No Ordinary Pizza n' Beer

Fancy schmancy pizza and beer, complete with candle light, doesn't get better than that.

Oh Pioneer Woman, can you do no wrong? Thanks to you, I made my first completely homemade pizza- dough and all! Guess what I learned? Pizza dough is super easy. Why did I resist for so long? Why the fear? And for nothing, I tell you! This is PW's Potato Leek Pizza and it is delicious and something you aren't going to be able to order at your typical pizza joint. I would never have thought of putting potatoes on a pizza, but it works. You slice them paper thin, with a very sharp knife if you have mad knife skills, but for the rest of us, a mandoline comes in handy. And I actually had a mandoline in the basement! A long time ago on the yellow brick road, I worked at a magazine and would help photograph products for their review section. One shoot was about kitchen utensils and at the end of the shoot, all the products were up for grabs. I raced in to grab the coveted mandoline and skipped out like a school girl with the latest issue of Tiger Beat (dated myself, didn't I?) back to my desk. I was SO happy to get this uber cool freebie that it only took me 6 years to use! But let me tell you what a life saver it is because I think it might be near impossible to slice things that thin by hand. By my hand, anyways. Sorry, tangent. Back to pizza. So, you put a layer of potatoes on the dough, fresh mozzarella, leeks, parmesan, bacon.... and crumbled goat cheese. Oh my my my, it was wonderful! An added bonus is that the dough recipe makes two pizza crusts, so one is in my freezer and I've already been eyeing her Favorite Pizza Recipe which has roasted eggplant and grape tomatoes on it......... mmmmm......

To compliment our gourmet pizza, we paired it with some gourmet beer. Or so I learned as I paid for it. I actually thought they charged me for two 6-packs. Nope. Turns out it's a small brewery on Nantucket and they only make small batches of this stuff. However, that being said, it's a great beer and 3/4 of one made me completely loopy happy so I consider it money well spent.

Ready to be cooked. A thing of beauty! Look at all that BACON and CHEESE! Two of the things that make everything better.

Leeks are beautiful. Tasty, too. Tastier when sauteed in bacon grease. Aw yaaaaa.....

Me with my mandoline, making the thinnest potato slices ever made and enjoying it a lot because I had already cracked open that beer.