Vegan and Gluten-Free Mini Veggie Pizza

/

Comfort foods are my best friend. My parents are both great cooks and go out of their way to make everyone's favorite foods at all times. One of my favorite childhood dishes, was the English muffin mini pizzas Joe (my dad) would make for us. Honestly, I can't remember if he made them very often , but this is a dish I always associate with him.

I've been wanting to make these mini pizzas myself, but I have two problems: gluten and dairy. In the past, I've made my own pizza crust with gluten free flour, but I just want to be able to throw together a quick and easy pizza, that reminds me of Joe's pizza.

My solution presented itself in the form of these great gluten and dairy free Amy's sandwich rounds. I haven't had much luck in finding a small roll or English muffin-type of bread in the past. These are amazing. They are nice and soft, but not too chewy and held up well with all of the toppings on them, too.

Veggie Pizza

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 green bell pepper, sliced into strips
  • 3 to 4 mushrooms, sliced and sautéed in olive oil
  • 3 to 4 asparagus stalks, steamed and cut into small pieces
  • Amy's Gluten-Free Sandwich Round or 1 English muffins or 1 pita cut in half
  • 2 sprigs fresh thyme, coarsely chopped
  • 1/8 cup olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

  1. If using pizza dough: prepare as per the package instructions and pre-bake the dough halfway.
  2. If using English muffins or pita bread: place in a toaster oven or a regular oven on broil for 3 minutes.
  3. Take the partially baked pizza dough or the toasted bread and layer on top all of the veggies.
  4. Pour the oil over top, and sprinkle with thyme, salt and pepper.
  5. Place back in the oven or broiler and cook until the veggies and crust/bread have browned slightly.

Serves 2. Prep time, 5 minutes; cook time, 5 to 20 minutes.

Cook’s note: You can add 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce, mozzarella or Parmesan cheese as a base, before you place the vegetables on the bread.

 

 

 

Going Down the Hill: Strawberry Grapefruit and Sage Granita

/

Have you ever made granita before? I hadn't until last night. It was so easy that I think this will become a regular thing with all of these great Spring-into-Summer fruits coming my way.

Some of my favorite summer moments include walking Down the Hill to the pizza place to get a frozen Italian ice. Down the Hill is treated as such, since it was a title for a small hill made up of dirt that created a shortcut between our suburban Queens neighborhood and a small strip of stores just off the LIE eastbound. If you needed something from the store you were directed to go Down the Hill.

Of course, there was another hill just on the other side of the shopping mall, but that was not Down the Hill, you know what I mean? There were times that my mother, Gran Fran, made it clear we were not supposed to go Down the Hill, but down the hill. This was mostly when we wore shorts, flip flops, sandals, or were otherwise in danger of scraping ourselves on bits of broken glass or other debris left in the dirt. Oh, and sometimes when it was raining, icy, snowy, or just a regular Tuesday. You see where I'm going with this?

The Italian ice that we had came pre-packaged and was made by a company called Marino's. My parents grew up in Brooklyn and had hand-made Italian ices that we would periodically venture across borough lines to enjoy. The Brooklyn ices definitely tasted more like the fruit they said were included (lemon was my fave). But the packaged kind are still what comes to mind when summer weather shows itself, however briefly, here in SF (this weekend has topped out at a whopping 79 degrees without a cloud or fog bank in sight).

As I grew up and started to venture to other cities and states I found there were regionally produced ice-like treats. In Philly I came across Water Ice. Not a huge fan of this style of ice treat. I can't put my finger on why, and it may just be because it's not the same as what I knew as a child. But, I do know plenty of people who love them a good Water Ice.

In California, I was treated to Hawaiian Shaved Ice, but it's too bumpy and doesn't have that nice rich consistency that I love. I do, however, love the variety of flavors, and the less common ones, that are available for your very own custom shaved ice.

I wasn't sure it was going to turn out, since it was such a simple recipe. All the recipes I came across used quite a bit of sugar, which I decided to reduce. The first version I made used only half of what I'm recommending here, and no water. That batch was very tart. Fine for me, but I think most people would like their granita quite a bit sweeter.

Please enjoy this and let me know about any other types of ice-related goodness that I didn't go over here. I'd love to try more!

Strawberry, Grapefruit and Sage Granita

Ingredients

  • 1 pound strawberries
  • 1 large grapefruit skin removed
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cup grapefruit juice
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 4 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 8 sage leaves minced

Method:

  1. Put all of the ingredients in a blender and puree
  2. Pour the mixture into a freezer-proof baking dish.
  3. Freeze for 4 to 5 hours, until solid.
  4. When ready to serve, take a fork and scrape the ice mixture into serving bowls or glasses.
  5. Serve with a bit of sage on top.

Featured: DailyBuzz Healthy Living: Hot and Sour Soup

/

This hot and sour soup is amazing.

And, it's even more amazing because DailyBuzz Healthy Living decided to feature it today in their Top 9.

Please enjoy all the other lovely Asian themed recipes shown alongside mine.

And, do yourself a favor, make yourself some soup, ok?

Beet Salad with Oranges

/

 Gran Fran knows her way around beets. She would make them for us on a regular basis. Her salad involves only some olive oil and vinegar. And, she also cooks her with the skin on, removing it after cooking. Her method involves roasting the beets in the oven individually wrapped in foil (Gran Fran, let me know if I'm wrong here). Skinning the hot beets made me stay away from beet cooking for a good long time. My hands not only turned red from the juice, but also were slightly burned each time I tried to de-skin one of the beets.

My sister Danielle taught me this method, which turns your fingers red immediately, but leaves you with fewer burn marks on your hands. I think I end up with more beets, too. Using a vegetable peeler allows you to remove just the brown skin and preserve more of the good stuff.

I cook the beets in what will become the dressing for the final product, too, which gives you a really flavorful dressing. And, you are able to eat these hot, if you want to, without having to waste any time peeling off the skin.

The addition of oranges and sunflower seeds to this salad make it the perfect Spring-is-Here dish. It's fruity and earthy with just a little bit of crunch.

Featured on The Fruit Guys website.

Beet Salad with Oranges

INGREDIENTS

  • 3 beets, skins peeled off, greens removed, cut into eighths.
  • 1 small shallot, cut into quarters
  • 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 orange cut into small pieces
  • 1/2 teaspoon sunflower seeds
  • Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Place the beet and shallots onto a rimmed baking sheet, or into a baking pan large enough to allow space between the pieces.
  3. Mix together the vinegar, oil, salt and pepper and pour the mixture over the beets, making sure to coat all sides of the beets.
  4. Roast the beets in the oven for 40 minutes, or until fork tender, turning the beets every ten minutes or so.
  5. In a large bowl, mix together the warm beets with the orange segments.

Anchovy Toast: The 'Chovy Saga Continues On

/

Are you sick of me and my anchovies yet? This is likely to be my last post about the little fish that I love for awhile as I seem to have run out of anchovies in my pantry. And, I'd like to feature other ingredients, so will probably take the 'chovies off the list for a bit so as not to bore you (or my taste buds). But, I just couldn't deprive you of this toasty treat.

I often find myself not really eating all that much while I'm shooting and writing. Eventually, I do eat what I'm working on, but I guess I just get so into my work that I kind of forget to eat. Funny, since I'm working with food (I know you got that, just had to say it, too).

The toast pictured above has been fried and covered with onion and shallot marmalade, topped with an anchovy and some black pepper. I know, it's not for everyone, but it certainly made my day.

Fried Toast with Anchovy

Ingredients:

Method:

  1. Heat a small skillet over high heat.
  2. Add the olive oil to the pan and heat up until just before the oil smokes.
  3. Fry the bead on both sides until it's as brown as you'd like it.
  4. Serve by putting the onion and shallot marmalade on the toast and topping it off with the anchovy and some pepper.

If you eat cheese, you can also add some grated Parmesan on top.

Shredded Brussels Sprouts and Potato Salad

/

A version of this recipe is featured on The Fruit Guys website.

Please meet my new favorite way to prepare Brussels sprouts: shredded. What a delightfully easy way to make a very healthy salad, using something other than your standard issue salad greens.

I first came across this method in the Bi-Rite Market's Eat Good Food cookbook. Their version (which I made and wrote about here) includes bacon. Which, in so many ways, makes me so happy. But, I've found that I need to cut back on the pork products (oh wait, I have a rack of pork ribs in the oven right now....). Therefore, I've created a new recipe using the shredded Brussels sprouts in not only a vegetarian recipe, but also a vegan one. A girl's got to keep her sleek physique and all of the lovely recipes I've been writing have begun to add up on the I-think-my-pants-shrunk-in-the-dryer meter.

The potatoes are the only cooked item in the whole shebang. You can either roast them, dice them or fry them, just do whatever you prefer. And, I didn't include how many this recipe feeds. Seems that the shredded sprouts really go on for days. I've taken to shredding a while bunch of them and storing them in a zipper bag in the fridge. That way I can make any kind of salad I want whenever I want to.

Please do make this or the other recipe referenced above. It really tastes great and is a nice change in your salad repertoire.

Brussels Sprouts and Potato Salad

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 to 2 cups shredded Brussels sprouts
  • 2 cups potatoes in 3/4 inch dice, steamed, roasted, sautéed, or boiled until tender but not mushy
  • 1 /2 cup fresh chopped carrots
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons red wine or sherry vinegar
  • 1 clove garlic, minced finely
  • ½ teaspoon minced tarragon
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

  • Shred the Brussels sprouts.  You can use either a mandolin slicer or the slicer blade on your food processor. And, cutting them by hand is perfectly fine, just make them as thin as possible.
  • Place the shredded Brussels sprouts, diced and cooked potatoes and carrots in a large bowl.
  • Mix together the olive oil, vinegar, garlic, sage, red pepper flakes and salt and pepper.
  • Add the dressing to the vegetables and mix well.

Avocados: Egg Smash-up, Smoothie and Guacamole

/

Years ago, when my parents were visiting from New York, I decided to serve them some avocados. Joe, my dad, was less than enthusiastic having only had unripe, unflavorful avocados up until this point.  He remarked upon how he stayed away from avocados at all cost because they were tasteless and held no appeal for him. His opinion was forever changed after I served him a California Haas avocado.

Once it was served up simply diced drizzled with some olive oil, pepper and salt, I thought his head was going to explode. I think he thought I was a magician of some sort because I had picked a perfect avocado.  The teacher in him asked me a million questions about why our avocados were so much tastier than any he had eaten before. And, how did I get that pit out so perfectly?

I figured it was because they are grown here and we are lucky enough to have a year-round variety, the Haas avocado, available at all times. The avocados we've had in New York are a harder, taller variety than the Haas. According to this website, I'm thinking Joe is getting something like a Zutano avocado. The taste is much lighter and not quite as creamy as the Haas.

I eat a lot of avocados. I'm also lucky enough to have a group of friends and co-workers who love food as much as I do. We don't work in the food industry, but we all love it. Whenever I'm trying to come up with a recipe for a particular ingredient, I tend to take input from everyone at work. I spend an equal amount of time working with them as I do working on this site, so it makes perfect sense that if I can make something they'll love to eat, we all win.

The egg smash-up is an Israeli dish, I think, that my friend Anastasia started making for us. It's really a simple mix of equal parts hard-boiled egg and avocado, with some salt and pepper. It's great on everything from toasted baguette to rice cakes. It'll keep you going for hours, too, so no need to worry about getting hungry anytime soon!

My friend Robby suggested the smoothie recipe. I was not always a fan of smoothies, but something about the combination of banana and avocado sounded good to me. You can use either regular milk or almond milk here. The almond milk gives it a nice nutty flavor. I don't recommend using rice milk, though, because it's almost too sweet next to the banana and honey. And, the combination of the almond milk, avocado and banana makes the smoothie smell like the beach.

Lastly, my other friend Ari makes a wonderful guacamole. I don't think mine even comes close. But, it does have a great fresh flavor and nice piquant onions to offset the smooth and tangy avocado.

I know when I'm in New York this summer, if I can find some avocados I'm going to break out these recipes and blow Joe's mind.

Avocado Smoothie

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 avocado, sliced in half and removed from the skin
  • 1 banana, sliced
  • ½ cup milk
  • ½ teaspoon honey
  • Ice cubes

PREPARATION

  • Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until the ice cubes have been completely crushed.

Serves 2. Prep time, 5 minutes; cook time, 0 minutes.

Cook’s note:  You can use almond milk or rice milk instead of regular milk.

Avocado Guacamole

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 avocado, sliced into cubes and removed from the skin
  • 1 small onion finely chopped
  • 1 small tomato, cubed
  • ½ teaspoon cumin
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil

PREPARATION

  • In a large bowl, mash the avocado until creamy.
  • Stir in the onions, tomato pieces, spices and oil.
  • Give the mixture one more run through with the masher.

Serves 4. Prep time, 5 minutes; cook time, 0 minutes.

Avocado and Egg Spread

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 avocado, sliced in half and removed from the skin
  • 2 hard-boiled eggs
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

PREPARATION

  • Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mash well with a fork.
  • Serve on toasted bread.

Serves 2. Prep time, 5 minutes; cook time, 0 minutes.

French Toast for All

/

My daughter loves french toast. When she was about 6 years old, she got a kids cookbook for her birthday. I had never successfully made french toast when she asked me if we could give the recipe in her book a try.

I was worried that it wouldn't work out, but she was very encouraging. So I persevered, and we made the recipe. Imagine my delight (and hers, too) when three perfect slices emerged from the pan on the stove. I still remember my feeling of relief (and pride) tha I have managed to master french toast.  Although I do cook a lot, I have certain things that always give me trouble: baking, frozen veggies and, until that day, french toast.

7 years later, I'm an old pro, even breaking out french toast for an early morning school day treat. I've even made it for myself using almond or rice milk and gluten-free bread. Take that difficult recipe....I have triumphed!

French Toast for One

Ingredients:

  • 1 Egg, beaten
  • 1/4 cup Milk (you can use Rice or Almond Milk instead)
  • 1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • 4 slices Bread (regular wheat bread, or gluten-free rice bread like Udi's)
  • Butter for cooking

Method:

  • In a shallow pie pan, mix all of the ingredients.
  • Heat a flat griddle or pan on high heat.
  • Soak each individual piece of bread until coated in the mixture.
  • Lower the heat to medium, and add a pat of butter to the pan.
  • Once the butter has melted, take one of your soaked pieces of bread to the pan.
  • Cook on each side for about 2 minutes, turning the toast over only once you see the edges of the egg coating beginning to brown.
  • Serve with maple syrup or powdered sugar.

*only the regular bread version is pictured, no gluten-free picture available!

Chili-Mac: Gluten-Free

/

I love chili. When my daughter was home sick with a stomach bug, I took the opportunity to break out the chili fixin's for myself.

Weird thinking, I know, but when there is a bonus day off from work (not saying her being sick was a bonus, mind you), I feel inclined to go big with my cooking. She doesn't eat chili and said the cooking smells wouldn't bother her, so I figured since I had to make really bland stuff for her to eat, I'd make myself something extra spicy. I also made oven-roasted jalapeno peppers (recipe will be appearing shortly, needs some adjustments...). Clearly, I was not having any of the bland food myself.

For years now, I've been using a mix for the spices, from Carroll Shelby's Original Texas Chili Kit, which I highly recommend. There are no chemicals or weird fake-foods in the box, just cayenne pepper, corn masa flour, cumin, garlic, ground chili peppers, onion, oregano, paprika, salt. It's just easier to have everything put together for me, especially since I may not have all the ingredients on hand, most importantly, the corn masa which you use towards the end of cooking to thicken the chili.

I'd like to talk about chili-mac now. It's not a dish I grew up with. Maybe it did exist in NY, but it never made its way to me. The first time I encountered it, I was in southern Illinois with my then in-laws at Steak 'n Shake. It seemed to me like an ingenious combination. Why not use pasta as your vehicle of choice for chili? It's a pretty good combination of textures, and the cheese just sinks into the pasta every so nicely.

While I cooked the chili, I looked around for some corn tortillas to serve it with, only to come up empty. Instead, I chose a rice pasta as my base for the chili, making this the first time I've made chili-mac in my own kitchen. There is no cheese in this version, as I'm primarily dairy-free (except for butter, can't leave that behind), but you should feel free to add some nice sharp cheddar and maybe even some sour cream to finish off this great dish.

Gluten-free Chili-Mac

Ingredients:

Method:

  1. Heat a large non-reactive pot over high heat.
  2. Add the olive oil and half of the minced shallots.
  3. Cook for 1 minutes. Add the ground meat.
  4. Brown on all sides, about 15 minutes of cooking time.
  5. Drain the fat from the pan.
  6. Add the tomato sauce, water and spices.
  7. Cook for ten minutes. Add the drained black beans.
  8. Slightly cover the pot. Cook for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  9. While the chili is cooking, take the masa flour and mix with 1/3 cup warm water.
  10. Add to the chili to thicken it. Make sure the corn masa flour is not clumping in the chili, break it up with a fork as you stir it into the mix.
  11. Cook for five more minutes.
  12. Place the prepared pasta into individual serving bowls.
  13. Top with chili (and cheese, if you're into that).
  14. Serve and enjoy!