Summer Grilled Pizza

So, today's Food Section of the Deseret News reminded me to do this post.

On Sunday we had pizza cooked on the grill.

Last year I attended a local Williams-Sonoma, Saturday-morning cooking class and they gave us (as typical) instructions on how to make the food item of the class and here an easy pizza dough in the food processor and then build several pizza variations. We made a couple of these last summer when it was hot and again last Sunday we had another. In addition to making this outside on the grill, another fun thing was using the basil and cherry tomatoes from our own garden. (I've realized that most of my recipes using basil are for heavy, Italian foods; and hence more applicable for cold weather when my garden basil will be frozen. So it was good to use the basil now.)


I had bought this pizza stone last year, which came with a paddle to hold the pizza while making it and also a rack to hold the stone, but it occurred to me that when the pizza was finished cooking and leaving it on the stone would cause it to over cook; doesn't make sense. But maybe I'm just dense . . .

I thought about going out and milk a buffalo and make my own "buffalo's-milk mozzarella" cheese also, but couldn't find a buffalo nearby. I didn't want to drive to Antelope Island and wrestle a beast. I don't think I could even milk a cow as my mother used to do when she was growing up.

This is a woman's pizza since it doesn't have any meat on it but only veggies. (I think every man loves an all meat pizza, why is that.) Still it was fun for a hot, Sunday afternoon. Plus Sparky liked it! That's always a bonus. I discovered later that we have some pepperoni, so I could have added that to one half, but . . .

This is called a Margarita pizza in Italy. Sparky and I actually had the same thing there one time in Florence except that it also had an egg cooked in the middle, Fun!

But, back to the Deseret News. The food section had a number of articles on building your own pizza, either from scratch or preferably by just enhancing a store-bought one.

A fun, cooking idea that the kids could get into and make their own.

Shrimp Boil

I've stumbled upon a simple yet good, little dinner that Sparky enjoys--Southern Shrimp Boil.

A couple weeks ago I got out a bag of shrimp to boil and I read the "serving suggestion" on the back, southern shrimp boil. And as luck would have it, we had all the ingredients needed: cajun spice, new potatoes, corn on the cob and raw shrimp.

Per the package instructions:

Bring 3 qts. water to boil and add 4 Tbs. of Cajun spices (such as Old Bay seasoning).
- Place 1# of quartered new potatoes in the water and cook for 10 minutes.
- Add mini ears of corn to the boiling water (I add 2 ears cut in half) and cook for 5 minutes.
- Add raw shrimp (I do about 1/2#) and cook for an additional 3 minutes.
- Serve (I've been adding 1/2 cube of butter)

Very simple and yet good. Another great benefit is that we've been able to cook it outside on the side burner of our barbecue grill, saving the need to cook inside. We haven't, but you could easy add a small salad to round out the dinner.

Simple.

Summer Party

We had some friends and neighbors over last night for a summer backyard party. We were pretty laid back on the arrangements.

I told each couple to B.Y.O.M and a side dish. (We provided two grills.) Although we wouldn't make specific food assignments. It was interesting to see what we ended up having.

People brought two baked beans, two green salads with spinach, 3 pasta salads, rolls and chips & dip, and some cookies. Fortunately, Sparky had prepared a bowl of M &M's which rounded out the food, except for the Canuck, who doesn't like chocolate so I brought out some old Halloween candy just for him. He was happy!

Later Sparky commented how nice it was to have the guys to the cooking on the grills, which also proved a variety, from: beef filet, t-bones, to chicken to shrimp kabobs.

It was a easy party to through together: bring your meat and a side dish. Hopefully we'll do another later this summer.

But my most favorite part of the evening was stringing Christmas lights around the yard and turning them on as dusk hit. I was really surprised at how quickly they went up in less than an hour, the festive atmosphere they created, and how quickly they came down -- less than 30 minutes.

Rich Chocolate Cupcakes

Miss Julie is getting married in August and of course there have to be numerous wedding showers for her and fiance, Andy. One of those was a shower sponsored by some of the neighborhood women.

To help with the night's activities, Sparky was asked to make some cupcakes.

Now Sparky can make a good cupcake and her frosting is the best I've had, but she was asked to make a special chocolate cupcake using a new recipe. She followed the directions, adding chopped pecan to some and not to others, swirling the mixed just right. When they came out of the oven we sampled one and found it to be rather rich and gooey for our tastes.

I didn't particularly care for them and Sparky wasn't sure whether they were cooked or not. But she took them to the shower and everyone seemed to favor them over many of the other sweets. So, they were deemed a success.