Well, it has been an interesting 24 hours. Let me start off by saying that Dave and I are home safe now. I’m typing this from the comfort of my couch, snuggled up with a blanket. But we haven’t been here long, unfortunately.

Dave and I were supposed to fly home on New Year’s Eve, and the weather forecast said there would be serious snowfall in Chicago late in the afternoon (which is when our flight was). We tried to move to an earlier departure, but after some frustrating customer service shenanigans in which our bookings were changed without our knowledge, we ended up staying on the original flight. We weren’t allowed to change to before the snowfall without paying $400 because there wasn’t any weather. Yet.

And guess what happened. The weather forecast was correct! The snow came down, and we were more than an hour late out of Chicago and missed our connection in Detroit by literally 5 minutes. As Dave and I sprinted to our gate, we watched the plane back away outside. So we spent New Year’s Eve in an airport hotel 20 miles outside Detroit. I am so thankful that the one nearby restaurant we could find that was open allowed us to do takeout (and it wasn’t half bad!). And I’m thankful that today everything went as planned, and we rode in first class the whole way home. (This trip was the first time I had ever ridden in first class. It’s going to be tough to go back to coach )

I’m excited to be back home and ready to blog again after a nice holiday break. This pizza recipe is an easy one, but if you are a pizza-per-week family like we are, sometimes it’s nice to go off the beaten path a little and not do tomato or pesto (even if you have the best tomato sauce in the entire universe).

We made this recipe the week before we left on our trip, because the ingredients are so easy. If you want, you can add more toppings like corn or green onions. The sky’s the limit!

Here’s what you need:
Your favorite pizza crust, prepared (I suggest this one if you have a sourdough starter)
1 chicken breast
1/4 to 1/2 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce – we are a KC barbecue household
2 cups of shredded mozzarella
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup diced red onion
4 cloves garlic, diced
Salt and pepper
Red pepper flakes

Boil the chicken breast and then use a fork to shred it into bite-sized pieces. While cooking the chicken, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Roll out your pizza crust and spread with the barbecue sauce to your desired thickness – keep in mind that the BBQ sauce will be sweeter and stronger than the tomato sauce you normally use, so I err on the side of lightness. Sprinkle the mozzarella on the pizza, followed by the chicken, garlic and red onions. Top with the cheddar cheese and bake for 12-16 minutes, or until the crust is done and the cheese is nicely browned.

When the pizza’s out of the oven, dress with salt, pepper, and a ton of red pepper flakes.