Kathleen; You are almost as bad as me.If they were to Judge fruitcakes. I would get the Blue ribbon but you would be in the running, for second. When I had the Pizzeria, I would take a few Pizza's to a Club on a Sat.nite after closing. One time, Mickey Shaunessy was there on St. Patty's Day, performing. So I made 5 Pizza's shaped like Shamrocks and sprinkled them with Parsley and Green Peppers. When I arrived, He was at the bar ( where else? ) He opened one, yelled and started doing the Irish Jig. Our table was always full of drinks.But we never bought any. Nancy : My daughter is going to make a greeting Card, from the Photo? It would be good for Dominoe's ?

I think I'll try the dry pan method for the mushrooms next time. I made another pizza last night, precooking the dough with dry cheese on top first and then added an extremely thin layer of sauce. I also added quite a bit of chopped fresh basil, two mushrooms sliced very thinly (for a 17" pizza), some black olives, and two jalapeños also sliced very thinly. On the top I used regular mozzarella instead of fresh, and it got very brown in the oven at 550° for 9 minutes. There was still a bit more moisture than I wanted, although the cheese was very dry and almost chewy. I didn't try the ricotta, although it is definitely drier than the fresh mozzarella. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm getting closer. Before I was making pizza with a thinner crust and using a lot less on top of it. Maybe I should go back to that method, although it is a bit tricker to get the dough stretched out. I bought the pizza peel myself, and it is aluminum. I might buy another one that is all wood. Lars

Our New Years' Eve party is always a game night. The main group of contestants, our anointed Scrabble Masters, battle it out around the dining table, thrusting and parrying with their Official Dictionaries. The local Monopolists exploit each other at the living room game table. Sorry boys, but only one of you will end up as the 1%. The chatterers and gigglers gather around the fireplace and the sideboard-turned-bar. A hard core of our older guy friends loiter in my kitchen, drinking scotch and sampling the production of noshes and nibbles. Our Quality Assurance team, I suppose. People start arriving around 7 pm. At midnight there are poppers and honkers, party hats and industrial-size sparklers. We play "Auld Lang Syne" (Jimi Hendrix, Fillmore East 1970) extra loud. Injuries are tended to (those sparklers looked like welding torches), the hardest-core gamers get back to their tables, coffee is served. The last guest typically leaves around 2 am. We try to keep people supplied with food this whole time, lest they revolt and burn down our house with a sparkler. What to serve for this situation? There are usually a couple trays of SWMBO's holiday almond roca and peanut brittle. As it is in part a neighborhood gathering, several dishes always get walked over, this year some yummy bacon cheese wraps and deviled eggs. I made some BBQ buffalo wings. SWMBO made an artichoke dip and her gorgonzola garlic cheesecake. All fine and well, but after sitting out for three hours, those initial dishes aren't so appetizing. Let's not even mention what ceviche looks like after a couple hours on display. That need for continuing food is where the pizza worked nicely. All the real pizza work was done ahead. The dough, the sauce, the slicing and dicing and mincing and sprinkling. When guests started arriving, the oven was pre-heated. About an hour into the evening, I finished off my second Caipirinha and started making mini-pizzas. It was a leisurely process. Stretch out a small rectangular crust, top, slide into oven. Wander around, kibitz at the game tables, refresh my drink, cut and serve the pizza, make another pizza, repeat. My first-effort pizzas were nothing to write home about. But they were eaten all the same. We had pepperoni and mushroom pizza, olives and onion pizza, clams and olives pizza, crabmeat and scallops pizza, and for Miss Vegetarian, who wasn't wearing a turban tonight, roast brussels sprouts and egg white pizza. I ended up not making a bunch of other stuff. About halfway through the afternoon prep, the weight of three weeks' non-stop house guests, too many holiday dinner parties, too much in-law time, and work that never let up until the last couple days of the year - it all came down. I suddenly got really tired, slumping tired, aching feet tired. So all the fun and frivolous dishes got thrown overboard. I have a refrigerator full of those fixins' that I've got to repurpose over the next few days. (What to do with a dozen oysters, a dozen frozen egg yolks, chicken strips marinated in sugar, etc?) I did have fun during the party, but it was also a little bit about survival. I drank a quart of water for every cocktail. Ate mostly microwaved egg whites. Snuck upstairs for a couple of 5 minute lay downs. And now it is the New Year. I don't have a crystal ball, but I know one thing about the coming year. There's not going to be any damned dinner parties or house guests for at least a month!

Hands down, my favorite kind of pizza is a Hawaiian. Canadian Bacon and pineapple. My husband's favorite pizza was introduced to me by him on our first date over forty eight years ago and it is now my favorite...along with a white cheese, spinach pizza...with loads and loads of spinach on it.