Recipe: KG's Strawberry Pizza

Every so often, Amanda & I try to get a couple of culinary talented friends together for a "Grill-Your-Own-Pizza Night." The House supplies only the basic ingredients, along with an appropriate selection of libations. From there, everyone is encouraged to bring their own topping and ingredients to the grill.

As the pizza crusts come, slowly, in off the flame, each participant takes their turn creating a masterpiece. I won't reveal anyone's recipe's other than my own, without permission... But, I will say there have been some truly delicious creations on both red and white pizzas with everything from home roasted red peppers to homemade candied walnuts; goat cheese to cheddar; fresh pears to cherry tomatoes; and filet mignon to barbecue chicken. Each pie is heavily critiqued by the entire group, and yet, somehow, everyone seems to rise to the challenge.

This time around Amanda & I tried to come up with our own recipe for a dessert pizza, which no one had thought to do on previous evenings. The result KG's Strawberry Pizza was - thankfully - a hit!

KG's Strawberry Pizza:

Pizza Sauce - Puree strawberries with chopped mint, honey, sugar, Knox unflavored gelatin and red food coloring.

Ricotta Cheese - Generous portions of Marshmallow Fluff.

Grated Mozzarella - Fresh shaved coconut.

Pepperoni Toppings - Center slice strawberries.

Fresh Basil - Fresh mint leaves.

The "pizza" is prepared over top a crust that's been brushed in melted butter. Then, it's returned to grill, until the "cheese" begins to melt.

To finish it off, drizzle a Balsamic Vinegar Reduction in the form of Hershey's chocolate sauce, and it's buono mangia!

Sydney, Australia 2009

Greetings from South Florida!

(I do realize that it's been too long, since I last updated our Blog...)

Well...this past June..Amanda & I were fortunate to enjoy a "once-in-a-lifetime" vacation to Sydney, Australia!

Best part of all...since, Amanda was ranked in the top 4% of all sales representatives for her company, for the past year (#11 of over 500), this was a REWARD for all her hard work!

We arrived in Sydney, early Sunday morning. After a near total of 27 hours of travel, door-to-door, we were not looking to wipe ourselves out on the first day. So we, simply, headed downtown to the local mall. It was there we discovered our first of many photo opportunities.

Back to the room to nap before dinner, I took a moment to admire the view from our room. Living in Boca Raton, simply spending a few days in a major city is exciting in itself.

The view was more impressive at night.

The next day we took a tour of Sydney Harbour, which was just a short walk from the Four Seasons, as well as, Bondi Beach.

Our tour included a visit to the famous architectural wonder, the Sydney Opera House, which presented some wonderful photo-op's.

We arrived at Bondi Beach in time for lunch, which presented an amazing spread put on for us, and our new friends.

Bondi Beach offered some great photo-op's, as well.

I wanted to join this guy fishing, in the worst way! Too cool!

Being out there on the rock with the waves crashing around him...

We - actually - watched him bring in a fish.

Next day, we were on our way to tour three Australian wine vineyards, when we spotted kangaroo in the surrounding fields! We [asked] our driver to stop, and headed out to get as close as we could to kangaroo in the wild.

Our first vineyard was bimbadgen vineyards, and they had a very nice spread waiting for us when we arrived.

Before finishing up at Lindeman's, we took in the scenery at Hope Vineyards. Unfortunately, both binbadgen and Hope are NOT sold in the States. But we did bring a couple of bottles back with us.

That night, after dinner, we visited Sydney's Ice Bar. Vodka drinks only in a -14 degree bar, where the chairs, tables and glasses are all made of solid ice! My native Floridian wife, barely, made through the maximum allowed 30 minute visit.

The next night was the big Gala Awards Dinner, honoring everyone who worked so hard to earn this trip.

This was, truly, a "gala."

Aboriginal music,

a performace by the dance troupe, Tap Dogs

and a concert by Australian classic rock band, Dragon.

It was a blast!

Next morning, we countinued to enjoy our walks around the Harbour.

We, also did a group climb to the top of the Bridge. We weren't allowed to take cameras, so I took this photo of where we stood - from a ferry ride - later in the day.

48 stories above the water, it was hard to believe that we were standing all the way up there...right at the flag.

Our ferry ride took us to the Aquarium, which did get us some good up-close views...

But, not as "up-close" as, later that evening.

At that evening's cocktail reception, I got to hold this baby saltwater crocodile. (Anyone, who knows me, knows that this was followed by several "gator" nightmares over the next few nights.")

We, then headed out to dinner with some great new friends from both Miami and Michigan.

Next day, we took the ferry to our much anticipated visit to the Sydney Zoo.

Amanda was really looking forward to the koalas, and they did not disappoint...

Although they sleep for 19 hours a day, we caught them while they were "up-and-about," which was very entertaining.

The rest of the zoo was very active, as well.

Overall, it was a very postitive experience. As much as we like a visit to a zoo, too often we find ourselves feeling that the conditions are not very good for the animals. The Sydney Zoo did not come off that way, at all. To us, it seemed obvious why it is one of the most famous in the world.

Of course, the meerkats were fun to watch, reminding us of our little buddy, Tether, back at home.

The last order of business - as with every trip we take - was to get a photo of myself with my "Game Day" Terrible Towel. (I'll be sending this one in to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Steelers Digest, with permission to reprint.)

Our last night was honored with a wonderful 5-star dinner, with a wonderful view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. 27 hours later, we were very pleased to be home - and feeling very blessed to have been so fortunate to have enjoyed "a trip of a lifetime."