I enjoy playing hostess and coming up with new ideas for get togethers. My friend Cristy and I were talking one day about making homemade pizzas and within a few minutes of chatting decided to combine it with a Girls' Night and were convinced that it must happen and soon. Girls' Night is something I try to have every month or two and it always involves delicious adult beverages. For awhile, we were on a flavored vodka kick but in the colder months, my friends and I have seemed to gravitate towards wine. (But I've already got other ideas in the works!!)
A few of the women attending have never made homemade pizza before and I thought it would be fun to make recipe cards for everyone to take home in case they wanted to try it again at home....or simply wanted a little reminder of our night. After I cut all of my paper, I wanted to continue the vintage look of my patterned paper and tore the edges of all of the pieces by hand. I'm pretty certain my coworkers at my family's business where I answer the phones a few mornings a week thought I was a little nuts.
Maybe I am....but I think the cards turned out really cute!
Once everyone was gathered around the table, I felt a little silly explaining how to do everything because I was worried about coming across as a know it all and I'm far from knowing everything there is to know about making pizza dough. The little I do know comes from repeated trial and error with my family as willing taste testers. However, my passion for good, homemade food and wanting to share with others how easy it really can be is what drives me and I hope I was able to share even just a little of my enthusiasm.
I made a large batch of pizza sauce the day before for those a little intimidated by making pizza margherita style. A few chose the ease of the sauce but I was pleasantly surprised by how many chose to try using fresh tomatoes for their pizzas. I provided all of the dough ingredients, sauce or the makings for it, and the cheese and everyone else was asked to bring the toppings for their favorite pizza and some wine to share. I was thrilled to see such variety!
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Cristy made a bacon, mushroom, and spinach pizza and I still am not sure how we didn't eat all the bacon when she was frying it up before she could get it on her pizza. Cathy chose sausage and spinach for hers. Carla went with classic pepperoni (and we nearly did eat all of it before it went on her pizza!) but added onions and green peppers. I don't know why I haven't added green peppers to any of my pepperoni pizzas before but you can be sure I will in the future! I topped mine with prosciutto and arugula because it is a combination I adore ever since I had it at Piccolo Forno.
Often, I've looked askance at Hawaiian pizza as an insult to pizza but Jen proved me wrong with a slight Italian twist. She used pineapple and pancetta and the salty sweet taste had me swooning. I will never scoff at Hawaiian pizza again. Angie showed me that feta can have a place in my heart by combining spinach, mushrooms, and feta on her pizza. Earlier in the day, Amber texted me with a dilemma; she couldn't decide which type of pizza she wanted to make and would it be okay if she made two? Of course! She deftly combined gorgonzola and sliced pear and drizzled the whole thing with trufle oil for a very intense pizza. Then, she brought us all to our knees with a dessert pizza that had all of the naughty things on it: peanut butter, nutella, marshamallows and bananas! I suppose bananas are good for you but when you dress them up with those other things, bananas become very decadent.
A slice from every pizza shows such creativity!
Aftermath.
