I love summer and relish the homework-free, pool-filled days with the kids. I love grilling out, big fat red tomatoes and strawberries, and late night trips for ice cream, driving with all the windows down and the radio blaring.But I’m an autumn girl at heart. When the first nip is in the air, I’m already at the head of the hayride queue and I’ve got mums on the front stoop. And the cooking! Apple pie and apple crisp, chicken chili, hearty soups and stews, pumpkin everything.So let me be the first to say, “What gives, Mother Nature?!?” It’s 93 stinkin’ degrees today–a record breaker for this first day of fall. I’m over it.

But what are you going to do? Make lemonade out of lemons, I guess. Here are a few final summer dishes.

Grilled Pizza

If you haven’t grilled pizza, you haven’t lived. Don’t be intimidated–just practice.

Use the recipe forHomemade Pizza already posted on this site.

Preheat your grill (about 500 degrees works well, if your grill has a thermometer). Clean the grates and oil them usingthe paper towel and tongs method.

When rolling out the dough, make several small crusts rather than two medium ones. Smaller crusts are easier to work with on the grill. Place each crust on its own small piece of parchment paper and place on baking sheets . Take out to the grill.

Also assemble on a tray:
a small bowl of olive oil
a basting brush
tongs
a spoon
pizza sauce
toppings
cheese

and take this tray out to the grill.

Now you are ready to start! Grilling takes very little time so be ready to move fast.

Brush one side of two crusts lightly with olive oil.
Flip crusts, oiled side down, on grill grate. Tip: place your hand under the parchment, flip the crust and parchment onto the grill grate, then gently peel the parchment off the crust.
Grill for a few minutes, peeking at the underside to see when it has nice grill marks and is starting to turn crisp.
Brush the top side of the crusts with oil. Flip crust over with tongs. Top crust with a scant amount of sauce, cheese and toppings. Grill until underside of crust is cooked and cheese is melted. Tip: Think of this as a flatbread-type pizza and use less sauce and cheese than you would on a traditional pizza. The crust will cook quickly so if you overload it with toppings the crust will burn while you are waiting for the cheese to melt. To speed cheese melting, you can close the lid of the grill while the second side cooks.
Transfer to a baking sheet and repeat with remaining crusts.

Blueberry Pie

For the crust:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
12 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup cold vodka*
1/4 cup cold water

For the pie:
1 cup plus 1 Tablespoon sugar
4 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 cups fresh blueberries
1 Tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg

Make the pie crust:

Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, just 2-3 pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until dough just begins to clump, about 15 seconds. Scrape sides of bowl and redistribute dough around blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse 4 to 6 times. Dump mixture into large mixing bowl.

Sprinkle vodka and water over dough. With rubber spatula, fold and press on dough until it comes together. It will be fairly tacky. Divide in half and form into 4-inch disks. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes and up to 2 days.

Make the pie:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Sprinkle over blueberries in a large bowl.

Roll out one disk of pie dough and line pie dish with it. Pour blueberry mixture into crust and dot with butter. Top with other crust and seal edges or make a lattice top (see below). Beat the egg in a small bowl and brush top crust with it. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar over crust.


If you have a fancy pastry-cutting wheel, use it to cut the dough into strips. Otherwise, just use a knife.	Lay four strips across the top of the pie.

Pull two strips back as shown and lay one strip of across the pie, perpendicular to strips already in place.	Flip back the two strips you didn’t pull back yet. Lay a new strip perpendicular across the pie.

Pull back first two strips. Lay third perpendicular strip.	Continue until all strips are used and pie surface is covered

Crimp edges and flute using thumb and fingers.

Place pie dish on a baking sheet. Bake pie on lower shelf of oven for about 50 minutes or until crust is golden brown. (You may want to cover crust with foil after 20 minutes or so if it starts to get very brown. Just gently lay foil over the top of the pie. No need to crimp it around the edges. If you own a pie shield, even better!

Eat. Die. Go to heaven.