6-2-11 Fire Up The Grill!

Last summer our oven broke and we had to order a part. This part (I don't even remember which part it was!) took THREE WEEKS to come in. The time of year gave us an easy alternative for cooking -- the grill. My family all loved the food and I particularly liked the easy clean up!

When the weather started to get warm this year, I pulled out my summer grill menu and went looking for some new recipes too. The first new one I spotted was for BBQ shrimp. I picked up the shrimp at Aldi which turned this into an economical feast. However, I must have been distracted while creating my grocery list because I neglected to include four of the ingredients needed for the "relish". So, I marinated 1 lb. of shrimp in the following marinade and served it with grilled pineapple (Yum!). Soak the skewers for about a half an hour before putting the shrimp on them.

24 Large Shrimp
2 Tbs. melted butter
1/4 cup BBQ sauce
2 cloves garlic

Mix the marinade and stir in shrimp. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes, stir occasionally. Discard marinade. Put shrimp on the skewers. Grill over medium coals until shrimp are opaque. My husband grilled these for about 12 minutes.

I served this with couscous and steamed broccoli. All three little guys cleaned their plates! Next time I may even try the complete recipe.

1-1-11 Happy New Year!

Well the new year is here and we "rang it in" in a very sweet way. We toasted to the great things of 2010: Caden's birth, Grandma graduating from grad school, and general health and happiness. We also toasted to what's to come in 2011: first steps, potty training, and learning to read. Caden was fast asleep and Joe was entrenched in work that needed to be done on his website. The boys were eager to toast with their little shot glasses. However, Conrad was skeptical when he didn't see any buttered bread still warm from the toaster. He got the hang of it pretty quickly. So did Max with only moderate spilling. I was toasting sparkling grape juice with my parents and my two little boys. I'm not sure if that makes me old or young. . .

I made homemade pizza for dinner. I thought it would be fun for the boys to make their own, but they weren't interested in topping a pizza when they could be playing hide and seek with Grandma and Grandpa!

Everybody liked the pizza. I usually prefer a thinner, crispier crust. I made two small crusts with this recipe. Here's the crust recipe that I used.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F /45 degrees C)

1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons olive oil 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

1.	In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.
2.	Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour.
3.	Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise until double; this should take about 1 hour. Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out. Use for your favorite pizza recipe.
4.	Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough, and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan, and let the dough rise for 15 or 20 minutes before topping and baking it.
5.	Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.