Slice of Iowa Pizza

It's National Pizza Day and why not celebrate with my Slice of Iowa Pizza, with two of Iowa's top agricultural products and "the sauce America loves to eat."

When I found out that today was National Pizza Day I couldn't pass up the chance to:

• #1 eat pizza
• #2 share my love of Iowa
• #3 talk about my farm 😊

Who doesn't love pizza?  My family and I have a weekly tradition of having pizza every Friday night.  We make a couple pizzas (because one doesn't cut it anymore for my growing kids), pop a bag of popcorn and throw it in our "official" popcorn bowl with some M&Ms, and have a picnic in the living room and watch a movie.  Pizza always hits the spot for people of all ages and I love how you can top your pizza with anything.

When we make homemade pizza at home the kids usually ask for one of our go-to favorites - pepperoni or sausage and mushroom for one of the pizzas and the second is deemed "the parents" pizza, so we usually do a little more with it.  So I decided it would be fun to make an "Iowa" pizza topped with some of our favorite Iowa foods.

The first thing I thought of was shredded pork.  I love making shredded pork with and for everything.  Plus it is a great make once, eat twice freezer staple of our house.  We raise pigs on our farm so we always have a lot of pork on hand.  And did you know that Iowa has more pigs than any other state in the nation.  In fact, Iowa raises nearly one-third of all pigs in the United States.

The second ingredient that I added was sweet corn.  Now, Minnesota is actually the top producer of sweet corn, but Iowa raises the most corn total (field, sweet and pop) in the nation.  A large majority of that corn Iowa raises is field corn, which primarily goes towards livestock feed and ethanol.  But I figured I couldn't claim to have an Iowa pizza with out sweet corn on it!

And the last ingredient that completes the Slice of Iowa Pizza is Cookies BBQ Sauce.  Cookies is made in Wall Lake, Iowa and they make several flavors of BBQ Sauce, other sauces, seasonings and salsas.  I use their Flavor Enhancer on everything and love their Sweet & Spicy BBQ Sauce and Wings-N-Things Hot Sauce.  Using one of the BBQ Sauces as the pizza sauce was the perfect way of pulling the Iowa pizza all together.

Slice of Iowa Pizza

1 prepared Pizza Crust (in true Iowa fashion I used Fareway's Crispy Pizza Crust mix)

1/2 cup Cookies Sweet & Spicy BBQ Sauce

1 heaping cup Shredded Pork

1/2 cup Sweet Corn kernels, drained

2 cups Pizza blend shredded cheese

Prepare pizza crust as directed by package, or use your favorite homemade recipe, and bake at 425°F for 3 minutes.  Then top the crust with the BBQ Sauce, Pork, Corn and Cheese.  Bake 10 to 12 additional minutes until the top is brown and bubbly.

Are you hungry now?  I love the flavor combination of BBQ Sauce with the shredded Corn, and the sweet corn gives a nice little sweet pop in each bite!  I hope you gather with your family and enjoy a Slice of Iowa Pizza soon!  What is your favorite flavor of pizza?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Easy Freezer Sweet Corn

The beginning of August in Iowa might as well be known as "sweet corn freezing" season, because by this time everyone has been eating corn on the cob for about a month, the sweet corn left in your patch is nearing being too done, and you don't want to pass up not being able to have sweet corn all year long.  So you gather some friends, family, neighbors, etc. and you have your own little "Freezer Sweet Corn Party".

The party starts in the sweet corn patch picking your ears of sweet corn.

After you pick your sweet corn you then need everyone to help husk it.

Age doesn't matter.  You can find a job for everyone.

Next, the party can move home so you can start cutting off all of the kernels of sweet corn.

My preferred method for cutting the sweet corn kernels off the cob is the "bundt pan" method.

Watch out for people eating on the job...

Then you take all of your sweet corn kernels and mix them with sugar, salt and ice water.

Then you place the mixture in freezer bags.

After a days work of freezing sweet corn, a nap might be in need.

So, there you have it - how to throw your own "Freezer Sweet Corn Party".  We enjoy doing this every year and the work of one day pays off when you're able to enjoy sweet corn all year long.

Recipes for freezing sweet corn can be more work than they need to be, but mine is simple and gets the job done.  There is no need to cook the sweet corn - you'll do that when you get it out of the freezer in the winter to enjoy it.  Also, add to your sweet corn as you prepare it from the freezer anyway you like - butter, pepper, seasonings, etc.

Easy Freezer Sweet Corn

20 cups sweet corn kernels
1 cup sugar
1/8 cup salt
5 cups ice water

Place all of the ingredients in a large bowl or pan.  Mix and Freeze.  It really is just that easy and simple.

What do you like to freeze and can?  Remember to Comment for a Cause and check out all of the other great recipes being shared this week in celebration of National Farmers Market Week!

#FarmersMarket Thursday Recipes

Easy Freezer Sweet Corn by Corn, Beans, Pigs & Kids
Farmers Market Freezer Fruit Cocktail Mix by Frugal Pantry
Crisp & Spicy Cucumber Salad by Jolene's Recipe Journal
Pecan Honey Butter by Family Around The Table
Pasta with Saffron Pepper Sauce by A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures
Santa Fe Pork with Peach Salsa by Palatable Pastime
Summer Vegetable and Chicken Stir Fry by Cooking with Carlee

First Sweet Corn of the Season

Last night for supper we had our first pick of sweet corn and it was sooo good!  

What made it even better is that we had some friends over and had in my opinion a classic summer supper - pork chops from the grill, sweet corn, apple pie and ice cream!  Can't wait to have BLTs and more sweet corn tonight!