For our anniversary, I decided to go low-key and make dinner at home.  I had a lot of fun preparing this meal! I went with the basics: pizza and salad.

The salad: Strawberries, tangerines, almonds, and baby spinach tossed in a homemade champagne vinaigrette that I seriously made up as I was doing it. Luckily, it was perfect!

Dressing:
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1 Tbsp cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp champagne (we were drinking a bottle of  2007 Schramsberg Blanc de Noir!)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground

Stir ingredients together, and toss with salad. Delicious!!

The Pizza:

This was my first time using the Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat pizza dough, which comes in individual bags in the refrigerated section. You let it rest on a lightly floured surface for 20 minutes, then roll out to desired shape/size. Add a smidgen of EVOO to your rolling pin (or your fingers, if you decide to hand-shape); it adds a smooth flavor to the dough.

Instead of using a sauce, I covered the dough in sun-dried tomatoes that had been soaked in olive oil:

Then, add baby arugula (remove stems first).

Final flavor: crumbled gorgonzola!

I rolled in the sides of the dough to create more of a crusty-edge, but this isn’t necessary.

You can bake or grill this pizza; we opted for the oven. After 10 minutes at 450 degrees, we had a perfect homemade pizza!

Let me tell you: I loved this pizza. I can’t wait to make more. I might try making my own dough,but we’ll see if I can handle it. For now, the TJ dough is fab!

For giggles…