Grilled Pizza

I've been making homemade pizza for nearly 9 years and have learned some tricks of the trade if you want a good pie with a crisp crust:  Use your grill.  This is great in the summer time as well since you don't need to heat up the house.   If you want recipes for my crust and sauce, click here.  You will also need a pizza stone and pizza paddle (or something that will suffice in it's place.)

Fire up your grill with your pizza stone on the grates.  You will want to heat it for about 10 minutes - if there's a temperature gauge on it you'll want it to about 450 deg.  My recipe is enough to make two "hand tossed" 12" pizzas.  So once the dough is done, divide it in half.  Roll out the first ball into a 14" circular shape on a well-floured surface.  

If you're fortunate enough to have a wooden pizza paddle (about $10 at Bed Bath & Beyond), sprinkle it with bread crumbs.  Gently transfer your 14" dough to the paddle.  With your thumbs under the crust, start twisting them one over the other to get the look below (it's really hard to explain this process.  Do the best you can.)   This will leave you with a 12" pizza.   You do not want your pizza crust to be larger than your stone or you will wind up with burnt crust.

Add your sauce and toppings.

 Our toppings included Italian sausage and orange peppers.

Place your stone in the center (not on the side like you see pictured below).   Don't do what my husband is doing here and try to use a spatula to slide the pizza onto the pizza stone. You'll accomplish this better if you make use of your wrist and those bread crumbs you put on the paddle.  The crumbs will help the pizza slide right off, but your aim needs to be good to get it to land on the pizza stone "just so".  I'm an expert since I worked in a pizza place like 30 years ago.  It's like riding a bike.  Then turn the inner burners down to low, keep the outer burners on medium.  You're trying to maintain a temperature between 400-450 degrees.

Cook it for about 7-12 minutes - depends on the temperature inside your grill.

Serve it up with the beverage of your choice.  Your crust should be crisp on the outside with a fluffy edge - perfect for dunking in garlic-flavored butter (melt some butter and sprinkle in some garlic salt.)   Enjoy!

No Can Dough

I have a bread maker. I can count on one hand how many loaves of bread I've made in it since I got the thing in 1999 or somewhere there about. I've made hundreds of pizza crusts, though. Surely, I thought, there must be something else I can make with my bread maker!

Enter the idea maker, Eric. He loves those cinnamon rolls that come out of a can. I think they're gross, and they always burn on the bottom. So Eric said we should make cinnamon rolls from scratch. Well that sounds like a lot of work. Sigh.

So here goes. You will need:

8-9 oz warm water
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 tbl butter
3 cups bread flour (not "all-purpose". Bread flour has more protein in it.)
1.5 tbl dry milk (I didn't have any; subbed some milk for the warm water.)
1.5 tbl sugar
3 tsp bread machine or fast-acting yeast
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2.5 tbl softened butter
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Add all the ingredients above the line into the bread maker and set to the dough cycle (about 1.5 hours). When done, punch down dough and remove from pan. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 15x9 rectangle, then spread softened butter across surface. Mix sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle on top of the butter.




Roll up tightly, beginning at the 15" side. Cut off ends. Stretch Roll to make even.





Cut into 1.5" slices. You'll get between 9-12 slices depending on how big you rolled out your dough. I make indentations (measured with a measuring tape), then I go to town slicing them all at once.




Line them up in a greased pan. No sense trying to save calories at this point. Butter up that pan.



Cover and let rise until double in size. This takes about 40-60 minutes. Alternative is to cover and refrigerate till morning. I've done it both ways. If putting in the fridge overnight, you will want to allow about 2 hours for rolls to come to room temperature and rise (unless it's July and you have no air conditioning, in which case it won't take as long.)



Bake them at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes before frosting. This is how I made the frosting:

1.5 cups powdered sugar
1.5 tbl butter
1-2 tbl milk (add a little at a time)

Mix till smooth. I add in about half of the milk, then a little bit at a time after that. You want it thick, but smooth. After your rolls have cooled for about 10 minutes, ice them.


Let that frosting goodness run all over the place.



And eat 'em while they're warm! If that's not possible, make sure to reheat in the microwave for a few seconds. These are some of the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had. And they didn't burn on the bottom.

Just look at it. Don't you want one? They were easy to make, but the time involved is the killer. Not your every-day recipe, but these sure will impress if you're up to the task! The funny thing is that I set out to make something besides pizza dough. All I ended up doing is making cinnamon roll dough. I need to branch out a bit more.

I'll let you in on a little secret...

....nothing earth shattering, mind you. Perhaps you're unaware of why this happens, so I'm here to tell you why. Ever make deviled eggs (or even egg salad) and wonder why on earth an egg will occasionally peel really nicely and other times (usually when you want to make deviled eggs), the egg has left half of the whites attached to the shell? This is what I'm talking about:



Well I heard somewhere (TV cooking show maybe?) and filed that nugget of information away until today, when I had an opportunity to test their theory. Sure enough, it's true! Old eggs peel nicely and newer eggs look like the one on your right. When I say "old" eggs, I don't mean expired. The smooth eggs don't expire till May 31. However, the really ugly looking eggs were just bought this week and still have a couple weeks left till their expiration date.

So next time you want smoothly peeled eggs, make sure you buy some "older" eggs or buy a couple weeks ahead of when you plan on making them. And sure enough they'll be easy to peel.

Honey Bun

Back in my senior year of high school I had a thing for Honey Buns.....those oval-shaped-cinnamon-donut-like-confections drowning in white icing. I'd buy one in the morning for breakfast and was usually slumping from the sugar crash by the end of 2nd period. While on one of my favorite recipe sites, I happened upon a recipe called Honey Bun Cake. I had an opportunity to make it this past week, and although it doesn't taste exactly like a Honey Bun, it was a tasty cake anyway.

Honey Bun Cake Recipe

The only changes I made were to bake it for about 45-50 minutes in a Bundt pan, and I used a lot less glaze than it called for.

Chocolate Trifle

About a dozen years ago I found a recipe that I really wanted to try out. I didn't have the right bowl in which to prepare it, so I drove to Service Merchandise on my lunch hour and bought a trifle dish. I've made it several times over the years, and I've gotta say, with a bit of sadness, that I've never come home with leftovers.

1 package (18.25 oz) chocolate cake mix
1 package (6 oz) instant chocolate pudding mix
1/2 cup strong coffee
1 (8 oz) carton frozen whipped topping, thawed
6 Heath bars (1.4 oz each), crushed


Bake cake according to package directions. Cool. Prepare pudding according to package directions; set aside (I recommend you use half & half or whole milk to make it richer.) Crumble up the cake; reserve 1/3 cup. Place half of the remaining cake crumbs in the bottom of a 5 qt trifle dish or decorative glass bowl (if using a smaller dish, use smaller portions for each layer). Layer with half of the coffee, half of the pudding, half of the whipped topping, and half of the crushed candy bars. Repeat layers of cake, coffee, pudding and whipped topping. Combine remaining crushed candy bars with reserved cake crumbs; sprinkle over the top. Refrigerate 4-5 hours before serving. Serves 10-12.

This Mint Brownie Thing

I always love when a new recipe turns out really tasty. I love it even better when I fly by the seat of my pants, improvise, and combine multiple recipes to create one new one and it turns out good!

And where else would I share such information, but here on my blog! Here goes:

Mint Brownie Dessert

1 box Pillsbury Fudge Brownie Mix (any brand fudge brownie mix would be fine; this just happens to be the one I used.)
Eggs, water and oil for the brownie mix per instructions
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 stick butter, softened
2 drops green food coloring
1 tbl milk
peppermint extract
6 oz chocolate chips
1/2 cup whipping cream


Bake brownie according to package directions in a 9x13 pan. Let cool.

Beat butter, food coloring, 1 tbl milk, extract (see note) and confectioners sugar in bowl till smooth.

(Note on peppermint extract: I added in 1-1/8 tsp, but mine is not exactly, uh, fresh from the store, if you know what I mean, so depending on the age of your extract, you might want to start with a 1/2 tsp and go from there. You don't want it to taste like toothpaste, so go easy with it.)

After mixing the peppermint frosting, spread over the cooled brownie. Next, place whipping cream in a saucepan with the chocolate chips, and melt over med-low heat, stirring constantly just till the chips are all melted and mixture is smooth. Allow to cool, stirring every once in a while (I sped up the process by putting it into the fridge.) Once it's cooled, spread it over the top of the green frosting and allow to set (again, I sped up the process by placing in the fridge. However, you'll need to pull it out of the fridge before serving so it's not cold.)

Now if you're trying to throw this together with what you have on hand and don't have whipping cream in the fridge and don't want to run to the store, you can opt to melt the chips in the microwave with a tbl of butter or shortening until all melted and smooth (about 1-1/2 minutes). Allow to cool a bit, then spread that on top of the peppermint frosting. However, this will harden more like a candy bar and will not be creamy like the picture shows. Either way, it'll taste good!

There's always the possibility that no one will care for these if you make them; however, I didn't experience that problem and this is what was left to bring home. :-) But that's OK. I love it when folks enjoy my experimentations!

Homestyle Macaroni & Cheese

I don't know how many years ago I cut this recipe out of the Chicago Tribune; my copy of it is yellowing so I know it was a while ago. I've made this countless times, have shared the recipe with many, and Monday I got a hankering for it since I haven't made it in at least a year. I guess I was craving some good old-fashioned comfort food. My kids about gagged on it, 'cause it's not that nasty stuff from a box that they apparently prefer. This is one of my failures as a mother.

Unlike most of my recipes, this one will require a little bit of work. It's easy work, but it's still going to require you to dirty up some dishes and stand at the stove or counter for 20 minutes. The recipe "as is" will be more than sufficient as a side dish for a family of 4-5. It easily doubles for a 9x13 pan.

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1/2 stick butter
5 tbl all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1/4 tsp dry mustard (or to taste)
8 ounces uncooked elbow macaroni
12 ounces (3 cups) grated mild cheddar cheese
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 tbl melted butter
salt and pepper to taste

Cook macaroni to al dente; drain (don't over cook, since it will continue cooking in the oven.)

While macaroni is cooking, melt 1/2 stick of butter on medium heat. Whisk in flour and stir for a minute. Slowly add milk, whisking to combine. Bring to a simmer. Add salt, pepper and dry mustard. Reduce heat to low and simmer sauce slowly till very thick, stirring frequently (10-20 minutes). Remove sauce from heat. Add 8 oz (2 cups) cheese and stir until it melts. Pour sauce over macaroni and stir (NOTE: This recipe makes more sauce than you need, so add about half and go from there till it's the desired consistency.)

Pour macaroni and cheese into a dish that's been doused with cooking spray. Top with remaining 1 cup of cheese. Mix 1 tbl melted butter to 1/4 cup bread crumbs. Sprinkle across the top. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes until lightly browned on top and bubbling. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. I'm guessing it's like a gazillion artery-hardening calories, so don't think about it and just enjoy.....with some buttermilk biscuits slathered in butter. Hey, what's it matter at this point ;-) ?

Mint Chip Freeze

It's recipe time......Here's a dessert that's likely to please most folks. Makes a 9x13 pan full of it.


1 (15 oz) package cream filled chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed
1/3 cup melted butter
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter cubed
2 squares (1 oz ea) unsweetened baking chocolate
1/2 gallon mint chocolate chip ice cream, softened (peppermint ice cream would be awesome here too...or cherry garcia....or.....)
1 (8 oz) carton cool whip thawed

Place cookies into a blender or food processor. Pulse a few times till it's crumbs. Dump into a large bowl and add 1/3 cup melted butter and mix well. Press into buttered 9 x 13 dish. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

In a saucepan, combine the milk, sugar, cubed butter, and chocolate. Cook over medium heat until thickened and bubbly....at least 10 minutes. (Now here's where I deviated from the recipe. I also put in about about 3 tbl of cornstarch to help it thicken up a lot. If you don't do this, the mixture will be a gravy-like consistency. It'll eventually be put in the freezer anyway, but it seemed a bit runny to me. Just my preference.) When thickened and bubbling, remove from heat, cool completely (place some plastic over the top to keep a skin from forming.)

Remove crust from fridge. Spread ice cream over the top. Spoon cooled chocolate sauce over the top, spreading evenly to cover. Freeze until firm. Depending on your preference, you can either spread the cool whip all over the top and freeze it that way or put the cool whip on when you serve the dessert (depends on if you want cool whip frozen or not.) Either way, remove the dessert from the freezer about 10 minutes before serving to making cutting easier.

I wonder what this recipe would taste like using mint patties instead of Oreos, and the mint chip ice cream replaced with chocolate. Hmmm???

It's What's For Dinner

Well, OK, it was what was for dinner on Thursday, but I just now got around to getting the photos off my camera.

I like to make my own pizza. It's a lot cheaper than ordering out, and is super easy to do. I use my bread maker for the dough, and wing it on the sauce. Here we go:

Bread Maker Pizza Dough

3 cups all-purpose flour
8 oz. warm water
2 tbl olive oil (or vegetable oil)
1-1/2 tsp dry active yeast
1/2 tsp salt


Place all liquids in the bread maker. Throw in the salt. Slowly pour in the flour. Create a small well in the center for the yeast. Add yeast. Set bread maker to the dough cycle (should take about 1.5 hours.) When cycle is complete, preheat oven to 400 deg. Spray a 9x13 cookie sheet with cooking spray. Dump dough out on the cookie sheet. Flatten and spread out to fit the pan, making an edge with the dough (see photo.) Pop into the oven for 2-3 minutes.



Remove crust from oven and top with pizza sauce, about 12-16 oz. of cheese (I personally love all mozzarella with a sprinkling of fresh parmesan), plus any other toppings you like such as sausage, peppers, onions, olives, bacon, mushrooms, chicken, etc. Here I put 1/2 Italian sausage and 1/2 meatball (both precooked - had some odds and ends leftover in the freezer.) Bake for about 15-18 minutes till brown around the edges and all the cheese in the center is melted.

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As for my pizza sauce, here's one I use frequently:

1 8 oz can of tomato sauce
seasonings to taste (e.g., Italian seasoning, garlic powder or minced garlic, onion powder/diced onion, basil, pepper, and a bit of sugar to take the tartness out.)


Also, since there is a nice crusty edge on this pizza, you can dip the crusts in either leftover marinara, pizza sauce, olive oil, or my kids' favorite: melted butter with some garlic powder.

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Then for dessert I tried a new recipe out called S'more Muffins. Relatively easy to make, but does require buttermilk. If you don't have any on hand (like who does?) or don't remember to pick it up at the store, you can take regular milk and add a splash of vinegar or lemon juice to it, let it sit for a few minutes, and that'll turn it into "substitute buttermilk".

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup ground graham cracker crumbs (I threw whole crackers into the blender and hit pulse!)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1-1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1-1/4 cup miniature marshmallows, divided

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. In another bowl, combine the egg, milk, and oil. Mix well. Stir wet stuff into the dry ingredients just until moistened (i.e., it will be lumpy). Fold in chocolate chips and 1 cup marshmallows. Line muffin cups with paper liners or go daring and go without. Either way, spray with cooking spray. Fill cups 3/4 of the way full, top each with 2 miniature marshmallows, and pop into oven for 14 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes before removing from the pan. Serve warm if possible. Yummy!!

Berry Crumb Bars

You can click on that photo to see it up close. ;-)

I tried out a new recipe last week and it was decent. It has lots of potential! I'll list the recipe "as is", but per usual, let ya know what I did differently.

1 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup shortening
1 egg
1 pinch salt
1 pinch ground cinnamon
4 cups raspberries
1/2 cup white sugar
3 tsp cornstarch


Preheat oven to 375. Spray 9x13 dish (or you could half the recipe and throw it into an 8x8). Combine 1 cup sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon (I used 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and thought it gave just a hint of taste. A pinch would be pointless.) Cut in shortening into the flour/sugar mixture (I used 1/2 butter and 1/2 vegetable shortening. Next time I'll use all butter, because I think it'll give it more flavor.) Stir in egg. Pat half of crumbled mixture into pan. Reserve the rest.

Combine 1/2 cup sugar, corn starch and raspberries in a bowl (I used a bag of frozen berries - mixture of strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. Really, any kind of berry will work here - all the same or mix 'em together.) Pour berry mixture over the crust in the pan. Top with remaining crumbled mixture.

Bake at 375 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until top is lightly browned. Now the original recipe didn't call for this, but what I did was take a cup of powdered sugar and a few teaspoons of warm water and mixed till I got a glaze consistency. Then after the bars were cooled, I used a spoon to drizzle the glaze over the top. The recipe 'as is' is not an overly sweet dessert, and I thought the glaze gave it just a hint of sweetness - not too much, not too little. Just my opinion! Another tip: if time allows, I encourage you to make this the day before you'll be serving it. It tastes way better the next day. :-)

Tortilla Lasagne

I got this recipe out of a magazine. It meets my criteria of being easy and mighty tasty (in my opinion anyway!) I used low-fat cheese and low-fat sour cream, as well as ground sirloin to help shave off some of the fat and cholesterol (not that it helps much in a dish like this, but at least I get a C+ for effort.) And since my kids freak if we serve them anything too spicy, I eliminated the cayenne pepper, and I think I reduced cheese by 25% because I didn't have enough. It still came out great. It's sort of hard to go wrong here. Make it your own.


1 pound ground beef
1 cup water
1 envelope taco seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1-1/2 cups sour cream
1-1/2 tsp chili powder
2 cups shredded monterey Jack cheese
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
8-10 flour tortillas (6")
1 (8 oz) jar salsa
1 small onion, diced

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large skillet, cook beef and drain. Stir in water, taco seasoning, garlic powder and cayenne (if using). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine sour cream and chili powder. In another bowl, combine cheeses. Spray cooking spray into a 9x13 pan. Arrange 1/2 of the tortillas on bottom of dish, overlapping. Spread 1/2 cup of salsa on top. Layer with half of the meat mixture, then onion, and spread 1/2 of the sour cream mixture over the top. Sprinkle with 1.5 cups cheese mixture. Repeat layers (retaining 1 cup of cheese mixture.) Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 35 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining cheese mixture. Bake 10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!

A Favorite Website

In an effort to keep things fresh and moderately interesting around here, some friends and I are going to occasionally challenge each other with blog ideas. Feel free to jump on in if you have your own blog and let me know so I can go read about your favorite website!

A favorite website that I frequent at least a couple times a week is All Recipes . Half of the dinners and desserts I make come from that website! It's so user friendly; you can search based on ingredients you have on hand or for a particular dish. It's easy to create your online recipe box, so when you find something that looks interesting, you can add it to your box for future use. Before you print the recipe, you can alter the serving size, and it will adjust the ingredient amounts for you; also, you can print it as a 3x5, 4x6 or full page recipe. And as if that's not enough for ya, you can rate the recipe, as well as read other cooks' reviews. Very cool site.

Sure, there have been some recipes I've tried that haven't been great, but overall, I've gotten some real winners off that website. Here are a few to get your recipe box started:


Marinara (I no longer buy it in a jar!)


Calzones


Chicken Marinade


Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup


Grilled Mahi Mahi

Buttery Blueberry Cobbler

Ahhh, the blueberry. Seems we're constantly hearing about the wonderful qualities found in them! I'm sure you already know they're an awesome source of antioxidants, but did you know they boost memory - even reverse memory loss? They reduce your risk of cancer, improve urinary tract health and vision, clean the arteries, strengthen blood vessels.....it's quite possibly the most perfect fruit ever!! Now let's go ruin that by slathering on some butter and drowning them in sugar!! Wahoo!!

This is a recipe my Mom gave to me, and I've made a couple minor modifications to "make it my own". Here it is:

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup sugar
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups blueberries (1 pint; fresh is best, but frozen works too)

Place butter in 1.5 qt. casserole dish, place in oven, and turn on to 350 degrees. Meanwhile, rinse blueberries and pull out any stems. Place in saucepan with 1/4 cup sugar and lemon juice. Slowly bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Stir togther flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, milk, and 1 tsp vanilla. Stir till lumps are gone. Remove casserole from oven. Pour batter mixture over the top of melted butter. DO NOT STIR! When blueberries have been brought to boil and it looks like there's some blueberry juice in the pan, spoon that over the top of the batter (do not pour it out unless you're wearing an apron or don't care about that shirt you're wearing.) DO NOT STIR! Stick it back in the oven for 45 minutes or until top is lightly browned. Let cool for a bit and serve warm. It's incredible with vanilla ice cream! Enjoy!!

Brunch anyone?

Score serious points with your kids by serving some bacon and eggs for breakfast.







I can't take credit for this adorable finger food; I'm not nearly that creative! My step-sister's daughter brought them over for Christmas a few years back, and they made an impact on me.

So the recipe goes like this:

Pretzel sticks
1/3 cup White chocolate chips
1/2-3/4 tsp of shortening
Few dozen yellow M&Ms (if you can, go to a store where they sell the different colors. It'll take a lot of individual packages to get this many yellow M&Ms.)


Melt shortening and white chocolate together, and stir till smooth. On a cookie sheet (size does not matter), place two pretzel sticks together. Do this many times over the whole pan....two by two, place those pretzel sticks. Carefully drizzle small amount of white chocolate on the center of pretzel sticks. Do this to all the pretzel stick pairs. Wait a minute or two till the chocolate begins to cool. Then place yellow M&M on top of chocolate, with the "M" side down. Pop into freezer or fridge for several minutes till the chocolate hardens. Carefully pull them off the pan. I guarantee your little ones will be cheering you on to make bacon and eggs for breakfast all the time!