Herbs!!!!

This is the time of year where spring has sprung, everyone is working their gardens, and where grocery stores have fresh herbs for sale. Just take a moment to think of how lovely that is.... Since I've started to cooking, I think fresh herbs are one of the best thing since sliced bread! Seriously. They have so much flavor in such a small package. And if you are calorie conscience....they have barely any! Every time I smell and/or eat fresh herbs it's always rejuvenating. I think herbs will baffle me for a while. Think about it. They are like a vegetable yet I love the taste and flavor of them. Recently I actually enjoyed a salad because it had cilantro in it..... surprisingly Yummmmmyyyyy! I'm not an expert in herbs but I'm pretty positive I'll be growing them for the rest of my life. So I'll be an expert one day. Plus sometimes you can't find fresh herbs in the grocery store and it will save money over time. Some tips I do have is: if you can, grow them outside, research which ones like the sun and which ones can grow in shade, and buy some fresh soil-- My herbs are inside since cats roam the streets where I live. In order to keep pests off safely all you have to do is put water and one dot of dish soap and spray your herbs. I recommend you start your own garden! These herbs are available everywhere right now-- home depot, whole foods, even tom thumb/randalls/safeway. Have fun!

Red Pepper- Basil Pesto Pizza

This recipe is so so good, new, and different! The red pepper basil pesto makes this pizza wonderfully flavored and it's something you definately won't find at your local pizza parlor!

For some reason, food has gotten a little boring for me lately, so when I saw this recipe I wanted to try it immediately! Bobby Flay has never led to me anything boring (so far): http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/red-pepper-basil-pesto-pizza-recipe/index.html

Well, prep starts early if you are making your own dough. I recommend making your own simply because it's fun! Of course, if you're in a time crunch you can always go to whole foods and buy a refigerated dough that's already made but not spreaded or if you don't have a whole foods you can buy the already made pizza crust and skip the grilling of the dough part (I forget the brand name but it's not refridgerated and you usually find it at the end of the frozen food aisle). Plus with this recipe you get to cook your pizza on the grill-- how exciting is that?! It seems crazy but it does work!

Although I do worship Bobby Flay I am not in love with his pizza dough recipe. He combines the yeast with all the other ingrediants before adding in the water. Warm water with sugar activates the yeast and if it happens to not work then you've just ruin the rest of your other ingrediants without knowing. In the past, I've always activated the yeast first and then added it to the flower and such. You can tell it's activated because foam starts to form at the top. So I would try a variation of this pizza dough recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/pizza-dough-recipe/index.html You do not need a stand mixer-- a food processor would work or just combining and stirring the ingrediants yourself actually will work when making pizza dough. If you want to grill the dough disgregard the oven and pizza stone instructions. Letting it rest after the pizza dough rises will help you be able to spread the dough. Have fun with spreading the dough-- I do try to toss mine from time to time!

The red pepper basil pesto is AWWWWWesome!!!! When you roast the peppers in your house, the aroma will completely fill it and might make you tear up (that never happen to me, of course). You can grill these instead of putting them in the oven. I don't know the time difference but you want the peppers charred so that the skin will come off easily. Once you've peeled the peppers and taken the seeds out be sure to wash your hands...trust me, I'm saving your eyes from some pain!

You make this recipe your own in many ways, different kinds of cheese (I loved it with mozzarella, but I also tried it with goeat cheese which was good), add meat, add more veggies. I had left over pest0 so I've been adding it to grilled chicken and turkey sandwiches--yummy!!!

Beauty:

By the way, my grill failed me, so the cheese should be more melted than this-- either way, it's still amazing!!