My two year old is wickedly smart. He is also fearless. For a mother, this is not an easy combination to deal with on a daily basis. He loves to unscrew the bath tub plug and "shout" down the drain. (It echoes just a bit.) He also loves to pull the baby proof outlet covers out of their socket. I dread the day he outgrows his crib. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

I've learned one very important thing today in the kitchen. It's not so much what type of flour you use, but how you handle it. During my fourth pizza crust attempt, I hit the jackpot. Here's the recipe:

1 cup warm water (never over 115)

yeast

1 tsp salt

1 or 2 tsp brown sugar

organic rye flour (not pumpernickel) 2- 3 cups

olive oil

If you get a chance, watch someone make crust from the cooking channel. After dissolving the yeast in the warm water and letting it sit for 5 minutes, there should be a bubbly concentration of yeast in the middle of the bowl. Add a little bit of olive oil. Mix the salt and brown sugar into the flour in a seperate bowl. Next, slowly add the flour into the water and yeast. Stir with a wooden spoon. Pour the doughy mixture onto a nonstick cookie sheet or a very well floured clean surface. Gently knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Pour a little oil in the bottom of a clean bowl and place the dough in the bowl. Turn the dough over and cover this bowl with a clean kitchen towel. Let rise for one hour.

After it has risen, punch it down and divide the dough into two equal halves. Here's the tricky part. Gently mold the dough into a flat circle. I held the dough between my two hands and gently clapped it over and over again- being careful not to drop it. Rotate the dough like a wheel as you clap. When you've got it as big as you can get it without it falling to pieces, then place it on the nonstick pan. You can gently spread it out a little more with your fingertips - but the more you touch it, the flatter and denser it will turn out.

Bake at 475 for about 8 minutes. My pizza crust (my fourth attempt today) turned out light and chewy - just the way my kids like it.

*I didn't include pizza toppings in this recipe, but you could certainly throw the toppings on before you bake it. Use a little oil as well. *

Here's one more non-yeast version:

3/4 cup brown rice flour

3/4 cup oat flour

1/2 cup spelt flour

salt (1 tsp)

brown sugar (2 - 4 tsp)

2 - 4 tsp of rumford baking powder

warm water - about one cup

The baking powder really caused this crust to puff up nicely. In fact, it's almost too thick. I chose to save this one for my O, and I whipped up some pizza sauce using tomato paste, olive oil, water, salt, minced garlic, dried parsely, brown sugar and dried basil. My five year old hasn't tasted this yet, but my husband said it "smelled" good.

If I have the energy today, the last one I will try will be a half rye, half millet combination. I have one packet of yeast left. Bless my husband. He said that he enjoyed the smells coming from my kitchen. That one compliment means a lot. Good eats, everyone.