Far from the Madding Crowd

Sometimes the perfect antidote for a Monday is a quiet evening with family. No big to-do; just an evening where you can let you hair down and feel at home. That is how our Monday was; quiet, chilled and enjoyable. Perhaps it could be attributed to the fact that only four of us were present; Larry, Sr., Sara, Todd and me. Larry, Jr. had to work but I intended to take some pizza to him afterward.

I arrived at around 6:30 pm with the dough, which rose beautifully and left my house smelling of yeast.Sara and I steadily got to work while exchanging stories of our respective days, the people in it and some ideas for future pizza nights. She had spent all day at The City Grocery with her sister helping Todd gussy the place up so she seemed to appreciate the lack of a rush.

Sara, once again, expertly rolled out the dough while chatting to me as if it was the easiest thing in the world. I'm so relieved that the dough-roll-out baton has not been passed to me quite yet. The last time I tried it, things got ugly and I needed to be rescued. So, I've come to appreciate the strengths in others that fill in for my weaknesses. That is what makes a tradition like our Pizza Night so wonderful. Everyone can bring their strengths to the table and we can all learn from each other.

Larry, Sr. was still recovering from his wisdom extraction procedure so Sara and I allowed him to relax and watch television while we worked. Todd was still at work and would join us later. We made two pizzas as usual. One meat-lovers and one veggie.

Meat-Lovers Extraordinaire:
If you have been reading along with us you should be familiar with this classic. We used some home-made Bolognese sauce as the base. Sara laid it on quite thick this time and added pepperoni, salami, capicola, Italian sausage and LOTS of Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.
 

I was on the Veggie committee. We decided to try some Sundried Tomato Hummus as the base followed by thinly sliced tomato, cubanelle, green pepper, green onions, fresh, whole basil leaves, Feta cheese and finally, Mozzarella cheese. We were going to follow this up with fresh avocado after the pizza came off the grill but unfortunately it was too late for the avocado...

Sara and I were on the grilling committee this time and we were fully prepared. She had preheated the grill to 600°F with all the burners on. When the time came for the pizzas to go on she turned all but the outside two burners off, closed the lid and walked away. We were confident as we returned to the house and our Blue Moon's in chilled beer mugs.

Our confidence paid off; those pizzas were beautiful! The veggie pizza crust was crisp while the Meat-Lovers crust groaned under the pressure of all the meat and cheese. You know that was good eating!


Some of the suggestions we had for future pizzas was for mushrooms, red or caramelized onion and maybe kalamata olives on the veggie pizzas. I also suggested perhaps taking a cue from Carrabba's Chicken Bryan and do a pizza with grilled chicken, goat cheese, sundried tomatoes and a basil lemon butter sauce. And I am also wondering what a Gruyere and red onion pizza would taste like.

So, until next time, thanks for reading. Hope you have a great week. Check back again next week to see what wild and wacky adventure we are on.