Shrimp Alfredo Pizza

We have pretty much perfected our homemade whole wheat pizza dough - one packet of yeast in 1 cup of very warm (110-degree) water and a drop of honey allowed to "wake up" for about 15 minutes, then into a bowl with 3 cups whole wheat flour, lots of garlic powder, salt, and some basil and oregano, combined and kneaded until doughy and then allowed to rise near the warm oven (covered) for an hour. This recipe makes enough for 2 pizzas, and it freezes well too.

The champion of this particular pizza creation is the bag of frozen shrimp we always have on hand. Whether in fajitas, pasta, or grilled cajun-style over a salad, these frozen wonders are great for easy and quick weeknight cooking.

As usual, we pre-cooked our dough on our stone in a very hot 500-degree oven for 4 minutes. In the meantime, we cooked up the shrimp 2/3 of the way in some olive oil and seasoned them with some garlic powder, oregano, and basil. We removed the dough and topped it with some store-bought alfredo sauce, some big slices of tomato, fresh basil leaves, the shrimpies and topped it with some shredded mozzarella and fresh-grated parmesan. We popped that back in the oven for 7 more minutes, and then we had ourselves a nice creamy shrimp pizza with a divinely thin crispy crust!

Grilled Pizza

What CAN'T you grill? Maybe pancakes and eggs - but you just need a griddle to make that work!

We did our normal pizza crust, but this time we left it as dry as we could possibly stand. Perhaps over-moistening had been our downfall in the past, the pizza dough sticks to everything and it is hard to get it nice and thin. This time, we added the yeast-and-water mixture and stirred it for a long time. What felt like it would be way to dry finally absorbed all the water evenly and the dough came out great. 3.5 cups whole wheat flour (with some salt and garlic powder for seasoning), 1 cup warm water that had yeast and a little honey added to it. That's IT! It looks like it wants more water... it is BEGGING for more water! DO NOT GIVE IT MORE WATER! Then, into an oiled bowl for at least an hour. This crust was the beginning of a great pizza.

We rolled out our dough into two pizzas to fit more easily on the grill. Grill preheated to a blazing 600-degrees, I wiped on a little olive oil on the grates and then popped the dough right on the grill! It bubbled up at first but those bubbles were taken care of after being flipped over - after about 3 minutes.





After about three more minutes on side #2, these were brought back inside for their dressing. We had sauted green peppers and onions and mushrooms, plus we had some deli ham and turkey pepperoni. Let's put it all on there! First sauce, then layer of cheese, then sauteed veggies, then meat, then cheese!



We put this full-dressed pizza on our pizza stone and put it back on the grill until the cheese was nice and melty and JUST getting a burnt top. We used the stone to heat the pizza at this point so that the crust didn't end up a charred mess... the stone worked perfectly! After the one, we popped the other pizza in, popped a beer, turned on the game, and sat down to enjoy our grilled 'za. Pizza, beer, Red Sox game - all the makings of a great summer evening!

Grilled Sweet Potatoes, More Chicken, Pizza, and Ribs?

We've been eating... food!

We sliced sweet potatoes in one-inch, three-sided spears and dressed them in olive oil, salt, and pepper and grilled them 10 minutes each on the two non-skinned sides. They came out good and mushy with lots of charring - will do less time and move away from the direct flames next time, but this seems like a good alternative to boiling or roasting.

Still trying to perfect the split breasts on the grill... tried searing the skin side down, then turning and grilling indirectly for about 45 minutes (the temp in the grill maintained about 375)... Too charry on the skin side, wondering if should even put the skin side down? My brother says my dad's secret is to always be turning the food - but that goes against every recommendation I've read that says "don't turn any more than you have to!" I'll have to consult with the big man to get the real scoop.

We tried adding smoke to the chicken by putting an aluminum tray full of soaked hickory chips under the grill racks - that didn't seem to do very much! Perhaps I added too many in a big pile, next time I will try one layer and see if that helps...

Made pizza with that leftover dough from a while back that had been in the freezer. We made a VERY thin crust and made sure that the oven was a very hot 500 degrees this time... came out great with turkey pepperoni and sliced red peppers and mushrooms - no sauteing!

We have lots of summer vacation planned this year, but this weekend - Memorial Day weekend - we have no plans! Except for one plan, of course - to run the grill all weekend long. The weather for Sunday and Monday looks great.

So we wanted to try our very first attempt at ribs. Have been doing lots of research but if anyone out there reading this has any specific RIBS recipes or pointers, please leave them in comments! We are, as always, open to experimentation!

Thanks!

~S & M

Pizza

We like to make our own pizza crust out of mostly whole wheat flour augmented with all-purpose flour... and seasoned just like we like it. Tonight, we made a (chicken) sausage, mushroom, and onion pizza!

The Dough: combine a packet of active dry yeast with 1 cup of very warm water and a couple of drops of honey - stir well and let this rest for about 10 minutes to get that yeast alive and kicking. You'll know you've got good yeast action when it starts to foam on the top.

Put close to 3 cups of flour (2.5 wheat, .5 all-purpose) in a bowl with seasonings of your choice - we used garlic powder (tbls), salt (1/2 tbls.), and a few shakes of dried oregano (notice the green flakes in the dough). In goes the water/yeast mixture and stir/fold with a spoon until the dough starts for form. Eventually you gotta put the spoon down and get in there with your hands and start to knead the dough, folding it in half over and over. You'll need to judge how much flour you might have to augment the dough with - it shouldn't be too sticky so just sprinkle all-purpose flour over the sticky parts and continue to fold that in.

When you've got a good doughy - not dry but not TOO sticky - consistency, line another glass bowl with a quick turn of olive oil and get the dough in there and covered with a kitchen towel. Let that dough rise for an hour on stovetop of a warm oven - it'll double in size during that time.


About 45 minutes later, get the oven going at high temp (we had it at 455) with a pizza stone preheating on the bottom rack of the oven - if you have a pizza stone. If you don't... ummm... go get one! Or you could just use a cookie sheet.

When the dough is ready, get your pizza peel (or big wooden cutting board) out and sprinkle with all-purpose flour. This will be key so the dough doesn't stick to the board. Start flattening and stretching out the dough on the board while using more flour to make sure it doesn't stick... keep pushing out from the middle and try to get a uniform depth to the dough. We used about 1/2 the prepared dough for two people - the other 1/2 goes in the freezer to be defrosted on a rainy day.

When you are satisfied with the size and shape of your dough, pop it in that 455-degree oven right on the stone for about 5 minutes to give it a head start on the toppings...


We bought some chicken sausage that we sliced up and sauteed, then added some mushrooms to start the cooking with those, too. In addition, we'll add some raw onions to the top of the pizza.

Take the dough back out of the oven and start with a layer of sauce. We use the Pastene out-of-a-can stuff because it is very subtle and that's what we're looking for. After a thin layer of that is evenly distributed, go for a thin layer of shredded cheese (we had Jack and Cheddar available). Then on goes the sauteed sausage and mushroom mixure. On top of that, rings of onion. Finally, a last layer of cheese.


Back onto the stone for 8 minutes and 8 minutes ONLY! Here are the results:




The results: great! Dough was seasoned well and nicely chewy - perhaps TOO chewy? I guess that's in the jaw of the biter... How to make it less chewy, less kneading? More kneading? Anyone know?