Grilled Pizzas

One of our favorite dinners is "make  your own pizza" night.  When we first started doing it I would set out a huge variety of toppings for the kids to choose from, and all they would use is the pepperoni, olives, and Canadian Bacon. So to prevent unnecessary labor and waste, our topping bar usually only consists of a few well loved toppings, but when we have guests over we get fancy and break out more!

First you need some good dough.  This is the recipe I use.

Pizza Dough

1 1/2 cups warm water
2 t. yeast
2 t. sugar
2 t. salt
2 T. olive oil
4 1/4 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water.  Add sugar, salt, and olive oil.  Mix in enough of the flour to make a soft dough.  Knead dough on a floured surface.  Cover and let rise 1-4 hours until ready to use.  Divide dough into 6 balls and let rest 10 minutes.  Roll out and place on greased pans dusted lightly with cornmeal.

I purchased a dozen 10 inch pizza pans from an online restaurant supplier a few years back, and we use them all the time.  Click here if you need some too :)

Then you need some sauce.  You can buy some or it's really simple to make.  For the grilled pizzas I like to make a fresh summertime sauce made with fresh basil from my backyard.

Summertime Basil Pizza Sauce

1 can Hunt's Fire Roasted Tomatoes (or petite diced)
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
1 Tbs Parmesan cheese grated
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 teaspoon italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar

1. Wash and rough chop basil leaves.  Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

2. Let sit 2 or more hours before using.

Then set out your favorite toppings like canadian bacon, pepperoni, olives, mushrooms, green peppers, bacon crumbles, tomatoes, pineapple, etc.

Sauce your crust, sprinkle with grated mozzarella, top with your toppings.  Here's mine:

The dough is too soft to place directly on the grill, so I oven bake these a 425 for 8 minutes first.  They come out not quite done like this:

Then take them outside and slide them off the pans onto a preheated medium low grill.

Close the cover and let 'em cook.  The whole point in grilling them is so that the crust on your pizzas will be phenomenal, and your backyard will smell like a brick oven pizzaria.  I check the bottom crust often and pull them off the grill when it looks dark brown and crispy but not burned. Let them cool 5 minutes, slice and serve.  Trust me, these are really good!

Fresh Dill Potato Salad

I love my garden.  It's small and doesn't produce much, but I love working in it and watching things grow.  This year I planted lots of different vegetables/fruits/herbs in small quantities just to see what could survive and possibly thrive in the Texas heat.  The potatoes and dill survived, so I made this simple potato salad and it tasted great!!!!


Fresh Dill Potato Salad

2 pounds cooked red potatoes, skin on, cut into 1 inch chunks
4 dill pickles, chopped

1 cup Miracle Whip

1 T vinegar

1 1/2 tsp mustard
2 T fresh dill chopped fine
1 T onion, finely minced
salt and pepper, to taste

1.  Place potatoes and dill pickles in a bowl and gently combine.  In a separate small bowl mix the Miracle Whip, vinegar, mustard, minced onion, 1 1/2 T of the chopped dill.  Salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the potato mixture and gently combine.  Sprinkle remaining dill over the top.  Chill for 1-2 hours before serving.

Fish Wrapped In Banana Leaves

Oh, this one is good!!!  I love using banana leaves to cook with, because they add a wonderful and unique herby almost tea like flavor to the food you wrap in them.  We also like to eat fish, but fish dishes often seem quite similar to one another and can be boring.  Not this one.  It is delightful.  You can find banana leaves in the freezer section of most any Asian market.  They cost under $1 at my store - and there are enough leaves to wrap 2 meals in.  I always keep a couple packs in my freezer.

Fish Wrapped in Banana Leaves

6 large banana leaves

2 fresh red chiles or 2 tsp chili paste

2 sticks lemon grass, outer leaves removed, centers finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 handfuls fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

2 limes, juiced and zested

1 can coconut milk

2 Tbs sesame oil

1 Tbs soy sauce

2 Tbs fresh ginger, finely sliced

6 pieces white fish (tilapia is what we usually use)

1. Preheat oven to 450.

2. Rinse banana leaves with water and pat dry.  Cut leaves into 10-12 inch sections.  To make banana leaves more pliable, hold for a few seconds over a gas flame.

3. Blend all ingredients except the fish and leaves in a food processor to make a thick paste. Spoon some on to each banana leaf. Place fish on top then spoon more paste over. Bring in sides of leaf and secure with a toothpick.

4. Place leaves on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Allow to rest 5 minutes before serving.

5. Serve with rice.  Any rice will do, but we prefer it with sweet rice (click here for the Sticky Rice with Bananas & Mangos recipe I used this time - it was super easy and wonderful!)

Now the last time I made this I was out of lemongrass (which I also buy lots of at my asian market, cut up and keep frozen), so I made it without the lemongrass and it still tasted wonderful!  However, it blended up more as a sauce than a paste without the lemongrass in it.

Jumbo Pasta Seashells With Cheesy Herb Filling

We had this one for dinner the other night and the kids loved it!!  It was fun for me to cook, because I nabbed the fresh parsley and basil from my garden - love it!!  I had some extra stuffed shells that didn't fit into my pan, so I put them in a gallon freezer ziplock and froze them. It will be super easy to throw them in a pan with a jar of sauce from the pantry and bake it up one night for an easy dinner :)

You can also make this recipe ahead and freeze it.  I like to use freezer to oven Gladware.  I just defrost in the refrigerator overnight, then bake covered with foil at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

Jumbo Pasta Seashells with Cheesy Herb Filling

12 oz box jumbo pasta shells
4 cups ricotta cheese
8 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2 eggs
1 Tbs freshly chopped parsley
1 Tbs freshly chopped basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp nutmeg, ground
28 oz spaghetti sauce or marinara

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cook pasta according to package instructions, drain.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together cheeses, eggs, parsley, basil, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

3. Fill each cooked shell with about 1 1/2 level tablespoons cheese mixture. In 13x9x2 inch baking dish spread 1/2 cup of the spaghetti or marinara sauce. Arrange filled shells in pan and cover with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheese.

4. Cover with foil and bake 35 minutes.

Mango Salsa - Home Canned

This is a new recipe I recently tried, and I absolutely love it!  It's got that whole sweet, tangy, spicy thing going on, and I love that it was so easy to do.


Mango Salsa

6 cups diced firm mango (about 6 – not ripe)
1 ½ cups diced red bell pepper (about 2)
3 ripe medium tomatoes
2 large jalapeno peppers
½ cup finely chopped yellow onion
2 Tbs chopped cilantro
½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 Tbs finely chopped garlic
2 Tbs finely chopped ginger
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup cider vinegar (5%)
¼ cup lime juice
½ cup water

1. Wash and rinse pint canning jars; keep hot until ready to use. Prepare lids according to manufacturer's directions.

2. Wash all produce well. Peel and chop mangos and tomatoes into ¼ inch cubes. Finely dice bell pepper and jalapenos.  Finely chop yellow onions and cilantro.

3. Combine all ingredients in an 8-quart Dutch oven or stockpot. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce to simmering, and simmer 5 minutes.

4. Fill clean, hot pint jars, leaving ½-inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids.

5. Process in a boiling water canner.   Pints 15 minutes or quarts 20 minutes.  Let cool, undisturbed, for 12 to 24 hours and check for seals.

Yield: 4 pint jars

Lemongrass Cupcakes with Lemongrass-Coconut Buttercream Frosting

I ran across this cupcake blog while looking for a recipe, and I'm so excited I did. There is quite a collection of delicious sounding cupcake recipes to dream about making. All of the recipes come with great photos to drool over as well. I am especially excited about the recipes using fresh herbs like basil, mint, and one of my favorites - LEMONGRASS! I will have to make this one. . . soon.