Whole Lotta Pizza

As promised this is the post about a great whole wheat pizza crust that is totally GI friendly.  There is a full pizza recipe in the original book The GI Diet by Rick Gallop, but I say put what you want on it, last night I hope it with caramelized onions, mozzarella and parmesan cheese.  Delish.  Have a great holiday season.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

3/4 cup warm water

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (not instant)

1 1/3 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup wheat bran

pinch of salt

1.  Pour the water into a large bowl and sprinkle with the yeast.  Let stand for about 1o minutes

until frothy.  Stir in 1 1/4 cups of the flour, the wheat bran and salt until a ragged dough forms.  Let stand, covered for 30 minutes.  Place the dough onto a floured surface and knead it, adding more of the flour as necessary, just until it forms a soft, slightly sticky, dough.  Place in a greased bowl, cover, and let rest until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

2.  During the last 1/2 hour of rest get your toppings together.  And pre-heat the over to 425F.

3.  Once the dough has doubled punch it down and roll it out on a floured surface to fit at 12 to 14 inch round pizza pan.  Place the dough on the pan, stretching it as necessary to fit.

4.  Put on the toppings and back for about 20 minutes or until golden and crisp.

Gilead Cafe

It has been a while since I reviewed any restaurants. Mainly because waiters at fancy joints tend to frown on the whipping out of a camera during the meal. It elicits eye-rolls and huffs and frankly my palette isn't good enough to make the judgement worthwhile.

But this morning I had something so tasty I had to talk about it. On Fridays I treat myself to breakfast or lunch out and having had the pastries at the Gilead Cafe a try I thought I should try some of their other fare as well.

I order the yogurt with granola, hazelnut, honey and preserves and when I saw the serving size I bought a pain au chocolate as well (hey its a treat!). I got the office and dug into the yogurt and immediately realized there was no way I was going to be able to finish it in one sitting.

The yogurt was lovely and thick and the granola nut mixture added just enough crunch to make it satisfying. I believe the yogurt is actually made with coconut milk which would account for the texture. It was divine and is currently sitting half-finished in the fridge, waiting for my afternoon snack. At $4 its not a bad deal considering everything is made in house.

The recommendation to go the Gilead isn't actually a shocker, since it was the hip cafe when it opened and it still is but sometimes you need to hear it from a friend (like me, am I your friend?) before you try it yourself.

Coming soon - whole wheat pizza crust, better than any delivery.

Recession Gifting

Hey guess what?  We are in a recession! Just in time for Christmas! 

I don't really think I had to tell anyone that, but it is what inspired this post.  Well, that and Oprah, who is apparently not immune to the hardened financial times we are in.

I felt like I should get something for my co-workers this year and since I don't work in a place where some sort of "secret Santa" (do you capitalize Santa?) is organized and we are a small operation I figure I should get something for everyone.

In order to be economical about it, I thought a homemade gift would be the way to go.  As luck would have it, the December 2008 Oprah magazine had some solutions.

So here I bring you the easiest gift you will probably ever make.  I made it in under 10 minutes and now all they require is a bow and a label (which coincidentally I am pilfering from work).  

Hot Chocolate Mocha Mix

Adapted from O Magazine, December 2008

3/4 cup premium un-sweetened cacao

3 tbsp instant espresso 

1/2 cup Splenda

Combine dry ingredients and spoon into a small decorative tin or a glass mason jar (as I have done).  Attach a tag that says "Mix 3 tbsp hot chocolate mocha mix with 1 cup steamed or simmered milk.   Top with marshmallows."  

Done and Done.

The Brother

Go Dylan Go! The Girl

People Like Me

In beginning this post I was a little torn in which way to take it.  What I started wanting to write about is this great roasted vegetable pizza that I have been making lately.  However, after this Sunday I also kind of wanted to write about how to throw a fairly stress free party.  

The two items are not mutually exclusive, seeing as I made said pizza for a party I threw on Sunday.  My birthday party in fact.  It was such a great day, that I wanted to share it.

I am one of those creatures who finds the prospect of cooking for 15 or so people relaxing instead of stressful.  The planning, the preparation, the execution, even now if I could do it again I would.  Not that I didn't have help from my friends and boy I am ever grateful for it.

I kept the food simple fare that I could pretty much make in advance and then just keep warm throughout the party, making "stations" so people could serve themselves.

The first was a chili station with the veggie chili I blogged about a few posts ago kept warm in my slow cooker.  The second was the roasted veggie pizza I am talking about today.  

That is right, I made all vegetarian food.  No meat in sight.  Why would someone who loves cured meat as much as I do such a thing?   Well, number one, I had a few vegetarians coming and I wanted them to be able to eat and two, meat is hard to keep at a consistent texture for 8 hours unless you are a trained chef with catering equipment (and even then it is dicey).

My friends helped by bringing snacks and booze of their choosing, and while there was some overlap for the most part it all got eaten and kept everyone with a relatively full belly.

I used disposables so clean up was easy. However, if I really did have to do it all over again, I would have pre-ordered biodegradable disposables from Green Shift instead of the evil evil Styrofoam I used instead.

But let's not dwell on the negative and instead get to the recipe.

I'll give you 2 guesses as to who I adapted this recipe from?

....

Rachael Ray!

Roasted Veggie Pizza

Adapted from Everyday with Rachael Ray November 2007

*This version is the meat and brussels sprout one I usually make, however, for the party I substituted the brussels sprouts with 8 oz sliced mushrooms (because the brussels sprouts were HUGE and would never have cooked) and omitted the meat.  That being said Don't Fear the Sprout! I hate hate hate brussels sprouts and I Love this Recipe.

4 slices Canadian bacon sliced thinly

1 Pillsbury Pizza Crust Tube

Canola Oil Spray

1 1/2 cups fontina cheese (I have tried others but fontina really works the best)

1 cup of brussels sprouts halved or quartered depending on size

3/4 head cauliflower, broken into small pieces (about 3 cups)

1/3 cup julienned sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil and drained

3 cloves of garlic minced

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

Pepper

1.  Position a rack in the bottom third of the oven and preheat to 500.  In a skillet cook the bacon, as per package directions.

2.  Grease a baking sheet with canola oil spray, place the pizza dough on top and press and stretch the dough as close to the pan edges as possible.  Sprinkle half the cheese over the dough and bake for 5 minutes.

3.  In a pot of boiling salted water, cook the brussels sprouts and cauliflower for 1 minute.  Drain in a colander and rinse with cold water until cool.  Transfer to a large bowl and add the sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt and a TON of pepper;  toss well.  Spoon the veggie mixture evenly over the dough, top with bacon and remaining cheese.

4.  Bake the pizza until the crust is golden-brown and the cheese is bubbly, 10 to 12 minutes.  Let cool slightly before serving.

If you use the mushrooms instead of the sprouts, there is no need to boil them (obviously, but in the interest of full disclosure) just place on top of the cauliflower and bacon etc.

I pilfered photos from my friend Avery, with the exception of the pizza.  Love!

No Work Needed

Despite my relatively healthy lifestyle I have never been a big fan of plain cooked vegetables. Some people can wax poetic about the luscious taste of a great green bean or pure joy in a great cooked beet but I am not one of those people. There is a story about cooked brussel sprouts that I am saving for my post about the best veggie pizza ever, but needless to say, cats don't eat anything the way dogs do.

I like raw veggies with dip, but to be honest, at party if it is that or Swedish meatballs, the meatballs win every time.

Yesterday in my daily browsing of food blogs I came across the Amateur Gourmet's recipe for the best broccoli ever. Since he maintained that it stayed crunchy despite roasting and that it was a real opinion changer for people who do not like cooked vegetables I decided to give it a go.

I made it last night to take for lunch today, and OH MY GOD. This is the BEST BROCCOLI EVER.

Admittedly it is better to consume right after you make it but it stayed fairly crunchy even when re-heated in the microwave the next day.

So go read it HERE.

By the by, I used regular old not fresh parmesan and lemon juice FROM THE BOTTLE that I had in the house, though I am sure fresh would be better the kind you keep in a shaker tin or plastic bottle works just as well.

You Don't Win Friends with Salad

I don't remember exactly when my brother became a vegetarian.  I guess it isn't really something you mark on a calendar.  I think though it happened sometime either during my first year of university or last year of high school, in other words, a long time ago.

Slowly my mom also took too to cooking mostly vegetarian meals for herself and while she hasn't gone whole hog (excuse the pun) the vegetarian offerings at family meals usually out weigh anything meat related (not that I am complaining).

I know that I myself probably couldn't commit to a fully veg lifestyle, but to be honest the meat options in my little household are limited mostly to chicken and fish, with occasional pork thrown in.  Red meat is rarely here, mostly because I am not very adept at cooking it.

Over the last few weeks I have been debating about what I want to post, what is really worthy.  I have been cooking a lot and there is not shortage of material, just not a lot of photos I guess. But as we all know I am not really a photographer anyway.  Vanessa Heins, however is and she is the one who took the photo above, at a shoot we did for my Mom as a birthday present.

When Dylan came over to drop off the proofs from the shoot I wanted to make an evening of it with some dinner.  I looked on Rachael Ray for vegetarian recipes and found the chili below.  I didn't have high hopes for it but it really came through.  

Chili is a tricky thing, everyone has their own special recipe and preferences, I personally like Jamie Oliver's Chili Con Carne from the Happy Days with the Naked Chef book.   This however is my new favourite recipe for veg chili and I hope it will be yours too. Even if you are meat fan this will convert you (Homer didn't even realize it was meat free until I told him).

Three-Bean Chili

Adapted from Rachael Ray's Website

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 large red pepper, seeded and chopped

1 large green pepper, seeded and chopped

1 large jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

4 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped

1 cup vegetable stock

1 can crushed tomatoes (32 ounces)

1 can black beans (14 ounces)

1 can dark red kidney beans (14 ounces)

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon cayenne hot pepper sauce (several drops)

1 teaspoon coarse salt

1 cup spicy vegetarian refried beans

Toppings

Shredded Cheese

Scallions

Tortilla Chips for Dipping

Start by taking the onion, peppers, and garlic and blending them in a food processor into very very very small pieces (it will be a liquidy don't be scared!).   This is the key to faking out carnivores, no big chunks!

Over moderate heat, add the two tablespoons EVOO, two turns around the pan, to a DEEP pot. Add your blended vegetable mixture and heat for 3-5 minutes.  Deglaze the pan with broth add tomatoes, black beans and red kidney beans and stir to combine.

Season with cumin, chili powder, hot sauce and salt.  Thicken chili by stirring in refried beans.  Simmer over low heat about 5-10 minutes longer then serve up bowls of chili and top with shredded cheese and scallions.  Place bowls on charger plates piled with tortilla chips.