Sourdoughs and Pizza

A spontaneous and enjoyable week end began on Friday, October 4, 2013 when Shauna and Skip came down from Lacy, Washington to be joined the next day by Randy.  This was the week end of the World Conference and by modern technology, it allowed me to have two or more non-conflicting events occur at the same time.  Randy had planned to visit me the preceding week end but his vehicle broke down and he had to cancel.  As a surprise, Cameron Brooks also came bringing his father Randy.  Shauna and Skip arrived Friday evening about 6 pm and we fixed a “Dream Dinner” which we all enjoyed.  We spent the evening enjoying several football games before retiring.  I had anticipated breakfast the next morning by starting my sourdough pancakes Friday evening before retiring.  On the preceding Thursday, I had anticipated that sourdough pizza dough may come in handy to host the week end guests so it was ready in the refrigerator.  On Friday, a fire was started in the pizza oven and used as a furnace to discard some used clothing.  The fire was kept active Friday night and until needed Saturday for Pizza.

Saturday morning breakfast was delayed until Randy and Cameron arrived.  While awaiting their arrival, a message was sent to all available family members that I would host a pizza party Saturday afternoon at 4 pm.  At 10 am it was time to set in motion, bacon, eggs and sourdough pancakes.  Earlier, I had discovered that I had neither bacon nor eggs ( a big slip up) so Skip and Shauna went grocery shopping before other guests arrived (thank you very much).  By 10:30 the bacon was sizzling and the eggs turned over easy by my helper Shauna.  The lightest pancakes are always achieved only when the egg mixture and sourdough batter are combined just before being poured onto the griddle.    With eggs and bacon on the plates, here comes the sourdoughs cooked 8 at a time on the hottest griddle setting with eight coming off the griddle in two minutes.   With four to six persons, it is easy to keep their plates full of sourdoughs.  All of my guests except Cameron had one or two servings, but Cameron took the winning plate when he consumed the last sourdough of my entire recipe (congratulations, he beat out Blake and Cole).

As soon as Shauna completed the kitchen clean up, she was assigned to begin sorting, discarding, and saving cosmetics, bath salts, lotions, etc and that her mother had accumulated over a period of time.  The saved items were to be distributed to her sisters and sister in law, Maureen.

While this was taking place, Randy began to acess the wood pile that I may eventually use for my pizza oven.  The wood needs to be split for use in the oven, so Randy borrowed a splitting maul and ax from Kevin and he began to split some of the wood.  Meanwhile Cameron and I began to prepare the toppings and sauces for the pizza.

With Kevin having to work at Lowes until 5 pm and Erin having family  transportation problems, Kathleen and Maureen were the only extra guests to prepare pizza’s for (Shauna, Skip, Randy, Cameron, Kathleen, and Maureen).  I had prepared seven pizza dough’s so I rolled out 4 pizzas to go into the oven at 4 pm.  By 4 pm, the pizza dressed disks of dough had risen sufficiently and with the oven at 600 degrees, they were ready to bake.  At this temperature, the timer was set for three minutes and the four pizzas were baked.  After baking the pizzas, they were cut into fourths and when cool enough to eat, they were distributed among my hungry guests.  Because they were so delicious, no one took photos to show the results, but there will be another time.  When Kevin arrived at 5:30 the final pizza was baked, but since the oven had cooled a bit the pizza was cooked in 5 minutes.

After a satisfying pizza feast, my guests began their return to their homes and soon Shauna and Skip were the only ones left with me to spend the night. (Thank You).  As Kevin left he made the remark: “are you going to serve sourdough tomorrow for breakfast?”.  I said that I had not planned to do so.  We left it there.  Before I retired, I said to Shauna, why not!  Sunday morning we called Kevin and Maureen and asked them to bring some eggs and we would have some sourdoughs.  Kathleen was still in bed so we counted her out.  Bacon, eggs, and sourdoughs, can there be a better breakfast?  Probably!

All dispersed by 10:30am and I was left alone to finish the Sabbath day.