Our family loves grilled pizza. Probably because of our long-standing tradition of grilling pizza before going out to Trick-or-Treat on Halloween. When the kids were growing up, all of their friends came to our house/neighborhood to go out for candy. Back then, purchasing pizza dough wasn’t even on my radar. Now, I’m lazy and simply pick up a package of pizza dough at Trader Joe’s and call it a day. But making fresh dough is fun and easy. The link for my dough can be found here.

In the recipe, I instruct you to place your stretched dough onto a pizza peel that is sprinkled with cornmeal. This makes it easy to slide the dough from the peel to the grill, preventing the dough from sticking. I made this pizza while in Chicago with Marissa. She did not have a pizza peel or cornmeal. So I made do with the back of a round baking sheet and crumbled saltines. By no means perfect or all easy but when you have to make do with what you have…

Last night’s beautiful Arizona sunset. No filters, no Photoshop, just pure natural beauty!

This quick and easy pizza has some of my favorite Italian ingredients and they can all be found, along with the pizza dough, at Trader Joe’s.

Burrata, a luscious cream-filled fresh mozzarella cheese.

Pancetta, Italian-style bacon, already diced into “cubetti” pieces. Actually, I don’t know if the word “cubetti” has anything to do with the diced pieces, but it is convenient!

Prosciutto, this package is actually from Costco and was in my freezer, so don’t be alarmed with the “use by” date. Prosciutto can always be found at TJ’s too.

I prefer Trader Joe’s whole-wheat dough, but while pulling a package from the back of the case (looking for the freshest bag – a selfish little thing I always do with freshly packaged food) I accidentally grabbed the plain dough. The reasons I like the whole-wheat better are two-fold, it is easier to work with due to the texture and I think the taste is superior.

The only other ingredients you need are a little olive oil, a medium ripe tomato, and a smidgen of freshly ground black pepper and red pepper flakes.

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Happy 22nd Birthday to my fabulous son, Connor!

Please know that even though I’m not with you today, you are in my heart and on my mind.  I love you from here to the moon and back! xoxo

Here is the classic and easy-to-make chocolate sheet cake I made for my boy. With lots of pictures showing each step. I was camera happy this day!

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The idea for this pizza came from the Corkscrew Cafe in Carmel Valley, California.

I’ve never been there. I have never had their pizza, but as you well know, I have Meyer lemons… so it is this pizza that I made!

I read the description on the menu, and the plethora of raves about it on Yelp, and I came up with my own Meyer Lemon Pizza.

Are you worried that you may not like this pizza because of the full lemon slices on there? Peel and all! Please don’t be. Meyer lemon peel is thinner and sweeter and it is delicious!

In addition, just yesterday, my friend, Amy (Amy’s Famous Taco Soup) sent me an email with all kinds of amazing information about lemon peels.

Did you know that lemon peels contain as much as 10 times more vitamins than the lemon juice itself? Lemon peels eradicate toxic elements in the body. The peel is an antimicrobial agent that fights against bacterial infections and fungi, effective against internal parasites and worms, it regulates blood pressure, and is an antidepressant, that combats stress and nervous disorders. And according to the email Amy sent me, lemon kills cancer cells and is 10,000 times stronger than chemotherapy.

Now, I haven’t done an ounce of research to back up any of the information in that email, it could be “internet truth.” But if even 1/10th of that is true… well get out there and eat your lemons, peels and all… and start with this pizza! If you still are not convinced, you can always look to have pizza delivered to you through a simple online order.

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If you read yesterday’s post, then you probably could have guessed that today I would be making something with peaches. You are correct – I aim to please.  If you use purchased pizza dough, then this recipe certainly qualifies as “easy-breezy”.

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Yesterday I did my dip picks for the Super Bowl, today we have the real contenders. I failed to mention on yesterday’s post that light cream cheese may be used in each and every one of the four dips, with virtually no taste difference. Please just don’t use the non-fat disgusting cardboard thing they call cream cheese. That stuff should be illegal! There are a plethora of lovely non-fat dairy products, but non-fat cream cheese is not one of them.

Thinly sliced and lightly toasted French bread, baguette, or sourdough work perfect for both dips.  For the pizza dip, the bread simulates a pizza crust and for the clam dip, it reminds me of enjoying clam chowder in a sourdough bowl on Pier 39 in beautiful San Fran. Which coincidentally, is where I am headed later today to visit my sweet Marissa – for a food and a shopping-filled weekend!

Happy Super Bowl Weekend!

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… is kinda of red and green, which makes this very pretty appetizer or brunch pizza perfect for Christmas.

Naan can be found on the bread aisle at most grocery stores, at Trader Joe’s, or at Costco. And smoked mozzarella with other specialty cheeses. But if you can’t find the mozzarella, substitute smoked Gouda.

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While I may be on the road in a U-Haul, towing a VW beetle behind, I still want to share with you some more of the fig recipes I created to use up the harvest from my tree.  The figs for this recipe and another one coming up tomorrow were all that I had left after I fought off the birds to get the last few.  While I was out picking, there was this one little finch who was mighty angry that I was stealing his figs.  I’m serious, he was acting like he planted, waters, and pruned the darn tree… and I was stealing from him! The nerve!  OK, honestly I don’t prune the tree, my yard man, Tony, does.  But hey, I am the one who pays Tony, so take that you selfish (and pretty darn cute) little bird!

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And now for a little easy-breezy summertime pizza.  This comes together quicker than all the ingredients might lead you to believe – especially if you buy the cheeses already shredded.

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Here we have another recipe installment for the 1931-themed upcoming birthday celebration for my dad…

Although the television was already invented by 1931, regular commercial network television programming did not begin in the U.S. until 1948.  And it was many more years until it was commonplace for families to own a black and white television.  So it is not so much the television, but black and white photos that these pizzettas are meant to represent from the year 1931.

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