Category: savory

we’ve gone totally crazy for the grill here in our new place. you know that feeling, on the very last day of school, when you know you’re done for the year, and you’ve got a whole summer of doing whatever you want ahead of you? having a grill makes every day feel like that. there’s nothing more relaxing than lounging in the backyard and cooking up hot dogs and hamburgers, or something a bit more sophisticated, like pizza (that’s right, i’m calling pizza sophisticated).

it’s a little nerve racking throwing pizza dough right on the grill for the first time. i was sure it would fall through the grate, but sure enough, it cooked right up perfectly. the charcoal gives the dough a smokiness you don’t get from a conventional oven, plus the perfect combination of a crispy crust with a soft chewy interior.

here’s an extremely rare shot of me actually cooking. and readers, meet the girl. ain’t she sweet? sorry, no pictures of us together – it was just the two of us, so we had to take shots of each other. she’s a amazing cook and i’m an extremely lucky dude to have her.

look at those grill marks. this crust is about to be topped and tossed back on the grill to finish cooking.

here’s the girl adding a bit of sauce with fresh basil.

as you can see, i’m not a master at making a perfectly round pizza. we’ll just call it “rustic.” this one was topped with barbecue chicken, caramelized onions, mozzarella and more fresh basil. if you’ve never grilled pizza before, or even ever made pizza at home before, it’s actually easier than it looks. have all of your friends over, tell them to bring their favorite toppings, and just keep cooking them up until everyone is too full to move.

it doesn’t hurt to have a few glasses of wine to make the meal complete.

here’s the grilled chicken we added to the pizzas. we’ve been in our new place for 3 weeks, and this is the second time we’ve made this chicken. the girl whipped up a really incredible bbq sauce that caramelizes perfectly and makes the chicken tangy and hot.

hmmm…sausage, caramelized onions, local fresh ricotta, and swiss chard. this one got a helping of mozzarella once it hit the grill a second time. these were so much fun to make (and incredibly delicious), i might do it again this week.

one last thing – the kind folks at washingtonian.com were nice enough to do a little interview with me for their “blogger beat” section, which you can read here. it was totally humbling to get to do it, so i hope you enjoy it. i think i successfully came off looking like a total dork (totally my intention all along). big thanks to washingtonian.com and thanks to all of you for continuing to read this blog and just being generally awesome.

if you’ve got a few hours to kill on a sunday afternoon, why not whip up some pasta? hold on, you’ve never made fresh pasta? it’s easy – here, i’ll show you. now you have no excuse.

take 2 cups flour and pour it out on a work surface. form it into a little volcano. add 1 tsp salt in the middle. now things are about to get messy (and fun).

crack 3 eggs into the middle (or crack 1, mix, crack another, mix, etc). carefully mix the flour with the egg, being sure not to break the edge of the flour volcano. you can use a fork to start, but after a few minutes, get your hands in there and really work the dough.

after a bit of mixing and kneading, you’ll end up with this. if the dough is too wet, add a touch of flour. if it’s too dry, sprinkle in some drops of cold water.

divide the dough into a few pieces and run them through a pasta maker. if you’re without a pasta maker, use a rolling pin to get it as thin as possible. it will take some time and elbow grease, but eventually you can get it to about 1/16-inch thick (or thinner). the dough will be springy, so it’s best to work on one piece for a while, let it rest while you work on the next, and just move through each one until little by little until it’s thin.

loosely roll the dough up jelly-roll style and cut them into small rolls. sprinkle some dust on the pasta rolls and unroll them into long strands. don’t worry about tearing it – the dough is surprisingly resilient. from here, you can cook this up immediately or hang it on a rack of some kind (a laundry rack will do) to dry. when you’re ready to cook, only boil the pasta for 3-4 minutes at most. i suggest serving it with creamy caramelized leeks and crispy bacon. that’s what i made, but, true story, i couldn’t get a good picture of it before i ate it all. yes, it was awesome.

quick reminder – there’s still time to sponsor my upcoming 5k for the susan g. komen breast cancer foundation. to everyone who has already donated, i can’t thank you enough. to those who would like to donate, please click here and then click on the “donate to pete” button.

over the weekend, i engaged in deadly (not really) food battle against nick! if anyone reading this blog doesn’t know who nick is, you need to get to know him. nick runs an amazing blog called macheesmo, where among many other things, he allows other bloggers to challenge him to a cook-off. i was psyched to find out that he accepted my challenge and the ingredients were chosen: lamb and leeks. read my post, then find out what nick made, and then vote for your favorite at the end of this post.

my head was swimming with possibilities, so i bought a few different cuts of lamb – shoulder and butterflied leg. i ended up combining them to make a great ground lamb mixture in the food processor. but what would i do with all this ground lamb?

dish 1: lamb sliders with caramelized leek jam. i decided on a mediterranean flavored slider, so i mixed the lamb with feta cheese, mint and garlic.

i quickly shaped the patties and set them in the fridge to firm up while i tackled the next dish.

here’s a nice picture of leeks to break up the photos of raw lamb. next up…

dish 2: lamb in a slanket with leek yogurt sauce. once i had the sliders going, i got inspired to make more lamb-ified bar food. lamb in a slanket are basically pigs in a blanket, except made of lamb, and indian-spiced. i mixed together ground corriander, curry powder, ginger, cinnamon, cliantro and a few other spices and shaped the lamb into mini-hot-dog shapes.

these are about to get wrapped in pillsbury crescent roll dough.

now the leeks! the first topping to make was the leek jam, which is leeks cooked down with butter and cream until it’s an incredibly thick and rich sauce.

the next sauce was a leek yogurt sauce for the lamb in a slanket. i was looking for something refreshing and cool to match up with the spices. leeks have a pretty mild flavor, but it still came through in the sauce.

here’s the assembled meal – one thing i didn’t get pictures of was the making of the crispy fried leeks. i dipped strips of leek in tempura batter and quickly fried them until crispy. the whole thing came together nicely, and everything was delicious.

the bonus to this food battle was actually getting to MEET nick face to face so we could try each other’s dishes. he and betsy were kind enough to host the girl and me over so we could feast and swap stories (oh the crazy lives food bloggers live). it was awesome to hang out and i can tell you that nick is just as generous, funny and talented as it appears on his blog.

finally, here’s a sneak peek at what nick made (it was great!).