pizza party!

On Friday, we had some friends over for pizza.  Above is the apple rhubarb berry crisp Toni and I made for dessert.

I use the pizza dough recipe from The Breadbaker's Apprentice and this was the third time I had made it.  I kept on forgetting to make the dough ahead of time to give it a long proof period, and ended up only making the dough that morning. I liked the effect - it was much more manageable and I could stretch the dough out quite a bit more without tears.

Clockwise from top left: smoked tuna, sun-dried tomatoes, red onion, mushroom, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives

Two pounds of shredded mozzarella!

Table setting for six

 Other toppings: wine salami, spinach, garlic, feta

The sauce - I smeared a spoonful of pesto, then sprinkled a teaspoon of oregano, then a couple spoons of home made tomato sauce. 

I'm really terrible at waiting for guests to arrive when I have everything ready half an hour before they get there. I had so much dough for pizza, I figured I had time for a food experiment. I brushed a blank with olive oil and sprinkled sea salt on it. YUM it was so good. 

This is the second one. They turned out pretty impressive. 

Toni and the Skipper decided we needed a pesto only appy. Again, YUM. 

Things start to get a bit fuzzy here because the guests arrived, bottles of wine and beer were opened and poured, and some went in me. I was cooking the pizzas, drinking wine and beer as well as conversing with my dear friends, so I couldn't tell you about the individual pizzas that followed except that they were all delicious. 

I admit I started out with wine, but gosh my friends are so good at beers too that it was hard not to drink a little of everything on the table.

We had lots of leftovers and everyone was fully stuffed by night's end. I definitely overindulged but it was so good. I went to bed full and drunk. Woke up with a screaming headache at 4:30am, took something, and went back to bed.

It was so wonderful to have dinner with five people I love dearly. It made me deeply thankful for the good people in my life. There was talk of a big send-off party for me when I go (whenever that is - we still don't know but we are now halfway through the promised five months). I have left the Island so many times and have had lots of farewell parties thrown for me. You know me, I love a good party. Maybe that's why I keep on leaving and coming back? ;-)