Now that we’ve talked about making pizza at home, it’s time to roll it up and make a stromboli.

My first experiences with stromboli all happened at a family friend’s house when I was in high school. A typical dinner at their place – for all us youth group kids – was some of Mr. Willwerth’s stromboli and Mrs. Willwerth’s homemade ice cream. Her cinnamon was my all time favorite, but really – stromboli and homemade ice cream? It’s the perfect meal.

Mr. Willwerth let us help out with the stromboli if we were there in time, so I had a few chances to layer everything and roll up the dough before popping it in the oven.

But it was years before I ever tried making one on my own, as an adult. It took me a while to feel like I had the dough-making down before I wanted to try anything other than just a regular pizza. But I am so glad I finally started making these.

If you love pizza, you’ll love stromboli. And vice versa. It’s the same concept, just folder together and baked instead of having everything on TOP of the dough. Stromboli is also a little easier to eat (smaller pieces) and makes for great party food! It’s easy to prep and doesn’t take long to bake, either, making it perfect for busy weeknights.

I use the same dough recipe that I use for my pizza, which makes it even easier! I don’t have to keep track of fourteen different pizza dough-ish recipes – this one is basically all purpose. And I pretty much only use Red Star Platinum Yeast now. It has taken over my pantry – I don’t want anything else! It’s the most reliable yeast I’ve tried in years, so it’s all I use.

I’m pretty sure my stromboli isn’t totally traditional because I usually put a little bit of sauce IN the stromboli, but you can make it however you want!

We like ours with a smear of sauce on the entire piece of dough, topped with shredded mozzarella and pepperoni, rolled up, and topped with some egg wash and Italian herbs. Plus more sauce for dipping when it’s done.

Again – same with the homemade pizza tips – the most important things for an awesome stromboli?

• Homemade dough
• Freshly shredded cheese (no pre-shredded!)
• Higher baking temperature for the first part of baking, to help get the golden crust
• Patience before slicing it up. It stays hot for a long time – no need to ruin it by slicing it too quickly OR burning your mouth!

Happy baking!

This post is sponsored by Red Star Yeast – all opinions and recipes are my own, as always. Thank you for supporting brands that support us! Follow them on Facebook or Instagram for more great recipes!

Welcome to Cooking 101!

I’ve decided to start a new series here on the blog, highlighting tips and tricks that I wish I had known when I first started cooking 8 years ago. Some posts will have recipes, some might not.

I mostly just want these Cooking 101 posts to be helpful (for you and for me!). When I first stepped into the kitchen, there was SO much I didn’t know. And I am still a complete novice some days, but I’ve definitely learned some things over the years.

But I don’t want to just be giving out tips and tricks – I want you to share yours, too! Maybe your approach for a certain dish or food is the complete opposite of how I work. Tell me about it! Anything that helps in the kitchen is always good to know, especially if it saves time and the amount of dirty dishes.

To start, I thought it would be good to talk about making pizza at home.

Valentine’s Day is sneaking up on us again.

How in the world does January go by so quickly each year? I feel like I blink and the entire month is gone.

We don’t normally do anything huge on Valentine’s Day, but we do like to either go out for a nice meal or make something special/different at home. I mean, it is the anniversary of our first date, so we definitely have to do something out of the ordinary.

In past years, we’ve gone to our favorite local restaurants and last year we made paella at home, which was awesome! We started with some Spanish wine, olives, and cheese, and watched a movie after dinner. Most nights, I’d go for that over a dinner out.

As of right now, I have no idea what we’re going to be doing this year! Probably picking something new to make at home for dinner….maybe putting a crib together? Who knows?

Finally – a real, honest to goodness quiche recipe here!

I’ve done a few other varieties – hashbrown crusted, rice crusted, even frittatas – but no classic quiche recipes until now. This took way too long.

Quiche is actually one of our most common meals, usually for dinner, simply because they are so easy to make. I will admit that I often claim to be “too tired/lazy” to make a pie crust for quiche, but really, it takes almost no time at all.

Even with whipping up a crust, the majority of the time you need to make quiche is spent baking away in the oven (i.e. – hands off time!). Plus, crushing butter into flour after work is a good stress reliever. And you get delicious quiche at the end of it….so it’s always a good deal.