Gluten Craving: Homemade (Margarita-ish) Pizza

There is only one more week until Easter and Lent is over. My gluten-free commitment really hasn’t been that hard until this final week. I have been craving bread… vegetables and rice just really aren’t cutting it for me right now. In the Episcopal Church we don’t include Sundays in the 40 days of Lenten fast… but I’m really only Episcopalian by marriage so I have been kind of undecided about whether or not that Sunday indulgence thing is legit or cheating… My cravings have been so bad, though, that last night I made up my mind and decided it was legit :) So today, Palm Sunday, I made a delectable, gluten-filled, homemade pizza to celebrate the breaking of the fast. I was at Kroger, in my pajamas, at 11pm last night to get a packet of yeast and was so excited that I went ahead and made the dough when I got home. Now, I never, EVER bake… almost every time I have tried it has been an utter disaster. I am ecstatic to say, however, that this was a success!!! I made whole-wheat pizza dough using a recipe that I got from eatingwell.com. Here it is:

Ingredients:

•3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons lukewarm water, (105-115°F)
•1 package active dry yeast, (2 1/4 teaspoons)
•1 teaspoon sugar
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•1 cup whole-wheat flour
•1 cup all-purpose flour, plus additional for dusting
•2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal

Directions:

1.Stir water, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl; let stand until the yeast has dissolved, about 5 minutes. Stir in whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour and cornmeal until the dough begins to come together.

2.Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. (Alternatively, mix the dough in a food processor. Process until it forms a ball, then process for 1 minute to knead.)

3.Place the dough in an oiled bowl and turn to coat. (To make individual pizzas, see Variation.) Cover with a clean kitchen towel and set aside in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Because my husband and I have vastly different tastes we debated for about an hour last night before finally agreeing that I would make a pizza with fresh mozzarella, roma tomatoes, summer sausage, and basil from the garden (I picked almost every leaf off that plant out of spite for its refusal to grow). I had some incredible left-over tomato/olive-based pasta sauce that I also used. I served roasted fennel alongside and, I must say, it was a delightful pairing. Top YOUR pizza with whatever tickles your fancy! Save some pennies and get creative by using what you have in your fridge/pantry!

Red Wine and Cherry Rice Pudding: A Cure for a Bad Day

I had a rough day at school today and came home all cranky and irritable. Every week Anthony and I have dinner with our small group: two other couples from our church with whom we share life and faith, struggles and joys. I am so blessed to be a part of this group full of such rich friendships. (Shout out to Dane, Julie, Bonnie, and Charles! By putting you on our blog it basically means you’re famous now…)

So every week one couple provides the weekly meal, and the other couples bring a side dish of some sort. This week it was my turn to bring dessert, which is not really my forte in the first place, and in the second place I am gluten-free for Lent so that really limits dessert options. But then I remembered this INCREDIBLE rice pudding that my mom made once and I thought “Oh how lovely. How can you go wrong with milky rice, tangy cherries, and rich red wine?” And ,so, I proceeded to press play on my Dixie Chicks play list, pour myself a class of South African pinotage, and begin making this delectable dessert. Now, listen people, there is NO bad day that the Dixie Chicks, red wine, and leisurely cooking in your cornflower-blue and daffodil-yellow kitchen cannot cure. Except that the Dixie Chicks are my spirit band and they may not be your spirit band… so when you are having a bad day you should probably just listen to whoever sings to your soul.

So… this recipe is not really that healthy (more healthy that other desserts, though, I suppose), nor is it that cheap (I spent about $17 on ingredients) unless you already have a lot of the ingredients in your pantry, but it is delicious and it’s ok to splurge a little cash and calories when you’re having a bad day. Here’s how you make it:

Ingredients:

-1 cup of red wine
-¾ cup of brown sugar (for the sauce)
-1 pint of dried cherries
-1 quart of whole milk (but I used a can of light coconut milk with 2 cups of whole)
-1 cup of basmati rice
-1 or 2 cinnamon sticks
-The zest of 1 lemon
-4 tablespoons of brown sugar (for the rice)

Directions:

1.Heat the wine and ¾ cup of sugar over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the cherries and reduce the sauce down until it’s thick (this never really happened for me so whatever)

2.Combine the milk, rice, cinnamon sticks, and zest. Heat over low-medium heat. Simmer for about an hour. Stir frequently and add more milk if necessary.

3.Add the sugar to the rice mixture and stir until dissolved. Remove the cinnamon sticks.

4.Serve the pudding and top it with that incredible wine-cherry sauce! Oh baby!

I just have to say that I am not very good at following recipes and am SO my mother’s daughter in that way. She NEVER follows the recipe, always flits off doing her own thing, and sometimes gets a little crazy with ingredients. I love that about her though :) .This recipe turned out delicious when both she and I made it, so I think that is a good sign. It’s fool-proof … if you don’t follow the directions exactly it’s still going to be good. Feel free to substitute and explore! Enjoy, everyone!

(The “skeleton” for this recipe came from the Everything Mediterranean Cookbook by Dawn Altomari-Rathjen and Jennifer M. Bendelius. I, of course, changed a few things up.)

Beef Stroganoff

This is a meal I had a lot when I was growing up and it was without a doubt one of my favs.  I totally forgot about how much I loved it until I came across a recipe and it took my back to my childhood.  I used Tyler Florence's Beef Stroganoff recipe as my "skeleton" as Kate calls it, but did a couple of things differently.  The results were INCREDIBLE.  THIS, my friends, is blog worthy.  Monday night's dinner, not so much, but Tuesday night's dinner- YES.  you people must have this recipe.  I went all Pioneer Woman on you and took pictures of pretty much every step I took.  Humor me here, friends. Let's begin.

prep time: up to 15-30 minutes

cook time: Tyler says 3 hours, so we'll go with that (give yourself enough time to make this!)

serves: about 6 (meh, I'd say 4-5 realistically)

Ingredients

• 3 cups beef stock
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme, removed from the stem
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 pounds chuck roast, cut into 2-inch cubes (you can use "stew" meat to make this easier on yourself unless your just in the mood to butcher a chuck roast.)
• Kosher salt and black pepper
• 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons cognac (I used cooking sherry)
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter (I stuck to olive oil for my heart's sake)
• 1 pound mushrooms, sliced (please use a damp kitchen towel and wipe off the dirt off of those little guys!)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tablespoons sour cream (i used more like 3-4)
• 1 tablespoon dijon mustard (i definitely used about 3 if not 4)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves, plus more for garnish
• 1 (1-pound) package wide egg noodles

 get the beef stock in a pot with your thyme, bay leaf, and carrot.  I only had matchstick carrots, so I estimated how many matchstick carrots equal one carrot. 

pat down the beef with paper towels to absorb any moisture.  this step is CRUCIAL if you want a good sear (nice brown crust).  season your beef liberally with salt and pepper.  then mix it all together.  use your hands, don't be afraid.  you want it well distributed. 

this is my assembly line for cooking the beef.  two plate on both sides of the stock pot.  add about 3 tablespoons of olive oil and turn the pot on medium high.  with tongs, add your beef in batches.  let them cook on each side for about 1-2 minutes, or until they can be easily removed from the pot (you'll know when they're not done searing because they won't unstick from the pot when you try to move them).  once all sides are brown, put them on the other plate. do this until all of the meat is cooked.  

that's what seared beef should look like.  nice and crispy brown crust.

while your meat cooks, however, please chop your onions. (not too many recipes ask you to do things with a "please," do they?)

i like my onions largely chopped in this recipe.

once all of your meat is cooked  turn the heat down to medium and add all of your meat back to the pot along with the onions.  let them cook together for about 5 minutes.  add a good pinch of salt. 

the recipe calls for cognac, which you can use if you have, but i didn't, so i used sherry.  same effect.  add your 2 tablespoons of sherry at this point (a little more if you think it needs it).  let this all cook together for another 5 minutes, stirring the meat and onions to combine. 

strain your simmering beef stock into the pot with meat and onions.  partially cover the pot, put the heat on LOW, and let this cook for 1 1/2-2 hours.

you can boil your noodles at any time and set them aside to wait for the stroganoff to cook.

in the meantime, chop some mushrooms, the 3 cloves of garlic, and get your thyme ready.

let me say something about mushrooms for a sec:  i used to ABHOR mushrooms (until my precious husband kept making me try them til i liked them) I couldn't even touch them much less CUT them.  but once you sautee them, get them nice and browned and eat them with other things, you don't notice them and they add PHENOMENAL flavor.  i always think of my precious college roommate, sarah adams, because the first time i chopped a mushroom i was disguisted but i did it for her to help her make dinner one time :)  love you, sarah.

sautee your mushrooms, garlic, and thyme in a pan with about 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat.

if you're not a mushroom lover, you're thinking "wow, there's a lot of mushrooms.  i don't know if i can commit to this yet" but wait....after cooking for about 7 minutes, the mushrooms look like this:

now look at all that space in the pan!! SEE! the mushrooms shrink!  you won't notice them, you non-mushroom people, I promise.  you'll thank me later.

once the mushrooms are cooked, turn off the pan and put the 'shrooms in a container in the fridge if you've still got some time left for the meat to simmer.  if you cut the mushrooms and sauteed them toward the end of the meat's simmer time, let them hang out.

when the meat is done, turn off the heat.  now is the time to add the mushrooms, sour cream, and dijon.

i know that you all know how to follow instruction, but i just took the pictures for the sake of taking them.  bare with me here.

ok fold the dijon and sour cream in and then check for seasonings.  i had to add more salt to bring out the flavors.  oh- add your chopped parsley in, too.

it was also a bit too soupy for my liking, so i did the following:

i put some corn starch in a mixing bowl thingy and added some of the juice from the pot, then i whisked it all together vigorously with a fork and added it back in to let it thicken.  

have your boiled your noodles yet?  you might want to start thinking about it since this baby is ready for serving.

ok, tyler likes to butter his noodles, and i don't do that- i just sprinkle them with a bit of olive oil and then slather them with this glorious beef stroganoff like so:

again, i know you all know how to serve things, but i was just taking pictures for the sake of taking them.  scott was poking fun at me but I DON'T CARE!

ok enough ranting, TIME TO ENJOY!!!! GO MAKE THIS!!! 

Basil is the Posh Princess of the Herb Family

I have 2 ½ weeks left until I am done with my graduate program. Forever. That means no more school… ever. Needless to say, I have been dealing with some rather paralyzing anxiety about the future: completing my final papers and projects, graduating, taking the licensing exam, finding a JOB. Yikes, the real world scares me. (So by the way, if anyone hears of any open social work positions in the Houston area, let me know). However, I fight back: when I feel the anxiety rise up and start to take over, I promptly grab my journal and a cup of coffee in my pretty pink mug and go out to my sweet little porch that overlooks my herb garden. It is truly a restorative oasis that has brought me so much joy this spring. Don’t you just love spring? Minus the whole graduation, impending life decisions thing…

So today I was sitting out on my porch looking at my herbs and thinking about all the different ways I can use them: homemade bread crumbs, pasta sauces, infused teas... Here’s a picture. Aren’t they pretty? I know my garden is small but hey, I live in the middle of a huge city, you take what you can get.

Do you notice anything? Besides that cool piece of yard art, I mean. Like… do you notice how small and puny my basil plant is compared to everything else? This is something that really ticks me off. I give these plants so much TLC it’s not even funny. I water them every day. I make sure they have good, rich soil. I even mix in my leftover coffee grounds with the earth to give it some added nutrients. Everything else is thriving: the rosemary, thyme, oregano, parsley, mint and sage. But that basil… I am telling you. I have been baby-ing it for a month now and it refuses to grow in height or stature. It just sits there looking pathetic. Here’s a close up:

I don’t have room for this high-maintenance act in my life. I much more admire the resiliency of my mint plant that endured being uprooted from my mother’s garden, transported on a 3.5 hour hot car ride to Houston, and then replanted in a spot that only gets sunlight a few hours a day. It has endured hardship but is wild, tangly, thriving and beautiful. That’s my kind of girl. The posh princess basil needs to wake up and meet the real world. This is not a comfortable green house; this is humid, hot Houston. We (the basil and I) need take a little life lesson from the mint and not stagnate when faced with life’s stressors.

Need Suggestions!

Once upon a time I tried to make an edamame smoothie. Yep. Edamame Smoothie. I used frozen edamame, plain yogurt, flax seed, and honey. It was the same color as my shirt, which was cool, but it wasn't very good. Something about the meaty quality of a soy bean made the smoothie too thick... it didn't have that slurpy quality that every good smoothie has. The next time I tried I added a couple of strawberries, but then the strawberry taste overpowered that wonderful soy taste. I'm trying to brainstorm about what I can add to make this smoothie tasty, silky, and have it retain the essential essence of the edamame. Thoughts? Suggestions? Please comment below and help answer this cosmic question.

Also, this has nothing to do with food, but my precious little brother, Sam, won first place in the science fair!!!! (Nevermind that my mother falsified all the data). Isn't he the most precious boy you have ever seen????

A Little Morsel of Heaven

isn't she a beaut?

Everyone needs a go-to, satisfyingly delicious, make 'em weep, chocolate chip cookie recipe, right?  Right.  I have about a million saved to food apps on my phone, in my recipe books, on online food sites I belong to, etc.  Basically, I've been searching for the perfect chocolate chip cookie for a long time.  I take it very seriously. (I'm also searching for the perfect go-to healthy muffin but as all of my friends in Columbus can tell you, it's still a work in progress) The first time I made these, I sent them into the squadron with Scott and I had MEN asking me for the recipe saying they were better than their mama's. So, ladies and you few gentlemen, I give to you the. BEST. chocolate chip cookies. EVER.


Ingredients

• 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) SALTED butter (I know ya'll think I'm crazy), softened (muy importante)
• side note- you could also sub this with crisco or go halfsies with crisco and butter which makes a RIDICULOUSLY good cookie)

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar (light/dark whatever ya got)
• 2 eggs
• 1 TABLESPOON vanilla (thanks to my mom giving me a mason jar full of  homemade vanilla I won't be running out for a loonnggg time.  Thanks, mom!)
• 1 12 oz package (or 2 cups) of chocolate chips.  
• Can I say something here?  Buy the good stuff.  I promise it makes a difference to buy real Hershey's chocolate chips or ghirardelli (whatever is cheaper, let's be honest) as opposed to the Kroger brand because that chocolate just isn't good- sure it melts fine, BUT YOU CAN TASTE A DIFFERENCE, and if you're gonna make these chocolate chip cookies, they need to be done right.

• You can also add some heath bits at this point and sprinkle the cookies with sea salt just before popping them in the oven.  I learned this from my dear friend Sara who made some DELECTABLE salted toffee cookies the other weekend (i had like 4)

Directions

• Heat oven to 375.  Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl.  Set aside.
• Combine butter, sugar and brown sugar in a mixer with the paddle attachment, or a large bowl and use your hand mixer.  Just get 'em creamin'.  Beat at a medium speed, SCRAPING THE BOWL OFTEN, until creamy.  
• Add eggs and vanilla and continue to mix, scraping down the bowl to make sure everything is incorporating
• Reduce speed to low add the flour mixture slowly, until well mixed.
• With the speed on low, add your bag of chocolate chips (and toffee bits if using)
• I use an ice cream scooper for my cookies to be the same size, but however you do it, get those puppies into balls and pop them onto some baking sheets.
• Bake for 10-14 minutes (I bake them for about 12- they will still look undone but you must remember, they will continue to bake a bit on the hot cookie sheet once they're out of the oven.  If you don't like them gooey, don't take my advice, and suffer the consequences of a hard cookie.  just sayin)

makes...a lot.

ps: this recipe is from Land O' Lakes salted butter package

Utilize Your Leftovers: A $0 Dinner Made of Pantry Randomness

Because the Food Network was on in the background all day while I was doing research for my paper on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, I had the itch to cook even though my fridge was full of leftovers. Succumbing to the itch, I decided to make something using what I already had: an exercise in creativity and parsimony. Oh what to make, what to make? Well, there’s some leftover saffron rice, half a package of frozen peas, and a small package of salted cashews that Anthony probably bought for a late-night snack (sorry, babe!). Fried Rice! Oh yum delicious. Here’s how I did it:

Ingredients
-about 3 cups of leftover rice
-cashews
- ½ package of frozen peas
-3 cloves of minced garlic
-a couple of teaspoons of minced fresh ginger (I had some in the freezer! Here’s the deal with ginger: if you need some you have to buy a big piece of the root for only a few little teaspoons. It’s not cheap and the rest will go to waste… unless you freeze it! It keeps quite well that way.)
- some light soy sauce
- 2 eggs
-a splash of champagne vinegar (I’m not sure this is a critical ingredient if you don’t have any…. I just threw it in there just because I wanted to)
-olive oil

Directions
1. Scramble the eggs in a little olive oil (nothing else). Set aside.

2. Add some more olive oil to the pan and start frying your rice (I mean, you don’t have to drench it in oil, just enough to coat)

3.Once it gets going, add some soy sauce, champagne vinegar, ginger and garlic.Cook your garlic, but careful not to burn it.

4.Add the peas and heat through. Take a little taste to see how the flavors are melding. Add more of anything you feel like you need to.

5.Add the eggs, cut them up with your spatula, and stir it though so that there’s an even distribution of everything.

And that’s all. In the words of Ina Garten, “Now how easy is that???” Let me tell you something, people, it was so flipping good. Pretty healthy, too, I think… And it didn’t cost anything! Yay!