WEEKNIGHT PIZZA AND SORBET PARTY

One of my favorite ways to feed people at my house — whether it’s for four or forty — is to make giant sheet pans of different kinds of pizza. I then like to cut up those pizzas in small pieces so everyone can try as many assorted flavors as they’d like.

I serve it warm –then let people really go to town.

I hadn’t seen my friend Mary Ann much since our girl’s getaway in Ashland late July, so I thought it would be great to invite her and her family over for a quick, school night dinner.

Now usually I make my own dough

because it’s such a cinch to make

but I was particularly pinched for time that day so I purchased the perfectly workable balls of dough at Trader Joe’s.

Four one-pound balls of dough made four sheet pans of pizza– plenty for ten people plus lots of leftovers to share afterwards (I’ve since learned that the kid with the homemade pizza in their school lunch box automatically wins the Compare-My-Lunch contest).

My friend brought two wonderful salads to go alongside — a Radicchio, Pomegranate and Shaved Fennel

and an Arugula Salad with Roasted Pear, Parmesan and Cranberries.

They both were so delicious– so  fresh and packed with flavor

and her focus on the sides enabled me to hone in on the main deal.

Lucky for me I also got one of her cocktails  — what I like to call a Boozy Peach Slushie.

Frozen peaches + aged whiskey + lime juice + honey = Cocktail goodness.

Emboldened by the drink, I got busy prepping those pizzas.

I’d bought a couple ears of fresh corn at New Seasons for one of the pizzas, and I cut off the kernels straight off the cob.

I also halved some of the tomatoes I’d bought at the farmer’s market, and cut up the incredible Spanish chorizo I’d bought just for this occasion.

Oven cranked to 500 degrees, it was time to cook off these bad boys.

I can fit four of these sheet pans in my oven at a time, rotating the pans every few minutes on my three racks plus oven floor (as I did for my Christmas Eve Party last year)

Fifteen minutes later, three pizzas were done and the last one just a few minutes away.

There was a basic four cheese: marinara sauce plus mozzarella, provolone, fontina and Parmesan.

And a pepperoni with basil pesto.

There was a Yukon Gold one with that Spanish chorizo and green onion.

And the last one had that fresh corn, feta and tomatoes

with a homemade Cilantro-Pumpkin Seed Pesto atop (it was eaten so fast that I forgot to take a pic of this one — but this pizza was my personal favorite).

We all ate and ate until we couldn’t eat another bite.

Until we could — in this case, Mary Ann’s homemade sorbet.

It was so refreshing and puckery — the perfect end to a very filling meal.

What a fun night — and easy enough to pull off on a busy weeknight.

I urge you to skip the delivery next time and make a couple pizzas yourself; half the fun is tailoring your pizza using your favorite toppings  and the other half of said fun is stuffing your face with it.

I almost always add one different kind in the mix and some of my favorites have been the wild cards (like the andouille sausage and butternut squash puree below).

Next up, I can’t wait to show you some of the vintage finds I’ve found recently — and our upcoming Bake Sale. 

But for now, one last sweet treat.

Happy First Day of Regular Season Football, y’all!