Cast iron skillet pizza

And... I'm back!  Finally, finally, after months of stress, turmoil, moving around, too much driving for anyone's good and eating a whole bunch of food that someone else cooked, it is my turn to cook again.  And blog again.  For those who are not familiar with what has been going on in my life, I have been traveling all over CA since mid-April and staying at various camps for five days or so at a time.  On the weekends, I have either been moving from my old apartment in Aptos to my new place in Ben Lomond or visiting with friends/family in other parts of CA.  In short, it has been a crazy hectic insane past month and a half or so.  But, as all things must, my craziness has ended and life is starting to settle back down.
I find myself in a new challenging situation.  My husband and I have moved to a charming little trailer in the woods of Ben Lomond.  Great rent, great landlords (friends of ours), surrounded by trees, tiny tiny kitchen.  Our kitchen consists of a four burner stove (maybe 2/3 normal size), tiny oven (1/3-1/2 normal size), a refrigerator ("apartment" sized- 1/2 normal size) and half a counter space.  That's it.  The good news is that I finally get to cook with gas!  The bad news is I have to light it myself!  It has definitely been a challenge finding enough space for all of my cooking needs, kitchen gadgets, etc.  It does not help that we are not even close to fully unpacked yet, so we have lots of stuff taking up what would otherwise be workspace.  Oh well... Challenges and all I am determined to start cooking for myself again.
So, my first blog is about my second time cooking here (first was beans and greens burrito which I've already blogged about).  I decided to make a pizza.  But wait, you may say, haven't you already blogged about how to make a pizza?  I have indeed.. but not the way I made it; in a cast iron skillet!  Having limited kitchen space meant that I had to leave a lot of my cooking stuff in storage, including my pizza pan.  So, I came up with the brilliant idea that one could use a cast iron skillet as a pizza pan.  I googled it trying to get some ideas and found that not only had other people thought of this but that other people loved it as well!  I got most of my ideas from a King Arthur's flour blog http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2011/08/22/cast-iron-pans-a-pizzas-best-friend/.   Here is how I did it using what I had at hand:

Cast Iron Skillet Pizza

Ingredients:

Bag of herbed pizza dough from Trader Joe's
Pesto (see 6/12/11 blog for recipe)
Mozzarella cheese
Black olives, sliced
Sausage, sliced

Procedure:

1) Pre-heat oven to 400 F.
2) Spread out pizza dough on cold cast iron skillet.
3) Spread pesto evenly along the top, leaving an inch or so on the edge for the crust.
4) Top with cheese, olives and sausages.
5) Cook the cast iron skillet on the stovetop over high heat for 3-5 minutes.
6) Put it in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
7) Transfer it out of the skillet, cut it up, and enjoy!

The pizza was amazing!  Alas, I have no pictures as I couldn't find the camera at the time.  The crust came out really crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside.  Scott and I ate that pizza in no time flat!  We even had leftover pizza toppings so I made a calzone the next night and baked it directly on my pizza stone.  Another delicious food!  Mmmm...  Scott calls me the "best pizza maker in the world."  I don't know if I'd go that far, but it was super good!

Update:

Months later, I made cast iron skillet pizza for my Dad in Southern California and did have my camera with me then.  His oven runs really hot so the pizza crust browned beautifully!

Cast iron skillet margherita pizza

Deliciousness on a plate