Marlene

I don't need it for toast really since I have a toaster in the rig. It's more for oven use for those days especially when it's raining and harder to grill. It should be noted for the record, that leftover grilled pizza is very good. I don't normally eat breakfast, but the leftovers were lurking in the fridge, and hey I needed the room for the groceries I bought.

I love Fridays. Even though there's the usal morning bustle of getting people up, fed and out the door, I don't mind so much because I know that the end of the day is time to relax. We tend to eat later, there's no rush to complete homework, it's a "stay up late" night for Ryan and on the weeks we don't have Ryan, it's date night for Don and I. The weeks we do have Ryan, are family games night. While I wait for the lad to finish the obligatory 25 minute shower, so I can take mine, I am glancing through recipes and jotting down things i'll need to pick up at the store to make dinner tonight and tomorrow. I'm also getting ready for our first RV trip of the year. See Camping, Princess style for life on the road. Don will pick up the RV tomorrow in preparation for taking it to the dealer to have it made ready for our first trip, beginning next Thursday. The first meals of the year in the RV are important to us and I'm busy planning the things to make and take. I have that stupid gas oven in the rig, and this year, I'm seriously considering one of those convection toaster ovens to add to our kitchen equipment. The question will be which one. The forecast today calls for mostly cloudy rather than rain. It rained all through the night though and everything is wet. However everything is very green and my little herb garden is going great guns! I'm off to fuel myself with coffee!

Which refill are you asking about? They're all good. My butt, sadly, is boneless. Its hard to get a bony butt here in Oakville. I have no idea whether this will reflect on cooking time or quality. But at least my butt is fatty.

I think Maggie's right, and better weather is needed. As she says, having the mis right there would have made a huge difference. Oh well, it was fun. I even got to play in the rain.

I have a Miele wall oven right now, and although it cooks nicely, I hate it. The thing rattles incessently when it's on. I can't turn it up by 5 degrees, only 10. So 375? forget. I get 370 or 380. The racks have these stupid lips on them which makes it damn near impossible to grasp any pan easily. Of course, it's 7 years old. Maybe they've improved the design.

And given the weather, you're the smartest of the three of us. And yeah Mike, I'll be sure to point him out.

There are those who just call me stubborn. I thought I was in between raindrops. I had planned (and purchased) to use two pizza grill pans. It was gently suggested by one of my fellow team mates that it might be "cheating" to use them. So I went ahead without them. Now Don will wonder what we are going to do with two unused pizza pans. (What a glorious feeling, I'm happy again.....Just singin in the rain) Trust me. Like my piano playing, you only want to hear that virtually.

Jesus Mike. Get back in the house! You don't want to be suddenly moving to Kansas do you?

I've taken my butt out to thaw so I can brine it tomorrow for smoking on Saturday. Moving right along to tomorrow's festivities, which I think involve kebabs, I'm looking for a few good recipes. I've got a great one for pork kebabs, but I'm looking for a good beef one. Teryaki or asian style. Anyone? Anyone at all?

Why do I need smoke? I just wanted grilled pizza. I have a smoker, but I don't think it's for grilling. Although I could have used the smoker box for the gas grill too. I made the dough well in advance so I chilled it as per the recipe directions. It did actually rise some in the fridge,but then I tend to prefer a thinner crust anyway.

Shhh. it's not like he needs whipped cream! The banana strawberry smoothie (and yes, that's my dessert in the background. Apparently, I need a refill)

Mike, wait for another day! Its only pizza, and your wife is a smart woman. I'm off to make a smoothie for Ryan. Somehow I convinced him that it could in fact be dessert!

Well that was an adventure. I'd made the dough, rolled out three rounds oiled and covered in parchment paper. Then into the fridge: Fired up the grill and oiled it. Would someone please remind me to oil the grill before I turn it on, not 10 minutes after it's been heating up? As per Abra's advice, I pre cooked our toppings, and had grated cheeses and sauce ready to go. For Ryan, Italian sausage and green peppers, for me, pepperoni and bacon. In between downpours, I managed to get two rounds onto the grill. It was about that time I realized I was going to need a second pair of hands. Oh Ryan! Fortunately he had come upstairs by this time and was staring at me through the screen door while rain dripped down my face. The ensuing conversation: "Um Mom. What are you doing?" "Singing in the rain, what does it look like I'm doing?" "Oh. Would you like some help singing?" (as I'm trying to figure out how to get both rounds off the grill and into the house to top) "Well, that would be nice. But only if you'd like to eat in the near future" He was out the door in about 2 seconds. We slid the rounds onto to the backs of cookie sheets and carried them inside. Working together nicely, we sauced, topped and scattered cheeses about. We stood there together, in the rain, waiting for the cheese to melt. When he saw me using the pizza peel to move them about, nothing would do but he had to try. You have to understand. If you think I'm accident prone, meet my son. There's a reason I don't let him turn on the stove. However, the lad is a good 5 inches taller than I am and I tend to forget he's a teenager and not an uncoordinated little boy anymore. So I held my breath and handed him the peel. Just as if he'd been doing it all his life, he caught the peel under the pizza, lifted and calmly asked for the baking sheet to slide it on. Slid it onto the tray and turned and did the other one. Those are the "mommy" moments. The ones where you realize they really are growing up faster than you can blink, and by the time I next turn around he'll be driving and off to college. Ack. We made it back inside just as the next downpour hit. That's when I realized I'd left the grill on. Without a word, my newly grown up hero, went out, turned the burners off and shut the gas off. Where did he learn how to do that? I didn't even realize he knew where the gas tank was! We both changed our clothes and devoured our pizzas. All in all, it was good. The crust was wonderfully crispy and the toppings and sauce just right. It was fussy though. Watching the crust carefully, then in and out of the house to top and put back on. It's a lot easier to build a pizza on a peel and slide it onto a stone in the oven (which I had on with the third round in reserve, just in case ). I can't help but think though that there's got to be an easier way to bond with your teenager

The BBQ sauce recipe comes from Wolfgang Puck on the food network Scroll down a bit. Sucessful pizza grilling. Pics to follow shortly.

A lull in the rain. Grill lit. Fingers crossed. i don't even care if it turns out anymore. i just want to get through this without catching pnuemonia.

Oops. Back to plan B. I stepped outside to light the BBQ and the heavens opened up. Now I don't mind a little grillin in the rain, but with pizza, I have to stand out there the whole time My grill is not in a covered area, and I'm really not crazy about getting soaked. I may have to move the grilled pizza experiement to another night

It looks like I'm good to grill. Question, need quick answer. Do i need to precook toppings like green peppers, pepperoni and sausage?

Here too for the deluge. Figures. We had two weeks of straight sunny weather before this.

It's raining but not too hard right now. We'll see what it's like when it's time to make dinner. Ry decided on the California rolls and fizzy water for snack. I wonder if I can convince him that a smoothie is dessert. All this rain and prep work has made me tired, so an hour's nap is in order before finishing up dinner prep and deciding between the oven and the grill.

The blender is a Breville. It's got six blades instead of the usual 4 and its 580 watts so it does a pretty good job on smoothies and sauces. Although I have to admit, I'm lusting after this The sauce keeps a fairly long time. The longest I've had some around is 6 months and it was still just fine as long as it's kept in the fridge.

Time for a 10 minute coffee break. I've rolled out the dough into rounds for pizza. Taking a tip from Weber's Real Grilling book, I oiled the dough round, placed parchment paper over it, then flipped it and oiled the other side. A piece of parchment paper on top, oil another round, place on parchment paper etc. The dough rounds are now stacked on a baking tray in the fridge. It's really getting dark here and I'm afraid I'm going to get forced indoors for pizza although I'm still planning on grilling. So my question is, will oiled dough work on a pizza stone? Or is that going to be a problem?

Just to show you that fruits do make it into my house, just not necessarily past my lips. In the ongoing balance to keep Ryan filled up without letting him go overboard on junk, after school snacks are usually healthy things. We can move on to desserts and junk later. The bananas, yogurt and strawberries will go into a smoothie for him and he loves that peach fizzy water for some reason. He's also a huge fan of sushi. Now, I couldn't tell you good sushi from bad, and this is supermarket sushi I know, but what the heck, it's healthy and he'll eat it. The rain is still holding off so I decided to go ahead and make BBQ sauce. Gather red onions, apples, and red peppers then cut them up and toss in peanut oil. In the meantime gather the rest of the ingredients and put them into a large pot: Grill the oiled onions etc for a bit until slightly charred on both sides: Then toss them into the pot and simmer for half an hour or so. You can simmer it right on the grill, or bring it in and simmer it on the stove. Grilltop simmering is a nice option for a hot day when you don't want to be working in your kitchen. I tried valiantly to use my immersion blender to puree this, but the apples really don't get soft enough during this process. So I reverted back to my faithful blender. Do remember to keep your hand firmly on the blender lid, or you'll be cleaning BBQ sauce off your cupboards, clothes and face. I wonder If Ryan will notice I'm wearing a different shirt? Day two, second accident. I use mason jars to store the sauce in. It's very thick and it makes a better condiment than a brushing sauce, athough it's divine, brushed on chicken while grilling. My brother goes nuts for this stuff, so 4 of these jars will go to him. I also ran out of mason jars, so there's some overflow in a tupperware container that you can't see. The rain held off while I did this. It's now getting darker, and windy so we'll see what this afternoon brings but I've got pizza dough going in the breadmaker at the moment.

Interesting. I have a Dacor range, and I had a small problem in the beginning with one of the burners not igniting and Dacor's service people couldn't have been more helpful. that said, I'll probably go with a KA or Miele wall oven when I renovate. I know and trust the KA and I don't really need a Dacor wall oven.

I'd never get away with making burgers that rare here either. I like medium rare, but the closest I can get the boys is med to med well. More cinnamon rolls for breakfast this morning. Ry has packed his lunch which includes a hot salami sandwhich, some tropicana twister, a cinnamon roll and 2 Mrs. Fields cookies. It's raining again. There's something about a grey dismal day that makes me just want to curl up on the couch and read. We're supposed to get about 50 mm of rain. Don't ask me how many inches that is, but it may be enough to warrant building an ark. The forcast is brightening up a little for the next two days, calling only for "isolated showers".

Kitchenaid makes a really good convection wall oven in 27 inches. Dacor does as well, but Dacor tends to the expensive side. I had a 27 in KA wall oven in my old house and I really liked it.