Pizza Party

Pizza is one of those things that everyone loves and is really easy to make.  Next time you have a pizza party, or just feel like eating something delicious, try these variations on the original!
Drink...

Dark and Stormy

I really wanted to make a pizza drink, but I just couldn't think of anything that contained pizza ingredients and would be drinkable.  So, then I started thinking about what you drink with pizza...
My first thought was beer.  However, as much as possible, I try not to take the easy way out and just post a beer or a glass of wine.  All the beer cocktails I could find either didn't sound good or didn't seem like they would go with pizza.  
So, then I decided that another drink which goes well with pizza is soda (or pop for all my Chicago readers :).  Recently my friends Alex and Ashley introduced me to a Dark and Stormy, which contains ginger beer (a soda).  It's a popular drink in British Commonwealth countries such as Bermuda and Australia.  I had a little bit of a hard time finding ginger beer (well, a hard time finding reasonably priced ginger beer), but the search was well worth it, because the drink is delicious and enjoyable with a slice of pizza.
Ingredients:

• dark rum
• ginger beer
• lime for garnish 

Directions:

1. Fill a glass with ice.  
2. Pour 2 oz of rum and 8 oz of ginger beer into the glass.  Stir it up and make is stormy :)
3. Garnish with a slice of lime.

Dinner...

Goat Cheese and Pesto Pizza

*recipe from PBS
I don't know if I have mentioned this in previous blog posts, but I LOVE cheese, and goat cheese is one of my favorites.  If you haven't tried goat cheese before and are thinking, "eww, gross, goat cheese??", you should stop saying that and try it.  It sounds gross because it's from a goat, but actually goats are probably less gross than cows, and it is really good.  So, try it if you haven't already.  If you have had it, then you know how good it is and will love this pizza.  
The original recipe says to grill the pizza, which would be really good, but I don't have a grill, so I did it in the oven and it was still delicious.  If you are using a raw pizza dough like I did, I would pre-bake the dough before putting any ingredients on it so it will be nice and crispy when finished.
Ingredients:

• Pizza dough for one pizza (make your own or grab some prepared dough from your favorite pizza place - Trader Joe's has great pre-made pizza dough)
• Pesto (the original recipe gives directions on how to make your own, but I just bought pre-made pesto)
• 5 oz fresh goat cheese
• Toppings of choice: I just used tomatoes, but you could add other stuff like mushrooms or olives

Directions:

1. To prepare your pizza, heat up your grill (either gas or charcoal is fine) and spray the grates well with non-stick spray. Also, spray the BACK of a cookie sheet well with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside. If you are using the oven, preheat your oven according to the directions on the dough package.
2. Roll out your dough on a lightly floured surface to roughly about 12” in diameter. It doesn’t have to be perfect! Carefully transfer the pizza dough to the back of the greased cookie sheet and carry outside to the grill.(or into the oven)
3. Gently, lift the dough off the back of the cookie sheet and onto the grill. (or keep it on the cookie sheet and place in the oven.  A pizza stone would be even better if you have it) Close the grill and cook for about 5 minutes, checking occasionally. The dough should be starting to bubble up and if you check the bottom, it should be looking a little charred.
4. Slide the dough off the grill and back onto the back of the cookie sheet. (Or, remove the dough from the oven)
5.  Flip pizza so the charred side is on top then spread pesto all over the top. Add toppings of your choice (I used thin tomato slices and it was great) followed by soft mounds of goat cheese.
6. Carefully slide dough back onto the grill (or into the oven), close top and cook for another 5-6 minutes, checking often. When done, the crust should be puffy, the bottom slightly charred and the cheese melted.
7. Slide your finished pizza back onto your cookie sheet (Or remove it from the oven), let cool and slice up! 

Dessert...

Apple Dessert Pizza

*recipe from: Us Girls...Our Views
When I was a kid, we used to go Pizza Hut's lunch buffet on the day we registered for school.  My favorite part of the buffet was the dessert pizza.  They had apple or cherry and both were delicious.  This recipe is really similar to that pizza, and I can't wait to also try it with cherry!
Ingredients:
Dough: 
(Recipe yields 3 pizza crusts..using 12 inch pizza pans.  Freeze extra pre-baked pizza crusts if not using right away.  You need 1 crust for this dessert)

• 1 1/2 cups plus 3 tablespoons warm water
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 4 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• Mix and knead until well blended.
• Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise till doubled in bulk.
• Divide dough into 3 pieces and roll out to fit 3 pizza pans.
• Let rise 40 minutes. Pre-bake crust at 425º for 8 minutes.
• Now you are ready to spread on the filling and streusel.

Apple Filling:

• 4 apples, (approx 4 cups) peeled, cored, and sliced..I used McIntosh
• 2 tablespoons butter
• Saute apples in butter until tender.

Streusel:

• 1/2 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• Mix dry ingredients and cut in the butter with a pastry blender or by hand until mixture is crumbly.

Glaze:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Blend well until smooth.

Directions:

1. Spread apple filling over pre-baked pizza crust.
2. Sprinkle streusel over top and bake at 425º for 15 minutes or until crust is golden in color. If you like the crust a bit crunchy like we do, bake it a little longer.
3. Cool for 10 minutes, then drizzle with glaze.