Zack called his gramma earlier this week and asked her if she'd make home made pizza for his birthday.  She used to make fabulous home made pizza but hadn't since she and Dad moved out of the old house.  She agreed to make pizza but told Zack to let her know how many people she was going to feed.

The morning of the birthday, Mom and I went to Costco and bought all the supplies.  We were making seven pizzas.  Some would have pepperoni, some sausage, some both, one (well, half of one) no meat at all, some would have tomato sauce and some would have fresh tomato slices instead.  All would be covered in massive amounts of cheese.  That way if anyone asked "Are there mushrooms on this?" we could say "Do you like mushrooms?" and then answer accordingly.  We learned that trick from Pat Pivec.

While Mom whipped up seven pizza crusts, I chopped toppings.  While the crusts were left to rise in a warm place, we cooked up the sausage.  Then Mom rolled out the crusts and it was time to cover them.

While she did that, I baked the chocolate cherry cake.  This cake is a great favorite.  It's been known to cause fist fights in school cafeteria's.  I made a big huge cake and stuck it in the fridge to cool down.  After we had the pizzas ready, Mom suggested I frost the cake.  The frosting for cccake is hot fudge.  You pour it over the cake and let it set.  I did that, and then stuck the cake back in the fridge.  The pizzas were ready to go in the oven and the cake was done long before we even had to pick kids up from school.

Mom spent the rest of the afternoon worried about what she had done wrong with the pizzas.  She hadn't made this stuff in over two years and she was convinced that she had over cooked some of the crusts, hadn't let others rise long enough, you name it, she was sure she had done it to wreck the dinner.  Lest you think my Mom is the type to fret herself into a sweat, let me just say that she seemed to think that wrecking seven pizzas was hilarious and she was really looking forward to the pending catastrophe.

  It just goes to show that it's not always a good idea to get everything done ahead of time.

Around six, the house was full of people and the pizzas were in the over for the final cook.

Maybe it was all the 'mistakes' she made, maybe it was because we hadn't had these for dinner for so long, but the general consensus was that these were the best pizzas Mom had ever made.

The cake was a mess.

I poured on the frosting before the cake had cooled all the way and it sank into the cake, making it more like a thick, fudgelike brownie.

It was delicious but so dense I could barely finish one piece.  Usually this stuff is several inches of cake and a quarter inch of fudge on top, but this one was three quarter inches from top to bottom with no clear delineation of where the cake stopped and the frosting began.

I was disappointed.

On the other hand, there were no complaints, no crumbs left on any plates and not a trace of cake left in the house fifteen minutes after I cut it, so I guess it's safe to say the cake was a hit.

I think the grandkids licked the cake pan clean.

And then, to top off the night, Joe Mauer hit a ninth inning homer to put the Twins in a tie for first place.

Zack's 18th year is off to a good start.

 

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