grilled pizza and other gastronomic destinations
I had this vision of using some old pizza stone sections in the fireplace down in wimberley for grilled (wood fired) pizza.
I brought an assortment of toppings, cheeses and semolina dough I'd made. the kids rolled their dough and assembled toppings. I also supplied a white sauce from 25 cloves of garlic, butter, cream and parsley (reduced and blended till a smooth paste).
the only snag was that the bottom of the pizza cooked before the top browned enough for my liking.
we moved to a two stage process, where we browned the bottom in the fireplace on the stones, and browned the top in the magic chef halogen convection oven (black friday impulse buy).
after we dropped a pizza (or two) we tried cooking the pizzas in the magic chef and skipping the wood fired grill/fireplace entirely.
I was sad to admit that the magic chef and its reliance on grid supplied electricity made the best pizza. it was good, real good. I could try to make a real wood fired oven but I'll just admit my grid tied magic chef superiority for now. #1 son said "this was the most fun EVER!" the kids had fun, just us, being a family making pizza together.
we have words we use only when we are at Wimberley. #1 has decided the item in his hand will from now on, be referred to as "snoozie the koozie". he demonstrates how he uses it below.
other words they listed include:
fahr: Combustion or burning. example, "now that's a fahr"
spatular: a flattened food prep utensil with a handle
FAMILY NIGHT AT IMPERIA:
kat was craving sushi, I purchased a groupon and we went to Imperia. the kids took a rush hour game and we played hangman on #1 son's iPad. it was also happy hour with reduced prices on appetizers, house wine/sake, and sushi rolls are two for one (buy one get two)
we chose our usual space at the end of the lounge, two big comfy sofas with a low coffee table between. our sushi home away from home.
specialty rolls (above and below) are regular price during happy hour, we used the groupon to pay for those.
I received an offer from Eleven Plates, come in for a wine tasting from 5-6 and stay for dinner and enjoy buy one entre' get one free. WOW! that was a really good meal/deal. we had three different pinot noir before dinner, then had these two meals at the 2 for 1 offer.
kat said her brasied rib meat (above) was REALLY GOOD. I'm off land animal consumption so I stuck to my less photogenic but tasty redfish and quinoa.
kat had an annoying head cold, took her to lunch for pho as treatment (it did seem to work). I had quit pho years ago. it was getting so popular that many places seemed to be using pho stock cheat (instant pho broth paste that is heavy on artificial color and sodium). cheap pho made from the shortcut method always made me feel thirsty and bloated afterward.
I sampled her broth and I'll say that tastes like the real deal! not too salty and plenty of fresh ingredients. I was real happy with my grilled shrimp.
