Girls Night In! Wine, Cheese and Homemade Pizza…

I have two good girl friends (who happen to work with my husband) and don’t get to see them often enough. When we do see each other it’s usually kid related or possibly work related. We last got together at my Halloween Party and we decided that we must get together “just the girls” soon. We could have went out and grabbed drinks and dinner at a restaurant but thought it would be fun to stay in and bring some food and wine to one of our houses instead. My house was the location of this first “Girls Night In”…

(here we are…in Savannah last year for a Girls Weekend away!)

Since I know me and my girls could chat up a storm, I wanted to keep things easy in the kitchen so it wouldn’t interfere with our quality time at the kitchen table. I decided to make some homemade pizzas and made it even easier on myself by grabbing some already made pizza dough from the Publix bakery. I made two pizzas…one with grilled Italian Turkey Sausage, peppers and onions and other one a classic tomato and cheese.

(the perfect marriage…sausage, peppers and onions)

(I found these “Ancient Hots” peppers at Costco and couldn’t resist…I roasted them in the oven at high heat and chopped them up, served them on the side to sprinkle on the pizza…see those large innocent looking light green ones? They were HOT!)

(I lost this little guy…he actually exploded in the oven…POP…that was a first for me!)

The pizzas were oh so good and oh so easy to throw together…here’s the idea:

Sausage, Pepper and Onion Pizza
(My all time favorite pizza)

1 store bought pizza dough (I find it in the bakery at Publix)
3 links Italian turkey sausage
2-3 bell peppers (any color any size), thinly sliced
1 onion, sliced
1-2 garlic cloves, finely minced
small can of tomato sauce
shredded mozzarella cheese
olive oil, salt and pepper

In a large nonstick grill or saute pan, cook sausages over medium high heat. Turn sausages over so they brown evenly on each side. Do this for about 10 – 15 minutes. Toward the end of the cooking process, throw in your garlic, peppers and onions. Once sausages are cooked through, remove and let cool in plate. While the veggies are cooking in pan, slice sausage very thinly on an angle.

Spread pizza dough on an oiled cookie sheet. You’ll have to work the dough a bit to get it to stay in shape…doesn’t have to be perfect. Once dough is in place, drizzle a small amount of oil over dough, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour and spread tomato sauce, then sprinkle some of the mozzarella cheese. Spread pepper and onion mixture around pizza, top with sliced sausage. Sprinkle a little more cheese (if you want). Place in 450 degree oven, top rack and keep an eye on it! Cook for about 20 minutes or until bubbly golden brown.

Classic Tomato and Cheese Pizza
(Another Aggie favorite!)

1 store bought pizza dough
1 can of diced tomatoes, mostly drained (garlic and basil flavored works very well here)
1 ball of fresh mozzarella, sliced thin
salt and pepper
fresh basil leaves, optional

Spread dough in lightly oiled cookie sheet or pan. Spread tomatoes over dough, spread cheese over tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Add fresh basil leaves if you have them!

Cook in 450 degree oven on top rack for about 20 minutes until bubbly and golden brown.

(pretend you see pretty green basil leaves spread around the pizza…that was what it was supposed to look like but apparently my basil hasn’t been watered in a while so it was droopy and didn’t make the cut…)

(just had to share a photo of the fine china we were dining on…)

My friends brought over some lovely Brie cheese and wine and some guilt free veggies to munch on while the pizza cooked and we got a chance to catch up with each other. I remembered I picked up this Habanero Pepper Jelly last month at the farmer’s market and thought it would go great with the cheese.

It did…and it was so good!! It had a kick to it, but it wasn’t overbearing, it went perfectly with the creamy cheese and crackers. The jelly is made here locally in Central Florida, check out Cathy’s Cajun Cuisines to see her selection of great stuff.

It was a great night…despite my wine headache the next day. I can’t wait to do it again girls!!

(wait…is that a little party crasher I see?)

Have a great weekend!

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