Homemade pizza is something the kids love, and She Who Puts Up With Me and I can be happy about it, too, since we know exactly what goes in. Too bad it can be such a pain to make. The killer is the crust. Making a homemade crust takes forever (and I never can seem to get it to stretch out right), and the storebought ones are almost as expensive as a whole frozen pizza.

On an inspiration recently, I discovered the pizzadilla: a cross between a pizza and a quesadilla, it tastes just like a thin-crust pizza, with one tenth the bother. Plus, you cook them stovetop, so you don't need to use the oven (a big deal in the summer when you don't want to heat up the whole house).

Start with a flour tortilla. Each pizzadilla will be the size of the tortilla (these are single-serve pizzas) so buy an appropriate size. 8-inchers seem to work well for grown-ups and Scooter, who's five. The twins, who are two, will split an 8-inch pizzadilla between them. If you have teenagers, go for the 12-inch monster tortillas.

Brush the tortilla with a thin coat of vegetable oil. This is just to keep the sauce from soaking into the tortilla and making it soggy.

Next, spread on a layer of pizza sauce. I used storebought stuff in a jar, but remember I'm too lazy to make my own crust either. Each tortilla takes around three tablespoons (1.5 oz) of sauce, and you can use more or less as you desire.

Finally, the toppings. Mozzarella cheese, of course. Pepperoni, mushrooms, pineapple, hamburger, whatever floats your boat.

To cook, slide it onto a large nonstick frying pan over medium-low heat. Cover and cook until the cheese is melted, only a couple minutes. If the heat is too high, the tortilla could char before the cheese melts. For a crisper crust, leave the pan uncovered (in which case it will take a little longer to cook).

The pizzadillas are so quick to make that if I discover I didn't make enough, I can cook up another in just a few minutes.