Over the holidays my friends at Mr. Bar-B-Q offered to send me out one of their grill accessories to use.  They also offered to give another set of whatever they sent as a giveaway on the blog.  I couldn’t pass up a chance to get my readers something nice so I accepted.  (Note:  This is my way of saying, so I’m in compliance with all stupid laws and rules, that the pizza grilling kit I’m going to talk about here was free to me.)

This isn’t so much a review of the Mr. Bar-B-Q Grill Stone Pizza Set they sent me, but a review of my pizza making skills, which are somewhat lacking.  The pizza stone and giant pizza spatula, I  hesitate to call it a pizza peel, worked great.  Mrs. Grail bakes an awesome pizza in the oven so I attempted to duplicate her efforts on my 26 inch Weber Kettle.  Take a look at how I did it and offer up some suggestions at the end in the comment section for your chance to win your own Mr. Bar-B-Q Grill Stone Pizza Set.

Keep in mind this is a Weber 26 inch Kettle which is considerably larger than the 22 inch most people have in their backyard.  The first thing I did was fire up a whole chimney of charcoal and once it was ready form it into a ring around the bowl.  Because of the size of the kettle I needed to add some extra charcoal.  Once all the charcoal was hot I placed the pizza stone on the grill.

For some reason, I’m not quite sure why, I thought it would be a good idea to have the pizza stone a little higher up into the dome lid so I placed the pizza stone on top of my GrillGrates.  I’m not sure if this was a good idea or not.  I’ll need to try this again without them to see how the process goes.

The pizzas I cooked seemed to take longer than I would have anticipated, about 15 minutes.  I don’t know maybe that’s the right time frame, but it just seemed like a long time.

The flavor was great and Mrs. Grail’s Pizza Dough Recipe was fantastic but for some reason I just wasn’t satisfied with the results.  I was hoping for more of that “wood fired pizza” flavor.  It just wasn’t there.

Here’s what I would do next time to try to improve.

I think I need a much hotter kettle than I had.  I didn’t the get the temperature in the dome over 400 degrees.  To do this I need to either use more charcoal or use my smaller 22 inch kettle.  Is the ring of charcoal a good idea?  Or should I have spread it out?

I’ll probably try using the pizza stone directly on the grate instead of trying to raise it higher.  Thoughts?

Want to win a Grill Stone Pizza Set from Mr. Bar-B-Q so you can make great pizza outdoors?  Here’s how to get an entry:

• Leave a comment here about cooking pizza outdoors.  It can be a comment about how you’d like to do it for the first time, it can be a comment about how I can improve my pizza making skills. Just leave a comment.  You can leave multiple comments for multiple entries, but not more than once a day.
• Next if you have a Facebook account you can get an additional entry by “Liking” this post on Mr. Bar-B-Q’s Facebook Page.  (You’ll need to “Like” their page first, please do so.)
• You will also get one more entry if you “Reshare” the link on Mr. Bar-B-Q’s Facebook page.

On the morning of January 28th all entries will be transcribed into an Excel spreadsheet.  A number will be selected using a random number generator at Random.Org.  And that will decide our winner.  Winner will be notified that morning via email and/or Facebook!  Easy?  I sure hope so…

Thanks to Contestgirl for the promotion!

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Larry Gaian

“Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to repurpose the incredibily popular McRib that has reappeared in restaurants across the Country. As always, should any member of the BBQ Grail Force become incompassitated or captured the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions…”

There may not be a fast food item more loved or hated than the McRib. It rears it’s head off and onacross the country. No one really knows when you’ll get to buy a McRib, they just appear on the menu board of your local McDonalds. Every few years they appear nationwide in all restaurants all over the country. Suddenly, with little word or fanfare they appeared on November 2nd.

As is often the case a few members of the BBQ Brethren took on the challenge to either repurpose the McRib or some up with your own version. I decided to take the repurposing option. The result is The McRib Three Ways…

              McFlatbread Pizza                                                       McPigs In A Blanket                                                    McSlider

 Taste Results:

McFlatbread Pizza: Actually pretty darn good.  I ate both pieces I made.  The pumpkin BBQ sauce complimented the tomato and worked well with the Plowboys Yardbird Rub.  On a scale of 1 to 10 it was a 7.  Not to bad.

McPig In A Blanket:  It was a little bland until I added the BBQ mustard.  A good dose of sweet mustard will make anything darn near tasty.  This one gets a 5 on the edible scale

McSlider “Pulled” Pork:  All I can say is DON’T foil and cook a McRib.  The texture was all messed up.  The flavor was good, again the coles slaw and BBQ sauce made all the difference.  On the edible scale a 3.

Tonight was another of those defining moments.  Pizza without meat!  I’m sure I broke some obscure law of nature with a veggie pizza.  It has to be so.  But what’s worst of all is that I actually enjoyed it.  This will have to be our little secret.  Now before anyone thinks I’ve gone off the deep end and become a vegetarian I’d still prefer a pizza loaded with sausage but for Meatless Monday this was one darn good pizza.

The recipe I used was the “Very Veggie Grilled Pizza with Marinated Artichokes from Grill Every Day: 125 Fast-Track Recipes for Weeknights at the Grill by Diane Morgan.  It was flavorful and I really didn’t feel the need for meat at all.

Very Veggie Grilled Pizza with Marinated Artichokes

(Courtesy “Grill Every Day 125 Fast-Track Reipes for Weeknights at the Grill” by Diane Morgan.  Published 2008 by Chronicle Books)

• 1 16- to 18-ounce package of fresh or frozen dough
• 1/2 small Walla Walla or other sweet onion, cut into thin wedges
• 1 small yellow or red bell pepper, halved lengthwise, seeded, deribbed, and cut into long, narrow strips.
• 1 large clove of garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoons extra-vergin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
• vegetable-oil cooking spray
• All-Purpose flour for dusting
• 1/4 cup store-bought marinara sauce
• 1 jar (6 ounces) marinated artichoke hears, well drained and halved
• 2 plum tomatoes, cored and thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup pitted and halved canned ripe olives
• 2 cups (8 ounces) coursely shredded whole-mile or part-skim, low-moisture mozzarella cheese.

If using fresh dough, remove it from the refrigerator 30 minutes before you roll it out.  If using frozen dought, transfer it to the refrigerator a day before you plan to make pizza, so it can thaw slowly, and then let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes feore you roll it out.

Prepare a hot fire in a charcoal grill or preheat a gas grill on hight.  If the grill has a built-in thermometer, it should register between 500 and 600 degrees.  Have ready a 14-inch, non perforated pizza pan, preferably an inexpensive aluminum one.

While the grill is heating, place the onion, bell pepper, and the garlice in a bowl.  Toss the vegetables with the olive oil, oregano, red pepper flakes and salt.  Set aside.

Coat the pizza pan with vegetable-oil spray.  Remove the dough from the plastic bag and place on a lightly floured work surface.  Lightly dust the dough with flour.  Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 10-inch road without rolling over the edges.  Lift the dough occasionally to make sure it isn’t sticking to the work surface.  Shake the excess flour from the dough.  Lay the dough on the prepared pizza pan and gently stretch it into a 14-inch round.

To top the pizza:  Spread the marinara sauce over the crust, leaving a 1-inch border.  Arrange the mixed vegetables evenly over the sauce.  Scatter the artichokes over the top.  Arrange the tomatoes in a single layer over the vegetables.  Strew the olives over the top.  Evently distribute the cheese over the vegetables.

Place the pizza in the center of the grill directly over the hot fire and cover.  (Work quickly so the grill temperature doesn’t drop too much.)  grill the pizza until the crust is crisp and golden brown and the cheese is melted and bubbly, about 9 minutes.

Using a pizza peel or think oven mitts, remove the pizza from the frill.  Slice the pizza into wedges and serve immediately.

To make life easier you can use store bought or frozen pizza dough but with a wife who bakes having homemade dough is a great addition to any pizza.

With sweet onion, bell peppers, olive, tomatoes and marinated artichokes the pizza was loaded with flavor.

I used a pizza stone on my Traeger smoker instead of a grill. This pizza can be grilled very easy using an indirect method on a kettle or ceramic smoker

By cranking the smoker up to 425 degrees I got a nice browning on the crust. Not only did I never think I'd eat a meatless pizza but I never thought I'd eat a thin crust pizza. The cracker like texture of the thin crust was fantastic with the veggies.

This was a great pizza.

The recipe calls for store bought marinara sauce.  If your house is like mine you often times have a jar of store bought marinara sauce, but on those occasions when you don’t here is a simple, easy to make marinara/pizza sauce recipe you can use in a pinch.

Quick And Easy Marinara Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes in puree

• 1/2 teaspoon each dried basil and oregano
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• Pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a medium-size saucepan. Stir in the chopped onion and sauté it for about 8 minutes, until translucent. Stir in the garlic and sauté for another 30 seconds.
2. Stir the remaining ingredients into the pan, then cover the sauce and bring it back to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Cook the sauce for about 10 minutes, stirring often. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Makes about 4 cups.