Andrea Larabee
10th March 2007, 02:40 PM (14:40)
For my husband's birthday, I threw a "build-your-own pizza" party. Sounds childish-but really, I'm just talking about the meal here. I did this because most people like pizza and many are very particular about what's on it. The idea was such a hit that my neighbors are planning the next "build-your-own pizza party" at their house-with no special occasion. So here's what I did:
**Made the pizza dough
**Put out typical toppings-mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, green bell peppers, sliced black olives, pepperoni, zucchini, mozzerella cheese, cooked ground beef, and a bowl of pizza sauce. (cooked sausage would be good too)
**pre-bake personal size dough rounds (8 inches) for 5 minutes in oven. (this keeps crusts from getting soggy and eliminates cooking time later)
Then: Everybody takes a crust on a plate and puts everything they want on their pizza. Then we return the pizzas to the oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Now, my oven is rather small. So we put some of the pizzas on the BBQ grill and they came out very, very well, in the same amount of time.
My tips:
Use disposable bowls from the dollar store to serve the toppings in. This will eliminate so many dirty bowls. Or if you have condiment serving platters, those work great. Dishwasher fills up fast as it is.
I made my crust and my sauce from scratch, but you can buy dough in a can and pre-made sauce.
The only time I spent chopping was on the bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, and zucchini. The rest was canned.
So many things can be prepared the night before and stored in the fridge.
This is great for summer time if you bake all of it on the grill. No heat in the kitchen. :basic03
**Made the pizza dough
**Put out typical toppings-mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, green bell peppers, sliced black olives, pepperoni, zucchini, mozzerella cheese, cooked ground beef, and a bowl of pizza sauce. (cooked sausage would be good too)
**pre-bake personal size dough rounds (8 inches) for 5 minutes in oven. (this keeps crusts from getting soggy and eliminates cooking time later)
Then: Everybody takes a crust on a plate and puts everything they want on their pizza. Then we return the pizzas to the oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Now, my oven is rather small. So we put some of the pizzas on the BBQ grill and they came out very, very well, in the same amount of time.
My tips:
Use disposable bowls from the dollar store to serve the toppings in. This will eliminate so many dirty bowls. Or if you have condiment serving platters, those work great. Dishwasher fills up fast as it is.
I made my crust and my sauce from scratch, but you can buy dough in a can and pre-made sauce.
The only time I spent chopping was on the bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, and zucchini. The rest was canned.
So many things can be prepared the night before and stored in the fridge.
This is great for summer time if you bake all of it on the grill. No heat in the kitchen. :basic03