Equal Opportunity Face Time

 

Ok, to be fair, this shot of me in all my drunken glory enjoying my S'More got cut off from my last post, so here you go. I don't want to be accused of just showing Suzy in her finest moments and leaving my shots on the cutting room floor...

Flavor of the Week -OR- Good Eats? You Decide!

OK, I guess this is a two for one night, where you get not one, but two posts for your entertainment dollar. I've been hearing about grilled pizzas for a long time now, Bobby Flay has made them on several occasions, as well as other Food Network chefs. I got to thinking - just exactly how good could pizza be on the grill? It's pretty damn tasty cooked properly in the oven. So, being the adventurous type, I asked Suzy very sweetly to make some of her awesome Parmesean pizza dough from the recipe we got from Nora Mill Granary in Helen, just around the corner from the cabin. She willingly obliged, so I got to work on the grill, prepping the ingredients for the pie. I grilled 3 bell peppers, one each of red, yellow and green, and one medium onion while Suzy was making the dough. After the dough was done and the vegetables grilled, we blind "baked" the crust on the grill at nuclear temperatures for about 8 minutes. The grill was full on - all 4 burners were going full blast, and the temperature was around 550 degrees. I then topped the crust with sauce, cheese, pepperoni, sun dried tomatoes, fresh garlic, fresh oregano, and ALL of the previously grilled vegetables, topped with some dried herbs and a little shaker parmesean cheese. Back to the grill we went, this time turning the heat down to low so as not to scorch the bottom of the crust for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes on the grill, the crust couldn't take any more heat, so we tossed it under the broiler for a few quick minutes to brown up the top layer and drive off a bit of the moisture from the veggies. The resulting pie was the best damn pizza I have put in my mouth in I can't remember when. The whole process took about 3 hours from start to finish, so it's not a weeknight type of undertaking, but it is definitely a do-over on a weekend night.

We then proceeded to make S'Mores for dessert, roasted over a roaring chiminary fire on the deck. I think you can tell form the pictures that they were off the hook as well.

Conclusion - It's good to be at home on the weekends and not running up and down the road to Helen back (get it? to Hell and Back...). Cheers, and here's to good eats and more importantly, good sports!

Picture Perfect Morning... er Afternoon!

OK, I figured this was as good as any picture to replace the most recent post on my blog. I had heard through the grapevine that the picture wasn't entirely kosher with some of my viewers. While I didn't mean any offense by it, or see where it might be construed as offensive, I have finally decided to post something to bump it down out of the top spot.

This was taken Friday afternoon after work, at the local Harley dealership. The Budweiser Clydesdale horses were in town, and Suzy had never seen them before, so we headed over after work to get there just in time to see them taking their draft harnesses off and loading them back onto their custom trailers. These guys are HUGE. Suzy is a good 30 feet away from them and they still tower over her in this shot. The handlers looked dwarfed next to the gentle giants. It was cool to get to see them again, it has been a long time since my childhood encounter with the Clydesdales, and it is a shame we missed their performance, but a little thing called work got in the way...