Summer's End

We had one last party at our pool before the season ended and we decided to try our own pizza on the BBQ!

We found directions that told us how to BBQ right on the rack and got a new pizza dough recipe to try.  Have you ever watched Jamie Oliver's cooking shows?  His pizza dough recipe was easy and great!
(We used his recipe, but with regular flour...worked fine)

We rolled the dough out...but...when you stretch it out by hand it does give it a different texture...a bit more chewy.  Both ways make a good pizza!

The trick when you are doing the pizza right on the grill (instead of on a pizza stone) is to cook one side...then take it off and put the toppings on the cooked side and send it back to the grill to finish it off.  We brought along the top to a fry pan and covered the pizza towards the end to get the cheese to melt nicely.

This pizza had a white sauce that Madison made...cream cheese, sour cream, white balsamic vinegar and some garlic salt in the mixer...and then we topped it with cooked chicken, fresh basil, and mozzarella.  It was very tasty.

So a successful day of pizza making wound up our fun at the pool for this year...before we knew it the last day had come and it was time to say goodbye to lazy days of reading by the pool.

At the end of each summer I sit and contemplate why my favorite summer place must close it's gates for another year....

It is such a serene and happy place - always at least 5 or 10 degrees cooler here than at our own house!

There are wonderful trees to shade us from the constant Merced summer sun...

and a cool breeze comes in off the creek that runs behind the pool area.

As they drained the pool (the girlies are standing in the 4 foot section in this pic)...

and everyone pitched in to scrub it all down....

and my contemplation came to it's end...I realized (as I do at the end of each summer)...that the pool is special for the specific reason that it is only open for a few months...those wonderful days of summer when we can postpone our daily chores a bit, leave the responsibilities at home...and laze by the poolside.  For Heaven's Sake if the pool was open all year my house would never get cleaned!

So as our motto goes - Summer is over when they drain the pool...sad, but true.... I would like to know just one thing though......if summer is over - THEN WHY IS IT STILL IN THE NINETIES!!!!

Hope you had a wonderful summer...we are looking forward to Fall and the Pumpkin Patch!!!

xoxo       Elizabeth