Delicious Pizza on the Grill

It's just about the 4^th of July, which for me always seems like Summer is half over but it can't be because it feels like we just got started. On the flip side my garden says it's in full swing.

I've been harvesting lettuce, spinach, radishes, cilantro, basil, rosemary and other herbs for a week or so now. Oh and lets not forget we've had a few cherry tomatoes (7 to be exact). With the exception of carrots (grrrr) the rest of the garden is growing like crazy.

I've been thinking about pizza, which for me is unusual because it's not something I crave very often; you know cheese, and bread, two things I try to avoid. Maybe it is the new grill stone that I got from Pampered Chef. It's made out of the same material as the Rock Crok but it can be put directly on the grill, on high heat – it's awesome.

I started by making a 5-minute dough, 1 ½ cups flour (plus more as needed), 1 ½ tsp baking powder, ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp baking soda, 1 cup low fat greek yogurt and 2 T rosemary (from the garden).  Put all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix. Add the yogurt and rosemary and mix – the mixture will look crumbly.

Kneed mixture for 5 minutes. In the mean time heat the grill to medium high heat and oil the stone. Roll the dough out on the stone using a small roller (PC has a nice little bakers roller that works perfectly for this job) and place the dough on the stone. Poke holes in entire bottom of dough with a fork, close the grill and cook for 9 – 13 minutes or until the crust is golden brown rotating the stone once at about the 5 – 6 minute mark.

Remove the stone from the grill and flip over the crust, add tomato sauce (I used tomato paste, fresh garlic, oregano, basil and some oil) and toppings; we added grilled asparagus, zucchini, red peppers, and onions and then topped it with feta. Pop it back on the grill until the top of the crust is brown and the cheese is melted. Looks delicious doesn't it?

Because no meal is complete without a salad (which is something my mom used to say) we used the greens from our garden (lettuce, spinach, cilantro, kale and collard greens) and tossed in some cukes, tomatoes, blueberries and whatever else looked good. 

It was such a beautiful evening we decided to put up the flowers that my Dad made. With flowers and old hose in hand, we created a nice little garden near our garden. I put in the flower (real flower) garden after my mom died about 19+ years ago as a way to honor her.  For those of you who knew her, you might recall she loved to garden both flowers an veggies so this seemed like a nice way to remember her. 

I like how it turned out – and it looks like a nice photo back drop – we'll have to give it try over the weekend.

Have a Happy and Safe 4^th of July – Thanks for stopping by