{Hot Momma of Necessity!}

We’ve been in the new house for about 12 days now.  We still don’t have any appliances.  We’ve got a little fridge down in the basement, so at least we have milk and yogurt.  Trying to eat out every day isn’t practical at all, so I’ve had to be creative.  We’ve got a little toaster over and the big grill.

It turns out that one can cook mac-n-cheese quite successfully.  The kids don’t mind oatmeal from the grill either!  We did BLT sammies out there once as well.  Easy enough, but I wanted a real meal.

Sure, I could have grilled a steak, roasted some corn or baked a potato or two – but I wanted something fun, healthy, and tasty. I pulled out the stand mixer and came up with a great pizza dough.  Nothing ground breaking, but simple and tasty.

Yep.  I grilled pizza dough.   And it worked!

Who knew, right?

 

 

 

CBear’s Grilling Pizza Dough (Corn Free)
1 1/4 cups warm water
4 1/2 tsp instant yeast (2 packages)
1 tablespoon buckwheat honey*
4 tablespoons olive oil (use the good stuff)
4 cups all-purpose flour (plus/minus depending on weather)
2 teaspoons KOSHER salt

Fit your mixer with dough hook.  Add water, yeast, honey and oil to bowl.  Mix well and allow to stand for 3 or 4 minutes.  Dump 3 cups of flour into the bowl and mix on low speed, adding more flour as needed to create a soft dough that doesn’t stick to the side.  Allow the machine to knead the dough for you, about 10 minutes.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and give it a few turns to make sure it’s smooth and elastic.  Place in a well oiled bowl, roll around a few times to coat, cover with a dishtowel and allow to sit at room temp for about 30 minutes. 

Use right away or wrap well with plastic and dump in the fridge.  If you’ve chilled the dough allow it come back to room temp before using.  Split ball into 6 equal chunks.   Shape each hunk into rough pizza shapes.  I like mine rustic, and mine were about 7 or 8” around.  I shape all mine at once and place on the well floured backs of cookie pans. (you can use cornmeal if you want that pizzaria crunch, but we don’t do corn here).

To cook on the grill:  heat grill to screaming hot.  using a silicone brush, oil the grates well.  toss each pizza right on the grates for exactly one minute.  use tongs to turn them over.  turn your grill down to low and top each pizza with your choice of toppings.  Close lid and allow to cook until bottom is to your preferred crispiness and the toppings are heated through/melty.

I topped ours with shaved garlic, thinly sliced roma tomatoes, red onions, julienned basil and proscuitto, and plenty of fresh mozzarella.    I also reduced some good balsamic vinegar in a pan right on the grill, for drizzling later.  

 

*I used buckwheat honey here, but you can use any honey you prefer.  I like the buckwheat because it has a nutty, somewhat molasses-y flavor.  It’s quite delicious if you can find it!

 

You don’t have to top them with anything at all, they’d be great breads to eat with a hearty stew, a saucy pasta or just to eat (that’s what I’d totally do!)

{So Long Small Town Life!}

I am sooooooooooo happy to be able to finally, officially and proudly say those words!  I am not a small town girl, never have been and never will be!   It was only supposed to be TOPS two years in StinkyTown, but we loved our house (CornHole) and stuck it out as long as we could (school is cheap there too! yay for Masters’). 

As much as I tried, I never got the small town mentality.  People never wanting to leave, even though the town is dead.  Layoffs, horrible smells (dog food factory, chicken farms and manure processing plants), huge sinkholes, floods, very poor city management, druggies, entitlement issues, no culture… 

The other thing I never got was the insatiable need of the women to gossip.  OMG, it was bad.  And it caught me in the end.  Not in the *I* was gossiping bit, but that people were gossiping about us.

Would you like me to elaborate?  Great!

There is a family that we’ll call the Walrus family.  Not a particularly nice bunch.  They say things nice to you, but in the same breath will say the opposite to someone else should they need something.  Not a big thing in the grand scheme of things, but enough that we chose not to be part of that circle.  Well, on my last day there, I was cornered by the Walrus family.  I was polite and friendly, but was really taken aback when they told me all of the issues we’ve been having as of late.  Things like how much we got hit on the sale of our CornHole house (as in they knew the EXACT amount), how long Xiris and I had been apart, where we bought WindyDreams, the circumstances of that purchase and the drama involved, and a whole bunch of other information I would never, ever had shared with them even if I did like them!  Oddly, they mentioned that they got all that information from another family that lives somewhere else (we’ll call them the Nucky family).  The Nucky’s used to live in CornHole, and were another family I did not get involved with more than required because the wife was so mean at gatherings, always talking about the people who weren’t there, most of it rumors.  I’m not sure why MrsNucky would want to keep track of people back in StinkyTown, especially one that has said probably about 6 words to her.  Anyway, I’m pretty sure of the direction that information GrapeVine travels, and it just means I have to further censor what I say to people.  Again, it’s not a huge deal – just enough of one to make this super private family take issue. 

In the end, I will be living in a place where I will make my own friends, not just becoming friends with Xiris’ coworkers (or their wives).  I already miss my one friend I made back in StinkyTown, and she knows it!  (HI CVG!!!!).

And, I know you are going to ask.  Yes, we egged the sign on the way out of town.  I think we earned it.  And, no, I don’t feel bad about it in the least.  And, yes it was fun!