New Year's Eve 2014...

Left - Baked Ziti Pizza
Middle - Garlic and Artichoke Pizza
Right - Deep Dish Hawaiian Pizza

I hope everyone had a nice New Year’s Celebration. We didn’t do very much this year. We invited a few people over but I wasn’t feeling particularly social and so after dinner I mostly just ‘hid-out’ with a book, and then I fell asleep at 10pm, though my husband was kind enough to wake me at 11:55 so that I could ring in the New Year with him.

Since his birthday is on the 30th we normally do a combination Birthday/New Years party which means I typically let him pick out all or some of the food that I make for New Years Eve. Last year we did pizza and it went over really well, so this year I asked if he wanted to do that again and he said yes. I went through my extensive collection of cook books and threw out some ideas and he eventually settled on three pies.

One was the Baked Ziti Pizza from Lane Gold’s book “Vegan Junk Food” I know pasta on pizza might sound crazy to some of you but to me It sounded just crazy enough to try. I mean, who doesn’t like their carbs with a side of carbs? Though this recipe requires you to make pizza dough, sauce, vegan ricotta, and cook the pasta so long as you know this ahead of time and prepare accordingly this pizza comes together really easy. In fact, I was kind of dreading making it but it was such a snap I couldn’t believe I’d been worried about it. Once you have this sucker loaded up it bakes for about 20-25 minutes and it comes out of the oven tasting like magic. Seriously, this was probably my favorite pizza of the night.

Baked Ziti Pizza

Next up we had the Deep Dish Hawaiian Pizza also from “Vegan Junk Food.” I have not had deep-dish pizza in a long time, and I haven’t ever made one before, since deep-dish isn’t my favorite. Being from Vancouver I grew up eating thin or medium-crust California style pizza, because that’s pretty much how we do it on the West Coast, and that’s what I like. I had never had a deep-dish pizza until my first visit to Chicago and I remember thinking it was pretty damn good. All that gooey cheese how can you go wrong? After I moved here, and I guess it took about a year maybe less, I lost my taste for deep-dish. It’s too heavy, it’s all dough, there’s too much sauce! In my opinion the best part about pizza is the toppings so why do you want to take up all that stomach space with dough? So I forgot about deep-dish and stuck to thin-crust, but for as much as people in this city rave about Chicago pizza being the best, Chicago just can’t do thin-crust, and so I pretty well just stopped eating pizza altogether unless it was homemade.

Deep Dish Hawaiian

All that is to say that I found the prospect of making my very own deep-dish pizza daunting, and I wasn’t convinced it was going to taste any good at all. I guess I needn’t have worried because Lane Gold didn’t let me down. This recipe is super simple, and super easy, and if you already have the dough and sauce made then it’s a cinch to throw together. I guess it doesn’t hurt that growing up my favorite pizza was always Hawaiian! Pineapple on pizza is just right, you know? Anyway, this pie uses Daiya mozzarella, and Smoked Tofurky Slices in place of ham and cheese but honestly this tastes pretty damn close to what I remember actual non-vegan Hawaiian pizza to taste like. I don’t know that I could tell the difference in a blind taste test. The only problem with this pizza was the crust on the bottom was a bit weak and so it didn’t stay together very nicely when you tried to remove a slice. No matter though, it tasted great.

Lastly we had the Garlic and Artichoke Pizza from Chloe Coscarelli’s book “Chloe’s Vegan Italian Kitchen” My husband goes wild for artichokes and we both love garlic so this seemed like a natural choice. It’s a pretty simple pizza once you have the dough and sauce made. The toppings are sliced tomato, artichokes, thin sliced garlic, capers, red pepper flakes and mozzarella sauce. Which is a ‘cheesy’ cashew based sauce that you drizzle over the pie at the end of cooking. I liked this sauce a lot and liked that Chloe’s pizza didn’t call for store-bought vegan cheese. That made this pie lighter then the others but it was no less flavorful.

Garlic and Artichoke Pizza 

For dessert my husband requested I make him an Oreo Birthday Cake. Ever since that one year I made Oreo cupcakes he’s been hooked! So I used the Oreo Cupcake Recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero’s book “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World” and turned it into a cake. Also since it was his birthday I used the special ‘Birthday Cake’ Oreo’s in place of the regular kind. It turned out really well, moist and delicious and even though we were completely stuffed from pizza we still had enough room for a teeny-tiny slice.

Oreo Birthday Cake

And that about wraps it up, not a bad way to end the year. I hope everyone else had a nice celebration.

Birthday/New Years Eve Celebrations...

The last day of the year is always a weird day for me. I’m always sad that the year is over, and always happy and excited that a new one is just about to begin. This year things are a little different though. Since 2013 wasn’t that great a year for me, I’m not so sad to see it go. I’m looking forward to 2014, and know that there are many amazing things waiting just over the horizon. I hope everyone has a lovely New Years Eve, and I wish you all the best for the New Year too. Enjoy your celebrations!

We’ve been celebrating rather quietly this year. Yesterday was my husband’s birthday and so we spent a lovely day together. Each year on his birthday I make him a special dinner of his choosing. Sometimes he wants something elaborate and sometimes he wants something simple - this year it was kind of in between - he requested sushi! We both love sushi, he even more so then me, and while I don’t find it particularly difficult to make it, it is usually time consuming. When I asked what kind of sushi he wanted he shrugged and said “Whatever you want, you always make great sushi.” and so I decided to try my hand at making the Tempeh Nori Rolls from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero’s book “Veganomicon.” I really don’t use this book enough and so I was happy to try the recipe out.

Tempeh Nori Rolls 

I guess you could say that the Tempeh Nori Rolls are a kind of take on a spicy California roll. You mash steamed tempeh with vegan mayo, and chili sesame oil, and then spoon it over your rice, and topp with green onion and avocado before rolling the whole thing up. I’ll admit after tasting the tempeh mix I added just a touch of garlic and salt to the tempeh and really the final product was fantastic. We loved these rolls, texture-wise I think they were spot on.

Cucumber Rolls 

For our second roll I just made a simple cucumber roll - no recipe required. It’s just Nori, Rice, Thick sliced cucumber, and a smear of Chipotle Vegenaise. Super quick, super easy, but super delicious especially that Chipotle Mayo!

To go along with our sushi I baked up a box of Vegan Calamari. My husband used to love calamari before we were vegan, he used to eat it any chance he got, and so when I saw this vegan calamari at the store I thought I’d get it for him so that he could try it out. Now, I’ve never eaten a calamari in my life - never was one for squid, octopus or anything weird like that, so I can’t say how this compares in taste to actual calamari. I can say that I liked it, and that the texture is about what I’d imagine actual calamari to be like. Chewy, and in my opinion it tasted a bit like what I remember chicken tasting like.  We dipped our Calamari in Follow Your Heart Tartar sauce and the sauce was absolutely delicious. My husband really loved them, but I’m not sure this is something I’d be dying to have again. Great for the novelty factor though.

Vegan Calamari 

Today the celebration continued with a combination birthday/New Year’s Eve party - which is currently still in progress, I snuck away for a few minutes!! - Every NYE we have family and friends over and order Pizza - or in recent years It’s been a pizza/Chinese Food combo. This year the omni’s ordered pizza and Chinese food, and this year I decided to make my own pizza from scratch since I had the time, and since I’ve been really enjoying pizza making lately.

Meatball Pizza 

Pizza is my husband’s other food. I think if he had the choice he would probably live off of sushi and pizza for his entire life, and so It was the perfect food to celebrate NYE. When I picked up that box of calamari I came across a bag of frozen vegan meatballs and decided to try the Meatball Pizza in Julie Hasson’s awesome little book “Vegan Pizza” It’s a pretty simple recipe, Marinara, vegan meatballs, daiya mozzarella, and minced parsley - and it was so damn good. If you want to know a secret I’ve always hated meatball pizza. As an omnivore I thought it was pretty nasty, I think I only ate it once! As a Vegan, I thought it was great, just another example of how my tastebuds have changed since going vegan. I guess it turns out that I was never so much a picky eater as I just didn’t like the taste of meat in the first place.

Caramelized Onion and Artichoke Pizza with
Balsamic Reduction 

For our second pizza I made the Caramelized Onion and Artichoke Pizza with Balsamic Reduction from Lane Gold’s book “Vegan Junk Food.” Again this was a very simple recipe, onions, garlic, daiya mozzarella, artichokes and a balsamic reduction made with balsamic vinegar and sugar. It was so tasty, so oniony, we couldn’t get enough!

And of course, no birthday celebration would be complete without dessert. Every year in addition to a delicious dinner I make my husband a cake of his choosing. Well this year he didn’t want cake, he wanted cupcakes! - Yes more cupcakes, because he apparently didn’t get enough on Christmas. - He requested the Cookies and Creme Cupcakes from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero’s book “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World” and so I was happy to oblige him. Unfortunately I only had 4 candles left, but you get the idea. We sang happy birthday, he made his wish, and now we’re playing board games until it’s time to ring in the New Year.

Cookies and Creme Cupcakes 

Until Next Year! Stay Safe - Be Happy.
Peace/Love

Garlic Scape and Collard Green Pizza...

There are few things better then a truly good pizza, and I’ve made plenty of tasty pizza’s in my life, but this one beats them all by a thousand miles. The flavors in this pizza are out of this world amazing! It’s truly amazing what you can create when you’re making every effort to use every last bit of fresh produce in your fridge. Collard greens, tomatoes, and non-dairy cheese were all staring at me yesterday afternoon threatening to spoil unless I used them before vacation. A quarter of a jar of garlic and green onion olive oil had been sitting on my counter for the better part of a month. A jar of sun-dried tomatoes sat nearly empty in my fridge, and I had just purchased 4 bunches of garlic scapes from my local grocery.

I was not suppose to buy groceries this week, but when I saw that scapes were back in season I knew I’d have to have them before I left, because by the time I get back they’ll surely be gone. It was a total impulse by, and my stomach not my brain was responsible. When I got them home, I thought “What am I going to do?” I have hardly anything left in my fridge. I stared down the contents of my fridge for a good long while and then the above mentioned ingredients started calling to me. They started saying “pizza, pizza, piiiizzzzaaaa!” Until I just had to listen.

Though this was my own idea, I was skeptical at first. Collard greens on a pizza? I’d never hear of such a thing, and collards - love them though I do - are just one of those things that one immediately identifies with ‘health food’ not pizza. Still, I decided it was better to try and fail and have to through the collards out because dinner was terrible, vs throwing the collards out because they went bad. I can not tell you how amazed I was by the end result. This is literally the best pizza I have ever made, perhaps even the best pizza I have ever eaten and I do not say that lightly. We’re talking mind-blowing, mouth-watering, tastebud-tickling good, so good that you’ll crave it! Even my husband, a pizza eating fanatic said it was one of the best pizza’s he’d ever eaten, and last night he simply couldn’t get enough of it!

Instead of sauce I decided to coat the crust in home-made garlic and green onion infused olive oil. I wanted a lighter, cleaner tasting pizza, and wasn’t in the mood for a heavy acidic tomato based sauce. Of course if you’re anti-oil this may not be the pizza for you, but you can control how much oil you brush onto the crust. You don’t have to go overboard and if you’re only eating a slice or two it’s really not all that bad. You can of course try it with a tomato based sauce though I can’t grantee that it’ll taste at all the same. The infused oil is highly recommend. Also though I list the non-dairy cheese as optional I highly recommend that too. I used Daiya’s Garlic Jalapeno Havarti which was amazing and really kicked the pizza up to a new level, but you could use vegan mozzarella if that’s all you can find. Remember though to use just a little bit, you want it more as a garnish than anything else, the pizza shouldn’t be dripping with it. Just sprinkle on enough that you get a few good bites of it per slice. On it’s own the pizza is hearty and filling, but to make it even more of a meal you could serve it with a nice side salad and perhaps even a glass of red wine if wine is your thing. However you serve it, just be sure to enjoy it! And trust me when I say this comes together a lot quicker then the length of the recipe may imply. Also the topping can be made ahead and saved till needed, which makes it that much easier!

Garlic Scape and Collard Green Pizza 

Topping 

2 Leeks white and light green parts only sliced thin
2 bunches collard greens chopped into bite size pieces
3 Roma tomatoes sliced thin
1-2 Bunches garlic scapes sliced into 1 inch lengths
Garlic and Green Onion infused Olive Oil for brushing ***
1/8 C Shredded non-dariy cheese (optional)
10-15 sun-dried tomatoes sliced into strips
Rosemary sea salt ***
Fresh Black pepper to taste (Optional)
1 ½ Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar to drizzle over top

Dough

2 1/4 C All Purpose Flour
1 ½ Whole Wheat Flour
1 pack active dry yeast
1 C warm water
3/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp Olive Oil

Preheat Oven to 400'F

- Water Saute leeks, collard greens, and garlic scapes in large pan over medium-high heat. Saute about 10 minutes until veggies are tender and all the water has been absorbed. You want the mixture to be a bit dry. Transfer to a bowl when finished and set aside, or if making ahead refrigerate until ready to use.

- To make the dough, combine all purpose and whole wheat flour, and salt in a food processor and pulse to incorporate.

- Combine Active Dry Yeast with Warm water and set aside for five minutes

- Drizzle the olive oil into the food processor and add the yeast/water mixture. Process until mixture forms a cohesive dough. If the dough is too moist or sticky add in more flour until you’ve reached your desired consistency.

- Remove the dough from the food processor, shape into a ball and set aside to rest for 10 minutes.

- After the dough has sat, you can either divide it to make two smaller thin crust pizzas or leave it as is to make one large regular crust pizza.

- Flour a clean work surface and flour a rolling pin. Gently roll dough out into a large circle. Start with the edge closest to you and roll the dough outwards in a circular motion. Flip the dough over and continue rolling outwards in a circle. Flip the dough one more time and continue to roll outwards until the circle is large enough to fit your pizza pan.

- Lightly grease your pizza pan with some non-stick cooking spray. Then gently transfer your pizza dough to the pan. There should be excess dough flowing over the edge of the pan. Roll it up to form a crust around the edge of the pan. Trim some off as needed if the excess is too much.

- Poke your pizza dough with the tings of a fork a few times. Then brush the dough with a generous amount of garlic and green onion olive oil (or regular olive oil) make sure to brush both the base of the dough as well as the crust.

- Place pan in preheated oven and cook for 10-15 minutes until dough is firm. Remove from the oven.

- Brush with a little more garlic and green onion oil, then layer sliced Roma tomatoes around the crust. Evenly distribute the collard green, leek and garlic scape mixture over top of the tomatoes. There will be a lot but that’s okay, pile it all one and spread it as evenly as possible.

- Next scatter the sun-dried tomato strips over top of the pizza, and the shredded non-dairy cheese if using.

- Finish the pizza by drizzling the balsamic vinegar over top, sprinkling with Rosemary sea salt and a few twists of a black pepper mill.

- Return the pizza to the oven and bake for 15 or so minutes until the cheese has melted, and the edges of the crust begin to golden.

- Slice and serve hot with a bowl of garlic and green onion olive oil dotted with balsamic vinegar for dipping your pizza crusts! Enjoy!

*** Note - The Garlic and Green Onion Olive Oil is super easy to make and tastes amazing on this pizza. If you prefer you can use regular olive oil, but this oil really does kick the pizza up a notch and infuses it with such great flavor. I highly recommend it, especially since it’s so easy. All you do is pour 2 cups of olive oil in a mason jar. Add 1 cup of sliced green onions (just the green parts) ½ cup of finely minced parsley or basil (or a mixture of both) a pinch of sea salt, and 10-12 garlic cloves finely minced. Screw a lid on tight, give it a good shake then leave it on your kitchen counter for 24 hours to let the flavors develop. So delicious! ***

*** Note - Rosemary Sea Salt is easy to make. All you need is fresh Rosemary springs and sea salt. Remove the Rosemary leaves from the stems and grind in a food processor. Then add to a shaker with an equal (or slightly less) amount of sea salt. Use on everything because it tastes delicious! ***

*** Note - This pizza is only soy-free if you use a soy-free non-dairy cheese.*** 

Broiled Vegetable Pizza Sauce...

Everyone it seems love pizza, and I am certainly no exception. There’s just something so overwhelmingly satisfying and comforting about it. It’s become something of an ingrained cultural ritual for most people. We eat it at parties, and family gatherings. We pick it up when we get off work late, or grab a slice to eat on the go at lunch. It was a favorite childhood food for most of us enjoyed at all the best occasions and celebrations. We eat it when we have late night cravings and enjoy it cold the next day for breakfast - or at least I do - Then there are some days where you just want some of that greasy oozy-gooey goodness.

These days I don’t eat as much pizza as I used to. Partly because I don’t consider it to be a particularly healthful food, - not the way most restaurants make it anyway - but also because I’m just the type of person that enjoys constantly engaging in new culinary experiences. As much as I love it I couldn’t eat pizza all the time, and I’ve never been the kind of person who only ate one kind of pizza and that was it. I find that very boring. Not to mention limiting. I prefer to constantly change things up. I despise limitations. I relish freedom and choice, and am always looking for ways to fully take advantage of both, especially in the kitchen. So these days when I do eat pizza I take great pleasure in making my own. I love coming up with new combinations of ingredients and seeing how they work together.

My favorite kinds of pizza are the kind absolutely loaded up with veggies, I also appreciate creative sauces. Classic marinara is fine, and certainly has it’s place, but I like my pizza sauce to have a little more pizzaz. I love pesto on pizza, I also love a good garlic cream sauce on pizza, roasted tomato sauces are good too, as is a good sweet and smokey barbeque sauce. So the last time I decided to whip up a few of my own pizza creations I thought why not try my hand at making a nice delicious pizza sauce?

The following recipe is what I came up with after a little bit of thought. I love broiled veggies so much, and thought they'd be wonderful blended into a sauce, lending it a sweet yet robust flavor. I was very happy with the finished product, and the great thing about it is that while there are several steps involved it is very easy. This sauce recipe makes enough for at least 3 14 inch pizzas with still a bit leftover. A great idea for the remaining sauce If you don’t want to freeze it is to heat a bit in the microwave and then drizzle it over the finished pizza. Or heat some to use as a dipping sauce. Super tasty! Another nice thing about this sauce is that it’s very versatile. You can literally pile any kind of veggies you like on top of it and it’ll go remarkably well. I used sweet potatoes and beets sliced thin on one pizza. Tomatoes, zucchini and asparagus on one, and spinach, onions, and peppers on another. Experiment and see what you like best.

Broiled Vegetable Pizza Sauce

3 Medium Sized Tomatoes on the Vine (it’s okay if they’re a bit overripe)
½ a large Vedalia Onion (or other sweet onion)
1 Large Red Pepper
6-8 cloves garlic
1 tsp Agave nectar (or to taste)
1 tsp lime juice
Fresh parsley, oregano, and basil to taste
Sea salt and Black Pepper to taste

- Set Broiler to high.

- Slice tomatoes, and red pepper in half and lay on a lightly greased broiler pan. Slice your onion half in half again and place it on the broiler pan along with the other vegetables.

- Broil vegetables until skins are blackened. You don’t want them to be entirely black and burnt, just charred a bit. Remove from oven, place onto plate or into bowl and stick in the freezer for a quick cold shock, about five minutes.

- While vegetables are in the broiler, brown garlic cloves in a dry skillet over medium heat. about five or so minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

- Remove vegetables from freezer, skins should easily peel away from the tomatoes and pepper. Discard, along with the outermost layer of onion. Place vegetables into a highspeed blender. If there is juice remaining on the plate or in the bowl you used to hold the vegetables when putting them in the freezer pour that into the blender as well..

- Add garlic and herbs, agave, and lime juice. Blend on high until everything is combined and smooth. Add a little sea salt and black pepper.
- Next spread a generous amount of sauce onto your prepared pizza dough. Everyone likes a different amount of sauce so that is up to you. I personally like very saucy pizza, since I don’t eat cheese on my pizza the extra sauce gives it that extra oomph. Make sure to spread the sauce evenly then assemble your pizza toppings as you like and bake according to recipe directions.

So there you have it, a quick and easy pizza sauce that’s delicious and gives you the added satisfaction of knowing you made it yourself from scratch. Nothing better then that.

And incase you are curious about the pizza I have pictured here, it’s a very simple concoction that was absolutely heavenly. I used Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s pizza crust recipe from "The Vegan Table" topped it with my Broiled Vegetable sauce, then arranged thinly sliced tomato, and zucchini on top. Added sauteed red peppers, and red onions then finished it off with some shaved asparagus, some chopped green onion and some freshly cracked black pepper. Delicious!

Also my apologies for not actually taking a picture of the sauce on it’s own, that was very neglectful on my part.

*** Note - While my sauce is gluten-free, soy-free and oil-free. My pizza was not gluten-free or oil-free. I always brush my crust with a bit of olive oil before baking to get it a bit crispy, you don't have to. Also it is very easy to make gluten-free pizza and you can even buy pre-made gluten-free crusts or pre-made gluten-free pizza dough mix at many grocery and health food store chains. ***