Have you ever tried to cook a pizza on a grill? It's tricky, but it can be done. Last night was the first time that I can say I have had success with this endeavor as previous attempts have yielded less-than-edible results that have prompted me to vow that I would never try it again. I did, however, so I give you Carmelized Onion and Smoked Blue Cheese Pizza:
You have to adjust your pizza thinking to cook on a grill. Putting raw dough with all it's toppings on the grill will not work at all. The trick is to cook one side of the dough first making sure that you are constantly watching it and rotating it for even cooking. If your grill is anything like mine, you have hot spots and cool spots and you don't want a charcoal crust. Before I put the dough on the grill I coated one side pretty heavily with oil so it wouldn't stick to the grates. Flipping the dough over so that the coated side was face down on the grill was the hardest part of this whole thing and I had to quickly straighten the dough out in spots because it folded over on itself and even then it wasn't perfect. I need to figure out an easier way to do that. I was thinking perhaps using the same technique that one uses to put the top of a pie crust on by rolling the dough around the rolling pin.
Once that one side is cooked sufficiently take it off the grill. This will only take a few minutes and you cannot leave it unattended or close the lid and go make a margarita. Coat the uncooked side with oil and flip it over onto a sheet pan so that the grilled side is now facing up. This is your canvas for glory. I put a chile olive oil on the crust first, then mozzarella, caramelized onions, bacon, smoked blue cheese (yum) and thyme. I would recommend using toppings that don't really need to cook because you only need to put the pizza back on the grill long enough to cook the bottom of the crust and melt the cheese, and that takes less time than you think it will, trust me. In fact, in retrospect I should have turned the grill down a bit at this point because it was still going full blast and one corner of the crust got too black on the bottom before I had a chance to rotate it out of the hot spot. I also closed the lid to facilitate cheese melting.
It was so good! I will definitely be doing this again. Try grilling pizza, it can work.
I have a few illustrations in the book and I was so thrilled that they asked me back for this second one. They are seriously talented women and I am so horribly happy that these books are so beloved, they totally deserve it.
I love this bread. I love all quick breads in general, but I think this one is at the top of my list. I want to try other fruit and nut combinations, and perhaps maybe a grapefruit glaze instead of orange? Hmm...I love this cookbook so much, which I think I have talked about before. Speaking about cookbook love, I heard the NPR food correspondent gushing this morning about The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper and as a fan of the radio show, which I podcast, I think I may have to check this book out.
Okay, so the Great Hall Makeover is chugging along at a very slow rate. I ran into a bit of a hitch when I realized that I had significant gaps between the molding and the wall, which caused the molding paint to pool in these gaps and, well, it was just ugly. Of course, Mom had the solution. She told me to buy some paintable caulk to fill in the gaps. I would have never of known to do that. Of course I bought the wrong sized caulking gun, so after a return and a new gun, I am back in action. I am hoping to finish this project this weekend, or at least finish most of it. Here is a progress shot that shows the pre-caulked gap and the post-caulked gap (at the bottom of the picture):
That stuff is magic. I am not in love with the wall color either, but I am NOT repainting this hallway anytime soon so I am learning to live with it. It looks so lemony-yellow compared to the swatch. In some light it looks fine, but in others...not so fine. Don't get me wrong, I love it SO much better than the grungy beige that was there before. Another tip from Mom: I was complaining that it was SO hard to paint the heavy texture on the wall, even with the special roller and she suggested I get a sponge roller. I haven't used it yet, but I think it's going to make my (or Jeff's he he he) life so much easier.
P.S. I fixed my comments...it seems that all of the May comments were showing up in April. Sorry!
Yesterday one of our neighbors told us that there were two baby owls in the park next door to us. We went out on a search party and found them:
So fuzzy! I bumped up the brightness on the photos so you can see their eyes. They were so very high up in the trees that I wasn't sure if I got a good picture until I downloaded the photos. We had heard rumors that there were owls in the park but had never seen them. I feel so fortunate we can walk out the door and see something like this.
Quick update! This new work schedule is still taking me a while to get used to, which means I have less time to do the things I would normally do (like update this blog) and I am trying to figure out how to get it all done. It's going good, don't get me wrong, it's just a major lifestyle change.
