Pizza Pot Pie!

 Almost anytime I am eating out somewhere and love whatever I'm eating I think about how I could try and make it at home.  Don't get me wrong, I think about it alright but that's usually as far as I get.  After twelve years of going to Oven Grinders it never once occurred to me to try and make a pizza pot pie at home.  Crazy!

Sunday Pizza: 01.09.2011

It was a whirlwind week and weekend.  My dad got into town and his new condo then my sister had a baby, Kate!  Exciting!

Sunday pizza was with the regulars Mom, Dad, Emily, Pete, and Elliott.  E and Z are in school together and they act like brothers.  It is awesome cuz 90% of the time they entertain each other.  Then there's that 10% of the time when they fight like brothers.  Part of growing up.

In this week's episode both boys really showed off their skills in pizza making.  I have lots of pictures this time... hope you don't mind.

Both looking at the camera.  Next time, smile :)

Nice pounding technique

Xtra Cheese Please

Is Domino's hiring?

Oven ready

I learned a new term Sunday, "Plate me!"  Yes!  It is used when a person, such as Pete, takes a bite of piping hot, just out of the oven pizza and realizes 450 degree pizza sauce is really friggin hot and needs a plate to throw his pizza onto!  I was laughing like you wouldn't believe, but not so hard that I couldn't grab the camera and snap him scalding himself.  Luckily, he's a good sport and smiled for the camera. Nice work, Pete.  About an hour later I asked if he wanted some Aloe. [As if I actually know where that is in the house.]

Being silly. Yes, the pizza is on the table...

After dinner Z and E played like no one else were around.  First, they played behind our ginormous bean bag.  Then they decided it was coloring time.  We all just watched them move from one thing to the next and chatted merrily.

Looks like they're both righty

After everyone but my dad left we had a sweet moment where Z asked him to read a book to him before bed.  I melt.  There are lots of special moments in your life and this was one of them.  Dad, I'm glad you have a home out here and can't wait for J-Mo to come out too.

Awe.

Any ideas for next Sunday Pizza?  I'm stumped?  Here are some thoughts... Something fun with the dough like wheat or blue corn.  Deep Dish.  Super thin crust.  Special ingredients.

Sunday Pizza: 01.02.2011

The royal STUFF!

Welcome to 2011!  All futuristic sounding huh?  So far so good, my sis had a baby and my dad just bought a condo out here (can I get a woop woop!?)  Should be a great year - I can feel it!

Our first Sunday pizza of the year totally rocked!  [Am I dating myself using totally and rocked? Probably. Dude.]  My friend, Andrea, and her fam came over for pizza.  What's so cool about Andrea?  Well, she's my friend from college.  That's right, we be kickin' it old school like!

Great "cheese"!

Ya right.  By my calculations all four adults total probably consumed LESS bevie than one of us did any given night out in college.  ahh, college... no rules, no responsibilities, no one waking you up at 6:30 am with a dirty diaper.  Good times.

B has a foot on Z at least! Impressive.

That said, we had a fab time.  Andrea only lives 15 minutes away and sadly this is the first time we've gotten our act together to hang out.  It was like old times and it felt like we just picked up where we left off.  Love when that happens.

Brendan performating the dough

The guest pizza maker is Brendan.  He's an adorable 3.5 year old and has a foot on Z as you can see in the pix.  Z was kind of intimidated I think.  The whole night Z wanted, "UP!" and was happy to watch Brendan play.  Cute.  In the end he warmed up and they were starting to kind of play together.

Z's new phrase is "No Touch" when he wants to do something without help.  The last picture shows him saying "No Touch" and pushing my hands away.  Classic.

Make a pizza this year!  Tell me all about it.  Better yet, come on over and have some Sunday pizza!

Sunday Pizza: 12.26.2010

Last Sunday Pizza 2010

Last Sunday Pizza of the year!  We started doing Sunday Pizza dinners in March.  I read Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers and decided we needed to work towards 10,000 hours of pizza making to get really good.  We're really not much closer to that goal but it has morphed into a wonderful hobby for me and excuse to get together with friends and family.  Like the variety of toppings on a pizza, Sunday Pizza 2010 has ranged from just us to a large group and sometimes not on Sunday.

Phone used to show Z making pizza

This Sunday was special.  The family pitched in and got my mother-in-law, Grandma Choo-Choo, an iPhone!  It is so exciting to be able to Facetime with her on a whim.  Sunday Pizza was just us and while C was baking the sausage and grating the cheese I was on Z duty.  So I decided to call G-Ma Choo-Choo.  While we were on Facetime we realized why not have them watch Z make his pizza!  Woot Woot!  So rather than taking of pictures of it I held the iPhone.  It was awesome!   The rest of these pictures were once we hung up.  The pizza was amazing.  LOVE the new batch of sausage and sauce.  Heaven!

Captain STUFF!

Ready to bake

Watching Dad make pizza

Finished Product

Sausage: Go Big or Go Home

CostCo.  Need I say more?  CostCo is headquartered in Issaquah, WA.  Anyone that has ever visited always comments, "What's with everyone here and CostCo?"  It is not uncommon to be at a party and overhear (or have) the following convo:

Guest:  "Wow this artichoke dip is awesome!"
Host:  "Oh I know! CostCo!"
Guest: "AHH CostCo! I love that place!"

We are out of Italian Sausage and pizza sauce.  Naturally, we get the main ingredients at Seattle's obsession, CostCo.  [sidebar - I also got a 10 lb tube of ground beef, you read right, to make a gagillion meals with for my expecting sister].  Anyway, the first two times we made sausage we used 4-5 lbs of pork.  Since CostCo has pork shoulder we decided to get it there [it is what we used to make sausage with Em and her family in Ritzville, WA]

We get home and realize this baby is over 13 lbs!  WHAT?!  Ok calming down... we have a freezer it'll be ok.  You've seen most of the sausage making process here so I won't repeat.  Really this time there were four differences, we used a scale to weigh the spices (Merry Christmas to us), we added more spice in general, we used red wine mixed with pomegranate juice as the binder, and we make a boatload of it.  [yep Em non-farming kids use that phrase too!]

This post is pretty much about the pictures of the ridiculous amounts of sausage we made.  In case you are wondering we do not stuff it into casings since it will almost all go on pizzas eventually.  As an experiment half has a red wine/ pom juice as a binder and half has no binder.  I'll let you know the verdict eventually.  Sampled cooked and plain, the batch without the binder is much stronger tasting since the sweet juice isn't there to tone it down.

Pork in strips getting slightly frozen

Yep, ALL this seasoning is for the sausage!

So is this garlic!

Coated with seasoning and ready to grind

Sunday Pizza: 12.12.2010

Classic!  This picture is so priceless I want to just say, "Thank you!  Goodnight!" cuz it just says it all!  C took this one and is clearly not a fan on using the flash (ahem) :)   That said, he did capture the moment beautifully!  

December 12 was a monumental party day.  In the morning we had our PEPS buds over for breakfast.  Then we had two families over for Sunday Pizza.  It was an epic day which we determined should probably never happen again cuz we were beat.  

The little guy on the left, we discovered, does not like touching icky things.  He patted once on that dough and made the face above, insert schreechy-like sound.  Yep, he wanted nothing to do with this whole pizza making business.  Period, the end.  He was a good sport and stayed on the pizza bench and supervised everyone else.  This is one cute kid lemme tell you.  Aside from this picture he was always smiling. 

Speaking of cute kids... here's the little man and his uncooked finished product.  Z decided he wanted a pepperoni lovers pizza today.  He piled four huge baby handfuls of it on his pizza.  Here he is gazing at his work of art. (minus some pepperoni)

Here's the order of events that has been working for us with a batch making 2 large pizzas:

C makes the first pizza
Once it is in the oven we make kiddie pizzas
Kiddie pizzas go in when the first pizza is done
Cut and nosh on first pizza (and a salad)
C makes second pizza
Kiddie pizzas come out (they don't take as long)
Second pizza goes in the oven
Eat until we are Chicago style STUFFED!

Sunday Pizza: 12.5.2010

Is it already mid-week?!  What happens to the days man!  Remember the good ol' days when time would crawl by as you eagerly waited for winter break... Then how LONG and wonderful winter break was!?  Let's not even talk about summer break cuz that's just down right depressing to think I only have about 10 weekends of sun fun to fill.  My point?  It is Dec 2010 and I feel like I just got used to writing 2010.  I gotta keep up.

Sunday was a sweet contrast to last Sunday.  It was us and the little man hanging out and making pizza galore!  In fact, we still have leftovers in the fridge. Yikes!  We threw on garlic slivers which I really really dug. mmm garlic.  Get this, we actually added some cubed ham onto the pizza.  I am surprised to say that I liked it.  Doubt I'll insist it is on every pizza from here on out but still, pretty tasty.

Speaking of insisting... Zeke made sure he got his own ball of dough to make his pizza.  He's officially a pro.  He takes after his mom in that he wanted to load the pizza with ALL of the cheese!  Love it!  When he wasn't looking I skimmed some off the top so we had enough cheese for the last pizza C made.  [Sorry Bear - I would feel bad but Z ate like seriously 2 bites of pizza and was all into peas and carrots]

Sunday Pizza: 11.28.2010 (Part 2)

Normally, when one of us cooks Z runs over to the cook, arms raised and yells "Up! Up! Up!..." until you figure out a way to cook one handed in order to pick him up.  Which is why whenever I am on my own with Z we make scrambled eggs.  Easy.

 Anyway, C made this lovely wide step with the idea that Z could watch us cook.  Then my friend, Emily, emailed and said she knows someone with a toddler that helps his parents make pizza.  Well, we gotta try this!

I'll let the pictures, again, do the talking. One quick thing - the boys knew exactly what to do!  "No warming up in the bullpen" as my dad always says.  I would have gotten big fat tears in my eyes if I weren't so busy laughing. Here's Z and Elliott's first pizzas!

Sunday Pizza: 11.28.2010 (Part 1)

Sunday Pizza was the best one yet!  Where to start??  My camera!  So I documented C making pizza.  Then C documented Z and his friend Elliott making their own mini-pizzas!  Even cuter than you can imagine.  Plus, my dad is still in town (leaves this afternoon) and he was part of the fun and the most animated I've seen him in forever!

[Awesome and excitedly shocking side note - Dad put a bid on a condo 15 min from our house!]

Sunday was exactly what this blog is all about, friends and family getting together, eating pizza, and having a fab time!  Tear...

Part 1 will be C making the pizza.  Part 2 will be Z and Elliott making their pizzas.  I'm going to let the pictures  do the talking even though I LOVE to talk. Btw - the pizza tasted even better than it looks!