Preparing for a birthday dinner

Today is my mom's birthday - happy birthday Mom!!! She is an amazing lady: hilarious (usually unintentionally so), very smart, and hard working. She also has an incredible treasure trove of adventure stories under her belt, like when she accidentally came under the protection of an organized crime boss or how she escaped from Vietnam. Wow! But I'm saving all those for an eventual book, so I won't give away anything... for now.

Since my mom is not a fan of birthday cake, I made an ice cream pie, inspired by Mark's grandpa's favorite summer dessert (more on this later). But first, we'll be rolling out lots of thin crust pizzas with a variety of different toppings: fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, banana peppers (hot!), Italian sausage, fennel, red onion, basil... oh, and anchovies, by special request from my mom.


I made the pizza dough a few hours ago and it is rising, rising ... slooowly rising. Just like my level of excitement about constructing a blistery crusted pizza with milky mozzarella, sweet cherry tomatoes, and fragrant basil. And maybe some fennel-y Italian sausage. I love sausage so very much.

Have a great weekend!