Dinner in 20 minutes, Heirloom Tomatoes and Fresh Mozerrella Pizza

Summer seems like it just keeps rolling along even if I am not ready for it to be compeletly done. The days are starting to get shorter, and my morning runs seem like they are going back to running in the dark. Lately I just have wanted to eat a lot of fresh produce and cook very little. This is one of those meals, a margherita pizza, with fresh garden tomatoes, and fresh mozzerella. It is quick and easy, and always a crowd pleaser. The secret to making this dinner so fast and easy is I get the dough for the crust at California Pizza Kitchen. They sell the thier dough already rolled out for you for ONE DOLLAR. They are smaller pizzas so I normally buy two. In fact I actually just bought six last time and froze the extras for when I need to take a meal to someone, or for a quick weeknight dinner. They sell white, or whole wheat multi grain dough. I always go for the whole wheat multi grain dough because the dough is still light and is a little better for you.

It is hard to tell from these pictures what is on this pizza. What you are looking at is yellow and red hierloom tomatoes from Jacobs Cove Farm, which is an amazing place where they grow so many different varieties of organic tomatoes.

Here is what the crust comes like, already rolled out for you, and ready to go.

Fresh Tomato and Mozzerella Pizza

Caifornia Pizza Kitchen Multigrain dough

Red Sauce

Fresh Mozzerella

Garden Tomatoes

Fresh Basil

Parmesan

Spread the sauce on, then top with thinly sliced cheese, and next the tomatoes. Sprinkle on chopped basil, salt and pepper, and a little parmesan on top. I baked mine in a 400 degree oven on a pizza stone for about 15 minutes.

Tip: to make this gluten free, I have topped a portobella mushroom before with sauce, the tomatoes, and cheese, wrapped it in tinfoil and baked it at the same temperature until the mushroom is soft. Then take off the tinfoil and broil it to melt the cheese.

Windy Rivers

We just took a backpacking trip to the Wind Rivers, or should I say the "windy rivers". The wind blows so fast there it makes the clouds run by. It was a lot of fun, our original plan was to back pack in Isaiah. Luckily Scottie's sweet sister took him last minute. I am so glad that we changed our plans and decided not to take him. Don't worry Isaiah we are going to take you down south to camp. Scotty and I were both itching to take him camping because he would love it. What we didn't think of was the cold temps at night and the hike in. One night it got down to 17 degrees. I slept really warm which was a blessing, but the morning was COLD. The hike in was amazing, the scenery in the Cirque is breathtaking, massive peaks on all sides for a 360 view. But the hike was not conducive to little ones, we hiked 9-10 miles in and the last three were boulder hopping. Without Isaiah and all of his stuff our pack were already heavy, we brought food for an army.
It turned out to be a really amazing trip, I read a ton and finished a really good book, Scotty went on a multi pitch climb up the face of a steep cliff, and I hiked to the top of a peak. It had been way to long since both of us had been backpacking and I almost felt like a novice all over again, wondering what to pack, what food to bring. It made me want to go again soon. The joy of being outside all day long and having nothing to do was glorious.
My perch rock that I laid in my sleeping bag on a rock and read, it cut out all of the wind.

An amazing lake of glacier water that we all jumped into.

More reading, wow I think this is the most I have read in years.

Hiking, this was the base of our camp ground.

Scotty on his multi pitch climb. When his mom saw his pictures, she started crying and said "maybe you married the wrong girl, I can't believe she would let you do this". The climb was not very technical but really exposed and high. As a side note Nancy was joking we are really close, and I believe she Nancy is the best mother in law you could ever ask for.