Pizza and chocolate peanut butter fun cake

Dack hadn't seen my parents for awhile, so we invited ourselves over to their house this past weekend (with the promise of a meal). I was in the mood to make something that was tasty, but relatively easy. My dad really enjoys pizza, seems to crave it on a relatively frequent basis (who doesn't?!?), but has also voiced his frustration in not having any good pizza places near home. Needless to say, pizza seemed to be the perfect dish for our meal.  

Since there were going to be six of us for dinner (our first meal together as a family since my brother and sister-in-law moved back from Chicago!), we decided to make two different pizzas. The first was our version of Pizza Luce's Pizza Athena. We used Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza dough, Classico Spicy Tomato and Pesto pasta sauce, fresh spinach, roma tomatoes, feta cheese, Kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, red onions, and mozzarella. It was enjoyed by all!

Our version of Pizza Luce's Pizza Athena

Our second pizza was a Hawaiian pizza. To make it, we used Trader Joe's pizza dough, Classico Spicy Tomato and Pesto, fresh pineapple, Canadian bacon, and half had sliced red onion...another crowd pleaser!

Hawaiian pizza

Of course, no meal is complete without dessert. While perusing Bon Appetit's most recent issue, I was drawn to the Chocolate-Peanut Butter Fun Cake. The cake not only combines two of my and my dad's favorite flavors (chocolate and peanut butter), it's also fun!

The top of our
chocolate-peanut butter fun cake 

I wish I could claim the cake as my masterpiece, but the only part I played in making it was selecting the recipe and picking up some peanuts for the topping. Dack expertly executed the recipe, and I think it's one of the best looking cakes he's ever made.

Chocolate-peanut butter fun cake

Besides being delicious, another great advantage of this cake was it's size. The cake was smaller than most cakes we make. We baked it in an eight-by-eight square baking dish, and there was only one layer. The recipe claims it makes sixteen servings, but we divided it into about nine.

Next weekend we're heading to North Carolina to visit Dack's brother and our sister-in-law. We've been emailing this week about what we're going to do on our visit, and so far, most of our discussion has revolved around what and where we're going to eat. The top item on my list to try this weekend is chicken and waffles. Of course, we'll have to try some barbecue, get some grits, and maybe eat some biscuits...stay tuned!