I am over here now...

I decided to start blogging again. Please come find me at mildlygranola.com

Grilled Pizza

After my swordfish success I decided to make grilled pizza.  I went with a Cooks Illustrated recipe because I like detailed directions that when followed to the letter produce delicious results without fail.  Unfortunately that also means that the recipe takes a long time and produces a dishwasher full of dishes (if the dishes are actually dishwasher safe).

This is not a weeknight recipe. I needed to bring the card table out for all of the necessary items and ingredients to grill the pizzas.

We had lots of tomatoes from Cleverly Farms and John's Mom, so I used them along with Fontina, Parmesan, and basil.

 Hot Toddy and Ivy were able to join us for dinner, which is good because the recipe makes four pizzas.  Those pizzas are supposed to feed 6-8 people....

...but we found that a pizza a person was a more appropriate size.

Grilled pizza may have ended up being more work than I expected, but I'll probably try them again. They turned out great for my second attempt at grilling. I look forward to cooking something new on the grill soon.

Sunday Dinner

I grilled dinner tonight.  It's kind of a big deal.  I've never grilled before.  

It all started when John said he didn't want to grill tonight but he wouldn't mind if I did.  I figured it was a good excuse to learn how to grill.  It was also a good excuse to by a new kitchen gadget.  I picked up a chimney starter at the hardware store and headed to the grocery store.

I have been wanting to learn how to grill for a long time now.  Why?  Because you get to stand outside and drink beer while making dinner.  That is the sort of activity that I'm very good at.

I decided to jump into grilling with both feet.  I made fingerling potatoes with onions, grilled garlic bread, and swordfish with a mango salsa.

It turned out great.  It was the best meal I've had in a long time. I was shocked at how it all came together.

It turns out grilling is really easy. I don't know why I have never done it before. I'm looking forward to grilling again.  I'm thinking I might try grilled pizza later this week.  Before long I'll be like my Dad and I'll able to tell you how many beers it takes to grill my favorite items (Dad is 1.5 beers for pork chops, FYI).

Classy Lamp

 I've had an ugly lamp in my possession all of my adult life.  It was in my house growing up.  I'm sure it wasn't  ugly when my parent's bought the lamp.  But 40 or so year years later the lamp was looking pretty dated.  The entire time I've lived in my house the lamp has been in the basement.  I couldn't bring myself to give it up.  I knew it had potential.

So today, after telling John for over a year I was going to do something with it, I did something with it.  I cleaned it, primed it, and painted it.

 It's now a shiny light blue.  It is my new bedside lamp.

 I love how it looks now.  The paint and a new lampshade really glammed it up.

Happy Dog

Wrigley is the happiest dog I have ever met.

Crafty Jars

 I spent Saturday hanging out with Kathleen, Mary-Claire, Deirdre, and Kathy.  We had a crafty day.  I got a lot of knitting done, but by far my favorite craft of the day was playing with Kathleen's Shilhouette cutter.

I made a snack jar for work.  I hope that the cheekiness of the jar will keep people from stealing my almonds.  I'm not going to hold my breath.

I made a jar to hold Wrigley's treats so I don't have to look at a Milk Bone box in the kitchen.  The jar has a bone and says Wrigley's Treats. I was focusing on the super cute dog, so you don't get the best photo of the jar.

 

She seems to like it.

I would tell you about what a great time I had and how much I love hanging out with my family, but I'm not going to blog about how great they are until they update their blogs.

Monday Night Party

Our awesome neighbors Ricky and Kelly had a party yesterday.  It was a day long brewing party.  We headed over after work to check out what they were brewing.  I stuck to cider, because as I have previously noted, the rum raisin cider is the best cider I have ever had.  I also tired the vanilla cream, which was like a lighter version of the Breckenridge Vanilla Porter.

Heading to a party on a Monday was a good way to make the start of the week suck a little less.  I think I'll try to do something fun every Monday to kick the week off on a positive note.