Wordless Wednesday

Tasty Tuesday

I've been wanting to try making grilled pizza for awhile. We finally gave it a try last week. I used our standby pizza dough recipe and it really is quite simple to make. We have a gas grill, so we cooked the pizza over Direct High. The dough needs to be rolled out very thin, I then transfer it to a pizza peel coated with cornmeal. Slide the dough onto the grill and cook 4-5 minutes, then flip the dough over, add your toppings (not too many though!) and cook another 3-4 minutes or until done. Our favorite pizza toppings are Italian sausage, fresh spinach, and sun dried tomatoes. I also did one with olive oil for the sauce, fresh basil, fresh tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella. I like to have cooked Italian sausage on hand in the freezer, so throwing together the pizza is really simple. We typically make 3-4 pizzas with the batch of dough below.

Crusty Pizza Dough

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups water
2 TB olive oil
3/4 tsp salt
4 cups flour
2 tsp yeast

Directions

Mix ingredients together in order specified by your bread maker. Run the dough cycle.

My parents brought me a couple pecks of fresh Southern Illinois peaches. While they are extremely tasty on their own, grilling them brings them to another level, especially when you top the warm peaches with cold ice cream!

Grilled Peaches

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 4 fresh peaches
• canola oil
  
• vanilla ice cream

Preparation

In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon. Cut peaches along the seam all the way around and twist halves off the pit. Brush cut sides with grapeseed oil or vegetable oil. Cook, cut side down, on a hot grill until fruit has grill marks, 3 to 4 minutes. Brush tops with oil, turn over, and move to indirect heat. Sprinkle cut sides with cinnamon sugar. Cover grill and cook until sugar is melted and fruit is tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream (sprinkle on extra cinnamon sugar if you like).

Happy 6th Birthday Brooks!

Brooks had a great time celebrating his birthday on Saturday. He requested a ice cream party with no cake, we had make your own sundaes, brownies and blondies. It was still crazy hot outside so we had water balloons, water guns, and the sprinkler out for the kids. I also made my first pinata. I found the directions here and was pretty happy with how it turned out. Next time I'll need to reinforce the string somehow since it came apart on the first hit (Ryan was brave enough to hold it for the kids). Brooks was the one to actually bust the pinata open, I think it's the first time the birthday boy has delivered the fatal hit!





Ryan had a race Sunday at Versailles State Park. The boys and I had fun on the playground and also visited the nature center during the race. After the race we all went swimming at the state park pool. We got home around 4 and Brooks requested that we go to El Maguey for his birthday dinner where he chowed down a carnitas gordita (Hudson helped finish it off after he ate his ceviche tostada).

Getting ready to enjoy his birthday flan....

Happy Birthday Brooks! We are so blessed to have you as our son.

Camp!

Brooks and Hudson have been having a fun week at daycamp. It's at their Montessori school, so they've had fun with their friends, some of which that haven't seen for over a month. They don't spend much time in the classroom, most of it is held outdoors, so we're thankful for the nice weather. Today is their last day, they will get to blow up the volcano they created, play in sprinklers, and ride their bikes at school.

Tasty Thursday

On our trip to Pittsburgh we stumbled across the awesomest grocery store ever, Giant Eagle Market District. This place was huge and had everything imaginable. The first night we ventured in because we were looking for a light dinner. This place has a food court with paninis, sushi, crepes, pasta bar, huge salad bar, bbq joint, wood fired pizzas, Thai/Indian (with fresh naan!), coffee bar, smoothie bar, and gourmet dinner for 2 to take home. You could even purchase beer to round off your meal. There was an upstairs and outdoor dining area. It was a great, quick dinner option for us, we ended up there two nights. Everyone could get what they were in the mood for.

The second trip there we took advantage of their in store child care. We dropped the boys off to play while we had a "date" in the store. The meat department had 10 kinds of house made chicken sausage, elk, venison, rattlesnake, and more! We sampled store made olive oil blends and vinegar from an Italian guy. We brought home some herb olive oil and blueberry balsamic vinegar. The deli and bakery had anything and everything you might want. The produce department was growing veggies hydroponically! They offered all sorts of cooking classes and did I mention the free instore child care?! How I would love to have one of these in Indiana, but if we did I'm sure my grocery budget would go up.

It's definitely hit ice cream season. I had some fresh strawberries and stumbled upon this recipe. I used my blueberry balsamic vinegar in it and it added a great depth of flavor.

Balsamic Strawberry Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips

Ingredients

• 1 pint Strawberries
• 1 cup Sugar, Divided
• 1 Tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• 2 cups Half-and-half
• ½ cups Mini Chocolate Chips

Preparation Instructions

Slice strawberries and add 1/3 cup sugar and vinegar. Place in a blender or food processor and processes till smooth. Set aside.

Add the remaining 2/3 cups sugar to the cream and stir until disolved. Add the half-and-half and the strawberry puree to cream base. Pour into an ice cream machine. Freeze according to manufacturer’s directions. Add chocolate chips in the last 5 minutes. Chill till firm if you can wait that long. I like mine soft serve!

As soon as I saw this recipe I knew I had to try it. I made this on the hottest day of the year (114 degree heat index) and shared it with our friends. I think it would be great with a mix in, like brownie chunks, Heath bar, Reeses cups, etc...

Brownie Batter Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1 cup Whole Milk
• ½ cups Granulated Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1 pinch Salt
• ¼ cups Cocoa Powder (good Quality)
• 1-¼ cup Dry Brownie Mix

Preparation Instructions

A few hours in advance, place the ice cream maker bowl and paddle into the freezer to completely freeze.

In a large bowl or measuring cup, stir all ingredients together until combined. I used a whisk to ensure everything was thoroughly combined. Cover and refrigerate 1-2 hours.

Place the frozen ice cream bowl and paddle onto the machine and cover with the clear lid. Turn the machine on and pour the ice cream base through the top of the machine into the moving bowl.

Churn 15-20 minutes until frozen and smooth. Eat as is or scoop into a large tupperware container, cover and freeze.

We went blueberry picking for the first time this season last week. We came home with 10 lbs and I hope to go again next week. These smoothies were very tasty and refreshing.

Blueberry Lemonade Smoothie

Ingredients

• 2 cups Fresh Or Frozen Blueberries
• 1 cup Milk
• ½ cups Yogurt
• 3 Tablespoons Frozen Lemonade Concentrate
• 1 Tablespoon Honey
• 1 teaspoon Lemon Zest (optional)
• 3 cups Ice Cubes

Preparation Instructions

Toss all in a blender and blend until smooth!

Wordless Wednesday

Steel City

We finished the last part of our vacation in Pittsburgh. I know, you're thinking Pittsburgh? Pittsburgh is a great city and a great place to visit with kids.

We had lunch when we arrived at a great Thai restaurant. We ate outside on the lovely patio. It almost felt like we were in Thailand. There were plants all over the place, colorful umbrellas, fountains, and Buddhas. The food was great too!

We then headed to the Carnegie Science Center which was a couple minutes away. We all loved the museum. We saw a planetarium show, toured a submarine (which was on the river!), walked through a model railroad exhibit, watched a fruit flambe class, and more.

The next morning we headed out for Kennywood. Ryan and I last visited Kennywood on our East Coast Coaster of 2004...


Kennywood is a historic amusement park that opened in 1898. It still has a lot of historic charm, and a lot of great rides! The first ride we rode was also the oldest ride in the park, The Whip. It opened in 1918 and is still going strong. The boys also rode their first full-size roller coaster, Jack Rabbit, which opened in 1920. Brooks loved it, Hudson not so much. It was a fun filled day.

The infamous Kennywood arrow that you see directing you to Kennywood. I've had a Kennywood arrow on my car for the past 7 years, when we got home from vacation Brooks said "Hey Mom when did you get that Kennywood sticker?"

Riding the Turtle

The boys having fun on Lil' Phantom

After we left the park, we decided to get some ice cream cones. In Indiana, we've been seeing lots of McDonalds billboards advertising ice cream. In our travels through the state, we've seen the price range from .49 to .69. A cheap snack, right? We hadn't seen any billboards in PA, so of course the ice cream cones there were full price. Oh well! It was still cheaper then getting them in the park. And it was Brooks & Hudson's first taste of McDonalds (if ice cream counts)?

The next morning we took a ride on the Duquesne Incline. It used to transport steel workers from the top of the mountain down to the steel mills on the river. It was built in 1877. We had a great view from the top.






For lunch, we headed to the Strip district to eat at the Penn Ave Fish Company. Hudson loved seeing all the fresh fish and even got to touch a live soft shell crab. And then he ate the soft shell crab:

Yum!

We finished up the day with a fun afternoon at the Children's Museum. They had a cool art studio where you could make all sorts of art. And this crazy maze thing:

And you could dress up like a pirate:

We finished up our vacation by watching Shrek Forever in our spacious hotel room. We loved the Hyatt Place (got it cheap on Hotwire) and would totally try to stay at one again.

Wordless Wednesday