Summer Pizza Party

This past week my Cooking Club girls and I had a Farmer's Market pizza night at my friend Annie's house.  We fried up bacon, chopped herbs, sliced tomatoes, and shredded cheese for our crispy, gooey pizzas.  We used a lahvosh crust, which made the pizzas just absolutely heavenly.  It's a thin cracker crust that lets the toppings do the talking.

The night consisted of mouthfuls of artichoke, mushroom, bacon, pesto pizza, cold Prosecco, and the best key lime ice cream dessert I have ever eaten in my life.  We chatted about our husband's 'interesting' show watching habits, how our kids make us laugh daily, the Olympics, and some deep deep things that only pizza and good girlfriends can understand.

Since Cooking Club night is pretty much one of my favorite nights of the month and pizza is surely one of my favorite foods, I thought I would share some things that make homemade pizza making a bit more fun and delicious.  

This pizza board is beautiful and sturdy and so fun for 'throwing' pizzas onto a pizza stone in the oven.  I borrowed this from my mother-in-law and it was so fun to make the pizzas on and serve them on as well.  Dual purposes, people.  I found a similar one on Amazon.

My garden is a bit overgrown right now, but this teeny tiny basil plant is just beginning to make an effort to earn it's keep.  Luke and I planted this basil from seeds and it's only taken about 3 months for it to look like this. Fresh basil is a must for the perfect pizza.  We picked up this seed kit at Target in the spring, but I found one on, you guessed it, Amazon.

Have you ever had this goat cheese?  It is perfection.  Kevin believes it to be potent, but I could literally eat it on bread or toast or pizza or with a spoon everyday.  Lily does eat it as a main course and not a topping, but her breath (and our nostrils) suffer for it.  I had some leftover crusts from Cooking Club, so we cleaned out the fridge to make some pizzas with the kids and this cheese has now become a topping favorite.  Local friends, it's cheaper to pick up at Trader Joe's than Hy-Vee or another big grocery store.

When I made my nightmare trip to IKEA in Denver toting two children about a month ago, I picked up this bamboo tablet stand.  I use my iPad when I cook and this piece allows me to cook without bending over a screen.  And, it's super cute sitting in a nook on my counter.  

If you haven't made homemade pizza, I suggest you fire up the grill or turn on the oven and get creative.  Better yet, get some girlfriends together and make a night of it.  The thing I love about pizza is you can literally put almost anything on it and it's going to turn out yummy.  

I hope you have a Sunny Saturday today!