I’m back in California baybeeeee! The husband and I packed up our Prius C and left the cold embrace of Canada. We’re currently at an airbnb which has an “outdoor kitchen”. What is an “outdoor kitchen” you ask? Well, it’s a BBQ (with a gas burner that is difficult to use when windy). A mini fridge. A small sink that only has cold water. A counter top and a microwave. The end!
I wasn’t too concerned with this whole outdoor kitchen situation because I’m like “It’s always sunny and warm in California! I’ll eat a lot of salads! I’ll grill chicken! It’ll be fun!” Here’s the thing. There have been a lot of cold and rainy days here since we’ve arrived. We’re currently in Murrieta (about an hour and half outside of LA in wine country) up in a canyon and the weather has been ERRATIC. It friggin’ hailed this morning. HAIL!!!! Some mornings it’s -1 and then it gets beautiful and warm and sunny and then a big dark cloud swoops in a gushes fat rain drops and it gets freezing again. Look, I’m no stranger to the cold. I was in Ottawa for the winter and Ottawa can get colder than Mars. (I’m being serious. There was a day last year where Ottawa was COLDER. THAN. MARS.) But California cold gets in your bones. In the marrow. And cooking outside in the rain and washing dishes in freezing water adds to the chill factor.
So what have I been cooking in my outdoor kitchen? The usual. Grilled chicken. Burgers. Hot dogs. (No steak, because I literally had to take my husband to the ER last month because he got steak caught in his throat because sometimes he eats like a snake swallowing his prey so we’re staying away from that for a while!) To be honest, I was getting sick of grilled chicken and I was craving something easy and cozy. I wanted pizza.
I’ve made pizza on the bbq before using fresh dough and a foil pizza pan and it was delicious. This time I wanted things to be even easier. Earlier in the week I picked up on of those pre-made pizza crusts on a whim. You know the kind I’m talking about. They literally look and sometimes taste like cardboard. I grabbed it knowing it would probably taste like shit. Then I grabbed a jar of “pizza sauce” and a bag of pre-shredded mozzarella, parm and swiss.
After a crisp evening walk all I wanted to do was eat pizza and watch the newest episode of UK Drag Race. Here’s how I made it!
Ingredients
Store bought pizza crust
Pizza sauce
Mrs. Dash Onion and Garlic spice (or whatever herbs/spices you want)
TBSP olive oil
Grated cheese (I used the mixture mentioned above)
Turkey bacon, cut into pieces. (or pepperoni, mushrooms, any topping you want!)
Extra dusting of parmesan cheese (optional)
Hot sauce for serving (optional)
Directions
- pre-heat your bbq to 400. You want an area with indirect heat or your pizza will burn.
- Take the pizza crust out of the vacuum sealed bag and drizzle with olive oil. Rub all over the crust.
- Add spices
- Add Sauce
- Add cheese
- Add toppings
- Place directly on grill and cook for 6-10 minutes, turning half way.
- Enjoy!
See how easy that was? Now, everyone’s BBQ is different so make sure you check it half way through to ensure it isn’t burning/hasn’t caught on fire. I know that adding turkey bacon to a pizza sounds odd but pickins were slim in our mini fridge and I wanted to jazz up my sad little pizza. Guess what? THE PIZZA WAS SO EFFING GOOD. I don’t know if my husband and I have officially lost our minds but we couldn’t get over how delicious this was. The crust got so crispy and flaky on the bbq. The combination of cheeses was melty and perfect. And the turkey bacon tasted like a pepperoni/bacon hybrid. This is certainly not fancy, authentic pizza but it’s exactly what I was craving. Crispy, cheese, salty, savoury goodness. I served it with a simple kale and spinach salad and it was bing bang bong, sing sang song! (that’s a good thing!)
So unless you’re an absolutely pretentious pizza snob, I guarantee you’ll like this. It’s a cheap, easy, delicious dinner that comes together in under 15 minutes. You can top it however you’d like (don’t add too much because it’ll get soggy and toppings will slide off) but I think simplicity is key. Who knew that store-bought, pre-cooked pizza crust could taste this good? I’m going to buy another one (I think they’re like, 2 bucks??) and try another cozy combo.
What are you waiting for? Grill a pizza and shut up!
xoxo
Julia
eatthisandshutup.com 