California Club Pizza

This was a great pizza for a hot South Georgia summer evening.  It was almost like having a BLT on a pizza crust and we thoroughly enjoyed every bite.  I prepared my basic pizza dough in the breadmaker.  The recipe called for whole wheat pizza dough, but since Mike's favorite saying is "Fiber makes me sad," I caved in and used the basic dough recipe.
 I rolled it out on my pizza stone and sprinkled some mexican shredded cheese and bacon bits over the unbaked crust.  You could buy bacon and cook it and crumble it, but I find it much easier to buy the pre-packaged bacon bits (NOT Bacos!) which you can find with the salad dressings at the supermarket.  I baked the pizza at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, but then when I checked the bottom of the crust it wasn't quite as crispy as I like it so I left it in for another 2 minutes. 

When I took it out of the oven Mike thought it looked good enough to eat like that, but there was more to do!  While the dough was rising,  I had chopped some romaine lettuce; then I made a dressing of Miracle Whip, lime juice, and cilantro.  The recipe called for mayonnaise, but we are a Miracle Whip family. 

I find that is a great divisive factor in society as we know it, some people are staunchly mayo advocates whereas others will use only salad dressing.  I know very few people who don't have an opinion one way or the other! I can only encourage "tolerance"; if your brother wants salad dressing at the family reunion and you want mayo, I urge you to peacefully settle your differences!  I poured the dressing over the lettuce and tossed it gently before arranging it over the warm crust.  The recipe calls for putting alfalfa sprouts over the romaine, and that does sound delicious, but I journeyed to four different stores in Valdosta and was unable to find alfalfa sprouts. When I saw bean sprouts on the shelf at the last store, I finally gave up my quest and decided they would be an acceptable substitute.   After topping the pizza with the bean sprouts, I finished up our masterpiece with thin slices of plum tomatoes and avocado.  I must confess I wasn't sure how well we would like this pizza; there wasn't much to it and I thought maybe there wouldn't be a whole lot of flavor.  I was pleasantly surprised to see how much Mike enjoyed it; he is a definite meat lover and I was afraid all the veggies might cause this pizza not to be his favorite.   The film of the night was a sequel to the "Anne of Green Gables" which we watched a couple of weeks ago.  That afternoon though, we went to see "The Hunger Games" (I know we are clearly behind the times!).  It was a bit disquieting, but a very interesting story and a very well made movie.  It is reminiscent of the "games" in Ancient Rome, and as we were walking out of the theater Mike made a comment that a few years ago he would have been sure that our modern society could never descend into such depravity; now he isn't quite so convinced.  I must say I agree, and that is a very disturbing thought!