Grilling Pizza Tutorial

We have become Pizza Grilling obsessed. Every Saturday night, for the last 6 weeks, we have been trying new recipes and pizza combos to find our ultimate favorite. Here is the problem.. We like them all! I am telling you, grilling pizza is super easy, much healthier, and more cost efficient than ordering take out! If I have not convinced you enough.. hopefully some of these combos will win you over.

At first when I heard about grilling pizza, I was a bit intimated. Don't be! To start out you need...
1. A Pizza Stone (We had a cheaper one from Amazon that is already showing lots of love!)
2. Cookie Sheet
3. Cornmeal (we learned through the expert- Remi- this is a necessity!)
4. Fast Rising Yeast

If you Google Pizza Dough there are millions of recipes. Sweeter versions, Saltier, Simple, Complex, Gluten Free, Whole Wheat etc. Now I am not the pizza dough expert... but this recipe seems to work for us. Oddly any recipe that I tried with sugar just seemed too sweet.

R.R.'s Pizza Dough 

(this recipe was given to us by one of our best friends and I just changed one thing!)

1. 3 cups of all purpose flour
2. 1 packet of Fleischmann's Rapid Rise Yeast (or any yeast, I just prefer this!)
3. 1 5/8 cup of warm water
4. 1 tbs. of Salt

Here is the Yeast I use.

Okay so combined all of the ingredients with your hands. You will need to work them together but don't over knead. (Warning- your hands will be messy... a perfect "toddler helper" activity!) Cover with Saran wrap and let rise.

This is key- The pizza dough needs to rise for at least 8 (plus) hours. Ideal is 12 hours. So the biggest issue with Grilling Pizza is you need to plan ahead enough to make the dough!

Now fast forward 8 hours... 

1. Put Pizza Stone on the grill and start the grill (Warning- Never put a cold pizza stone on a hot grill.. it will crack!)
2. Sprinkle Cornmeal on a cookie sheet so the pizza can easy slide onto the Pizza Stone.
3. Spread out your dough into a "pizza shape" on the cookie sheet.
4. Put on your toppings!!!
5. Slide the Pizza from the cookie sheet to the pizza stone on the grill. The sliding should be easy if you used enough corn meal.
6. Cook for 10-15 Minutes and Voila!

Some of our favorites so far are..

Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Greek Pizza (Feta, Tomatoes, Olives)
BBQ Pizza
Meat Lovers (Will's fav)
Spinach Apple Sausage

We have many more ideas. Hopefully I can put some of them up here (eventually!)

 

And done!

Easy and delicious. 

xoxo,

allie

P.S. When did this lady get so big?

 

Swim School

Well... we (literally) took the plunge and started "aid supported swim school". It was wonderful and I am so happy we decided to add it to our summer activity list. Will and I feel like it is a super important skill set (and necessity) for all of our kids to learn how to swim. We also spend tons of time and the beach/pool, since we live in Hawaii, so H lady is around the water a lot. She is also an extreme daredevil and has no fear of the water. We think this streak of daredevil is great.. but we want her to channel her energy into safe swimming. Luckily we live about 20 minutes away from Leahi Swim School! Today was our first day and I was impressed! The pool is great and super warm, the teachers friendly, and the lesson is perfect for an almost two year old.  We signed up for twice a week in June. I'll keep you updated on the progress.. but our two main goals are blowing bubbles and kicking our legs. Ha, simple stuff.

I didn't get any pictures of us in the pool.. since I was with her... but hopefully, at some point, during the next couple of weeks we can get someone to snap a couple of us!

Happy Wednesday!

xoxo
allie

Quick Dresser Update!

Since it was a long weekend, I decided it was necessary for a bit of a furniture flip.

We are so lucky to have housing provided for us through the Army.... but with this housing comes lots of white walls, tan cabinets, and bland light fixtures. It is great because your furniture and wall art always matches... but boring, boring, boring. You can never leave your mark on a property.t I would love to redo the kitchen but it would break the rules and be a waste of money since we don't own it!  Eventually we will be moving from Hawaii and I will have a new house to put my touch on or at least move furniture around. Anyway.. for now we will be doing smaller furniture updates!

Since all of our furniture journeyed across the ocean in giant crates... some of it got beat up! Another common theme in the military... Anyway, we are lucky to have a decent sized kitchen that has the perfect wall for a little cabinet which our microwave sits on.

I decided the black was boring. It would be fine if we had tons of color on the wall, etc; it also was starting to show some serious wear and tear. So...

We painted it green. I love how it turned out. Super easy weekend project and it adds a perfect pop of color in a neutral kitchen. I picked Meadow Green by some Hawaiian Paint company in the Satin finish. I wanted an Olive Greenish and I think this color combo perfectly achieves this! 

Happy Tuesday!

xoxo,

allie

Makapu'u Point Lighthouse Trail

We spent Memorial Day (morning) hiking up Makapu'u Point Lighthouse trail... Beautiful, beautiful views and a must do for all visitors and locals... (too bad we just discovered it for all of our past visitors!). Here are my hiking tips and observations for Makapu'u Point Light Trail.

1. Let's be honest here.. it is an easy hike and therefore a great hike for all! It is super toddler/kid friendly because you can push a stroller the whole way on a paved pathway.
2. I would recommend going during Whale Season. We missed it by a month or two, but apparently you can see tons up there.
3. Wear sunscreen.
4. If you are coming from the North Shore area be prepared for a longer hour drive. (Ha an hour seems long when you live on an island).
5. We realized, at the peak, it is only 5 miles from Bellows Airforce Beach so you should just make a day of it!
6. The top is very windy so be prepared for that! We had a run-away stroller with the brakes and all.. (don't worry H was not in it at the time!)

(This last photo features the beautiful yet intense cliffs!)

 

We are planning on spending the rest of Memorial Day with some friends for an evening BBQ. There is an amazing Lateran Lightening Ceremony in Honolulu for Memorial Day... We are definitely planning on attending next year!

xoxo,

allie