Friday I had a group of the girls I work with over for appetizers, wine, and gossip. Being the host that I am (and my mothers daughter) I had a huge spread of way too much food which included a cheese spread, hummus with veggies, pizza, and cookies, to name a few.
There were many stars of the night. The first was Kerrygold Dubliners cheese. There is something about dubliner cheese that is absolutely delicious. Savory and salty, soft and hard at the same time, this cheese is perfect for eating along, or with crackers, or with pretty much anything. The thing we all agreed on was that kerrygold is the best brand to try if you are going to have dubliner - others are good but just not the same.
Of course because it was a ladies night I had to get Bitch wine, a Grenache from Australia. At $10 a bottle, it's not expensive, but really smooth and nice, and great for a ladies night.
For the night I made one of my favorite pizza recipes, adapted from Bon Appetit magazine. This pizza is always a winner. You can make it as an appetizer, like I did, or a main dish with a salad alongside. This recipe makes two.
Asparagus, Fingerling Potato, and Goat Cheese Pizza
Ingredients
8 ounces fingerling potatoes
cornmeal
1 cup warm water
1 1/2 teaspoons of active dry yeast
2 cups unbleached flower
3/4 cups whole wheat flower
2 tablespoons gum xanthan
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
5 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves
8 green onions
2 cups mozzarella
6 ounces crumbled goat cheese
16 ounces asparagus cut into 2 inch pieces
To make the pizza dough:
Whisk one cup warm water and yeast in small bowl; let stand for five minutes. Mix both flours, gum, and salt. Add two tablespoons oil into yeast mixture. Add yeast mixture to flour mixture. Mix until dough forms, adding more warm water if dry or more flour if wet.
Place dough in a bowl and add one tablespoon of olive oil. Turn to coat. Cover bowl and let rise for1 1/2 hours. Divide the dough in two.
To assemble the pizza:
While waiting for the dough, boil the potatoes until tender, about 10 minutes. After they have finished cooling, cut them into slices.
Preheat oven to 450°F. Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal. Stretch the pizza dough to create an oval on the baking sheet.
Sprinkle oil, sliced green onions, and pressed garlic over the pizza dough. Then add the mozzarella. Over that, add the potato slices and sprinkle the goat cheese on top. Then top with asparagus. Bake about 20 minutes.
Last but not least, the chocolate coconut cookies. These cookies have been adapted from a recipe from Taste of Home. They aren't anything fancy, just good, old fashioned chocolate chip cookies with a twist.
To make the cookies:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cream the butter and sugars together in a bowl. Beat in the eggs and extracts. Add the flower, baking soda, salt, coconut, chocolate chips, and almonds. In a lot of recipes they say that you have to combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and wet in another, then combine. I say, add them all in order. Why dirty two cups? The recipe almost always ends up the same way.
Round tablespoonfuls and add to an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for about 11- 13 minutes. 
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