true confession & pizza party!
i have become so obsessed with 30 rock & sports night on netflix that i watch liz lemon, casey mccall, dan rydell and jack donaghy every available moment and have abandoned blogging responsibilities for these shows. waste of a life, much?
anyway, aside from highly recommending either series, i’ll also do a quick summer fun blog for a party idea! we did this in june and it was a great way to socialize around dinner rather than just getting together with friend for an hour, woofing down a meal and calling it a night. it was a grill your own pizza party! (well… then the grill didn’t have any gas so it became a bake your communal pizza on a stone in the oven party) but it was delicious and fun nonetheless.
first, meet our hostess for the evening. her name is sydney and she was a little tired from puppy daycare all day, but she was gracious and hospitable, nonetheless ;)
she also lives for ice cubes and cool kitchen floors in the summer. isn’t she the prettiest?!
anyway… first, we began with watermelon granitas. HELLO. so easy and great! here’s how you make them…
in a blender, combine 4 cups of watermelon, 1/3 cup sugar and the juice from 1/2 a lime. blend until there are no chunks, pour into a shallow dish and freeze for an hour. halfway through the freeze, removed and chunk it up with a fork and then freeze for the remaining half hour. using an ice cream scoop, dish the icy concoction into a glass and pour seltzer, vodka, gingerale… whatever you prefer. mash it up with a spoon and sip away. don’t forget to garnish with a lime wedge, too! so refreshing, summery and pink!
we also snacked on seasoned pretzels (addicting), veggies and hummus. but we didn’t want to spoil our appetite before it was pizza time!
as the hostess, provide the pizza dough (we had plain and whole wheat dough from whole foods) and have your guests bring some of their favorite toppings. i brought along: fresh mozzarella, bruschetta marinated tomatoes, grilled zucchini, carmelized balsamic onions and we also had homemade tomato sauce and ricotta cheese.
normally i’m all for whole wheat products, but in this case, i much preferred the white crust. it held up better to the pizza toppings!
pizza 1: tomato sauce, marinated tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, torn basil and zucchini.
pizza 2: whole wheat dough, sauce & tomatoes, fresh ricotta, carmelized onions and zucchini.
we blasted the oven to 500 degrees with the pizza stone inside. then, we turned the oven down a bit and let the dough bake for about 6-8 minutes. we then added the toppings, baked for another 10 and served.
served poolside with a fresh mix of pink lemonade and iced tea? perfect summer night.
hope your 4th of july was spectacular and i promise to take more frequent breaks from tracy jordan, dana whitaker, et al. to share some of the recipes i’ve been whipping up this past month!
xxoo,
eliz
