Quick Grilled Pizza from Cook's Country magazine

My blogging colleague, Hopsy @ Kappa Prep, and a new friend, Wears With Heels saw me post my dinner on Twitter and wanted the recipe, so here is my information on it!



Tonight, M and I each got to have our own 12-ish" pizzas, based off of recipes for dough and sauce, from Cook's Country magazine (the same people who do America's Test Kitchen on PBS on Saturdays). The issue is their August/September 2010 edition, which may still be on newsstands (I always see it most prominently displayed at Whole Foods), but we subscribe to it.



This recipe says the dough makes 4 nine-inch pizzas... but we like our dough a little on the thick side so keep that in mind.

Sauce:
2 (14.5 oz) cans of diced tomatoes. We like the brand San Marzano, or Cento if we are in a bind.
2 tablespoons of fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons of EVOO
2 minced garlic cloves
1/4 teaspoon of salt (not sea-salt, unless ground up finely)

Pizza:
about 2.5 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup of water, at 110 degrees
1 tablespoon of EVOO, plus extra set aside to brush dough on the grill (we use a silicone brush when brushing dough since it is so sticky at first)
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 envelope of rapid-rise, or instant, yeast (1 envelope = 2 1/4 teaspoons). We tend to use Fleischmanns. Also, make sure the date on it is good, otherwise it is a waste!
1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon of salt (not sea-salt, unless ground up finely)
2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese


1. Make sauce: combine tomatoes, basil, oil, garlic, and salt in medium bowl. We like to place it in a small saucepan on the lowest setting to warm it up.

2. Prepare dough: Whisk water, 1 tablespoon of EVOO, sugar, yeast in large liquid measuring cup. Let it sit 5 minutes (this prevents the need to use baking powder, lightens the crust and prevents dough from being gritty). Pulse flour, Parmesan, and salt in food processor until combined. With machine running, slowly pour in the water mixture and process until dough starts to pull away from the sides and forms a shaggy/hairy ball (normally takes us about 1.5 minutes). If your dough is coming off sticky, gradually add flour in. Flour a clean work surface and take out the dough, kneading it 3-4 times until it becomes cohesive.

3. Shape pizza: Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and dust with flour. Wax paper is okay, but know that the dough will stick to it if not floured enough!!! Divide dough into 4 equal pieces (M and I did, again, two pieces). Work with one dough piece at a time, using a rolling pin, pressing dough into a small circle, and stretch out. Transfer to a baking sheet and dust with flour. Repeat with each dough piece, and you can just stack them on top of each other, divided by the floured paper.

4. Heat grill: Meanwhile, heat your coals. Or turn on your gas grill. We use a classic charcoal Weber dome grill. Just be sure to set your grate in place, and heat your grill -covered- with lid vent open completely for 5 minutes. You want there to be a cool spot on the grill and a hot spot for cooking. Also, be sure to scrape and oil cooking grate so dough doesn't develop burn marks too charred, and prevent sticking.

5. Grill pizza: Brush tops of dough lightly with EVOO. Peel off of parchment and place, oiled side down, onto the cool side of the grill. Grill pizza covered until sides are spotted with a golden brown, which may be easily found by lifting the sides and finding firmness with your tongs. The tops may develop bubbles, which is normal, but be sure to poke the larger bubbles (but not enough to tear all the way through the dough!!). Brush the uncooked side facing up with EVOO and flip with tongs. Top each with sauce to taste, and the mozzarella cheese. If you want additional garlic like I do, this is where I added it. I added the sauce, then the crushed garlic, then the cheese. Cook for at least 1.5-2 minutes. At this point, feel free to move pizza over to the cool side while adding your toppings. Then you can move it to the hot side to crisp up to taste.

Enjoy!

Tips from our experience:

*It is better to have a thicker pizza than a thin pizza when grilling. You can completely destroy a pizza in less than a minute if it was too thin when placed on the grill. Likewise with fire temperature. If cooking with coals, feel free to cook down the coals to a fine gray ash on the tops of them.

*M likes Boar's Head pepperoni, which comes in 6-ounce containers. He got about 3 ounces on his pizza, because he likes to layer the edges together.

*Don't move the dough until it starts to firm up on the grill, or it will tear, and then you have to deal with charring.

*I kept my pizza dough warm in the microwave. But for a crisp crust, a warmed oven may be a better bet.

*Make sure you have a plate, platter, or cookie sheet to set a finished pizza on while outside grilling, otherwise you may burn it just by running in to grab something!

*I enjoy my pizza with prosciutto, pineapple, crushed garlic, bacon leftover from this morning's brunch, oregano and heirloom tomatoes.

So much to do, in so little time

Summer School has made me feel like Willy Wonka on his factory tour, or the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. I have to schedule my days just so when MJA and I happen to have plans for the weekend with his friends, etc. Plus he is really insistent that we go to this one park in Richmond on Sunday, so I had to block off basically 5 hours of normal study time for that as well. Not too sure why he wants to go so bad, he says it is because we haven't gone in a long time, even though we have gone twice in the past year! It is a beautiful park, however, look up Maymont and you will get what I mean! Tonight, we are going to a married couple's house to watch the UFC fights. When we do this the guys normally do jiu-jitsu in the gym/garage (which they have mats laid out in), us girls coo over their baby who was born about 7 months ago, play Wii, watch TV, we grill steaks and eat dinner and then have beers waiting for the fights to start. Its an awesome time, but we go over there at around 4pm and don't leave until 2am. Its a LONG stay, but they are good company. I just have SO MUCH reading to do so I may be forced to bring some with me which isn't the best manners but I don't really have a choice. I would like 2 more As on my transcript before the beginning of my senior year.

To do list:

For my European Lives class - just for Monday:

"Family and Friends" by Susan Brigden (pages 38-83)

Catholic Doctrinal Documents on the Seven Sacraments (7 pgs)

The Official Catalogue of Relics in the Wittenberg Castle Church (1 pg)

Tetzel: A Sample Sermon, A Contemporary Description of Indulgence Selling, The Robbing of Tetzel (3pgs)

"St. Margaret and 11,000 Virgins" by Jacobus de Voragine (pgs 162-164, 279-282)

George Huppert's "After the Black Death: A Social History of Early Modern Europe" (pgs 1-13, 67-79, 117-133, 134-148).

A one-page analysis on Brigden's "Family and Friends"


Final draft due on paper about marriage contracts from Gene Brucker's "The Society of Renaissance Florence" (they are primary sources, pretty neat actually) (3-4 pages). She mentioned to me in our paper conference that she had not seen anyone compare the daughter and daughter-in-law of this one Florentine family before, so I may try to do that if I can pull about enough ammo to defend my argument in an albeit short primary document.

I need to start reading a book I am going to review and submit at the end of the semester, journal-style. It is called "Domestic Violence in Medieval Texts" and it is secondary sources with some primary thrown in the mix. (341 pages)


For my International Relations class, here is the work I have to do by Tuesday.

Charles Kegley, Jr.'s "World Politics" text - Chapters 1-4, 9, 10, 5 notes and complete readings (about 200 pages of double-columned, double-sided text)

Readings on Chapters 6 and 7 is due on Thursday, so I may get cracking on that as well, even though its another 100 pages of text.

Additional re-writing of notes from 3 powerpoint presentations, based on readings 1-4, given to the class orally "Security Policy" "International Relations Overview" and "Theories of International Relations"

We also have a Map Quiz (woo hoo) on all of Europe on Tuesday. Not too bad, but would be embarrassed to get any of it wrong, wouldn't you? When I study geography I normally start and the bottom then work my way up and across... so, Portugal and Spain... off to a good start!


I need to start reading for the research paper due at the near-end of the summer term. It must be 10-12 pages and it is a cumulative project for the course. I think I may do women's rights and women as terrorist figures in international relations, as the professor instructing the course encouraged me to borrow two personal books of his - "The Demon Lover: The Roots of Terrorism" by Robin Morgan, and "Shoot the Women First" by Eileen MacDonald. This professor is a highly respected member of the faculty so if I exceed his expectations I know that will be to my benefit as I will be taking a few of his courses in the next year.

I always feel like when a professor says "I'd love to see you do this" they say it to you not just as a challenge, but also because they know that if you put the right amount of time into that assignment, they believe it will be a quality document. I always try to keep my ear perked up for the encouraging statements, or the "I've never seen anyone do this" kind of statement, and I like to rise to the occasion. It's probably the Alpha/Gold/Leo features in me.


What are you all up to this weekend?


Pictures/Photos:
1. White Rabbit from Lewis Carroll, adapt. Emily Thomson
2. Book cover of "The Society of Renaissance Florence" by Gene Brucker - Amazon.com
3. Map from http://www.greece-map.net/

Summer Reading: "College Girl" by Patricia Weitz

I just finished reading on Monday the book "College Girl" by Patricia Weitz. "College Girl" is a relatively short book, only 326 pages, and I read through it relatively quickly as it only took me two or three sittings to complete. The book is sad and tumultuous, focusing on the senior year of Natalie Bloom. Bloom is finishing up her college years at University of Connecticut, having transferred in from a community college. To say that Bloom is smart is an understatement, if you only focus on her bookish nature. She has no life smarts. Coming from a blue collar, factory working household, Bloom does not fit in with the typical UConn student. As she tries to adjust to UConn life, she gets further and more distant with her own family, whom she has never had a good relationship with.

What disturbed me was how much I had in common with Bloom, maybe not socio-economically, but experiences-wise. I wish that some of the text wasn't so graphic, at times it read like a romance novel, but I am assuming Weitz thought that being so graphic would make you realize how heightened Bloom's senses were to every experience she went through. She went to college a virgin so of course she lost her virginity with the first guy who paid her any attention. He liked her in the beginning, but then things change, and you want to scream at her to MOVE ON, but of course she doesn't for pages and pages. Weitz writes with a lot of adjectives, very descriptive, which helps the reader figure out the season and climate of every scene in the text.

There was a lot I could relate to, which are a bit too personal on here, and some are way too relateable to even fathom seeing them in writing. I found it interesting how this read almost like a memoir, which I liked a lot.

Here is a quote that hit home for me:

"I like you," he'd said.

I recoiled, and Jack saw it.

"What?" he asked, alarmed. "Did I say something wrong?"

My instincts told me to reply, "No, of course not," but I ignored them. "Why," I forced myself to ask, "do you ... 'like' me?"

Instead of saying "I think you're cute," as Patrick had, or some other predictable line that really says nothing at all, he told me I was interesting. That may sound just as glib and pointless, but after Patrick had made me feel about as interesting as a steel-girded doorknob, I was relieved, and what's more, I believed him. He couldn't have cared less if I had read Ulysses or the Hundred Greatest Books Ever Written. He didn't care if I had acceptable bands like Nirvana in my music collection or embarassing ones like Wham! And it wasn't because Jack was a dimwit. He was extremely well-read - his mother was a professor of literature, and he was doing a double major in law and statistics. He was smart. He just didn't make me feel dumb, or uncertain. Ever.

Jack became my boyfriend. My first boyfriend. He was sweet and generous and romantic... but here's my dirty little secret: It was harder to be with him, in some ways, than it had been to be with Patrick. Being with someone who genuinely likes you poses certain challenges for someone uncomfortable with intimacy. I kept expecting him to see me for what I was and come to his senses. I kept expecting my own insecurities to rise up and ruin everything. I was quick to self-depricate and to urge him to do things without me, but he persisted and, slowly, I grew comfortable with him.

Comfortable was foreign, but good.


"College Girl" a novel. By Patricia Weitz. Riverhead Books, published by the Penguin Group: New York, 2008.

I am as bad as Libby... update soon

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you. They should be the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15 friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your Profile page, paste rules in a new Note, cast your 15 picks, and tag people in the Note, upper right-hand side.)

1. Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
4. Atonement by Ian McEwan
5. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
6. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
7. The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
8. The Ya-Ya Sisterhood books by Rebecca Wells
9. Dress Your Family and Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
10. Earth Odyssey: Around the World In Search of Our Environmental Future by Mark Hertsgaard
11. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
12. The inextinguishable Symphony by Goldsmith **AMAZING**!
13. Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
14. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
15. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier