Grilled Pizza

I've been seeing grilled pizza on food shows for quite some time now.  I love pizza but my husband has been getting tired of it each Friday night.  So I thought I'd change it up a bit.  I decided to grill it using fresh mozzarella instead of the bag stuff.  It was soooo good and gooey and stretchy.  I don't know if I'll go back to the bag stuff for homemade pizzas now.  Oh and my hubby loved the pizza.  I've said it before.  I'm trying to go healthier with my recipes so I used turkey sausage rather than pork.  You couldn't tell it was less calories and fat.  I hope you try grilling your pizza next time.  It's great!

Grilled Pizza

Grilled Pizza

1 package pizza crust

1 lb. Italian sausage links

jar of pizza sauce

small can of chopped tomatoes

fresh baby spinach

1 cup or 8oz. fresh mozzarella 

Your choice of pizza ingredients that you like

Brown sausage according to package directions and then slice into medallion size pieces.  Prepare pizza crust according to directions.  Separate pizza dough into four equal servings.  Press dough onto a cutting board until flat and desired thickness.  Brush with olive oil on both sides.  Repeat with remaining pizza dough. 

Cover grill with foil or use a foil gill liner.  Tun on half of your grill to lowest flame.  Lay pizza dough onto the foil.  Grill with lid down until golden brown on the bottoms, about 3-6 minutes depending on your grill temperature.  When brown, place upside down on platter so grilled side is facing up.  Place sauce and ingredients of your choice and top with cheese. 

Place pizzas back onto the unlit side of the grill with indirect heat to brown other side of crust and melt the cheese with the grill lid down.  Check the bottom of the crust after about 5 minutes to see if it is golden brown.  If it looks brown and the cheese is not melted, turn off heat and let set with grill lid down for another 3-6 minutes.  After it is melted, remove from grill and serve hot and enjoy.

Fruit Salsa

I got a recipe from a church friend for fruit salsa.  I decided to take a lot of the sugar out of it to make it healthier.  I truly enjoy eating this healthy treat instead of that unhealthy but delicious stuff.  I hope you enjoy. 

Fruit Salsa
1 pint strawberries
3 kiwis
3 small crisp apples
1/2 c. apple jelly

Chop fruit in small pieces and mix with jelly and keep refrigerated.


Fajita cinnamon chips
10" flour fajitas
cinnamon sugar
melted butter

Spread melted butter on fajitas and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar.  Cut into wedges.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake on a cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes.  Let cool.  Chips will crisp when cooled.  Serve with dip.

Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs

Hello again.  This isn't a real recipe but I have to share how absolutely sinful these are.  It's simple to make.  and oh so yummy to eat.  You can cook them in a pan or on the grill.  I prefer on the grill.  This time I didn't have the cheese to stuff them with.  Normally you cut a slit in the hot dog and put colby jack cheese in it and then wrap the bacon around.  But it's still good without the cheese.  This isn't something to fix regularly.  It's definitely not something you want to fix every day or even every week.  But for a special treat, it's perfect.

Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs

Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs

8 beef hot dogs

8 slices raw bacon

colby jack cheese

8 hot dog buns

toppings of your choice

Cut a slit down the center of each hotdog not cutting through.  Put long thin slice of cheese in center of dog.  wrap with a slice of raw bacon from one end to the other.  place a toothpick at either end to secure bacon.  Grill each side of bacon until browned.  Remove toothpicks and finish browning until all brown and enjoy.  Fix on buns with favorite toppings.

Lemon Butter Cake

I'm still working on recipe's for the county fair this summer.  I found this one and decided to try it.  As usual I changed it by adding lemon juice.  My husband enjoyed it and he doesn't like lemon desserts.  I really liked the texture of this cake.  It is very rick and buttery.  I hope you enjoy it if you decided to try this recipe. 

Lemon Butter Cake

Lemon Butter Cake



2 cups all-purpose flour2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
zest of 1 lemon + 2 t. lemon juice
1 cup sour cream

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325°. Generously butter and flour a 10-inch bunt pan.
Into a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.In a mixing bowl with hand-held electric mixer, cream 1 cup butter and granulated sugar; beat at high speed until mixture is very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down side of bowl frequently. Blend in lemon zest.

Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, adding each in 3 additions. Scrape sides of bowl frequently. Batter will be thick.  Pour batter into prepared cake pan; bake in the preheated oven for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden pick inserted near the center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes.

Carefully turn cake out onto a platter.  Would be great covered in fresh berries.  Serves 12.  

Bar-B-Q Meatloaf

My husband isn't a fan of meatloaf.  So I decided to make a bar-b-q meatloaf to see if he'd like it.  Well he did.  So here is the recipe I tried by changing some of my normal ingredients.  My mom taught me how to make a meatloaf.  I have changed her recipe over the years to adapt to my family.  I hope you enjoy.

Bar-B-Q Meatloaf

Meatloaf dinner

Bar-B-Q Meatloaf

2 lbs. hamburger

2 eggs

4 t. bar-b-q rub (recipe Aug. 2010 entry)
1 t. onion powder

1 t. garlic powder

3/4 c. plain bread crumbs

1/3 c. bar-b-q sauce

Sauce

1/3 c. ketchup

1/4 c. bar-b-q sauce

1 t. onion powder

1/2 t. chili powder

2 T. brown sugar

1 T. honey mustard dressing

1 t. worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix meatloaf ingredients together by hand until completely blended.  Mold into log shape.  Measure 1/2 cup of sauce.  Set aside the remainder sauce for later. 

Spread 1/2 cup of sauce over raw meatloaf.  Bake meatloaf in a casserole dish, roaster pan for 1 hour or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.  You may use two loaf pans and bake for 45 minutes.  When baked, let set for 5 minutes before slicing. 

Shrimp Alfredo

Well here is my attempt at Alfredo sauce.  We enjoyed it and it really was easy.  I thought it would be more complicated to make.  I know years ago I wanted to make the sauce by a well known chef and she said it took parmesano reggino cheese.  I priced it and was shocked.  I decided at that time it wasn't worth it to buy the expensive cheese to make the sauce.  I recently found an simple recipe from a friend.  I tried it and added a little Romano cheese to it.  I hope you enjoy.

Shrimp Alfredo

Alfredo Sauce

1 1/4 c. chicken broth

4 t. flour

1/3 c. cream cheese

3 T. parmesan cheese

2 T. romano cheese

1/4 t. black pepper

Blend all ingredients in a small bowl.  Heat in small sauce pan until hot and almost boiling.  Add to cooked pasta.  You can add chicken or shrimp and any extras like spinach and tomatoes.  The choices are yours.

Strawberry Lemon Muffins/Trial recipe #1

I'm working on recipes for the county fair this summer.  So you can try them along with me and give me your votes for your favorite.  This is trial recipe #1.  I hope you enjoy. 

Strawberry Lemon Muffins

Unbaked batter without crumb topping

Unbaked muffins with crumb topping

Strawberry Lemon Crumb Muffins

1 1/2 c.  flour

1/2 c. sugar

2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

1/2 c. milk

1/2 c. butter (1 stick) melted

1  large egg

1 1/2 c. strawberries (chopped)

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

Crumb Topping

1/4 c. brown sugar (packed)

1/4 c. walnuts (chopped)

2 T.  flour

1 T.  melted butter

Combine

Preheat oven 350 degrees.  Line muffin tin with liners. 

Make crumb topping by combining all ingredients and set aside.

For muffins:

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in large bowl.  Combine milk, butter and egg in small bowl until well blended.  Stir into flour mixture just until blended.  Fold in strawberries and lemon peel.  Spoon evenly into muffin papers.  Sprinkle crumb topping evenly over tops of muffins.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.  Let sit in pan for 5 minutes.  Remove from pan and cool on cooling rack.  You can drizzle with glaze if wanted.

Yields 12 muffins.

Pumpkin Muffins

We have new neighbors moving in across the street.  So I wanted to bake them something to welcome them to the neighborhood.  I asked friends for suggestions and decided to make pumpkin muffins with a crumb topping.  Of course I had to try one or three.  They were really good but wished I had put more spices in them to boost the flavor a bit.  But they were still really good.  I hope they like them.

 Pumpkin Muffin with Crumb Topping

 Unbaked Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Muffin with Crumb Topping

1 1/2 c flour
1 t. baking powder
1 can pumpkin (15 oz.)
1/3 c. vegetable oil
2  large eggs
2 t. pumpkin pie spice
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar

Topping
1 c. flour
3 T. brown sugar
2 T. sugar
1 t. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. salt
6 T. margarine (melted)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 12 cup muffin tin with papers.

Whisk together flour and baking powder in small bowl

Mix pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin, spices, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt until smooth.  Add flour mixture until just combined.

Topping:  In a bowl stir together flour, brown sugar, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.  Pour melted butter and blend with fork until all flour is incorporated and crumbs are formed. 

Fill muffin cups 3/4 way full with batter.  Sprinkle top with crumb mixture and bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool in muffin pan 10 minutes and then place on cooling rack to cool. 

Serves 12-15.

Root Beer Float Cupcakes

Our church is having a 50's sock hop pitch-in dinner.  I decided to try to make root beer float cupcakes for a dessert.  I found a few recipes and decided to tweak them and create my own.  This is what I came up with through trial and error.

Root Beer Float Cupcakes

Root Beer Float Cupcakes

1 c packed brown sugar

1 t. molasses

1/2 c. butter (room temperature)

2 eggs

1 1/4 c. root beer

1 1/2 t. root beer extract
1 1/2 c. flour

1/2 t. salt

1 t. baking soda

1 1/2 t. baking powder

Cream together with a mixer brown sugar, molasses, and butter in a bowl until light and fluffy.  Add each egg one at a time until combined.

Mix root beer and extract and set aside.

 

In another bowl sift together (or whisk) flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

Add the dry ingredients and root beer mix to egg-butter-sugar mixture alternating each until all is combined. 

Scoop into baking cups 2/3 of the way full. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes

Allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes then remove and cool on baking rack.  Ice and decorate.  Enjoy!

Mom's Sugar Cookies

I dug this old recipe out of the archives.  This is the sugar cookie recipe that my mom used to make for us.  I made some and man did it bring back memories of my mom in the kitchen.  I miss my mom.  She lives in a neighboring state but suffers with Parkinson's and no longer has the ability to eat or talk.  So I made these for her from the heart.  I'm passing down all my family recipes to my daughter and anyone else that wants to share them with their family.  Who knows some of the recipes on here might just become someone elses new family traditions.  Enjoy!

Mom's Sugar Cookies

Close-up (these are a crunchy cookie)

Mom's Sugar Cookies

1 c. margarine

1 c. powdered sugar

1c. sugar

1 c. oil

Cream above ingredients together until smooth.

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Add to above mixture until combined

1 tsp. cream of tarter

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

4 c. flour

Sift ingredients together and add to above mixture gradually.  Chill over night or at least 4 hours.  Make one inch size balls and place on cookie sheet.  Using a glass dipped in sugar, press down the cookies slightly. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes until edges are lightly brown.

*can be made soft by puting in a sealed container with a slice of bread.