Monday Night Supper Club: BBQ-ing Pizzas and a Failed Calzone…

Dan    Monday Night Supper Club     #MNSCyyc, awesome, bbq, calgary, dinner, friends, pizza, social media

Last week, we had been really lucky. Monday had boasted some amazing weather, which ended up being perfect for our second Monday Night Supper Club outing to Home Tasting Room. While we sat there in the early evening sun, the group decided that the following week’s dinner would simply have to involve a patio as well. Being moderately proud of my own patio, I suggested that we have the meal at my house, barbeque some pizzas, and have a grand ol’ time.

I have the bad habit of having people over for dinner parties and then trying out recipes that I have either a) never used before or b) am just experimenting with. For the most part, all ends well on the plate, but on my end, the majority of the afternoon is spent stressing out about everything and wondering why I chose to, more or less, wing it for the supper.

Luckily, my BBQ pizza potluck portion was limited to pizza sauces and the dough itself, so I didn’t go too crazy. I just threw some red wine and lemon zest into one of the sauces, because it’s summer-time and lemon zest makes everything taste better…except gravy…Except gravy.

Since this week’s potluck had a BBQ-ed pizza focus, most people brought various ingredients to serve as toppings. Tomatoes, zucchini, shrimp, arugula, basil, roasted peppers, carmelized onions, and more…oh, and different cheeses too (obviously)! Four of the group brought some appetizers to precede the pizzas.

Jacqueline brought a chilled vegetable flatbread (eaten too quickly to be photographed), Rob Waye made the women swoon with asparagus spears wrapped with brie and prosciutto…Oh Rob, you heart throb! Victoria made a nice, light carrot and radish salad with a fresh mint and honey dressing. The fourth appetizer came from Rob M. (yes, there were two Robs AND two Chelseas this night…oh my…) who was new to the Monday Night Supper Club experience. He brought a pretty solid macaroni salad. Let’s get real here, it’s not a true outdoor potluck without some macaroni salad!

So, as you would imagine, personalized pizza creation ensued. We weren’t being all too fancy this evening, so the pizza presentation was less ‘Una‘ and more ‘Hey Brie, did a six year old assemble your pizza?‘. Nonetheless, every combination that we grilled was delicious and fun was had by all! So far, everything was a success. Even the sky, which was teasing us with some dark rain clouds, decided not to rain on our parade dinner party.

Yes, it appeared that nothing would go array on this Monday evening! That was, until someone tried to BBQ a calzone. I don’t want to name names or anything, so I’ll scramble up the letters of their (his) name and let you figure it out: ORB M.

The original goal was to make a pizza (like the one pictured). So, the calzone did start out harmless enough, but soon turned into a massive, doughy mistake. Ok, so maybe ‘massive, doughy mistake’ is a little harsh. Maybe it would be best to take a look for yourself and decide what you think of the…err…situation.

At least he ate it all…

Aside from the calzone #fail (I debated whether or not to bring a hash tag into this, but, in the end, decided that it was the right thing to do), the rest of the supper went swimmingly.

Brie, Rachele, Chelsea K and, surprisingly, Jamie brought the desserts. Brie made a nice fruit salad with some greek yogurt, Rachele brought some tasty cheesecake squares (the kind of thing you know you shouldn’t really even eat one, but end up eating two), and Chelsea K brought an impressive fruit pie. Finally, Jamie made some chocolate cupcakes. He might look scary, but he’s really just a big, tattooed teddy bear!

 Chelsea K’s pie, half-eaten.

Not to be left unmentioned, the majority of the pizza toppings were brought by Sarah, Adam, Chelsea W and Chelsea K. Without their contributions, our pizzas would of been just some cooked dough, tomato sauce, and a wish. So, I thank them for helping make that wish come true…

Thus, ends our third week of Monday Night Supper Club! For next week’s adventure, we’re headed to Anju for a chef’s table tasting menu. I have heard amazing things about this restaurant from friends, critics, food bloggers…Basically everyone in Calgary has told me that there is an amazing meal to be had there! Monday can’t come fast enough!

Twitter in Attendance:

@dansgoodside
@chelscore
@frecklesandash
@chelseamwatson
@brie_elise
@jacquelinetyler
@akajolie
@rjmcleod
@auntyveee
@jamiepenno
@biggeswalls
@dave_khan

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