Unchangeable traditions. Every family has them, and mine is no different.
My parents have always had a knack for cooking. My mother in particular is what our family would categorize as a “kitchen bully,” or for short, KB. She’ll deny it until the day she dies, but my mother hates when other people are in her kitchen, let alone attempting to cook. It might be one of the reasons why I perfected making dessert … I was never allowed to cook dinner!
With my mother’s affinity for cooking, came the creation of MYOP night. The acronym stands for Make Your Own Pizza night. When we were little, we each made our own, fight over who had more bubbles form on their pizza that generally looked more like flying saucers than circles. But they were good. As we’ve graduated into adulthood, my sisters and I have taken a back-seat role, allowing my mother to experiment and perfect pizzas for all of us. For what once was sippy cups and saucer pizzas is now loads of wine and fabulously adventurous mixtures.
So when I feel like a little comfort, its pizza, homemade pizza. Making pizzas when you’re poor is basically like using anything (and/or everything) in your pantry. A kitchen sink pizza, sorta. For dinner tonight I concocted a sauteed arugula, goat cheese, date, and mint pizza with reduced balsamic vinegar. I promise it tastes good.
Here are the ingredients, for one personal pizza: arugula, goat cheese, dates, pizza dough, mint, balsamic vinegar. Also needed are salt, pepper, olive oil, garlic.
Put olive oil in a sauté pan and add half a clove of chopped garlic. Add about a handful of arugula and allow it to wilt but not burn. Take off the burner when done to the right “doneness.” 
Chop dates (dried or fresh) into small pieces. Roll out the pizza into your desired shape. I like a huge crust, so that how I tend to roll, but its to your preference. Brush olive oil on the dough (instead of sauce) and place the sauteed arugula on top. Top with goat cheese and dates. Place in hot oven (450 F) on the bottom rack and cook until cheese bubbles and crust is golden brown.
While the pizza is cooking put about a cup of balsamic vinegar on the stove and allow it to reduce on a low heat. Steam will escape from the put, this is normal. The vinegar will reduce more than half and become thicker and sweeter.
Chop a bit of remaining arugula (not wilted) with fresh mint. This will be a little bit of a salad on top of the pizza.
When the pizza is done, top with salad mixture and drizzle with reduced balsamic. Enjoy!
