Pizza on the Grill

 
Pizza on the Grill
 

The first step to making this delicious meal is to thank my sweet girl friend over at INOKWAKA who taught us how to prepare this amazingly fun family meal years back. Then after you do that, pull out your bread machine. We have a great bread machine that my momma blessed us with and we use all the time for dough....this dough especially. If you do not have recipe, email me and I'll help you out. :)

 

 This is the mixing and kneading stage. It take 1.5 hours so go do something productive, like laundry or cleaning up the mess you made preparing the dough.

 

 

I didn't show the rolling out process or the cutting of the veggies in pictures, so here's the in-between steps.

 

1. When the dough is complete, place it in a freezer bag. Take out the air and place in the fridge for the day.

2. We buy Italian sausage in bulk at Costco. Fry up about 5 or 6 sausages. Place a paper towel in a bowl and scoop the sausage in to drain.

3. Cut up your favorite veggies.

4. We love Pineapple. You can buy canned or cut up fresh. We choose fresh most of the time.

5. The sauce is up to you. We use Prego spaghetti sauce but we've tried ranch and pesto. Honestly, there are so many options.

6. When it's time to cook the pizzas, roll out your dough on a floured surface. We make individual pizzas.

 

Now it's time to grill your pizza!

 

Grab some Olive Oil and  baste both sides.  Turn on your grill on low to preheat. After it has preheated take your dough and place on the grill. Watch it carefully to rise. This takes about 5 minutes or so depending on your grill. At this time, turn off your grill, flip the pizza dough and prepare your personal pizza. Once they are all prepared, turn your grill on low again. Close the lid and watch carefully.  After a few minutes you may want to move your pizzas around on the grill depending on your grill. Ours has irregular heat elements so we move it all around. You will know by "the look" when it's done.

 

 

Ta da! Dinner's on!

Operation Purge

I know I should be writing about our wonderful vacation to Breck and showing you pictures of that but this thing I'm calling Operation Purge is taking over my brain right now. The vacation will have to wait.

On Tuesday the Black Forest fire began and by Wednesday we were concerned enough to leave Breckenridge, drive 2 hours home to see that our dear friends and our son had moved mighty fast on packing our "necessary" items. All we had left was to grab our few remaining "necessary" items and head back up the mountain. When we came back home after a relaxing rest of the week, we had the task of sorting and unpacking. I became all too aware that we had too-much-stuff! It was time to reorganize and purge. We had boxes of memories and files in too many places. We did NOT have our "necessary" items in one central local. So ... my choleric side came roaring out.

Now anyone who knows me knows I am not a super cray-cray woman on organization. I like clean but I do have one too many junk drawers. With that said, the older I get, the more I NEEEED order. Call it menopause. Wal-Mart was happy with my need this week.

Oh, quick diversion. When I started going through all those boxes I found some sweet treasures. This is one Gabriel made his daddy. He gave him two of his cars and if you look closely, there are fans in the crowd cheering them on. Gabe knows his daddy's dream was to drive for Nascar. It took a little while to go through some of the boxes; I was enjoying all my sweet children's' masterpieces and baby clothes.

Okay.. back to the pursuit of organization. This corner became Christmas and K'nex.  I gave Gabriel a bunch of his "necessary" items but kept a few for my grandbabies that I plan to have one day. K'nex being one of them.

 

Moving on to this corner of the room, we have the beginnings of our Evacuation bins. They are marked with orange duck tape to indicate, "Take Me"! The bins are now clear and easily visible of the stored items, unlike the previous boxes.


This is the teaching pile from my classroom. I am a wee bit overwhelmed by this pile. So we won't talk about it. (said in my high pitch whiney voice)

This pile is for the garage sale. It is an unorganized mess that once organized has some great treasures for some great people. People that will pay me to enjoy such items for years to come.

And this is our duck tape that signifies each child in our home and the "Take Me" orange for the quick escape. We are cutting a square off  an placing it on the bin. If it belongs to a child AND is for the Evac zone, the bin receives 2 colors. Some bins have four colors of tape because it has memories of all four children inside like baby clothes.



I am so organized!

This makes me happy. And one day when I can't process anymore cause I am old and decrepit, my children will thank me for being so thoughtfully organized.

You're Welcome.

Kayleigh's Birthday!

Happy Birthday Kayleigh!

 

Who would have known when Kayleigh was born 22 years ago and I was just a newlywed myself, that one day she would make her way into our lives in Monument, Colorado. She is a part of our family this year and what better to do on a birthday than celebrate!

 

We had pizzas on the grill and chocolate cupcakes. We had a dance party and then settled in to watch Revolution... would the world survive???

We thought it only right that when she takes off across the pond later this month that she take a wee bit of America with her. 

 

This special bracelet is a Brighton American flag collectors piece.

Happy Birthday Kayleigh! It has been a blessing to bring you into our family. May God richly bless  your new adventure across the pond. We love you!

Summer Lovin'... having a Blast!

Let the fun begin and begin it did. We love to camp and share our time with family and friends. This summer adventure was filled with both. End of May means "It's time to camp!". We headed up the mountain to Mueller State Park, just outside of Woodland Park. So far all our trips here have been in the fall to see the Aspens changing color. I decided to kick our season off here to enjoy some "warmer" weather. Bahahah! Our summer is a wee bit late this year and the Aspens barely had leaves, if they had leaves. But... this place is still spectacular no matter what the weather.

 

 

This just made me laugh. Welcome to the 21st century of camping. It was COLD Friday night and we only had enough wood for Saturday night. So what did we do? We kicked up the heater and enjoyed the technology of today, thank you very much. Seinfeld for me and Mr. Jones, Red Box for Becca, and games for Lina and Joanna.

 

Moving on.....

 

 A big part of Saturday was a hike that just about did me in last year, The Crags. Oh if you could have heard me carry on last year, all the while my sweet husband just smiled. This year, I was DEtermined to make it to the top, all 10,700 feet,  for the view I only saw a photo of last year.

 



There was still snow in places and the stream just starting to move. So peaceful.

This is one of my THREE pictures I was allowed for the day with my man. I do so wish he loved my camera as much as I do. :)

And this one, this one can just keep trucking. She has a spirit of determination and has strength to go right along with it. You go girl!

These two sweet friends, Mason and Laura,  joined us for the day. We chatted, laughed, climbed, chatted some more and then when the going got tough, we shut up just to catch our breath.

I think this is one of my favorite pictures of the day. The sky so blue, the snow not yet melted, the rock leaning just so.

And this one being  a close second. Look at the view and the contrast of death and life. Enough said.

The three amigos!

 

I made it! I am woman hear me roar.  So, so, so, sooooo excited to see this from 10,700 feet! All of Colorado's beauty in a 360 degree circle.

Becca brings her great sense of humor even to the heights of the sky. I love this girl.

 I told you the Aspens had barely budded. June 1st, 50 something degrees and no leaves. How odd is that?

This just about sums it up. Hard work comes with great rewards. My sweet baby had herself one yummilicious s'more! Camping is a great thing; fresh air, delicious food, and sweet fellowship. Gotta love summer!