Mmm...Grilled Pizza

Pizza. It's the one food that EVERYONE I know loves (that includes my gluten-allergic mother and my vegetarian best friend). It's on the menu here at our house usually once a week. Perhaps not the healthiest thing we eat all week, but our version usually skips the not-so-good-for-you meats in favor of cheese and veggies (hey, I try to shoot for the healthy option when I can!)

I can't tell you how many recipes for grilled pizza I've drooled over in the past few years, whether found online or in a yummy food mag. However, only recently did I find myself in the frozen foods section of the market realizing that for all of the drooling, I've never actually tried to grill a pizza - our weekly fix has always come by way of the oven or the delivery dude. So what's my deal been?

Let me tell you, grilled pizza is the most wonderful thing I've discovered in quite a while, and I'm highly disappointed in myself for not having tried it much, much earlier in my culinary adventures. Foolish fears kept me from one of the best meals for quite a while now. I had been afraid it was too easy to burn, too much work, too many steps - but I've since learned that it's quite the opposite.

Here's my method:

1 ball frozen pizza dough, thawed
1 jar pizza sauce (or homemade, whichever you like)
Fresh-sliced mozzarella
Fresh chopped basil
Fresh-sliced Roma tomato
Italian seasoning
Olive Oil

Form your dough into two ovals, approximately 8"x12" each, and brush each side with olive oil. Grill about 2 minutes on each side over high heat, until lightly browned.

Once lightly golden, add sauce, cheese, and tomato (or any other toppings you desire) and grill another 3-5 minutes with lid closed until cheese melts. Once cheese is melted, remove from grill and top with chopped basil and italian seasoning and serve.

That's It! Seriously, the entire dinner took LESS THAN 10 MINUTES! And it didn't burn. And it tasted amaaaaaaazing.

You could really do just about anything with this recipe. Grill some steak and onions alongside the dough while it's browning and add blue cheese, a balsamic glaze, and fresh herbs. Or grilled chicken, tomatoes, peppers, and feta cheese with italian dressing for sauce. Or skip the meat and go vegetarian for an evening...the options are endless.

So enjoy....

Image via marthastewart.com

Home Sweet Mansion

So here's the thing...there are a lot of different things I love in life. Design is one of the tops, and I mean all of it...interiors, fashion, parties, color, graphics, photos, fonts; some days it is definitely sensory overload in my world. I can easily spend hours looking through what my wonderful husband terms "house porn", drooling over gorgeous interiors and gardens either online or in my collection of design mags (oh Domino, I miss you!)

I'm also a huge fan of food...and as luck would have it, both sides of my family had developed a strong culinary gene by the time I came along. My dad's family is English and German, and my mother's family is from the South. I've learned everything from Scottish shortbread to southern Chicken and Dumplings. I think I love food so much because it's a never-ending adventure - I will never in my lifetime taste every recipe written, but I sure do love trying.

And then there's the idea of home. And the idea that everyone should have their own "mansion"...a place that they love and make their own, whether it's big or small, fancy or plain. Home for me is ever-changing, thanks to an endless supply of much-needed house projects, but no matter what it looks like it's mine. It's about making what you have exactly what you want and need, and loving the process.