COOK: Family Night Personal Pizza's (on the grill - YUM!)

I love traditions! We have a couple of special family traditions, such as, when we go on vacation, I always make a huge bag of Chex Mix (that I never make otherwise - so it keeps it special :). I also make a big bag of chocolate chip cookies (that we have daily - to keep us fat! :)

In our house, the kitchen is open to rest of the first floor (I don't like being banished to the kitchen! :) or else I might just be nosy...whatever!) On our family night, we try to cook together and make it a family affair.

I recently found this recipe in Martha Stewart Everyday Food and fell in love with it. I love to grill EVERYTHING on the Weber...so why not pizzas?? This is something we do every family night - one thing about it, it makes my day easy - no prepping supper during the day, so we are free to play all day! I  wanted to pass this on to you...enjoy!!! (I included a ton of pics because for dough, it makes it easier when you know how it is "supposed" to look).

I make the pizza dough the day before, so all we have to do is roll it out - then put it on the grill. Super easy and fun for the kiddos.

THE RECIPE FROM EVERYDAY FOOD:

Makes 1 pound dough or four 10-inch pizzas

• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 packet (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
• 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for bowl and brushing
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 2 1/4 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1 tsp salt

Directions

1. Pour 1 cup warm water into a medium bowl; add sugar and sprinkle with yeast. Let stand until foamy, 5 minutes.
2. Whisk oil and 1 teaspoon salt into yeast mixture. Add flour and stir with a wooden spoon until liquid is incorporated (dough will appear dry). Turn out onto a floured work surface. Knead until dough comes together in an elastic ball, 2 minutes. Transfer to an oiled medium bowl; brush lightly with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; set in a warm, draft-free place until dough has doubled in bulk, 45 minutes. Punch down dough and cover; let rise another 30 minutes.
3. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide into 4 equal pieces. (To store, refrigerate dough pieces, covered, up to 2 days, or freeze, up to 1 month.) Let rest 15 minutes before using.

From Everyday Food, July 2010

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Basic Grilled Pizza Dough Recipe and more delicious recipes, smart cooking tips, and video demonstrations on marthastewart.com 




In the magazine, they go into detail about how to grill the pizzas:

• Roll out the dough on a floured surface.
• Drizzle with olive oil (one side only) & then top with sea salt (the salt TOTALLY makes it!) - THIS WILL BE THE BOTTOM SIDE.
• You are going to lightly grill the bottom and then, grill the top (without any fixings).
• Then, I usually have a bunch of goodies to make the pizza with on a cutting board. 
• We bring in the pizza's, fix em up, then slap them on the grill.
• Put the cover on the grill - the pizza's are done when the cheese is melted.

ENJOY YOUR FAMILY NIGHT BY COOKING TOGETHER!

This is the water, yeast & sugar - it will look a little foamy after 5 minutes - then wisk it before adding other ingred.

This is how it looks after all ingredients are mixed in. Now, pour out onto floured surface and knead for 1 minute.

Knead it for a little while until it will go into a nice ball of dough.

This is the dough after it raised the first time. You punch it down and let it raise again.

The four little dough balls. Make sure they aren't sticky (lightly dust with flour),  put into a bowl & refrigerate until ready to use.

Dough rolled out.

Our fixings cutting board - so fun to use whatever you have on hand.  Asparagus and ricotta? fun! We did traditional this night, but we don't always...anything is good on pizza! Be creative! 

Working together...

The kids discovered how yummy green peppers were! Yea! 

Enjoy & happy cooking!!
Love, Kristen