grilled veggie pizza

while you are reading this, I am camping far far away from my computer. I am off where cell signal doesn't exist, and if there is wifi, I don't want to know about it. I may come down from the mountain once or twice during the week to check in with the housesitter, but I may not. Hopefully I am cooking up lots of great meals and even greater memories that I will share with you when I get back.

It seems like no matter how hard I try, I can't ever quite use up everything that comes in my AHO box. Oh, it all gets used up eventually. It seems, though, that when I pick up the box on Saturday morning, I have to move some of last week's produce into prime fridge real estate, and put the new stuff behind and below it. I am, I guess, rotating my stock. It would be so freeing to bring home the new box and put the veggies away into an empty fridge. However, I am accepting that that may never happen.

One thing I have been doing, though, is using up some of whatever is left by making a veggie pizza at the end of the week. I have recently caught onto the trend of grilling the pizza, which I guess makes it a little bit more like a wood-burning oven, and less like a regular electric oven like most of us use. At any rate, it gets a little bit smoked in the grill, and that makes all the difference in the world.

Here is my pizza crust recipe:
(this makes enough for 3 medium pizzas. If you don't use it all up, just freeze the extra for use at another time)
(I got this recipe from here.)

4 1/2 cups flour plus some for rolling
1 3/4  teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
1 3/4 cups ice-cold water

First, add all the dry ingredients to a mixer. Mix on low with the paddle attachment and slowly add in the oil and water. Mix until it is all combined. Switch to the dough hook, and mix on medium for 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and not sticking to the sides of the bowl (it will still be stuck to the bottom).

Now you can either use this or freeze it. Or do some of both.

If you are ready to use it, go fire up your grill. You want it to be just about as hot as it will go, so get all the burners going at full tilt and close the lid. When it gets well up over 400 degrees inside, you are set.

Roll out the dough and cover it with the toppings of your choice. The day I made this one, we had tomatoes, zucchini, potatoes, and onions. I didn't use a pizza sauce, but instead drizzled oil and garlic on the crust, covered that in slices of fresh mozzarella, and then piled on the veggies.

Take the whole schebang out to the grill, and put the pizza, still on its pan, onto the grill. Close it up and wait a few minutes. It will cook right quick, considering how hot you made it.

It's done when the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted and bubbly.

This goes great with a cold beer (you've been sweating next to an extremely hot barbecue. You need to regulate your temperature). Cheers!