Pizza Party for 100

[Frances]

One thing I do when we have lots of people all hungry at once is put in a large baking try with Dave's stuffed mushrooms in... only I usually leave out the stuffing and just sprinkle them with EVO, salt, pepper and garlic. You can do a couple of loads of these to go with the pitta bread without much effort, and it'll give you warm up for the pizzas.

[james]

How about using a large cast iron or steel pan to broil marinated shrimp (prawns). Butterfly the prawns, and marinate them in lemon, lime, EVO, pepper flakes, and garlic -- tequila if you have it.

Put the pan in the oven until it is hot, pull it out and throw on the prawns. Pop it back into the oven for a minute or two. They brown to a nice glaze.

That, Dave's mushrooms and some flatbreads with salt, rosemary and EVO can make a nice finger food appetizer.
James

[egalecki]

Originally Posted by james

How about using a large cast iron or steel pan to broil marinated shrimp (prawns). Butterfly the prawns, and marinate them in lemon, lime, EVO, pepper flakes, and garlic -- tequila if you have it.

This is off the topic a bit, but should I plan on getting a new set of cast iron pans to use in the oven? I would hate to ruin 25 years of seasoning on my old ones by using them in it.

[james]

I have different indoor and outdoor cast iron pans and I store the outdoor ones in a wood hutch on the deck. I don't do a great job of keeping my outdoor cooking toys clean, so it's better that way.

James

[SimonWoodfield]

Thanks for all the advice, I tried making bigger pies, but with my technique, I got thicker small pies! I need a lot more dough handling practise. At the moment, it just goes really thin in places. I tried the mushrooms (unstuffed) and while they tasted great, they didn't look good, I think they were a bit old and tired before I started though. The shrimp/prawns sound like a good idea, but maybe expensive over here. Considering we are a fairly small island, fish seems to be an expensive item. Thanks again for all the advice, I look forward to handling dough as per Daves video! not sure how to fit it through the door though?

Thanks again

Simon

[krosskraft]

Maybe you could do the pizzas as appetizers and cut them into small pieces for people to sample. Then have the main meal a huge pasta casserole made up ahead of time, covered with cheese, and then stuck in the WFO for about 5 minutes to caramelize the cheese. Add a salad and there you go. The other option is to hire a caterer to actually cook your pizzas. We have talked about that on the forum before, but I don't know if that is an option for you. You are on the right track.....practice practice practice and think from many angles.

[Groves]

Fish is hard to come by on a small island? Who knew?

[asudavew]

Originally Posted by Groves

Fish is hard to come by on a small island? Who knew?

Maybe just shrimp?

[drogers]

Have you thought of asking some of the people to bring appetizers and some others to bring a desert? Some could bring a couple of pounds of their favorite pizza topings.

[telehort]

I did a pizza party for 111 people 2 weeks ago at our church where pizza was the entree and served buffet style. It took about 25 minutes to get everyone through the line once and there were a few minutes where they were completely out of pizza..but people were forgiving knowing that we were moving as fast as we could. We also did dessert pizzas at the end. I ended up going through 87 - 10oz dough balls.