Do you make your own pizza? Our family began making it all from scratch at least 3 years ago when we were stationed in the Midwest. At the time, my husband had a bigger, gas grill and we were reaping the rewards of our backyard garden and had to put the fresh produce to good use!
Now that's it's summer here, we try to cook on the grill at least once a week.
Now that's it's summer here, we try to cook on the grill at least once a week.
Now we have this little charcoal grill, which works great (if it's not too windy). Do you see my baking stone sticking out? It may be a tad too big for the grill, but it works! We use to grill out pizzas flat on the grate but then tried this variation of using a baking stone. It allows the dough to puff up better and we don't have to be concerned about the pizza sticking to the grate nor the precious pizza falling into the hot flames.
Note: If you do use a baking stone, I would recommend you put it on when the grill is first starting to heat so the stone heats slowly as well.
You don't want to crack it!
Note: If you do use a baking stone, I would recommend you put it on when the grill is first starting to heat so the stone heats slowly as well.
You don't want to crack it!
As you may be able to tell, we don't like simple, boring pizzas.
This is the laden tray I brought out to my man.
This is the laden tray I brought out to my man.
We had 3 different kinds of bases.
A pesto sauce (I'll pass along the recipe of these days, it's my hubs' favorite dish ever), a white cheese sauce and lastly the good ol' tomato sauce (that everyone eats besides me...I'm not one for heated tomatoes).
A pesto sauce (I'll pass along the recipe of these days, it's my hubs' favorite dish ever), a white cheese sauce and lastly the good ol' tomato sauce (that everyone eats besides me...I'm not one for heated tomatoes).
For the toppings, I scrounged up whatever was in my fridge including the above mixed veggies: corn from the Farmers' market, spinach (also Farmers' market fare), shredded carrot, mushrooms (thanks again farmers' market!), green beans (another farmers' market purchase) and cherry tomatoes (ditto).
Three types of cheese were used as complements and toppings. Cubed Queso Blanco (a new cheese that doesn't melt that I found near the fresh mozzarella at Costco), freshly grated Parmesan and shredded Mozzarella.
For the pizza dough recipe I used one my friend passed along to me years back. It makes a good, easy, reliable pizza dough that can puff up nicely during the baking stage in the oven. Even out on the grill, it musters up a good rise! I also tried out a thin crust pizza using the recipe from a previous post, this one, but didn't feel like it held up very well. It was better as a quesadilla prof sorts.
My hubs does the grilling but I think it's not too difficult (I'm sure he'd tease me and say it takes a great amount of skill). When the stone is ready I use my hands to make personal size pizza flattened pizza dough and he plops it the baking stone that has corn meal sprinkled on it (to help with the sticking).
And then after it browns on one side (and puffs up), he flips it and adds the desired toppings.
Some of the pizzas we especially liked were:
-white sauce, ground beef, sauteed onions and mushrooms with mozzarella
-Pesto with parmesan cheese
-Tomato sauce with the mixed vegetables and queso blanco
*Check out my husband's awesome military-issued socks in birkenstocks look ;) I love that man!
-white sauce, ground beef, sauteed onions and mushrooms with mozzarella
-Pesto with parmesan cheese
-Tomato sauce with the mixed vegetables and queso blanco
*Check out my husband's awesome military-issued socks in birkenstocks look ;) I love that man!
To finish it all off, I had lots of dishes. But also lots of leftovers!
And this was my little shadow, er, helper!
Happy grilling out! And summer days and nights spent outside!
Goodnight! From your friendly, slightly hippy, typically naturally, silly, silvery-haired Aly!
Goodnight! From your friendly, slightly hippy, typically naturally, silly, silvery-haired Aly!