Sweet & Spicy BBQ Pizza

This is one of the easiest, most delicious dinners. We make it regularly and have got it down to a science. It comes together in about 15 minutes and cooks for 15 more. On the plus side, no animals were harmed in the making of this meal!

INGREDIENTS

The Basics
Premade pizza dough (I go with Trader Joe's)
Premade pizza sauce (Again, we usually go with TJ's)
BBQ Sauce (Stephen insists that Sweet Baby Ray's is the best)

The Toppings
Canned pineapple chunks
Canned artichoke hearts (in water)
Onion (sauté first - or they won't be cooked through)
Beyond Meat Chicken Strips (we go with lightly seasoned)

If you wanna get fancy
Cornmeal
Sundried tomatoes
Red pepper flakes
Mushrooms (sauté first - or they won't be cooked through)
Garlic cloves (roast or sauté first - or they won't be cooked through)
Vegan cheese

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Strain the pineapple chunks and chop them into smaller bits. Let them kinda dry out while you do everything else or the pizza can get soggy.

2. Roll the dough out. This is the most annoying part. Let it warm up a bit.
Throw some flour on the counter so it doesn't stick. If you want to get fancy, add a little cornmeal (1/4 cup), it adds a nice crunch. If you don't have one, invest in a rolling pin. Or struggle with your hands :)

3. I like to put the rolled-out dough on a foil-wrapped cookie sheet. Easy clean up.

4. Sauce it up: The ratio is about 2/3 pizza sauce + 1/3 BBQ sauce.

5. Add all of the toppings you like.

6. Bake! It usually takes about 15 minutes.

Let it sit for a few minutes when you take it out or it's sloppy cutting it. I can never wait, but good luck to you!

NUTRITIONAL INFO

With wheat dough, 3/4 cup pizza sauce, 1/3 cup BBQ sauce, 1/4 cup pineapple, 1/2 cup mushrooms, 2 cloves garlic, 1/4 cup onion, 1/4 cup artichoke hearts

Whole Pizza
Total calories: 1,233
Fat: 17g
Carbs: 213g
Protein: 57g

Per Slice (9 slices)
137 calories
1.9g fat
23.7g carbohydrate
6.3g protein

The Bruery Terreux Saison Rue

This was one of the (many) delicious beers we enjoyed last weekend for Fourth of July. This was a KILLER beer (found at Molly Stone's down the road). It was the last one on the shelf, so I'm glad we snagged it.

The Bruery never disappoints, but this beer was excellent. Light enough to sip out on the deck in the warm weather, but packed full of flavor. Started sweet on the lips with a tang and finished with a more traditional Belgian yeasty-floral taste. What I love about most Belgians, and this one didn't disappoint, is that they rank highly in booze, flavor, and freshness without kicking you in the mouth. 

This beer had great a great complexity of flavors, from the first sip to the last. I'd highly recommend it and hope the store restocks, as the spices in this beer will taste great throughout the fall!

Website here: Bruery Terreux Saison Rue

Learning to Art

By Maggie

I've been so excited to make art, and I was blessed to have the opportunity to make these custom large-scale prints for a friend that lives in Tiburon. It was a great learning experience, in terms of the effort that goes into printing a huge image on high-quality cotton paper and THEN finding a framing company that could handle such a large print. 

Fun facts - Did you know that for large-scale prints, the glass can be so heavy it will rip the drywall off?! I did not. So most large-scale prints actually don't use glass. But it's important to ask for glare-resistant plexi or a similar material... which can be hard to find.

I'm so happy with how they turned out, and I hope Lara is, too. I appreciate the opportunity to make art, to learn about the process, and to share these designs with friends in this community. I'm hoping to make more of these, in addition to the other projects I've got going on :)

You can see more of my art here:
www.maggietidesdesign.com