How to grill the perfect pizza

I know the end of summer is close, but there's still time to grill some pizza!  Not to mention that some people grill year-round.  We're fair-weather grillers because our grill isn't covered.  But I'm a huge fan of grilled pizza now that we've figured out how to do it.  It turns out so much crispier than in the oven, even with a pizza stone.  You have to try this - if you love pizza this will be your new favorite way to make it at home.

First, I recommend you make your own dough.  It's easy, and cheap.  The only downside is that you do have to allow about 2 hours to let it rise.  I use the recipe from Foodnetwork magazine, and yeast specifically for pizza (although I don't necessarily think the type of yeast matters).

Let the yeast active before you combine it with the rest of the ingredients.

Form the dough into a big ball, and knead away!  Lots o' kneading!

The recipe I use makes enough for 2 pizzas.  We freeze the second ball after it's done rising if we're not using it that night.  It works great, trust me.

Here's the dough after it's risen - ready to roll out and make some pizza!

Spread the dough out onto a cookie sheet - the size and shape works well with a grill.  The dough is nice and olive-oily, no extra spray needed.

Grill the dough by itself over medium heat until it's browned on the bottom and there's a little charring.

When the first side's done, flip it over.  This is easy to do because it's cooked on the one side.



Next, take the crust off the grill (still on cookie sheet) and top it.  The pizza above is a Marguerita (olive oil base, with salt & red pepper flakes), plus fresh basil, tomatoes and lots of cheese.  Then put it back on the grill, and cook until done - without the cookie sheet.   

The other pizza we made was roasted garlic, with blue cheese on the right half.  My favorite!!

Our friend, Matt, entertaining Hank (and my sister, Emily), while the pizza cooks.

A Day at the Clackamas County Fair

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Clackamas County Fair.  Julian, Hank, and I were joined by my niece (Scarlett), my brother (Christian) and my sister (Emily).  This was Hank's first time at the fair, and we had a lot of fun.  I can't wait until he's old enough to go on some rides.  But he still had fun helping us eat some trashy fair food, checking out the animals, and watching Scarlett ride some awesome rides.

Em, me, Hank, and Christian

Scarlett is enjoying some fair food.

Christian and Hank.

Hank's riding with (or, actually on) Scarlett.

Who can resist the piglets?

Auntie Em with Scarlett checking out the piggies.

Love this guy's haircut, it really accentuates his neck.

GOAT HUMPING!!  Our visit would not be complete without it.

Mama and baby pigging out.

We couldn't hold the baby goat, but at least we got to pet him!

Goat madness!

Hank's modeling an awesome coonskin hat.

Scarlett on the helicopter ride.

Hank's having run watching Scarlett.

Scarlett's an easyrider!

Having some fun in the jeep!

We're all ready to go here.....posing in front of the funhouse, which Scarlett got to go into for free!

A Very Circus Birthday

A few weeks ago our good friends (Monique and Chris) threw their daughter, Adeline, her second birthday party. The party had a circus theme, and the kids looked super cute in their costumes.  I tried to take a good range of pictures, but unfortunately I don't have one of the birthday girl (doh!).  And she looked really beautiful, too, trust me. 

I've had kid birthday parties on the brain lately - Hank's first birthday is coming up in just a few weeks.....we almost survived the first year!

Here's the circus birthday cake.

Our friend, Amanda, provided her face painting services.  Julian's getting a "Hank" tattoo in preparation for the real one he was getting (since gotten).

Hank (right) with his friend, Elsa.  Hank wore his costume, aka clown jammies.  We thought his polka-dot camouflage was pretty darn awesome.

Our friend, Manijeh, with her little strong man (Oren), getting another tattoo.

Check out this amazing strong man.

Hank thought Oren was pretty cool.

And boy, was he strong!

Now Hank's getting a tattoo, a mustache!

Here I am with Hank, and the mirrored shades befitting his awesome mustache.

Elsa with her dad, Jamey.

One more picture of us.  I can't get enough of those clown polka dot jammies.

Summer in the city

It's been a few weeks since my last post.  The summer's flying by, and it seems like there's a lot going on.  By the time Hank's in bed I only have an hour or so before I also have to go to bed, so it leaves little time to update my blog (or for anything else, like relaxing with some wine and catching up on my TV shows). 

We're currently off from work for a week of vacation (staycation), so I'm able to make this post while kind of watching the Today show and drinking coffee - heaven!

So I thought I'd do a catch-up post with some pics from the past few weeks, dating back to when we took our last week of vacation in July.  We had gone to Camp Sherman earlier in the week, then we had some friends over for a bbq, and had our garage sale. 

We had a lot of competition that weekend, so we had a pretty light turn-out for the sale, but Julian and I did sell over $200 worth of stuff.  We also set up a cupcake and lemonade stand so my sister (Emily) could make some money since she still, a year after her brain surgery, has no source of income.  She only made about $40'ish from the cupcakes & lemonade, but it's more than she had at the beginning of the day.

Here are some pics of our bbq:

Our good friends Jim, and Krystin

Jim and Krystin's daughter, Josie, in our backyard

Our (also) very good friends, Susan and Andy, with Hank

Susan with Emily

 Here are some garage sale pics:


All our crap piled up in back at the beginning of the day, ready to be hauled out front.

Here's our set up before the sale got started.

Our friend, and neighbor, Holly with her daughter Emma, stopped by for a visit.

Me (and Hank) with our friends Grant, Yumi and their daughter Meyu, came and bought some stuff.



Em with the boxing Balboa (aka Rocky) puppet.  She had to buy it from our other sister, Anne, before the sale even started.



Em with Scarlett (our niece) at the cupcake & lemonade stand.

Scarlett modeling the goods.

Our friend Amanda holding Hank after the sale was finally over.