A Girl And Her Grill

It's hot here in Texas right now and I don't like to be hot (and still dream about moving to the Pacific Northwest). So, in order to keep things nice and cool inside my house I cook outside so I don't have to turn the oven on. I absolutely love to grill. I'm not saying I'm a pro at it but I have fun when I do it. My first grill I purchased several years ago. Unfortunately...it got a little rusty which I am not certain is the safest to grill on. I am still on vacation..my last day...so to help cope with that I decided it was time to move on. Out with the old and in with the new...Infrared Grill is where its at! 

Mr. Lucas LOVES when I purchase things that take hours to put together...I am sure you sense my sarcasm here right? But, no matter what project I have him piecing together he always does it for me willingly and does a mighty fine job I might add! I'm a lucky gal.

I present, my new infrared grill! 

I have been very interested in grilling pizzas. Now, I have the proper grilling equipment so that is exactly what I did. 

I made whole wheat pizza dough in the bread oven. It is a very simple recipe and the bread machine does all the work. 

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough Recipe:

1 1/3 cups water

2 tablespoons olive oil

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup all purpose flour

3 cups whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons yeast

finely chopped garlic (as much as you want)

Put all the ingredients in that order making sure to put the liquids in first. When you add the yeast make a "well" with your finger in the center of the flour (making sure not to breakthrough to the liquid) and add the yeast in the well. It mixes better that way. Then, put your machine on the proper dough setting.

Once my dough was done I divided it into 3 parts and rolled out to make individual sized pizzas. You can make one big pizza or several small ones.

 

 I coated the dough with an olive oil and garlic salt mixture.

 

Place on the grill. I cooked 2 minutes per side. Infrared grills cook a few minutes faster so if you have charcoal or a regular propane grill you may need to cook longer. You don't want the dough to be fully cooked at this point because you need to put your toppings on then place back on the grill for a few more minutes to complete cooking.

You have to be quick when cooking the dough/pizza so its good to go ahead and have all your toppings outside with you. Once the dough is almost done, take it off the grill and add your toppings. I made a mozzarella, garlic pesto pizza; veggie pizza (I sauteed the veggies prior to cooking the dough) with goat cheese, and pepperoni herb pizza. If you want sausage or anything else that needs cooking, do that prior so you can have it ready to go. I also had my citronella candle burning to keep those pesky mosquitoes away! 

There you go, that's it! The pizzas are so much fun to make, super easy, and super yummy! It is amazing how different the dough tastes when its grilled. It has a great flavor!

 

Cheers!

Lazy Days Of Summer

Well, it is hot here. Hotness requires laying around and not moving much. I think the kitty's have it down pretty well. Laying around is pretty much all I did today. I spun a little yarn and grilled some chicken but....that is about all I did. Oh, wait, I did put some things on the curb for bulk trash day. I am working on cleaning out the garage. Well, I cannot take all the credit. I had some help from the boy. All I had to do was point and he did all the man work. We have had several people pillage through our junk but I guess the old saying is true, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

So, with these lazy days of summer, I often enjoy a refreshing meal. Today, my refreshing meal consists of a chicken Cesar salad. And boy, the chicken turned out quite tasty. The grill is fantastic!!! One of my best investments.

Yesterday Jeff and I went to the Mellow Mushroom, the best pizza place in town! We shared a bottle of wine, hummus and pita wedges, and a gourmet white pizza with feta, onions, garlic, tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, provolone and mozzarella. Oh man, this is a good pizza. After our dinner, we came home and watched Love in the Time of Cholera. Much to my surprise, this love story is a favorite book of Jeff's. Now, Jeff is not your sentimental, lovie dovie, romantic type person. He is very intellectual and straight to the point, so you can only imagine how I felt when I found out he wanted to watch this movie. This movie is your ultimate love story and Jeff is telling me it is one of his favorites??? What is going on? Is the world coming to an end? I am going crazy? Nope...he actually likes a love story. WOW. Might I say, he has good taste in love stories because this movie was excellent, now if I could just get him to watch The Holiday, all would be swell.

I spent my Friday night watching the most wonderful fantasy fairy tale, Penelope. I loved it so much that I watched 3 times! It is a really cute movie and I just adore Christina Ricci. I am certainly going to add Penelope to my DVD collection very soon! Yes, I am very aware and fully embrace the fact that I am a big dork.

So, I guess I have had a very relaxing and uneventful weekend, but sometimes, that is just the way to do it!

Cheers and have a happy week!

Birthday Party...all month long

In my family, February is a busy month. There are 5 birthdays and of course you gotta throw Valentine's Day in there. So, February is pretty much a month long celebration. It is kinda nice. It all starts with my sisters birthday on the 3rd. Then, my cousin's birthday is on the 12th and as my little 8 year old cousin recently pointed out, starting on her birthday there is a birthday every 3rd day. So, as I was saying, her birthday is the 12th (then Valentine's Day), my mom's birthday comes next on the 15th, my niece Violet's birthday is on the 18th and then there is me bringing up the rear on the 21st. Now if I want to go make things really complicated I can mention that Jeff's cousin's birthday is on the 20th and a good friend's birthday is on the 22nd. Whew!

I recently returned from a trip to Arkansas to visit my sister, niece, and brother-in-law (and of course his family too!). My dad, mom, and I drove up there for my niece's 4th birthday! She is just getting so big. She had a birthday party Saturday at a roller skating rink, and may I say she is a mighty fine roller skater. She can even skate backwards! It was a lot of fun.

When we arrived to Mountain View on Friday we checked in at the Pinewood Cabins. This place is wonderful. It is right on the square, within walking distance to pretty much everything. My parents had a cabin and "the kids" had a cabin. Here is a sneak peek into our cabin:

All the cabins have a theme. We sayed in the "Lancaster General Store". The cabins are so cozy. Saturday night it rained and we slept with the windows open so I was able to fall asleep to the sound of the rain. It was great!

Once we checked in and got settled, my mom, sister and I went to a class at Ritsy Rags to learn how to needle felt. It was a birthday present for all of us from my sister. It was a ton of fun. Ritsy Rags is the cute little store that sells fabric, patterns, arts and craft supplies, and handmade items. It was so much fun. I think we went went in there at least 2 days in a row. I am sure we would have went in again on the 3rd day, however, they were not open on Sunday.

The class was to needle felt a wool scarf. This is my mom in action needle felting her scarf:

This is Carrie and Rene, she is the owner of the store and just fantastic. She has got to be the craftiest and most friendly person in Mountain View.

A look at the scarf I was working on. I just had too much fun!:

After we finished up our needle felting class we met up with the men...my dad and brother-in-law for some of the yummiest Mexican food in Arkansas! Later we found out the place is owned by people from Texas....that has to be why the food was so good! Texan's know their Mexican food!

Since Friday was my mom's birthday, Carrie and I went over to our cabin after dinner to prepare a little surprise birthday dessert for her.

I also finished the felt pizza for Violet. I turned out really cute. I think I have found a new hobby! She liked it too!

It was a great time. I wish I were snuggled up on the couch in the cabin drinking a glass of wine and watching movie right now!

Cheers!

Saturday Afternoon Crafting

Well, my trip to visit my sister, brother-in-law, and niece is coming up. I am going with my parents and of course that means leaving at the crack of dawn on Thursday morning. Yep, 5am is apparently the time the ship is sailing, so I have decided to spend the night at my parents house on Wednesday.

I have been trying to get some items ready to go for the Stone County Farmer's Market. It is right on the Square, where all the action is. I am sure going to be in trouble if the booth I am sharing with my sister is facing the Stonebrook Fudge Factory. If that does happen, more than likely, I will be dreaming about their wonderful tiger butter fudge. I will probably go buy a pound of it and eat the whole thing in a matter of minutes, then feel remorseful (if I don't go into a sugar coma first) and will want to take a long walk through the mountains to burn off the calories :-).

When I woke up this morning I started sewing in preparation for the market. It seemed as though Ziggy was very intrigued in my sewing and maybe wanted to learn himself.

I sewed together several snap wallets. I had my own little sweat shop going on.

However, rather unfortunately, I ran out of snaps. Poo. I guess that is just another excuse to go to Jo Ann's tomorrow!

I have sew, uh...I mean so (yep I know bad, very bad) much work left to do. Good thing I am off next week, again! I am in the middle of changing jobs. My last day of hospice was yesterday. A co-worker and I went to a cute little restaurant in town called Lili's for lunch. We had that yummy looking chicken salad sandwich to the left. Great place to have lunch or dinner with fairly reasonable prices. Not to mention the atmosphere is fantastic!

Now, I am off to make dinner. I am going to make a little pizza like last time but this time I am going to use mozzarella and goat cheese with caramelized onions. LOVE the goat cheese!