What to make for dinner....

.... when your oven and stove are out-of-order..... or you just want to avoid heating up your kitchen on a hot summer day.

On Sunday evening, I pulled dinner from the oven and noticed a small fire inside. I wasn't worried, but I was on the phone, so I put Jay to work on it. He doused it with baking soda. Nothing. It just kept going. So, we figured it would burn itself out eventually, and closed the door. About 30 minutes later, it was still burning, and the element broke. Jay finally turned off the breaker, and I've been left without stove or oven since then.

So, the next day (Monday) I made for dinner....

GRILLED PIZZA
Your favorite pizza dough
Your favorite pizza sauce
Your favorite pizza toppings
One hot grill
Pizza peel (or cookie sheet with no lip/edges)

Heat grill on medium. If you don't have an upper rack, turn the flame completely off on one side. Generously dust pizza peel with cornmeal. Roll or stretch dough (no larger than the space you have on the grill) and place on peel. Add sauce and toppings. Slide pizza off peel onto upper rack of grill (or the side without a flame); turn flame to just above low. (If you've never grilled pizza, this will take some trial and error.... every grill is different.) Close cover and cook about 5 minutes (again, every grill is different, so you just have to check).
[*You need the peel to remove the pizza from the grill, so if you want to put another pizza on after the first one finished cooking, you need either 2 peels, 2 cookie sheets (with no edge), or (like me) 1 peel and 1 cookie sheet. That way you can prepare a second pizza while the first one is cooking.]

Serve with your favorite SALAD.


On Tuesday, I grilled hamburgers (and for myself, a Gardenburger), and served them with... you guessed it, salad.

On Wednesday, I didn't have to cook (here's why), and tonight I made....

AUNT LIZZIE'S PANINIS
Herb Foccacia
Peppered Turkey breast
Havarti cheese
Apple, peeled and thinly sliced

Slice bread horizontally. Put a slice of cheese on each half; add slices of apple and turkey in the middle. Cook in panini press or contact grill (I love mine) about 2 minutes on medium heat.