Friday Night Zook ’Za

Enjoyed dinner and porch time with Dan, Connor, and Thad Friday evening, keeping two dads company while their wives are out of town this weekend.

I didn’t know that Thad could play a guitar (let alone how well) — but Connor knew, and was especially happy:

Thad and Connor #2 (Kisses)

After keeping up with the rhythm, rewarding the music with kisses. Adorable.

I’m posting this on the morning of Saturday, February 28th, and thus have to officially wish Connor a happy second birthday … today! Yay!

Meanwhile, the mission of the “Friday evening before” was to make some great pizza (example shown here just before going in the oven):

“Leftover” Pizza

Mission Accomplished, IMHO. A couple of other folks gathered with us as the evening went on, and in the end, five of us pretty well demolished four very good and very different pizzas, all on Dan’s homemade crusts:

• Buffalo chicken sausage with peppers (sweet and spicy), olive, garlic, and (red) onion;
• Beef tips with three cheeses (shredded Parmesan, my favorite marinated fresh mozzarella, and some peppered goat cheese that was almost epic);
• A sauceless, incredibly tasty sliced-tomato, fresh basil, garlic, and three-cheese ’za; and,
• The “leftover” pizza, pictured above, that put the pile of unused ingredients from the first three pizzas — buffalo chicken sausage, beef tips, spicy peppers, sweet peppers, beefsteak tomato, sundried-tomato-stuffed olives, marinated garlic, red onion, everything — including all three cheeses — onto the last crust. (Pretty sure it was the most tasty, too…;)

Yup. Love my ’za — very glad to have indulged in that favorite this Friday evening!

Many thanks to everyone for a really nice get-together. Incredibly nice to just hang out with some folks I care about.

Updated the Magnolia Street Mob gallery with four new photographs from the evening. Enjoy.

Back to our regularly schedled postings soon; I’m about halfway through Thursday’s Cocktail photographs — stay tuned….