Last summer, my husband came home from a friend’s party eagerly wanting to tell me about the food.  He said it was unbelievably good and the cooking method was really cool.  His friend, Derek, had served pizzas-made-to-order… (get ready) … on the grill.  I know!  Amazing!  At least it was to my husband and I when we discovered that you could do that (like no one else had ever done this before).  He said it was so simple and the pizza was utterly incredible.  Since we’ve started following suit, our pizza stone and oven haven’t gotten much action since.

When we make pizza, I like to use homemade dough and sauce.  I use both recipes from the very talented Heidi Swanson (from her Cook 1.0 book).  The only tweaking I sometimes do with the sauce is add some fresh chopped basil and oregano.  If I’m really short on time, sometimes I’ll pick up dough at a restaurant or at Wholefoods, but I always make the sauce (it’s so quick, ready in 10 minutes, and is a million times better than any jar of tomato sauce).

First, make sure your dough is at room temperature.  If it’s been refrigerated and is still cold, it won’t stretch easily.  Work the dough with your hands, not a rolling pin; this helps give it pockets of air so it stays fluffy.  My husband is actually pretty good at tossing pizza dough in the air (although my heart skips a beat every time, bracing myself for dough on the floor).  Next, place the stretched dough on tin foil (*tin foil is recyclable!) and brush one side with olive oil.  This is the side that you’ll throw onto the grill.  We’ve learned through practice that using tin foil helps when you flip the dough onto the grill.  Once it’s cooking, keep an eye on the dough – our grill cooks the first side within 2-3 minutes.

Once one side has been cooked enough (it should become somewhat stiff and have nice char marks), take it off the grill and put the uncooked side up, and repeat the oil brushing process.  Then, place the newly brushed side down on the grill.  Now you can add your ingredients to the top side of the dough (which is the cooked side).  It usually only takes another few minutes (3-5) to finish cooking (keep an eye on the bottom to make sure it’s cooked through).  We’re usually pretty simple and stick with a Margherita pizza.  One thing we’ve learned is it’s better to use cooked veggies, since the pizza cooks so quick any raw vegetables (for us) have not cooked through enough.

Go forth, and spread the word of cooking pizza on the grill!  I can assure you, it’s amazing!  (can you feel the excitment?)

{to view more of my cooking photos, please visit my Flickr}

Going through my Flickr favorites, I recently added a slew of Camilla Engman’s Sweden photos.  I already fell in love with her Organization photos, and these are just as inspiring.  I cannot stop looking at this first photo… I’ve never wanted to be able to walk into a photo and into that moment so badly.

I’ve wanted to visit Sweden for the last few years.  Unfortunately I don’t know much about the country, but photos of it’s landscape have always intrigued me.  Camilla’s photos are making my itch to travel abroad to this northern country that much stronger for me.

{images shown belong to Camilla Engman}

I just wrapped up a personalized notecard letterpress project for a fabulous person and friend, Caitlin, and think they came out perfect.  I couldn’t quite get the right color on screen, but the pale orange ink and envelope look like something between cantaloupe and orange sherbert… yum!  With the flower burst design, it’s definitely something fresh and perfect for spring.

Enjoy, Caitlin!

{to view more of my letterpress work photos, please visit my Flickr}

What a way to start off the week!  I am seriously swooning at the entire portfolio of Rifle Design.  I’ve come across Anna Bond’s designs before on several blogs, but I’ve never actually gone to her site and looked through all of her work, and all I can say is, “wow.”

(Can you get over this cake inspired by her invitation design?)

I absolutely love her sense of color, her light hearted drawings, and don’t get me started about the calligraphy.  Simply fantastic!  Truly some fab eye candy.

{images belong to Rifle Design}

We’re to be spoiled (and teased) by Mother Nature this weekend, with temperatures of mid 70’s – low 80’s °F before returning to normal spring weather next week.  I thought the coming summery temps are the perfect time to make some homemade fruit popsicles.  I recently bought watermelon popsicles from Wholefoods and paid a lot more than I should have.  It was only pureed watermelon and was so refreshing and delicious.  So I picked up my own popsicle molds and decided to make my own.  I love watermelon (my favorite fruit) and recently I’ve been really getting into kiwis, so I thought watermelon kiwi would be a great mix.

My husband’s favorite fruit is cantaloupe, so I made one plain cantaloupe popsicle, and one cantaloupe blueberry, since I’ve made that mix before in a fruit salad and I knew it would be good.  I simply chopped up the melons and kiwis, and threw them together in a blender.  I choose to keep it lightly pureed, so you could still get some chunks of fruit, but you could always liquify it if you don’t want a lot of texture.  I also decided to not add any sweetener, but because the melon is not in season yet it isn’t as sweet as it could be.  After trying our popsicles we started discussing how to add sweetener but still add flavor.  You could try adding a fruit juice, like apple, or add honey or agave nectar.  I also bought a few bags of organic fruit in the freezer section, that way you’re able to get more fruit for your money and still be able to buy organic.  With several bags of organic peaches, wild blueberries and blackberries in my freezer, it looks like I’ll be making a lot of popsicles this weekend!

{to view more of my fruit popsicle photos, please visit my Flickr}

There’s something so special about calligraphy; the uniqueness of each letter and the character that the words have.  I wish I had the skill to master ink and pen, but until then I’ve luckily come across the very talented Emilie Friday via Etsy.  She sells calling cards, stamps, wedding mini cards and more, all based around her beautiful penmanship.  I’m not ready to blog about it yet, but I’m working on a small project based on some custom work of hers… more info to come when it’s completed.

Be sure to look at Emilie’s Etsy shop and her Flickr.

{images belong to Emilie Friday}

Last year I only photographed my garden in late spring (after I had planted lots of perennials and shrubs) and then at the end of summer.  I was so surprised to compare the two sets and see how much the garden had grown in such a short amount of time.  This year, I’d like to make an effort to document the growth better, and started taking photos after the beginnings of my spring cleanup.  I’m hoping not to miss all the progress this time (or take the time to notice it).

Right now, the early spring bulbs are in bloom; crocus, narcissus, and glory of the snow.  Our forsythia bushes should be blooming, but my attempts at controlling them and cutting them back must have stunted the flowers for this year… we probably have about 30 single blooms, it’s pretty sad.  The tulips have sprouted but not opened yet, and the lilac and magnolia have buds and should be flowering sometime in May.

For my garden to do’s, I’ve got a lot of spring raking, as well as finally making decisions on which herbs and vegetables we’ll be growing this year and ordering my seeds stat.  I just received a lovely card with Iranian Basil seeds, shared with me by a fantastic friend (thanks, Lori!).

What are you hoping to grow in your garden this season?  Hope yours is in a springtime full bloom.

{to view more of my garden photos, please visit my Flickr}

Recently, I’ve developed a love for profile silhouettes and have been aching over the opportunity to work on a project that includes them as a design element.  Thanks to the magic of Blogland, where you quickly jump from one blog to another, constantly coming across many amazing sites, I discovered Max and Finn.  By sending a photo of yourself (or your willing muse), Max and Finn are able to create a custom silhouette, just for you.  What a nice way to remember a special birthday or milestone.

Hmm… wondering if it’s too early yet to design a Christmas present or two involving letterpressed silhouettes?

{images belong to Max and Finn}

It’s Monday again, and I’m dreaming of escape.  Coming across the Martin Löf post via Oh Joy! is the perfect fix.  What I wouldn’t give to stay at that dreamy cabin right now!

{images belong to Martin Löf, found via Oh Joy!}

One of the things in life that keeps me most happy is organization.  I like when things have a place to live happily where I know I can count on finding it.  It makes it “interesting” (that’s a good word for it) to be married to someone that is the complete opposite: who lives in chaos and disorganization, and isn’t bothered by it.  In any case, when I come across something with order and sequential arrangement, I can’t help but swoon (I flipped a lid when a Container Store opened near me).  I was definitely head-over-heels this week when I came across Camilla Engman’s Flickr set, Organized Collection.  I think I managed to make almost every single photo a favorite.  Here are some of my absolute favs:

Who knew that a photo of organized seashells or beetroots could make one so happy?

{images shown belong to Camilla Engman}