Post Turkey Day Pizza Party

John, Nate and I were in Georgia for the Thanksgiving holiday with the Lacy family. We had a fantastic pizza party at our brother and sister in law's house (Greer and Melissa) on Saturday night. We always have a blast when we all get together considering we share an intense love for delicious food and great wine. My favorite kind of family get-together's are those where we casually eat (I like to call it grazing) and sip throughout the evening. It allows you to enjoy the food and the company at a leisurely pace. In short, it extends meal time...and who doesn't love meal time??

We started out with some cheese and nibbles:

Costco Spinach Dip and Pita Chips

Saga Blue Cheese

Baked Brie topped with Apricot Preserves and sliced almonds (a recent favorite)

BBQ Meatballs

Though we could have easily made a meal on this alone, we moved on to a pizza course later in the evening. Nate and I took over in the kitchen where we collaborated on four fantastic creations.

First up was a simple Margarita pizza. We used Pillsbury thin crust pizza dough and topped it with a thin layer of Contadina tomato paste (another Ina Garten tip that I've adopted. The paste is sweet/tart and has a concentrated tomato flavor- and the "paste" texture means you avoid soggy crust from a liquidy sauce.) We then layered slices of fresh mozzarella cheese and sliced roma tomatoes and baked it on a pizza stone (oven at 500 degrees) for about 8 minutes. The ticket is a piping hot oven and the stone really creates a super crispy crust. You have to keep an eye on it though because it goes from golden and crispy to burnt fairly quickly. We pulled it out of the oven, topped it with fresh basil and sliced into smallish squares so that everyone could sample.

We prefer the eat as you bake method. My parents have been doing this since I was little. You bake the pizzas one at a time and everyone has a small piece of each one while its piping hot. It can be hard to restrain yourself on the first couple, but its worth it if you can pace yourself.

Next up was the "meat lovers" pizza for the boys. Tomato paste, sweet Italian sausage, pepperoni and fresh mozzarella. We did this one on a cookie sheet in a second oven as an experiment. As compared to cooking the first pizza directly on a stone, it was actualy suprisingly similar. We were still able to get a crispy crust which is good to know.

Thirdly- a mushroom, goat cheese, thyme and arugula pizza. This one was probably my favorite, mostly because I absolutely adore mushrooms, goat cheese and arugula. Make a pizza out of them and you're sure to have a winner. I did a garlic oil base instead of tomato sauce. I rougly chopped (into large chunks) about 5 or 6 cloves of garlic and toasted them slowly in some olive oil in a skillet until golden brown. I also added 6 or 8 springs of fresh thyme to the oil while it was hot as well. The oil is then infused with garlic/thyme flavor..hmm. I brushed the crust generously with the oil before layering the sauteed mushrooms (browned slightly in olive oil with some fresh thyme, salt and pepper), the goat cheese crumbles and the toasted garlic pieces . While the pizza was baking, I very lightly dressed some fresh arugula with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. We then piled it atop the pie before slicing and serving.

Lastly- Nate assembled the grand finale pie. He baked the crust topped with the tomato paste and fresh mozzarella first. As it came out, he topped the pizza with paper thin slices of prosciutto de parma and more fresh arugula. The crispy crust, tangy tomato flavor, salty-chewy prosciutto and peppery arugula was a heavenly combination for sure.

Utterly STUFFED by this point, we managed to make room for a small sliver of Publix tiramisu with our last glass of vino. I'd never tried the Publix version before- it was actually quite good. It is more cake like- than pudding like, it has less of the mascarpone cream and it is very heavy on the coffee flavor which I love. It was just the "pick me up" (Tiramisu means pick-me-up in Italian) we needed to get us home after a fantastic day of eating, drinking and being merry.

Note: The wine selection for the evening- courtesy of Greer's phenomenal wine cellar was OUTSTANDING. It deserves a post of its own so stay tuned.

I wish I had this BEAUTIFUL kitchen to cook all of the time!! Someday...