Grilled Shrimp and Grape Tomato Pizza; Elegant Seafood Pizza; Daisy

     When I started reviewing the steps to creating these two pizzas, I realized that I was in for quite a bit of prep work.  I started, as I frequently do, by looking at the crust requirements.  For the grilled shrimp and tomato pizza, it required the same grilling crust we had used for several previous pizzas.  I scanned the freezer.  Apparently, last week I had reached the end of the stored supply.  I would have to make a new batch. 
     I threw the ingredients for the grilled crust recipe into the Kitchen Aide and checked out the "Elegant Seafood Pizza" recipe.  That required a basic crust.  I checked the freezer again.  There weren't any doughs labeled "Basic Crust".  There were a couple of Brioche doughs and a couple of foccacia doughs, but nothing labeled "basic".  I debated using a "grill crust".  I debated using a Brioche dough.  Then, I thought better of it and threw the ingredients for a basic dough into the Kitchen Aide, and let it do its thing.
     For the Elegant Seafood Pizza, the recipe suggested that to achieve the full effect of the elegance of the pizza, you should boil the shrimp at home.  Where I agree with the author that precooked shrimp isn't worth anything - it is always rubbery (overcooked) - and if you are putting it on a pizza and re-cooking it, it is most definitely going to be chewy.  Usually when a recipe (especially a pizza recipe) calls for precooked shrimp, I do it myself. I saute them in butter and garlic until it is somewhat shy of being cooked.  I figure, if you are going to put it on a pizza and put the pizza in the oven, it can finish cooking then.  There is such a fine line between cooked shrimp and overcooked shrimp. 
     However, NEVER, and I mean NEVER have I boiled shrimp.  I have read about it, and I realize that many people do it, but I have never believed in it.  I find that whenever you are boiling some kind of protein, it leaches all of the flavor out of the meat.  With such a delicate meat as shrimp, I was very skeptical.  BUT, one of the benefits of doing this pizza night the way that I have (anally) arranged it, is that I try new foods, new methods, and expand my horizons.  It didn't sound so bad, either.  There was garlic in the water, bay leaf, and allspice.  It would have to have some kind of flavor with that kind of action going on, right? 
     Now, I realized that the instructions said to turn off the heat under the boiling water, then put the shrimp in, but for 10 minutes?  My shrimp were pretty large and may be able to handle a little more heat than the typical little shrimp, but regardless of that fact, I still thought that 10 minutes was way too long for them to be swimming in the hot tub.  Not to mention, I was going to put them on a pizza that was going to cook for another 10 minutes or more in the oven.  I set my timer for 7 minutes.  
     Meanwhile, I prepared their ice bath.  I filled a large bowl with ice and topped it off with cold water.  I wanted to make sure that when they were done with the boiling water that they would stop cooking.  Unfortunately, I used the microwave timer.  During this time, my husband had come in from perusing the freezer and threw some bacon in the microwave to thaw.  When I heard the beep, I assumed it was the bacon, so when I looked back at the stove a few minutes later, I saw that my timer had ended some time ago.  I had no idea how long ago.  I quickly moved all of the shrimp to the ice water bath.
     The recipe also called for clam broth.  I didn't notice this when I had originally made my shopping list, and I am not sure I would have purchased such a thing if I did see it.  I figured, since I was flavoring the water the shrimp were boiling in, and most definitely, some of the shrimp flavoring was eking out into the water, I thought that would be a better choice for "clam broth".  So, once the shrimp were removed from the water, I poured off a little more than a cup of it into a jar to save for the next day's sauce.
     I had only purchased one pound of shrimp.  If I were going to follow both recipes exactly, I would have needed to purchase a pound and a half of shrimp.  I didn't for two reasons.  I figured that with the scallops, I really wasn't going to need a full half pound of shrimp.  Also for the grilled pizza, an entire pound of shrimp seemed excessive.  So, I only purchased the one pound, but cooked them all in the same manner, so that I would have cooked shrimp for the grilled pizza as well as the "Elegant" pizza.
     My next step was to prepare the lemon cream sauce for the grilled pizza.  I have made this before and have had problem with lumps.  I am not sure if, in the past, I had used regular flour instead of Wondra or maybe I didn't whisk enough while adding the cream to the roux or what, but I had always ended up throwing the stick blender in the pan and whirring it up until it was smooth. 
     I didn't have to do that this time, but it turned out I didn't have to.  It came out really smooth.  When it came time to add the parsley, though, I realized that wasn't one of the items I had prepared for my mise en place.  I had actually purchased the foul weed from the grocery store, and I was going to use it, darn it (I have purchased it several times before and never ended up using it, because it is usually a "post-oven" direction, or I subconsciously "forgot" that it was supposed to be added at some point).  I grabbed a handful of leaves and ripped them off the bunch.  I held the leaves over the pan and snipped the with a scissor, and most of the snips went into the sauce (there were some whole leaves that took the dive by accident, and some snips found themselves outside the pot on the stove or the wall - apparently my scissors have a torque on them and snips find themselves flying through the air, set on impact for the wall behind the stove.
     I started whisking again.  Some of the parsley that hadn't quite gotten chopped wound itself around the tines of my whisk.  I whisked through it and most of them found their way back into the sauce.  I kept whisking until the sauce was thickened.  I added the cheese and took the pan off the stove to cool, so I could put it in the refrigerator for the next day.
     While the sauce was cooling, I sliced the cheeses.  I feel it is very important to try new ingredients before they become part of the finished dish.  In sampling each component of a dish, I hope to be able to pair that flavor with other ingredients for new recipes.  So, I had to try the cheeses.  They were delicious!  The butterkase was smooth and creamy with a sharp tang to it.  The Gruyere was earthy and very sharp with a hint of nuttiness.  I looked behind me, and there on the counter was the freshly opened bottle of wine that I had used in the lemon cream sauce.  It seemed a shame to just put the cork back in it and put it back in the fridge, when I had these lovely cheeses here.  As I suspected, chardonnay was the perfect compliment to the two cheeses.

     I pulled out my prepared ingredients and thought that I could get the scallops and mushrooms sauteed before anyone arrived.  I hadn't gotten very far before Pam showed up.  I tried to concentrate on my task, but I hadn't seen her for a while, and the chitchat was distracting me from my task.

     She offered to work on something to help things move along.  I explained to her my failure at trying to find apricot nectar and handed her the apricots I had purchased instead.  She noted that one of them had a soft spot.  She said she would cut around it.  Then, she reached in the bag and pulled out a second apricot.  "Oh!" she exclaimed.  "What?", I said.  "Is that one bad too?".  She winced.  She took out the rest, and they all had soft spots of some kind.  She thought maybe since we only needed a little bit of the nectar that she could salvage the rest of each of the apricots, but when she cut them open, it looked as if they had rotted from the inside out.  I had purchased them for last week's pizza night, but didn't use them, since it was only me drinking.  I didn't think they would go bad that quickly, but maybe they were bad when I bought them.
     She set to task on finding another drink we could make with the ingredients we had on hand.  Her friend, Mary, had given us a Mr. Boston drink recipe book the week before, so we thought that we would try one of those.  She chose the "Vodka Daisy".  Vodka, lemon juice, grenadine.  Sounded delicious.  And, it was.
     Jennifer and Gracie showed up, and the kitchen became a buzz of Thursday night activity.  Pam was working on the drinks, I was sauteing mushrooms and scallops, Jennifer was preheating the oven for the cheese pizza for Gracie.  Jeff came home and declared he was "starving"!  He bustled into the thick of things and grabbed some bread for a peanut butter sandwich.  He offered a bite to Gracie, but she declined, knowing that there were better things to come.
     That didn't quite sooth the beast of hunger for him, and he grabbed another piece of bread and headed to the pan I had just removed the scallops and sauce from.  This time, Gracie couldn't resist.  Jeff gave her half of his slice of bread, and the two of them hovered over the pan and sopped up the extra sauce that was clinging to the pan.

      The sauce met with their approval.
      Meanwhile, Jennifer offered to roll out the crusts.  I had seen how the seafood sauce was shaping up, and thought we needed a deep dish for that one.  I told her to ignore the instructions to make 6 individual pizzas and roll it out for the deep dish.  I wanted to make sure none of the good stuff leaked out while baking.
     She didn't like the shape she made the Basic Crust into for the Elegant seafood pizza.  When she put it into the deep dish pan, it didn't uniformly fit in the pan.  The dough climbed up over the edge of the pan in some places and didn't go up the edges of the pan in other places, so she cut the excess pieces off and attached them to the low spots.

     Her methods proved sufficient enough to hold my elegant seafood and all the corresponding sauce.

          The next step for this pizza was a stint in the oven.  While that was baking, we gathered all the necessary for an outdoor dinner, including the ingredients for the Grilled Shrimp and Grape Tomato Pizza.  We gathered plates, ingredients, paper towels, our drinks (which Jen & I had refilled), etc., and headed outside.

     I started the grill and enjoyed a bit of the replenished drink.  Pam had said that the original drink (as written) wasn't sweet enough.  I thought it was plenty sweet, but too lemony.  Jennifer seemed to agree, so when we refilled mine and Jennifer's cocktail glasses, I doubled the vodka, halved the lemon, and halved the grenadine.  Fabulous!

     The grill was ready, so I started the deal.  Grill the dough on the hot side of the grill and flipped it onto the "cooler" side of the grill after a couple of minutes (any longer, and I'm trying to peel the burn marks off of it).

     I didn't bring the book out with me, and after a couple of cocktails, my rote recall is shot, so I just threw the rest of the ingredients onto the pizza (Jennifer offered to go inside to get the book, so I could be sure to put the ingredients on in the order they were intended - she knew it was bugging me.  However, I didn't want her to do that, and I need to get over that.).
     So, next went on the lemon cream sauce....

     Next was the halved grape tomatoes and the shrimp.

     Then, I covered everything with the butterkase.  I thought this was a good choice, because I was already worried that the shrimp would overcook, since I had already boiled them (hopefully until just before they were fully coked).   I thought that, perhaps, it would protect the shrimp from being turned into a rubbery oblivion.

     This was topped with the mozzarella.



     Next step was to top it with the foul weed.

     We closed the lid and went inside to remove the Elegant Seafood Pizza from the oven.  I had explained to my sisters that I had considered changing up the order because the two (seemingly random) pizzas were so similar, but I thought that this was an opportunity to compare and contrast two different methods for a seafood pizza, and we could critique and see which method proved to be the tastier 'za.
     I took the Elegant Pizza out of the oven and actually remembered the "post-oven" directions - putting on the pre-chopped parsley.  It was beautiful.

     Apparently, Gracie had some kind of problem with the toy horses she brought to play with.  It was apparently a technical difficulty, and Pam tried to assist....

     The grilled pizza wasn't quite ready, so we thought we would start on the Elegant Seafood Pizza, since it was just sitting there all lonely, and we were all hungry.  We served up some pieces, and then the mosquitoes decided they were hungry, too.  And attacking large humans while they were poised to feed was their perfect opportunity.  We swatted for about 1½ minutes, before we acquiesced and decided to go in. 

     All ran in with all of the plates, pizza, napkins, drinks, etc.  I went to check on the second pizza.  I lifted the lid of the grill.  It was almost done but could use just a little more heat to bubble it up and brown some parts.  I put the lid back down and heard a pffft.  I lifted the lid back up and peeked inside - no flame.  At this moment, Jennifer walked back outside and asked me how much longer the pizza needed on the grill.  I told her it was done, because we were out of propane!

     It was still pretty, and we brought it inside to share with all.
     We dished up and tried them both.  We started with the Elegant Pizza since it had time to cool (and some of us had already served some up before the mosquitoes attacked).  It was heavenly.  It was silky, earthy, creamy, butter, smooth and delicious!  The scallops were tender and juicy, and melted in my mouth the second I bit into them.  How can you top that?
     Then, I tried the grilled pizza.  It, too was delicious!  The grape tomatoes cut through the creamy richness of the Alfredo-like sauce and provided a nice tang to combat it.  The shrimp was perfectly cooked - no rubberiness detected at all.  Their fresh saltiness and their perfect texture against the sweetness of the tomatoes and the hint of lemon was the perfect combination.
     I tried to get my sisters to chose.  Tell me, which one is better?  Which is your favorite?  If you could only have one of these pizzas for the rest of your life, which would it be?  They both said that they were both good.  COP OUT! 

Heirloom Tomato Pizza

     I stopped by my friend Debi's house after work on Wednesday.  She seems to have an overabundance of basil and cannot find enough uses for it.  We walked out to her garden, and I saw that her basil plants were so tall they were about waist high.  I hewed them down with a trusty pair of kitchen shears and made myself a beautiful bouquet.  She had offered to give me a jar of pre-made pesto sauce that she had in her kitchen, but what is the fun in that?  Especially since there is all of this gorgeous basil that is crying out for purpose.

     I brought my bundle of herbs home and put them in a glass of water.  I pulled off enough leaves to measure two cups worth.  I looked though my fridge.  Oh yeah.... I ran out of garlic last week.  I looked through the fridge again, hoping I was mistaken.  No hidden jar of garlic.  I checked the cupboard where I usually keep an extra jar.  Nope.  Then, a thought struck me.  Earlier this spring, Jeff had mentioned that the garlic we had planted a couple of years ago had sprung up where the garden used to be.  What are the chances it is harvestable?  I had to check it out.  I donned my sandals and headed out to the far reaches of the yard.

     The area where Jeff had seen the garlic sprout was completely overgrown with weeds.  Not just any weeds, either.  These were super-colossal giant man-eating weeds.  I took a deep breath and dove in.  I found an onion.  I found several greens that look like it could be harboring a bulb of garlic underneath, but there was nothing under the dirt.  I searched a little while longer, hopeful that there was something tasty back there, but the weeds and the mosquitoes won.  I headed back inside with no garlic nor any facsimile of garlic.

     Once more, I looked through the refridgerator.  I emptied the vegetable drawer, I actually moved items (even dumped some scary looking containers that may have been food at one time), and I rearranged all of the pickles, jellies, mustards, and various condiments, looking for anything I could substitute.  I was rearranging the cheeses in the deli drawer, when I found it: half a bulb of garlic!  Eureka!  It wasn't much, but I figured it could get me by for now, and I could always add more tomorrow after I had gone to the store.

     I threw the basil, the garlic, and the oil into the Vitamix.  I opened the fridge again and realized I didn't have pine nuts either (again.... or still).  I still had hazelnuts, though, and that seemed to work great last time.  I threw those in and whirred it up with some Parmesan.  The licorice-y, green, garlicky aroma filled the kitchen, and my concoction became a beautiful bright green paste.

     I went back outside to get my heirloom tomatoes from the garden.  I hadn't been out to the garden for a few days.  Last time I was out there, there were several tomatoes on the plants, but they were mostly green still.  There were so many, in fact, that the plants were falling over and taking the tomato cages down with them.  I had righted them at the time, but I saw that some of the plants had rebelled again.  I walked inside the gate of the garden, and I was just heartbroken.  The chipmunks or squirrels or some hideous rodent type creature had been taking bites out of all the tomatoes.  Whatever it was wasn't content with taking a tomato or two and eating it all.  No, it had to take a bite out of each one and let the remainder of the orb rot on the vine.  Out of 30 tomato plants, I was only able to find 5 whole ripe tomatoes.  On the bright side, most of the ones I was able to salvage were zebra tomatoes.
     Once I was back in the kitchen, I looked over the second pizza recipe on the schedule.  It was called Smorgasbord, and the directions basically said to make any type of dough; divide the dough into 15 small pizzas; and bake it without toppings.  The idea was to set out several spreads, meats, and other stuff that each person could build their own snack.  I chose the rye crust and let my Kitchen Aide make the dough.  I set is aside to rise, while I enjoyed dinner with my husband.

     Unfortunately, I had forgotten about my poor dough until I was on my way to bed.  When I walked through the kitchen on my way, I saw the shiny metal bowl with the giant bubble of dough inside.  If I were to bake the little pizza doughs at that point, I would be up for another hour at least - dividing the dough, rolling it out, waiting for them to bake, and then waiting for them to cool once I had pulled them out of the oven.  I couldn't bring myself to do it.  I covered the mixer bowl with plastic wrap and placed the whole thing in the fridge in the empty spot that had been created earlier in my garlic search.  Then, I went to bed.

     Pam had texted me on Wednesday and told me she wasn't going to be able to make it for Thursday.  Jennifer was out of town and wasn't sure if Roger and the kids were going to join us.  She said she would make sure that they called if they were going to show up.  I hadn't heard from them.

     When I got home from work Thursday, I realized it was going to be a romantic evening for two.  There is no use in making 15 mini pizzas for the two of us AND an heirloom tomato pizza AND drink of the week.  I already had the dough, though, for the mini pizzas, so I was going to have to cook the crusts.  I could use them for anything, though, so it wasn't a big deal.  And, if Jeff and I decided that the one pizza wasn't enough, we could always throw some of the suggested toppings from the Smorgasbord recipe on top of a mini pizza or two and add those to our meal.

     I rolled out the grilling crust dough.  I sliced a couple of the zebra tomatoes and a "big mama" tomato.  I shredded half the Fontina and sliced the other half, and then I headed outside to the grill.  After it had warmed up, and I was able to scrape last weeks spillover off the grates, I plopped the dough on the grill over the burners that were on.  After a couple of minutes, it was ready to flip, and I carefully built the pizza - I spread the pesto over the crust, placed the sliced cheese on top of the pesto and alternated the green tomatoes and red tomatoes around the pizza.  I sprinkled chives, oregano, and sage over the tomatoes.  I covered the tomatoes and herbs with cheese and closed the lid of the grill to let the magic happen.

     It was fabulous - juicy, tart, cheesy.  It was both bright and creamy at the same time.  Jeff and I ate the entire pizza in no time flat.  We even considered licking the paddle on which it had been served.

Onion & Anchovy Pizza; Apple and Cheddar Cheese Pizza; Cherry Sling

     I had originally thought I was going to cancel pizza night.  My parents and Pam and I were planning a weekend trip to Washington State to visit relatives, and I thought we were leaving Thursday night.  I skipped my Sunday/Monday grocery trip.
     On Tuesday morning, I was informed that we were actually leaving Friday morning - early.  Our flight was at 7:25am on Friday, so we would have to leave my house around 6am.  No human should be required to get up earlier than 6am any day of the week, and I was thinking I wouldn't be able to fully enjoy the evening before if were to have to get up at 5:30am or earlier.  However, I convinced myself otherwise, because I can always sleep on the plane (and always DO), and I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't have my peeps over for pizza and drinks.  So I made a quick trip to the grocery store on the way home from work on Tuesday.

     I decided to start on Wednesday with the Brioche dough.  I mixed the water, sugar, and yeast in my little measuring cup.  I never used to "proof" the yeast before I used it.  I was too impatient and I usually just popped the dough into the freezer instead of baking it right away, so I thought I might use up all of the bubbling before the crust was baked if it started out bubbling.  I started doing it recently, because I had other things I could do while it bubbled away on the counter, and I am frequently putting the crust in the fridge for a slow rise instead of the freezer.  I just love the smell the yeast puts off when it's combined with water and sugar.  It is like fresh-baked bread - it is a warm, homey smell that instantly makes me hungry.  It is fascinating to watch, too.  It just keeps swirling around in the cup and starts foaming up, so it looks like a mini-cup of cappuccino.

   I threw the flour, salt, and eggs into the bowl of my Kitchen Aide.  Once the milk and butter had cooled, I threw that in there as well.  I mixed for a bit, but the dough was still very wet.  I probably ended up adding another full cup of flour (if not more) to keep it from sticking to the bowl, my fingers, and anything else with which it came into contact.  It seemed like a lot of dough, but I bagged it and threw it into the fridge for tomorrow.  That was about as far as I could go in preparing for the Apple Cheddar pizza, because the apples would brown if I would cut them in advance, and everything else would be fairly easy and quick to pull together.
     I looked over the recipe for the Grilled Onion and Anchovy pizza.  I realized that I did not purchase any anchovies, nor did I purchase any nicoise olives.  It may have been a message from my subconscious.  I have never been a fan of anchovies.  I have included them in previous recipes and even enjoyed them in the final concoction, but I don't like touching them, and I certainly don't like the thought of them (hairy fish) while I am eating.  I don't completely LOVE olives, either.  As a general rule, I do keep a supply of various olives on hand, but nicoise are not part of the repertoire. 

     I ran through the reasons one would add anchovies to a pizza.  It gives it a salty, oily flavor.  OK, what did I have that was salty and oily?  Blue cheese!  It was salty and oily, but would add a lovely level of creaminess to the pizza.  And, I could use a different type of olives.  I had regular black olives.  I find blue cheese and black olives to be a very delicious combination, so that was it.

     I decided to caramelize the onions.  Apparently, there is a thin line between "caramelizing" and "burning".  I may have traversed across that line with a toe or a couple of feet or maybe I tripped and fell over it.  Anyway, my onions were a little Cajun-style.  They were "blackened".   I thought I could throw them onto the stove at a low temperature and go find my husband to ask him about his day and chit chat with him for a while before checking on them again.  Either I was incorrect, or he was more verbose than usual.  I blame him.  I tasted the onions, though, and they tasted good - they just looked bad.  I decided to use them.  Any bitterness that was caused by the blackening would be neutralized by the blue cheese.

     After I made the garlic oil, I decided I had done enough damage, and I went to bed.

     When Jennifer arrived, I put her to work rolling out the Apple Cheddar pizza dough.  I set Pam up with the apples and asked her to cut them into "D" shapes.  I was a little worried about it, because last time I allowed her to slice, she was unable to produce thin, uniform slices.  Oh well, apples will look rustic in the pie if they aren't similarly shaped.  She actually did very well, however.  Jennifer's rolling skills were called into question, however.  She made, what I like to call, a rustic crust.  She did decide (and I agree with her decision) that the amount of dough was a greater amount than we needed.  She cut the dough in half and put one half into the freezer.  Meanwhile, I melted the butter and the apricot preserves.

     After reading through the ingredient list for the apple cheddar pizza, I decided that instead of making a rim to the crust and baking it on a flat pizza stone, I would put the crust into a deep dish pan, ensuring that there would be no spill-over.
     Jennifer combined the applesauce, the sugar, and the cornstarch and spread it over the crust.

         Pam's "D" slices and Jennifer's artistic arrangement made for a beautiful pie.  We brushed on the apricot/butter combo over the apples as instructed.  We arranged the "julienned" cheddar over the top of that.  I don't think that we arranged them to look like a star burst, but it was pretty.

     It was even more beautiful after it was cooked.

     Jennifer brought a "commercial" meat-lover's pizza for the kids and Roger, and that was also gorgeous and delicious!

     I pre-poked the crust for the grilled pizza, and it seemed to help.  We didn't get that usual tumor bubble in an awkward place in the crust.  It stayed as one cohesive piece of bread.  I flipped the crust to the cool side of the grill and topped it with the garlic oil, the "blackened" onions, the anchovies (er, I mean the blue cheese), and the olives.  I closed the lid of the grill and let it swelter in the indirect heat.

     We nibbled on the meat-lover's pizza while we grilled the onion and anchovy pizza.  Just after we sliced the grilled pizza, the back-yard gate opened, and Becky and Eric, our long lost neighbors walked in.  Becky and Eric grew up next door to us and are more like a sister and a brother than a "neighbor".  They both happened to be visiting from Colorado and decided to pop in.

     We Freese Sisters had already had a couple of Cherry Slings, but I ran inside to make them some.

     The fresh sour has now become a staple in our home.  Jeff scoffed at me when I told him I was going to make my own.  He said you can buy a whole liter of it for $1.33 at Cub, why would you waste your time squeezing all of those lemons and limes?  Once he tasted it, though, he was hooked and actually asks me to refill the pitcher once it's empty.

     I did not want to purchase cherry heering or Benedictine for the drink, since I already had kirsch and cognac.  I actually didn't have enough of the kirsch to cover this drink, but I did have Evan Williams Cherry, which I added to make up the difference.  Pam asked what it was, when I pulled it off of the liquor shelf, so I gave her a mini-shot to try.  She really enjoyed it.  It is sweet and cherry, but there is just a hint of the whiskey underneath that gives it its name.  I didn't have pretty cherries, like the ones in the picture, but I did have cinnamon cherries that I tried to hang on the sides of the glass. Since none of them were attached to another by the stem, though, they simply fell to the bottom of the glass.  This wasn't necessarily a bad thing.  Sure, you didn't have the pretty dressing while you were drinking the concoction, but once you are done, it was like a little present at the bottom of the glass.

     When I did the encore for Becky and Eric, I only had enough ingredients to make a mini drink for each of them.  They both tried it, and Becky said that it was pretty strong, and she probably couldn't drink a whole one anyway.  Eric, of course, liked it and slurped it up in a moment.  New drinks were required!

     I tried to replicate the drink without the crushed ice.  I threw some ice in a shaker and added the Evan Williams Cherry, the cognac, the pineapple juice, the black cherry jam, the gin, and sour.  I shook it and poured it into martini glasses.  I thought it was even better than the original - no diluting of the precious liquor.  Becky choked on it a little bit and made some comment about me giving her a stronger drink after she told me the first one was pretty strong.  I thought I was just toughening her up.

     After catching up, and after we had eaten as much of the main dishes as we were going to (we filled our main dish pocket, but not our dessert pocket), we were ready to move on to the apple cheddar pizza.  However, we had been outside for the entire meal, and at this point, the mosquitoes were jealous of our feeding frenzy and decided to start one of their own.  We moved the party inside, and with that the discussion blossomed into a massive political discussion.  I should mention that our sister from a different mister and our brother from another mother (and father, for that matter) are liberals, and the rest of us are not.  I, diplomatically, stayed quiet.  I am not as strong leaning as Pam and Becky and Eric are (in either direction), but it was fun to listen to the good-natured arguing.   It doesn't matter what your tilt is, it is amusing to watch the animation that goes on between friends in such arguments.  Neither believes that the other is correct, but at the end of the day, they are still friends.

     The apple cheddar pizza was great, though!  There were seconds served to a few, and I even sent the final (single) piece home with Becky - reportedly for her mother, but I suspect that she ate it on the way home.  It was sweet, but the sharp cheddar was a nice foil - it created a rich, creamy counterpoint to the sweet apples, but added a little kick with the sharpness of the cheese.  We all agreed that it was quite delicious, but more cheese might have made it spectacular.

Pizza Egg Rolls, Grilled Vegetable Pizza, Green-Eyed Lady

     I need to know how you buy a honey dew melon.  I thought you were supposed to sniff it, and it was supposed to smell like the flavor of the melon.  I sniffed all of the melons that Cub had, and none of them smelled like what I felt the melon should taste like.  I also have heard that you are supposed to knock on the melon, and it should sound hollow.  That theory is what I ended up going with, because none of them smelled like anything I wanted to eat.  Maybe none of them WERE something I wanted to eat.  I tried the melon after a couple of days, and it definitely didn't taste like I wanted it to (think water chestnuts with extra water).

     I cut the thing up any way.  I didn't know what else to do with it.  I cannot just throw it away and start over.  I guess I was hoping that it would magically ripen or that the small sample that Jeff and I had was the "wrong" part of the melon, and the right parts were quite delicious.

     I decided to make more sour.  Jeff really sucked up the remainder of the last batch I made, so even if we didn't need it for the drink because we decided to scrap the drink for the reason of the unripe melon, Jeff would make good use of it with whiskey.  I squeezed four lemons and four limes and added the simple syrup.  If I keep this up every week, my forearms are going to be really buff!

     I wanted to make the pesto in advance, so I wouldn't be scrambling for herbs when my guests came the following day.  I went out to the green house to gather my basil.  Alas, it was still the same stumpy plants it had been all summer, even though I have replanted it several times.  I snipped what I could, but I didn't have enough to fulfill the requirements of the recipe.  I looked around me.  I snipped some oregano.  Still not enough volume.  I took some chives, some garlic chives, and a smidgen of tarragon.  That ought to cover the amount of herbs that I needed.

     I came back inside, rinsed the herbs, and threw them into the Vitamix.  Next ingredient was: pine nuts.  I was sure that I didn't need to buy these.  Actually, I forgot to read the recipe for the pesto before I constructed my shopping list, so I didn't buy any.  I looked around the fridge, because I always seem to have pine nuts for some reason or another.  Nothing.  I did have hazelnuts, though.  That ought to work.  I threw those in.  Next:  Garlic.  I ALWAYS have garlic.  I usually have a jar, another jar on reserve, and a bulb or two just in case.  I looked around.  I had an almost empty jar of pre-chopped garlic in the refrigerator.  I looked in my emergency stash cupboard.   It was completed devoid of any garlic.  I made do.  I poured in the rest of the jar that was in the refrigerator and sprinkled a little of my dried garlic granules into the mix.  I also added in some chunks of Parmesan (don't need to pre-grate with the Vitamix).  I whirred everything up and then added the olive oil.  I kept whirring until everything seemed sufficiently combined.  It was a lovely bright green color.

     Next on my list of things to prepare was the vegetables.  It called for paddy pan squash.  I didn't have that, and I refused to buy any type of squash during the summer, when I am usually overrun by zucchini and summer squash.  Unfortunately, though, three of my four summer squash plants were killed in some freak drought incident (meaning, we never watered them, and they shriveled up and died).  I was able to rescue ONE zucchini, however.  That was my substitute for the paddy pan.  I sliced it thickly for grilling. 
     For the mushrooms, the recipe didn't indicate what kind I should use, and, since they are my favorite and (in my opinion, the most flavorful), I chose portabella.  I removed the hard stems and left them whole for grilling.
     It didn't call for it, but I also sliced up thick chinks of cucumber for grilling.  Jeff and I have been grilling them all summer and really enjoy it that way.  It has been our zucchini substitute.  On first taste it is very similar to grilled zucchini, but once you bite in, it has a nice squirt to it - a juiciness that crosses the vegetable line and makes it more fruity.
     The recipe also called for grilled cherry tomatoes, but we didn't grow any this year, and I couldn't foresee buying ANY type of tomatoes, when I have an entire field full of other kinds of tomatoes.  So, I sliced some large tomatoes thickly, thinking that if they were thick, I could sear them at a high heat, flip them, and sear the other side without turning them into mush.
     I brought all of my pre-sliced veggies out to the preheated grill and threw them on.  Unfortunately, after a couple of minutes, my tomatoes still disintegrated.  I was able to salvage some goo, but they weren't the seared solid planks that I was hoping for.  Everything else turned out pretty much as I had expected.  I set them aside to cool.
     While I was grilling the vegetables, I looked into my kitchen through the window and saw my husband on the home phone.  Later in the evening, I asked who had called, and he told me that it was Pam, putting in her pizza reservation (which I thought she had already done via voicemail earlier in the day).  He also said that Judy and Jeb were also coming with dessert.  Awesome!  Judy, our self-chosen "adopted" sister hasn't been to Pizza Night for quite some time. I was looking forward to it.

     For the egg rolls, I retrieved some mild Italian sausage that Jeff had purchased at a drastically reduced price (in massive quantity, of course).  I simply browned that up and set it aside.  Once it had cooled, I mixed it with some jarred spaghetti sauce, the mozzarella, and some grated Parmesan.  Then, I put everything away, started the dishwasher, and went to bed.
    
     I raced home from work and started in on making my house presentable (enough) for company.  I unloaded the dishwasher, swept and mopped the kitchen, and wiped down the counters.  I was really glad that we were going to have a house full of people. 

    Then, I started up the deep-fryer, which I had filled with peanut oil.  I grabbed the sausage, cheese, sauce mixture from the fridge, along with the egg roll wrappers.  The directions for wrapping up the pizza filling left a little to be desired.  It said to put a heaping tablespoon in the center of the wrapper.  That really didn't seem like enough to me.  Maybe I was using too large of a wrapper or maybe I just am an over-stuffer, I don't know.  So, I added a little more than a heaping tablespoon of filling.  I can't figure out why it didn't make all twenty-four pieces that the recipe promised.  I got 14, and since there was only one wrapper left, and it seemed a shame to save it or throw it away, so I threw some ham and cheese in the last one.  Also, it instructed me to fold the wrapper over the filling in such a way that they ended up being square packets.  I was hoping they would be more egg roll shaped, but I wasn't sure how to go about that.  So I obediently followed the directions.

     Pam and the Liggetts showed up with a meat-lover's pizza from Costco and dug in to help.  I put Pam on crust duty - she rolled out the crust for the grilled pizza.  Once she finished that project, she sat on the sidelines and talked with my Dad, who was hadn't been to a pizza night in quite some time.  He was in town to help Jennifer and Roger remodel their kitchen.

 

     Jennifer attacked the frying duties.  I had heated the oven up to 200º to keep the egg rolls warm until they were all ready.  Half-way through, however, I remembered the meat pizza and figured we should start cooking that.  I turned the oven up to 400º.  Jen and I had discussed this maneuver and came to the conclusion that it would only crisp up the egg rolls more.  When Jennifer opened the oven after a bit to add more egg rolls to the pile, we found that they didn't crisp more.  And, in fact, some of them had started leaking their filling.  We decided to remove them from the oven. 

     We baked up the meat-lover's pizza, but not before we noticed that the label claimed it had five meats, but only contained beef and pork.  Apparently, there was bacon, hamburger, salami, pepperoni, and sausage.  And, we were hoping for venison, elk, moose, bear, and caribou. 
     Meanwhile, we mixed up a batch of the Green-Eyed Lady.  Nothing had changed with the melon.  It was still pretty bland.  I threw it into the Vitamix anyway.  I added the absinthe (Lucid) and the Midori in equal parts, and poured in the sour.  I put in a cup full of ice and let it do its thing.

     About this time, Judy and Jeb showed up.  They brought dessert - Babka (I think that was what she called it) - and a present for me!  Judy had made me a pair of earrings for me.  What an awesome surprise!  These two are always so bright and cheery, it really is a pleasure to be around them.  Maybe it will rub off on me...  Hmm, maybe not.  Jennifer, Pam, and I had already finished the first pitcher of Green-Eyed Lady, so Judy and I headed in to make another batch.  She had tasted Jennifer's drink and didn't hesitate when I asked if she wanted her own.  It was sweet and fruity, with just a hint of the anise on the back end of it.   Judy exclaimed that she was going to have to figure out a way to lick the bottom of the martini glass.  I have to say that the booze and syrup drastically improved that melon.  I think this is what I will always do with a melon that hasn't lived up to its potential!

     I had put the crust on the grill just before this, and the drink-making took longer than I had anticipated.  I scorched half of the top of the crust.  Since the crust puffed up on the direct grilling, I was thinking that I could just rip off the burnt parts and drive on.  That didn't really work very well, though, I was starting to make holes in the crust.  Jennifer suggested that with the pesto and all the yummy grilled vegetables, not to mention the blue cheese crumbles, we wouldn't notice or even be able to tell that there was a little char underneath.  I do believe she was right.  The pizza was delicious!

     This is the second drink in a row that we have made that had whole fruit in it.  It seems like (based on these two instances) these types of drinks are more filling than the ones with no fruit.  Of course, it could be that we liked the fruit drinks so much that we drank much more of them than the other drinks.  Hard to say which reason is correct, but I was full after one egg roll and one slice of pizza.

     Even though we were all full, we were all ready for the dessert.  By unspoken mutual agreement, we (well, OK, just the adult females) started bringing dishes inside and loading the dishwasher.  Leftover pizza and egg rolls were portioned off into Ziplocs.  The last of the pitcher was poured into glasses, and the counters were wiped down.  While the last of the dishes and food was coming inside, the boys started scrambling for the inside.  Apparently, the mosquitoes were on the hunt, and they love humans that have a hint of sausage flavoring to them.  Dessert was going to be enjoyed inside.    And, it was.