I've been slacking when it comes to a.o.k. and even more when it comes to a.o.k gourmet. It isn't so much because I have nothing to write about... my mind is always buzzing and I'm still making food... but my life has been busier than usual lately. As usual, when things get busy, some thing(s) get put on the back burner.

But, hey, I'm here today, right?!? And I'm going to share my lovely Thursday  with you...

First there was the pizza dough mishap...

I started out the morning with plans of making pizza dough (I really enjoyed backseat gourmet's recipe which I shared in my last a.o.k. gourmet post... and home-made pizza has been our weekly menu ever since). I wanted to try Simple Bites' recipe this time around.

Pizza is the perfect food to serve for any kind of gathering... a game night, a last minute dinner, cooked ahead for a picnic lunch or cut up small to serve as an "appetizer-type" food.

When I was planning my food for my party, I was originally thinking I would run out and pick up a couple of the fresh (not frozen) pre-made pizzas at Costco. They've actually got a nice range of different toppings (from 4-cheese, tomato and provolone to bacon, ham and pepperoni), are super quick to bake (8-10 minutes in the oven) and are quite good and cheap ($12 for two). However - since I was hosting the "event" to raise money, I thought it would be a good idea to keep my costs as low as possible. A quick calculation told me that by using the ingredients I already had on hand to make my own home-made pizza (dough and toppings), I would save at least $12.

And I decided to try and make my own pizza from scratch for the very first time. There's really nothing like a gang coming over to entice me to try something new in my kitchen...