This contest was held to commemorate the visit of my brother in law, one John Maguire (of the Rio Rancho, New Mexico Maguire's). All of the usual suspects were there except for Pam, who was biding her time in San Francisco. I will save the judging comments until later.

The Basics! This is what we all started with.

We had 5 pizzas. David and Michael were first. They made a standard Salami, Pepperoni, Sausage, Canadian bacon, Olive etc. pizza that was very good. We're going to have to keep an eye on them for future contests. Here's their pizza.

In the same oven was the Tony and Mary pizza. Tony fixed the dough and put on a unique blend of pesto and maranara sauces, being careful not to overpower either of them.

Here's Tony & Mary's pizza coming out of the oven. They split it (Mary is anti-onion), notice the cheesy T on Tony's side.

Then came the second shift. Sean and John (whose real name is Sean but who we call Pat) made a maranara based pizza. And it was very good. A blend of the available ingredients resulted in an excellent pizza, worthy of a second slice. Here's Unca Pat fixing the dough.

The Superb Tom - Peg pizza (please forgive a little editoralizing here) used a standard tomato base format and once again we opted for height as we blended a world class combination of visual and taste sensations into what may be THE definitive pizza of the 21st Century. (OKAY! OKAY! It really was pretty good.)

The Susan-Brian-Joey Pizza was last up. Brian arrived late (he brought Susan's secret ingredient (A Red Onion)) and they split the pizza between Joey's half and Susan-Brian's half. Joey's half was a back to basics pizza that was really very very good. The Susan-Brian pizza was also very good but was not tasted by those that did not like the onion addition.

Once again, first place eluded us all. We didn't formally vote and there was no clear winner. Once again, we all liked each others pizzas but not enough to give them a first place nod. As always, as we were discussing the merits of each others pizzas the compliments flowed freely. Comments such as "Not too bad ... for a 4th place pizza." and "Apparently, presentation means nothing" were bandied about.

Good company, good pizza, some soda, some beer ... it's a nice way to spend an evening with your family.

If you have a pizza contest, I'd be interested in knowing how it turned out. I can be reached at tmurray@surewest.net