Happy Mother's Day

I will preface this by saying that I had a nice day, because I got to spend it with my kid, whom I love a great deal. BUT, I had to drive to Indiana (PA, not the state) in rain and gusty-blowing-the-car-off-the-road winds, to arrive at the soccer field in a hail storm, and then stand around for a half-hour while the refs waited for enough lightening that they felt they had to call the game. We hung around for a while longer and then drove right back home in the rain.

But, like I said, it was still a good day. The Boy is an excellent car companion, and never fails to entertain. He fashioned a lovely rain hat from a a deflated beach ball that had been stuffed under the seat. "You can't say I'm not resourceful." You're right, Boy. I can't. But I *can* say you probably shouldn't wear that thing outside of the car.

In Mother's Day gift news, I scored a sweet card, with sentiments of The Boy's love preserved in his own handwriting and drawings, AND a basket for the front of my bike. Woo! I'm seriously happy about the basket, because I want to be able to carry more than what I can fit on my back.

So, yes. A very nice day, indeed.

Yesterday was nice too. I took a huge (for me) bike ride, got to see my mom for a while, and then P came over for grilled pizza, MST3K, and Rock Band.

Look at the pizza!


Not only does the dough NOT sag down through the grill rack, but it gets bubbly and crispy.


A side gets crispy in two or three minutes, and then you flip in and add the toppings, and Bob's your uncle.


Ta da!

Here's the recipe for the dough:

1 envelope active dry yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
2/3 cup warm water
2 cups flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp pepper
2 TBL olive oil, plus more to brush on crusts

Combine yeast, water and sugar and let it get foamy. I combined the flour, salt, pepper, and olive oil in my food processor with the dough blade, and added the yeast mixture once it was ready, and then ran it until it turned into dough. I gave it a little bit of extra time to knead, and then put it on a bowl coated with oil, turned it, covered it with plastic, and let it rise for about an hour and a half. It's a weird, heavy dough, and I was very suspicious of it, but it turned out just fine.

After it rises punch it down and divide it into four pieces. Roll them into pizza crusts that are about 1/8-inch thick, brush both sides with olive oil, and grill.

Once the dough has risen, the whole process is really quick, and it's pretty fun to do. The crust is super thin and crispy, and tastes kind of smokey, like pizza from a place that uses a brick pizza oven.

Good stuff.