John, it sounds like a good time and lots of good food. I'd probably go for chicken, pears and a tiny bit of arugula and mozzarella, just to hold it all together.

I'll look forward to hearing what you choose, have fun!

Annie

Looking forward to pictures. Have a fun night.

~Ann

My friend stretched the crusts, his wife and my daughter applied the toppings, he partly baked each pizza. The oven was 500F and we have a stone. When all the pies were parbaked, he quickly "flashed" them, my daughter cut each as it emerged from the oven, and we ate. We used two peels and two pizza pans. The parbaked pies were flashed on the stone, the bare rack, or the oven floor.

This is shiitake mushroom and brie cheese. We only used a little red sauce on the pizzas. There was some Alfredo sauce used.

This is pear and arugula. The arugula was tossed in salt and a plum vinegar, then scattered on the just-cooked pizza. The fresher the arugula, the more acid needed, I'm told.

This is, I don't recall exactly, cremini mushroom and onions?

We are all from Berkeley, where a collective called "Cheeseboard" has been making thin crust, mostly sauceless pizza for over fifty years (gosh, were the sixties that long ago?) In the morning people line up outside the store for parcooked pies. A few nights ago, one of the Cheeseboard guys stayed with us. His daughter is a friend of my daughter, and they were in Portland looking at a college. Our pies were an homage to Cheeseboard. They use a sourdough crust, which we couldn't duplicate, and they use varied and unusual cheeses - they also sell cheese, hence the name - and we just had mozz and Brie.

This post was edited by johnliu on Sun, Apr 6, 14 at 8:31

A blurry picture! This was the last pizza topped, and the topping girls were getting silly. There was an Italian flag made from red sauce, pesto, and Alfredo sauce . They covered that with more and more stuff, ending with a happy face, or as happy as olives and artichoke hearts can be. It was kind of a mess, but tasted good.

This was chicken and barbeque sauce.

There was also a pepperoni for my son, which we set aside since he was out with friends. I forgot to photograph it. And I know there was a pesto pizza, but I seem to have missed it.

Thin crust pizza like this is relatively low calorie. I weighed a couple slices and figure each was about 180 cal. I did eat six slices . . .

What a treat to sit back and enjoy. Looks great and nice thin crust.
I lived in Rome '84-85 and my favorite was artichoke/mushroom/gorgonzola/arugula.
Sometimes prosciutto and olives, but they don't pit the olives so that was an issue. Especially the first time.
Still my favorite today so i always make one that way and the rest to individual liking.

Nice pizza party!

(Think i'll make a breakfast pizza. I've been up for hours and everyone else is still in bed)

5;30 am here and I've been up for an hour. It is bike racing season again, and the second Monument of the year is being raced today in Europe, the Ronde De Van Vlaanderen (Tour Of Flanders). So its up before the sun and sit at the computer watching pirate streams of Sporza in Dutch or, if you're lucky, Eurosport in French.

This post was edited by johnliu on Sun, Apr 6, 14 at 8:42

Nice pizza party. On the mushroom ones, were the 'shrooms pre-cooked or raw when placed on the pie?

I pre-cooked all the mushrooms, as well as the chicken. With a thin crust, stone, 500F oven, little/no sauce, the pizza cooked quickly, too quickly to brown mushrooms or cook chicken if raw when topped.

I had a fun day yesterday. About midday, I happened across a typewriter meeting at the bike shop. The "Portland Type-In." I happen to have a vintage typewriter myself, so I went home, fetched it, and hung around with the typewriter buffs and the little kids experiencing typewriters for the first (and last?) time, while the owner of Ace Typewriter examined my machine and replaced the ribbon.

Here is one of the earliest IBM electric typewritersm circa the late 1940s. These are, I'm told, very rare in working condition.

This is a typewriter case and field table, such as would have been used by war correspondents and other reporters.

A trio of Swiss typewriters. These are all Hermes machines. The baby on the right is a "Rocket", mommy in the middle is the "3000", and the daddy on the left is an "Ambassador" which is mine.

Here is something I haven't seen, a typewriter modified to be a computer keyboard, here connected to an iPad. The typewriter still functions normally as well.

My daughter is thinking about taking her typewriter to college in the fall - really - and I'm wondering if I can install the keyboard kit.

Here is the kit

Here is a link that might be useful: USB Typewriter Kit

How cool! Want that. We have a collection and still use our favorites.
(for notes and letters)