Grilled Pizza

In his book, Food Rules, Michael Pollan says, "Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself." That means if you want french fries, you'd better get to washing, peeling, cutting, frying, and then cleaning up all those grease splatters. Then enjoy your fries, because chances are you won't want to make them again anytime soon.

"One of our problems is that foods that are labor or money intensive have gotten very cheap and easy to procure...The fact that labor has been removed from special occasion food has made us treat it as everyday food. One way to curb that and still enjoy those foods is to make them. Try to make your own Twinkie. I don’t even know if you can. I imagine it would be pretty difficult. How do you get the cream in there?" 

I feel the same way about pizza. How many pizza coupons do you get each week in the mail for the 14 different pizza joints located within a mile of your home?

While I can see the logic of avoiding Domino's, Pizza Hut, Little Caesar's, Mr. Jim's, Papa John's, and Papa Murphy's (just to name a few), I'm also not prepared to live a life without pizza. So I've been perfecting my homemade pizza, and boy -- did I have a breakthrough a few weeks ago.

This summer I kept reading about Grilled Pizza. In Southern Living, in Reader's Digest, on the Tasty Kitchen blog on The Pioneer Woman's site. Since it's been 105 degrees for what seems like 105 days in a row in Texas, and turning on your stove is about the last thing you want to do, I decided to try it.

Please do yourself a favor and make grilled pizza this weekend. The crust is perfection. The sauce is tangy and fresh. And if you have fresh basil on hand? Get outta here. It's a little time consuming, but it is so worth it. As I told my Mom, this is "Guest Pizza." Meaning, I would serve this to guests. Here are my crust and sauce recipes, followed by a link to a how-to grill pizza tutorial.

Pizza Crust recipe -- Makes 2 crusts

2 tsp. dry yeast

2 c. white flour

2 c. wheat flour

2 tsp. kosher salt

1/3 c. olive oil

1 1/2 c. warm water

Pour yeast into warm water. Set aside.

Combine flour and salt in mixing bowl.

With an electric mixer on low speed, drizzle in the olive oil till incorporated.

Gently stir the yeast mixture, then drizzle it into the flour/oil mixture until the dough forms a ball.

Drizzle olive oil into a bowl, then toss the ball of dough in the bowl and turn to coat it in oil. 

Cover the bowl with a clean dish towel, then set in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours.

Divide dough in half -- use one, and put the other into a freezer bag coated with cooking spray. You can freeze it till you need it!

Then spread the dough you're using out into a nice thin rectangle shape. 

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Homemade Pizza Sauce

I can Italian stewed tomatoes

1.5 TB olive oil

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

Mix all ingredients in a blender or food processor. (A small Magic Bullet-type blender works really well for this.)

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And here is an awesome picture-by-picture tutorial on how to grill your pizza from the Cooking for Seven blog. You should heed her advice on spreading some olive oil and garlic over the crust before you spread out the toppings. It really does add some kick.

This is a picture from my first grilled pizza, which was barbecued chicken. I love to use leftover grilled chicken for those pizzas -- just shred it, add your favorite barbecue sauce, half a red onion, and some Italian seasoning. Then fresh mozzarella. Perfection!

You'll never order from Pizza Hut again.

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Workout of the Day

P90X One on One: Fountain of Youth Yoga  

Ahhhh. Recovery Week...You're the best.