Pizza on the Grill

by Fine Cooking
Issue: Pizza on the Grill 2012


                                       Fire-Roasted Veggie Pizza

Not much to say about this one other than "Yummm!"

Success meter (1-3): 3

That's sun-dried tomato pesto! Delish.

If you prefer basil pesto, it would work

just as well.

Look at the dome on this baby!

 

Tomatoes on a "salt bed" ready for roasting.

Not sure the purpose of the "salt bed".

To capture the juices?

If anyone knows, please leave a comment!

The vegetables came out a bit charred.

 Need to keep a closer eye on them next time.

Still this pizza had fabulous flavor!

Five Star Meal

This week's puzzle night's dinner turned out to be fantabulous!

Andy made is famous barbecue chicken in which he cooked to perfection. My sister and I both went with new recipes for the sides. She thought my green bean dish was great and I thought her salad was awesome. The funny thing is that we both used recipes from Fine Cooking magazine, different issues no less. I tell ya, you cannot go wrong with a recipe from this magazine.

I only have a few pics for this post - I had no intention of blogging last night's dinner but everything looked so beautiful on the plate and it was just too good not to share.

Success meter (1-3): 3

Bitter Greens with Cherries and Pancetta

Green Beans with Cherry Tomatoes and Niçoise Olives

We finished off our meal with the coffee

ice cream I made over the weekend.

Life is good.

Book Eighty-Two: 365 Great Barbecue & Grilling Recipes

by Lonnie Gandara


              Cajun Firesticks with Fire and Ice Dipping Sauce


Saturdays are reserved for "date day" with the hubby. We do a bike ride, go shopping at our upscale market for something to barbecue for dinner and finish off the evening enjoying the lovely weather on the back deck.

This Saturday however Andy had "fun day" with his rock crawling buddies and I did a solo bike ride. But the barbecue is still on! As I write this he is on his way home and the chicken is marinating, the sauce is made and the flavors are melding.

Andy's toys.

This recipe is listed under the chapter Hot Beginnings (appetizer). I chose to serve it as a main course. Instead of buying chicken breasts and cutting them up I purchased one package of chicken tenders just under a pound and this turned out to be the perfect amount for the two of us.

The Fire & Ice Dipping Sauce lives up to its name! It was really spicy, but cool at the same time. Loved it! The recipe calls for two jalapeño peppers; which I recently read about here, that the older, wrinkled ones I would pass up in the store for the "fresher" smooth skinned ones are actually hotter. I used one wrinkled jalapeño and half of a serrano pepper that I had in the fridge; this added some heat to the sauce, where the coolness came from the yogurt and mint.

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This is my favorite Cajun spice blend.

It has no added salt. The others I have had

in the past were way too salty for my taste.

Spiced up and ready to marinate for a couple of hours.

The beginnings of a wonderful sauce.

I kept thinking of this as green goddess dressing though

I have never made or had it.

Ready for the grill.

Make sure to soak your wooden skewers in water

 beforehand so they do not burn.

Beautiful evening sky.

Book Eighty-One: Picnics and Tailgates

by Williams-Sonoma


            Grilled Vegetable Platter with Picnic Vinaigrette

The warm days and calm evenings bring us to dine outdoors and this weekend was perfect for girls-night that I was invited to where we just hung out on the back patio with a nice glass of wine, delicious food and good company.

Success meter (1-3): 3

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Into a paper bag to sweat the skins off.

Naked peppers.

My sister made these delicious little pizzas.

They are made with a fennel dough and topped

with goat cheese, tomatoes, Kalamatas and

a splash of Sambuca.

For dessert I brought leftover Cranberry Hungarian Shortbread

which you can read about in my next post come Tuesday.

My plan was to take a photo of the table showing all the gourmet goodness we were about to feast on; though once we had the food on the table and settled in and conversation a brewin' that plan went out the window in lost thought.

Along with the grilled vegetables & mini pizzas we had Chicken Marbella which consisted of olives, prunes, capers and served with yellow rice and cilantro. Goat cheese seemed to be the theme of the evening for in addition to the pizzas, we had a goat cheese log covered in cranberries and cinnamon served with crackers as well as a spread made from goat cheese mixed with a blood orange marmalade which was to die for. We also had extra desserts of red velvet cupcakes and mini éclairs.

There never is a shortage of food with this group.

Book Seventy-Nine: Sunset Grill

by the Editors of Sunset Books


                      Hot Flank Steak Salad with
                    Chinese Black Bean Dressing

Last week we had thunder storms. This week mid 80's and absolutely beautiful - barbeque weather; until next week when showers are forecasted once again. Mother Nature certainly is being fickle this year.

It was warm to say the least. I wanted something quick and light and this was the perfect dish. Flank steak on the grill for a whole eight minutes if that and the dressing took no time at all to pull together. Chop up some lettuce, bell pepper and a few cilantro leaves and bam! dinner is on the table.

I could tell Andy did not care for this one so much though he said the meat was good. His bowl still had a fair amount of greens left in it. May have been the cilantro. This I'm sure would be even better if I had bought the right kind of beans. I could not find fermented black beans so I substituted canned black beans which are not at all the same. Fermented black beans are actually black soy beans that have been dried and fermented in salt and other spices. Still I thought this was a tasty salad.

 Grilled up some naan to go with our salad, opened up a bottle of wine, and life is good.

Success meter (1-3): 3

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Hubby certainly knows how to grill.

Perfection!

You can't see the dressing, but it was there.