. This dough recipe makes almost two full sheet pans of pizza, so thankfully we had leftovers. We gobbled them up for lunch today.  I also love cold pizza for breakfast. I hope you enjoy this caramelized onion pizza with your family and friends any time of day, hot or cold.

B00005UP2P,B00188AJN6,B00F9JFFYS,B004WMP03E