Fire roasted pizza...at home!

 Tonight was a beautiful night to have supper on the deck... We tried something new--grilled pizza. Dontcha love it when you try something and it turns out amazing the very first time? I sure do! Tonight was one of those nights, so I thought I'd share my inspiration with you because pizza on the grill is definitely a new family tradition at the Amundson's! Here's a little tutorial...  Setup: Start by placing your stone on the cold grill and heating it as you would in the oven: 

(By the way--this is actually an "after" picture since I forgot to take a before one.  This is what your stone will look like after the intense heat and smoke.  I happen to like the rustic charm--but if you're attached to your pretty brown seasoning then you might want to get a separate stone for grilling...) I tried to maintain around 550* on the grill thermometer (the grate and stone were much hotter, I'm sure).  Our infrared grill can exceed 700*--if yours isn't that hot, it should still work, but will take a little longer to cook the pizza. 

 Finally, to give a touch of that smoke-kissed, fire-roasted flavor, I put a couple of wood pieces on.  Our grill is designed for easy smoking, but I figured out how to do it just fine on our old grill, too.  You can put a wood chunk right on the grate--or even right on the flavor bar/briquettes.  I wanted quick smoke/short duration so I didn't soak the wood. 

 Cooking: So, once you have a hot, smoking grill, you cook the pizza very much like you would on a stone.  We did small-ish pizzas for our first attempt since they were easier to manage getting on and off of the stone.

Rather than rolling/shaping the dough, I went for a "rustic" look, so I just stretched the dough by hand.  Most of our pizzas were sort of oval.

Tonight, we did barbeque chicken pizza.  I had previously seasoned/grilled some chicken tenderloins and chopped them.  We added the toppings in this order:  Trader Joe's barbeque sauce, freshly grated mozzarella cheese, bacon, chicken, onions and sweet freezer corn.  After cooking, we drizzled the pizza with a raspberry sauce that I made (which was basically seedless raspberry jam, a splash of balsamic vinegar, touch of oil, and a couple pinches of cayenne pepper). 

 

Mmm...

The options are endless.  We just used a basic homemade crust...

The crust was what made this pizza so amazing.  There's nothing special about my crust--any crust would do (generously coated with cornmeal to prevent sticking).  The crust was crisp and a touch smoky on the bottom, but the top was so soft and bubbled.  It will be hard to make homemade pizza in the oven again!

The pizza only took 5-7 minutes on our grill.  I removed it when it started to brown on the bottom, and the toppings were heated through.  It was very hot off the grill.

Introducing our "little chef":

I'm already planning to get a bigger stone so that we can do this for company.  They sell rectangular stones that would cook 2-3 of these pizzas at once.  I'm picturing "do it yourself" wood-fired pizza. 

Want to come for a pizza party?  :-)

This is my LATE husband:

Hehe...  :-) Last night he was 15 minutes late for supper.  It wouldn't be a big deal, but he had Math tutoring, and I had spent a lot of time making him a good supper which ended up being rushed.  I wasn't mad.  But when he came in the door, I was snapping a picture of supper.  I turned around and took his picture, and I told him I was going to post it on my blog and say, "This is my late husband".  Realizing what I had said, we both started to laugh... Anyway, here are those fresh salsas and dip that I mentioned in the last blog post, along with fajita veggies, my version of cilantro-lime rice, and some really good marinated chicken from Trader Joe's:  

For those of you who are familiar with Chipotle Mexican Grill (one of our favorite places to eat out), this food may look familiar.  But ya know...  I've learned that Chipotle is pretty hard to knock off.  All of these elements were really good individually.  I think certain things, on their own, were better than Chipotle.  The corn salsa was excellent, and the cilantro-lime rice was pretty much exactly right.  And it wasn't bad all together.  But it wasn't Chipotle.  Oh well...  It's probably not in my best interests to be able to fix Chipotle at home anyway...

Spring break continues...

 Well, there are a lot of things I could be doing with this next hour or so that I have to spare... And blogging is probably not the most productive choice... But then again, I don't know if I'll have the time to blog again before the shower.  So . . . Spring break and plans for the wedding shower continue. It's been a great week.  It's going by really quickly.  We've been knocking off some projects here and there, and enjoying the rest of the time as a family.  The week has been a lot more relaxing than I thought it would be--yay for "keeping it simple"!  I'm doing another BBQ. Yeah, I know...  I could have been a little more creative with the menu. But I figured with 50 people on the guest list, dainty appetizers could get a little labor intensive. Not to mention--for a "his and hers" shower, I can't imagine the guys getting really excited over finger foods...  So, we spent last weekend butt pickin' again...  

 I bought somewhere just over 30 pounds of pork roast and our home was filled with the dreaded stench...er...aroma of pork roast once again.  I would have loved to have done it on the grill, but it takes a lot longer and would have been impractical to do the roasts one--or maybe 2--at a time.  So, I did them all at once on Sunday when at least I could be gone for half the day. We brined the roasts in the refrigerator overnight Saturday, and after we managed to break the meat drawer, we made a mental note that 30 pounds (4 pork shoulders) each in a 2 gallon bag of brining solution is maximum capacity for our refrigerator.   I wish I would have thought to take a picture! ... Oops. Thankfully, many hands make light work, and my family offered to help out:  

 Would you believe that my husband enjoys seasoning pork roasts?  (Wish I would have came across that information sooner!) Beth Marie sprinkled the roast with seasoning and Mike rubbed it in--they made an excellent butt rubbin' team:    

My freezer is once again full of pork:

...so I hope everyone comes hungry on Saturday... Cause I DON'T want left-overs!  

I been butt pickin' again...

We were in the midst of some unseasonably warm weather, and were planning for company, so I decided to fix a barbeque complete with beans, coleslaw, fresh fruit and veggies, and... a smoked pork roast: 

Some of you may remember that we served pulled pork at Sam's graduation open house last year. I slow roasted somewhere around 60 pounds of pork butt for that party. I rinsed those butts and patted them dry and brined them in my fridge and patted them dry again and rubbed them down with seasonings and roasted them for 13 hours each in my oven and woke up to the probe alarm in the mornings and shredded them with forks and stored them in my freezer... Let's just say that it smelled really good for the first roast or two... I even snuck a little taste here and there when I pulled the meat. But when I lived with the smell of roast pork in my house day and night for several days, it started to get overwhelming... And by the time I had done that many roasts...let's just say I didn't care if I ever saw another pork butt again. I figured it had been over 9 months and I was probably over it...especially since the plan was to smoke the roast on the grill this time.    

 But, it was a large pork shoulder, and those take a loooong time to smoke.  So, when midnight rolled around and the pork still hadn't reached the magic 200 degrees for pulling...I knew I'd have to bring it in the house and finish it in the oven.   And, I discovered that I still haven't "gotten over it"...  Ha!  Out of that entire roast, I ate  one. tiny. sandwich.   And that was just to make sure it was fit to serve company. Bummer that my husband enjoys smoked pork so much or I'd just retire... ...maybe I'll just leave the butt pickin' to him from now on.  :-)

Easy lunches...

 Now, I must confess that I have a weakness for household gadgets... ...but I've come to the conclusion that no kitchen is complete without one of these:  

(panini press) We purchased ours from Amazon.com last fall or so, and it's been an excellent tool for preparing good lunches and suppers FAST. With just a few easy supplies on hand (meat, bread, cheese) you have a quick and fun meal for a babysitter... ...or a happy hubby at home while you're on a girls' night out!  :-) Well, this week, I was scavenging around the kitchen for an easy lunch for Beth Marie and I. We had a nice hunk of Monterey Jack cheese from Trader Joe's in the fridge...and some left-over tortillas from a recent supper... Mmmm... We shredded the cheese, arranged it in the tortilla, folded it in half and plopped it on the grill. These were some of the most amazing cheese quesadillas we've ever had: 

They only took about a minute, and the cheese was gooey and melted in the middle...

The tortilla was the perfect mix of crispy and soft...

and that's what I call an easy lunch.  :-)

(With a little seasoned chicken and some taco fixings, it could be an easy supper, too!)

Winter Cookouts

 Remember this post?  We've been having quite a blast of arctic air in Minnesota.  Temps hovering in the single digits...and lows way below zero at night. It's cold. Cold enough that even I like to stay home.  But that hasn't stopped us from firing up the grill...  Tonight, we had chicken fajitas for supper.  

I just want to go on record as saying one thing:

  

Mmm...

Wanna come over for supper?

We'll cook out.  :-)

Cheap thrills...

 I needed a good saute pan. I had purchased one awhile back that I thought was nice.  But it very gradually warped and no longer heated well on my cooktop.  So, I was stuck using small stainless steel pans until I found something new.  I wanted something that browned well, heated evenly, and didn't stick.   I wanted cast iron.   But of course everything I've ever read says to not use cast iron on a glass cooktop.  And when it comes to $1200 appliances like my double-oven range, I tend to live by the rules...   (After all, George Bush is not going to buy me another one anytime soon...) I began researching pans...  It had to be large.  It had to heat evenly.  It had to brown well. A good enameled cast iron pan would have been over $100 (in the size I wanted). A good non-stick searing pan would have been $250.  No, I'm not kidding.  I could have a KitchenAid mixer or one pan.  Like that's gonna happen! I stood in the kitchen aisle at Target and picked up a monster cast iron pan.  The bottom was nice and smooth.   $18.99 I thought about how nicely cast iron pans brown.  I thought about how they flavor the food.  In the summer, I use cast iron pans all the time on the grill, and I love it. I had exchanged comments with my nephew's wife on Facebook, and she said that she used cast iron on her cooktop all the time. I decided to live dangerously. I bought the pan.  And tonight I cooked with it. It worked beautifully... 

  Now I'm thinking of all of the wonderful things I can cook as I season my new pan. It's an heirloom in progress.  :-) 

This . Was . Sooo . Good . . .

This was tonight's supper.  It didn't occur to me that I might want to post the recipe until we had already dug in and realized that it was very good.  Tonight's supper was a celebration of my new favorite grocery store--Trader Joe's--which just came to Rochester.  I didn't know what I was missing all these years!  Those of you who have experienced Trader Joe's know that they're loved for their cheap wines, vinegars, and olive oils in addition to their wonderful organic produce.  What better recipe to celebrate the arrival of this great store than this one? This is my version of Noodles and Company's "Pasta Fresca".  While I wasn't able to find the official recipe anywhere online, I found numerous imitations.  I started with a recipe from food.com and modified it from there.  One thing you should know about my cooking is that it's always about improvising.  I never follow a recipe.  But, this one is worth remembering, so here goes...

Fresca Sauce:

(I made this ahead which made for much quicker and easier preparation at supper time)

1 head of fresh roasted garlic

2 scant-ish teaspoons of kosher salt

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup sweet white wine

1 cup extra virgin olive oil (I used less)

(and I don't know what sweet white wine is, this tasted awfully salty to me, so I added some sugar.  Probably a few teaspoons, to taste...)

I tossed all of the ingredients in the Blendtec and processed on the dressing setting.

So, for the saute, I started with the following ingredients:

Just shy of 1 (12 oz.) box of penne pasta, prepared al dente

Good, vine-ripened tomatoes, chopped (I used about 5 small)

About a quarter of a large red onion, sliced thin

A couple handfuls of fresh baby spinach

Generous handful of fresh parmesan cheese (I used Trader Joe's Parmesan, Romano and Asiago)

Crumbled Feta Cheese

Fresh Parsley

Salt

Pepper

Chicken--this time I marinaded the chicken in some of the fresca sauce and broiled it.  It was very good.  Normally, I wouldn't have used an olive oil marinade in the broiler, but it wasn't grilling weather tonight.  If there weren't a snowstorm, I would have seasoned the meat and thrown it on the grill.

In a hot saute pan, cook the sliced onions in a little bit of oil until they begin to soften.  The rest is gonna go fast because I don't like to overheat olive oil, so assume that you're moving quickly for the rest of this.  Throw the noodles in the pan and get them good and steaming hot.  Toss in the tomatoes, fresh spinach, fresh parsley, and a little salt and pepper.  Toss in as much of the fresca sauce as you like--enough to coat and flavor the mixture.  Use just enough heat to warm the veggies through and slightly wilt the spinach.  Toss in a handful of fresh parmesan and stir till well incorporated.  Finally, toss in some crumbled feta and serve.

I served this with warm ciabatta rolls (also from Trader Joe's) and a salad of fresh romaine lettuce, chopped tomatoes, cucumber, and homemade tzatziki sauce.  Mmm...

The fresca sauce would keep in the fridge, and could be quite versatile.  I'm thinking that it would make a great bruschetta for little toasty appetizers.  I'm going to have to experiment more.  :-)