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!)
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.
(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?)
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Sounds like a great time and delicious food, too!
A great night of food and fun! You can never go wrong with pizza!
Yay! I love girls’ nights! I love the sausage and pepper pizza, too!
What a fun night! I’m off myself for a girls’ weekend in Vegas 🙂 The pizza looks delicious.
Can I come to your next girls night in? The pizza looks great and you guys look so cute in the picture.
I love girls nights! Your pizza looks terrific. I’ll have to look for those peppers at Costco.
How fun is this and what great eats? Good for you guys! You deserve a fun night! Have a good weekend!!!
Looks like you had a great time Aggie. Your pizza look sooooo good and I love onions pepper and sausage too!
How fun! I love your “Girls Night In” idea. Absolutely fabulous. Looks like ya’ll had some great food. I love the pizza ideas and the pepper jelly. I discovered that this summer too.
Oh, and the picture that just mentions Savannah- homesick!!!
Habanero pepper jelly? YUM. Of course, I’m a little biased toward anything with the word “habanero” in it.
(just had to share a photo of the fine china we were dining on…)
*Laughing*
The pizzas look great, even without the basil on that second one. What a fun night!
Great night, great food, and best all shared with great friends!!
Looks like your girls night in was great! Your pizzas are terrific; what a fun idea to do together! I bet the pepper explosion was cause for excitement … hopefully it didn’t mess up the oven. Fun post!
Can I come over? No one in my house will eat pizza with sausages! And that’s my all time favorite. :::sigh:::
It looks sooooo good.
I love girls night in and it looks like you had yourself a fantastic feast. What fun you must have had with the ladies over some wine as well. I’m loving the fancy china you ate from! ha ha!
What fun! You ladies know how to have a girls night! The food looks great and love the fine china, reminds me of my house!
i love pizza nights!
the party crasher is a cutie 😀
enjoy your evening!
I’m a big fan of the Girls Night! Where would we be without our girlfriends, right? The pizzas look fabulous.
You girls know how to eat! When’s the next one??
Looks like you all had a great time. Those pizzas look delicious!
hi Aggie, love your blog and the layout. Thanks for stopping by Italyville! The pizza’s look great. We just made some the other night as well and I found a really easy to make dough recipe online. I’ll post on it soon. Ciao
I love nights in like this. I actually prefer them to going out. Less expensive and no time limits! And the spread looks fantastic!!