Pizzapalooza

Ahhh, I had a fabulous weekend. Friday night, Matt and I took it easy and had a few beers with new Fuqua friends and then ate a late dinner at the famous Ten Tables in Jamaica Plain. I was able to get a new camera, thanks to the accident protection plan I bought at Best Buy, but it wasn’t up and running for picture taking on Friday night. The restaurant was adorable though, and I had a great burger. And, I did go back and add the pictures of Thursday’s dinner to this post.

The highlight of the weekend, though, was a Pizzapalooza competition I participated in on Saturday night. A friend and her fiancee thought of the brilliant idea of having different teams/couples create different pizzas to see who could create the best. We prepared for the competition with appetizers and wine. Over the course of the evening, I had small pours of some really awesome reds. I especially loved the Rodney Stong and the questionable wine from Trader Joe’s.

The contenders were: a shrimp pizza with homemade vodka sauce….

A date, pesto, and blue cheese pizza created by yours truly (and Matt)…

A mixed mushroom pizza with fontina and red sauce…

And a prosciutto and goat cheese with red sauce and olive tapenade.

Omg, they were all heavenly. Seriously, I was so impressed with all the creations.

I’ve always been a huge fan of shrimp pizza, and I think this one got my vote for the best. Unfortunately, we had some crust cooking issues, so the flavor of some of the pizzas (including mine) was compromised:( I’ve had my own before though, so I knew it was good.

Loved the shrooms on this guy!

My second favorite was definitely the prosciutto and goat cheese, party because the crust was the best of the four.

During all the action, the hosts’ sweet dog quietly slept in the corner. She was sooo well behaved!

I must participate in a pizzapalooza again. It was so.much.fun.

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Today, I engaged in pure relaxation. I caught up on a million blogs this morning and had a really nice workout. Remember how I’ve tried twice to have that perfect run in new shoes? Well, it finally happened today. I went back to the sports store for the third time and returned the Brooks. I gave up and just bought last year’s model of the Asics and came home with the exact same shoe that I have now. I’m a little bummed that I couldn’t even get something in a different color, but nothing is worth having knee pain and I’m relieved to be back in something familiar. I ran for about 35 minutes and was just happy to feel like a normal person…no stomach ache, no knee issues, no mental I-hate-running thoughts. It was nice.

It was also nice to stroll over to the movie theater for a late afternoon showing of Water for Elephants. I read the book for book club a few months ago and loved seeing the plot on the big screen. I think it’s one of the best book-to-movies I’ve seen in a long time and I loved the actors.

With a great weekend behind me and a four day week ahead of me, I’m in a fantastic mood. Going to watch Weeds in bed before calling it an early night.

If you were to participate in pizzapalooza, what would you create?

What did other Water for Elephant readers think of the movie?