Cooking Club--pizza

 

 

Pizza!  Pizza Pie!

Welcome to my Cooking  Club Post!

It happened to be Pizza night ( 3 years ago--oh my!)  because Paul got a brand new pizza oven.  One that goes right on top of his Webber Grill.

                                           

It was a small group of Cooking Clubbers, but some very serious ones.

See how all the guys are making sure Paul is using his pizza oven correctly?

All kidding aside, it was a fun evening of reminiscing and visiting.

I've always thought that having people over to dinner and breaking bread together (we always have bread!  This time in the form of pizza crust) is kind of sacred in it's way. Connecting with friends over food is one of the greatest joys in life.

This past year has been a crazy one for getting together---

---Pizza Night was 3 years ago. 

---and then we had 6 more Cooking Clubs. (I will post soon, I promise)

--Covid hit and we met no more.

--until November 2020

--where Sally said  "I'll never more take for granted the pleasure of small talk with friends over a good meal"

So, when I say that we had a fun evening of visiting, that is nothing to scoff at or take for granted.

Friends and food are important!

Just this afternoon a text was going around, trying to find time to get together for another cooking club get-together.  It's hard to do.

Half of this group is retired now and as April pointed out  

Retired People tend to run a muck!!

They really do!  and it makes me happy and sad at the same time.

Pizza is important too!

See some of our homemade pizza's below.

This one was made in the oven--not the pizza oven.  I can't remember why exactly.  It's been three years!  LOL.  

This was my appetizer pizza. 

The veggie bars with the crescent roll crust?  I just made it into a pizza shape.

The only photo of our dessert brownie pizza slices!  Almost covered with ice-cream.

And a good carrot cookie.

Made with love by April.

Let's go back to the beginning for a minute--

Before their guests (all of us) arrived, Sally and Paul were busy with this:

And once we got there--- they did this:

Paul is going to give it his best shot!

Ta Dah!!

Before we ate, we enjoyed a cocktail on the deck--then it got too cold to eat outside so we ventured inside.

Where Debbie quickly put the finishing touches on her grilled romaine salad.

Where we ate and reminisced about old pizza parlors and then had to tell our spouses favorite pizza and see if we got it correct.

Spoiler alert!

We all did.   We know our partners well.

We all remembered having "homemade" pizza like this when we were growing up in the 60's and 70's.

It all came out of a box!  We were lucky if our mom's could find some sliced pepperoni to put on top.

So...table talk was remembering Shakey's Pizza Parlor. All of us had memories of it --the dark  parlor with a fireplace and long tables.  They  had big windows where you could watch the pizza makers putting everything together and then slide it into that oven.  It was so cool!

We all loved Shakey's.

Those of us from the Pacific Northwest all knew and loved Pizza Pete Pizza. And Godfather's Pizza was another one we all remembered. 

Now those were good pizzas!

Everyone's favorite pizza?

Our spouses guessed right!

Paul--anchovies

Sally- bee sting   prosciutto  jalapenos and honey

Charlie -- Canadian bacon and pineapple and pepperoni  (he's indecisive his wife says--but he agreed)

Deb E -- Canadian bacon and pineapple

Rich--pepperoni  black olives and mushrooms

me/Debbie-- chicken Thai pizza

Doug -- pepperoni and extra cheese

April --pepperoni and extra cheese

I always find it interesting when couples like the exact same thing.  Rich and I NEVER do. Never ever.

Later table talk started being about foods we would or wouldn't eat (it IS a food themed club after all). Who would eat snails?  Or worms?  Or insects?

Well guess what?  Sally served us a cocktail that was very good!  Very good.

Very . Good.

This liquor was colored by an insect up until 2006!  LOL

We all got a good laugh over that.

Campari is an alcoholic liqueur, considered an apéritif (20.5%, 21%, 24%, 25%, or 28.5% ABV, depending on the country in which it is sold), obtained from the infusion of herbs and fruit (including chinotto and cascarilla) in alcohol and water. It is a bitters, characterised by its dark red colour.
Campari is often used in cocktails and is commonly served with soda water or citrus juice, or with prosecco as a spritz. It is produced by the Alfredo Campari Group, a multi-national company based in Italy.

History

Campari was invented in 1860 by Gaspare Campari in Novara, Italy. It was originally coloured with carmine dye, derived from crushed cochineal insects, which gave the drink its distinctive red colour. In 2006, Gruppo Campari ceased using carmine in its production.^[1]

In 1904, Campari's first production plant was opened in Sesto San Giovanni, near Milan, Italy. The company required bars that bought Campari to display the Campari Bitters sign. Under the direction of Davide Campari, Gaspare's son, the company began to export the beverage, first to Nice in the heart of the French Riviera, then overseas. The Campari brand is now distributed in over 190 countries.

In the Italian market, Campari mixed with soda water is sold in individual bottles as Campari Soda (10% alcohol by volume). Campari Soda is packaged in a distinctive bottle that was designed by Fortunato Depero in 1932.

Campari is an essential ingredient in the classic Negroni cocktail, the Garibaldi cocktail, the Americano (which was named at a time when few Americans were aware of Campari), and the spritz (an aperitif popular in northern Italy).

It was the best Cooking Club ever!

(except for our missing friends)

It was a great evening with the best friends ever!

And these cooking club meals were all good too... just click on the link to see.

Cooking Club #1 -Meals your mom used to make

Cooking Club #2- Cajun Cooking

Cooking Club #3 - Let's all go to Hawaii

Cooking Club #4 - American Regional Cooking --Great Lakes Region, featuring: SUPPER CLUBS!

Cooking Club #5 - Famous Chefs  (long post with other stuff mixed in, but just trust me)

Cooking Club #6 -Meatball Madness -- or something round  (long post combined with Famous Chef's.  Scroll thru some stuff to get there)

Cooking Club #7 - Breakfast for dinner

Cooking Club #8 - Slow Cooking

Cooking Club #9 - Mexican Street Food

Cooking Club #10- Your Christmas Cookie Heritage

Cooking Club #11 - Cooking from labels/back of box, can, or carton

Cooking Club #12 - It's all Greek to Me!

Cooking Club #13 - A Root Beer Tasting Holiday

Cooking Club #14 - Thai Food

Coming Soon -- Pacific Northwest Region

Cooking Club Scavenger Hunt

Milk Street Mania

9x13 cooking

Jewish Deli Night

Italian Dinner

Happy Eating Everybody!

See you next time.

Friday Friend Recipe #207 - Mini Pizzas

Making my way thru my Friday Friend Cookbook, one recipe at a time.

What is the Friday Friend cookbook? I had about 50 of my closest friends and family on an e-mail forum which I called the Friday Friends (from all over the county). At first, most of them didn't know each other, (they knew me) but over the past 18 years, we've answered and shared silly--and serious---questions, exchanged Secret Santa Christmas gifts, had a dieting contest in which we paid a $1 a week and that money went to a scholarship fund for a Friday Friends son's memorial scholarship, and we went on a great vacation for my 52 birthday. (plus so much more....)

AND, we contributed recipes for a cookbook.

I was looking at the cookbook the other night and I said, "I should make every recipe in here for my blog."
The Handyman--who knows me better than I know myself (this happened to be a question on the Friday Friend forum once---does your spouse/partner know you better than you know yourself?)--said,  "you'll never, EVER do that."
WELL---maybe I'll show him!  Maybe I will.

Which brings me to this... recipe #207

Cindy's Mini Pizzas

Let me just apologize for the quality of the photos before you think 'ewwww', because as you know, it's the friendship and the story/memory that matters, not the photos. They look a little 'over done', but they really weren't.  Having said that---everyone loves these anyway! They are the perfect camping food, cooking with kids food, work night because you need something fast and comforting food.

I made these last fall when we were spending time at our cabin. We were having a serious game playing week-- we had to keep track of who won what, to be sure no mistakes were made on whose name went on the cabin trophy.

Gin and tonics, wine, Yahtzee, cribbage, Nertz (or Bolshevik, depending on who you are) Speed, Rummy--- and Mini Pizzas!  I was not taking time out to cook a complicated meal.

This was perfect!

Let me introduce you to Cindy B!   Yes, we are 207 recipes into the countdown and yes, this is her first appearance.

Cindy, or CJ, is in the middle in the photo below---flanked by me on the left and Debbie E (my 6am Tuesday coffee friend) on the right.

This photo is also about 20 years old.

I think we look exactly the same.

Cindy moved from Winnemucca about 22 years ago--back to Wyoming, her home-state.

The thing I hate about people who move away (besides missing them) is that we didn't have cell phones back in the day and coming up with photos is hard for me. Cindy is  not much of a social media user, so stealing photos of her is also difficult. 

So,  here you have it---20 years ago!

My favorite Cindy story---is one that has to do with food.

Early in our friendship, Cindy had invited us to dinner at 5.

Now, when I have people over for dinner, I invite them for, let's say 5, but we don't actually eat until 6 or 6:30. We have appetizers and cocktails or whatever.

Cindy, on the other hand meant that dinner was at 5 and they do more of their socializing afterwards with dessert and coffee or drinks.  Anyway, we were still at our house at 5:05 trying to get all our kids in the car when the phone rang and she was asking where we were--dinner was ready! 

I felt HORRIBLE as it was early in our friendship and I had made a terrible misstep!   A social faux-pax!!

We laugh about it now--but it was probably not so funny to her when we weren't on time for her lovely dinner.  We arrived at 5:10, slid into our seats at the table where her family was patiently waiting to eat, and after a bit of awkwardness on our part, for being the bumbling dinner guests, had a very nice and fun evening.

We quickly fell into each other's grooves tho-- she began to invite us to dinner earlier, before the time she actually wanted to eat, so we could be fashionably late without worry of ruining a dinner.  And she also started to give her family an energy snack before coming to my house for dinner, as they would have to wait an hour with grumbling tummies if they didn't have something in them. 

Since Cindy was not a prolific recipe contributor for the Friday Friend Cookbooks, (I think she might only have one more to go) I am going to share a couple photos of what she is up to now--20 years after those photos were taking above.

She owns her own Yoga Studio  in Gillette, Wyoming, called Wyoga Studios. She is a grandma, a traveler and to be perfectly honest---not a great letter writer!

She doesn't always write letters, but when she does, they are worth putting aside until my chores and errands are done, indulging myself with coffee or tea or wine, then sitting back to read all about her adventures.

This is recipe #207 only 160 left to go!