PIzzaria Bowden

There are few foods out there as universally loved as pizza. It's versatile, filling, cheap, and delicious. I LOVE pizza in all shapes, types and sizes (especially large!)- from big chains like Papa John's to local joints like Mineo's, or even fancy places like Il-Pizzaiolo. I am an equal opportunity pizza enjoyer. But until recently I never had much interest in making my own pizza. I've never found a great frozen variety, Boboli is just ok, and making my own dough always seemed too daunting.


But then....I tried something a little unorthodox- Grilled Pizza! Now, plenty of people have shared the idea, so it's certainly nothing new....but it was new to us. Dustin will grill just about anything he can get his hands on-but we had never tried this, so we looked up some tips, and gave it a shot!


For our first attempt- we decided to keep it simple, and make a margherita pizza. We had most of the ingredients already (thank you CSA!)...we just had to pick up some refrigerated pizza dough, and fresh mozzarella.

We rolled out the dough, and cut it into smaller pieces to make it more manageable and flippable. (yes- flippable.) And we kept it simple with the rectangle shape, as any attempts to spin a circle would most certainly end in me whirling it into the ceiling fan.

Just look at the hope and joy on his face! (or maybe that is thinly veiled exasperation for the camera person, who was snapping too much, and helping too little.....hard to say...)

Through the process learned a few valuable lessons...

1. Make very small pizzas. They're MUCH easier to handle.
2. Get the grill hot- but not crazy-hot. The dough will cook FAST.
3. Brush the dough with olive oil before putting on the grill...cook for a few minutes, and then flip. All the recipes will tell you to flip onto the grill and put the ingredients on, but when we tried that- we ended up with burned crust, and cold toppings. Couldn't quite get all the fixin's on fast enough to cook evenly. So when it was time to flip- we put it back on a plate, added the toppings, and then placed back on the grill. It required four hands, but worked like a charm.

So despite the learning curve- we ended up with some pretty yummy results....

(our patient dinner guests waited while I took more photos....perhaps the rush explains the poor quality of this pic.)

And just like that- we were hooked. We couldn't wait to try it again....and this time we experimented with ingredients. Our next attempt was a huge success:

Pear and Arugula Pizza

• Pillsbury refrigerated pizza dough
• Olive oil
• Garlic
• Fontina cheese
• Toasted walnuts (heat on stovetop with some olive oil)
• Arugula
• Pears

And check out the finished product....yummmmmmmmm

While making our "gourmet version", we realized we only bought enough fontina for half the dough, and the only other cheese we had was cheddar....Luckily I'm married to a genius, who suggested we try one with BBQ sauce instead of marinara. I'll say it again: yummmmm.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

• Pillsbury refrigerated pizza dough
• BBQ sauce (we love Montgomery Inn)
• Cheddar cheese
• Grilled Chicken

It was a great solve with limited ingredients....



It's so easy- you've gotta try it! The only question is....what are you going to put on yours?

D.I.N.K.s*

Someday (note- someday- not today) Dustin and I will have children....

And I assume at least once, we'll look at each other and say, "What did we do before we had kids?!" I'm sure once you have that level of responsibly and commitment, it's easy to forget the footloose and fancy free feeling of your younger days. While I'm sure I'll love those kids more than I could ever imagine, I still want to remember what it was like to be child-free.

For some reason, this Saturday I had a moment of childless appreciation. It happens every once in a while- just a quick pause to be thankful that it's just us. (again- nothing against little ones, I'm just content in these moments.) It wasn't a special day....really nothing was especially memorable about it...but it served as a typical reminder of how lucky we are to have some "selfish time" in our lives. A glimpse:

• Woke up naturally....around 9. (which was pretty early!)
• Decided not to get up- read for an hour or so instead.
• Shared breakfast (quesadillas! it's a Bowden staple!) while we caught up on some TV and internet. (you know...whatever changed since last night!)
• Crafted for a while (painting beads for a necklace) while Dustin played guitar.
• Free tickets to a Pitt game- in the box at Heinz field. (Not really a strictly-childless luxury, but when we parked 11 miles away, Dustin only had to listed to my grown-up whining. Plus we didn't have to share our snacks).
• Met with some friends for Bookclub....Dustin rented some (undoubtedly violent) movie.

See? Nothing special. And yet it's all so special to me. I look forward to growing our family someday. But right now I'm loving our little family of two.

*Dual Income, No Kids.