Saturday we had friends over for our beloved Taira's goodbye party and another friend's birthday and I wanted to serve our meal in our garden. Problems immediately presented: 1. What can we make for a crowd that's easy to get all the way down 3 flights of stairs and outside and around to the back garden? 2. What can we make period considering the fact that our oven is miniature? In the end we decided to make pizzas and this actually worked fantastically. Our oven only holds only one baking sheet at a time which meant pizza had to queue until space was available, but the resulting pattern of one in-one out made the pies function like courses, and someone just kept zipping back upstairs every 20 minutes or so to take out the piping hot one and pop another in. Just make sure you get your lineup in an order that progresses the meal nicely, and serve a big salad throughout. For example, we started with a white pizza with artichokes, cured olives, fontina cheese and olive oil and went on to a margarita with tomatoes, basil and tons of fresh chopped garlic. Next time I'd like to try a meat based one too and then perhaps add another fruit/cheese white at the end. We have difficulty getting dough stretched out. Mike, newly minted architect, here coaxes a batch into structural submission:
That looks great. I am sure it was a huge success. I have had no problems with recalcitrant dough when I make it a day ahead but my way is clearly not at the same level of spontaneity as yours
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