Corn Zucchini Lime Pizza
For a good year, Casey worked close to the amazing/prolific Arizmendi Bakery. Not only are their pastries, muffins & cookies TO DIE FOR, they make the most fabulous/unconventional pizza with the craziest, most exotic toppings; it's fancy pizza! We created a tradition where every other Thursday, he'd call me and tell me what the pizza of the day was and nine times out of ten, he'd bring one home. I'd fire up the oven after hanging up and eagerly anticipated heating up the pizza and slicing into it.
One of the best pizzas he came home with was a wonderful corn, feta, lime & cilantro pizza that had slices of jalapeno scattered throughout. It tasted just like summer. Casey changed jobs, and sadly Arizmendi pizza has been out of our rotation. That hasn't prevented me from thinking about their pizza constantly. Before bed the other night, this pizza popped into my head and I seriously lost sleep over it. I woke up the next morning plagued with the NEED to make it. I fulfilled that need and if given the chance, I would have eaten the entire pizza myself. Thank heavens for husbands who come home early from work and neighbors who will try anything I make.
The corn is sweet and crunchy, the feta is salty and slightly creamy, the cilantro adds a nice herbal greenness to the pizza and the slices of jalapeno add great heat. Squeeze lime on top and all of the flavors step up a notch! This pizza is truly addictive, earth shattering and seriously the best way to exploit fresh corn right now. I can honestly say this is a pizza worth losing sleep over.
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Strawberry Goat Cheese Bruschetta
Do NOT adjust your computer screen. That really IS strawberry & basil you see on a crostini. This bruschetta is a riff on the oh-so-fab Caprese salad, except we substitute fresh mozzarella with GOAT CHEESE and tomatoes with STRAWBERRIES! And what do we get?? Crazy deliciousness! The strawberries are mixed with a little bit of balsamic vinegar, which brings out their underlying tang & sweetness. Shreds of basil provide some greenery and a hint of sophistication! And the goat cheese...it's just pure decadence.
If you bring these bruschette to a party this will happen:
1. people will scratch their heads.
2. they'll eat a few.
3. guests will fight over the last one!
I like to call them The Unusual Suspects. No one suspects how good they are, and then they're all gone.
Potato Rosemary Pizza
Dear Low Carb/College Student Tracy,
I write this letter from the future! I am the Carb Loving Tracy of 2011! That's right. You will not spend the REST OF YOUR LIFE being low carb. Does that upset you? I doubt it. By the time you're this age, you won't care. So... Tracy. You are in college AND you are low carb. How does that even work?? What do you do when your roommate orders pizza? I just can't imagine how you manage! You should get an award for the those 4 years of being low carb. Sadly, you don't. Life is rough. You will learn this.
When you're 31, you'll make a fantastic pizza from scratch. And get this....this pizza will have POTATO on it. That's right. Hot Carb on Carb action! The crust is crispy & all profesh tasting and the potatoes are creamy & utterly delicious. Did I mention there's rosemary involved? Oh there's also some onion in there too! Booya! (a word of the future) They get nice and charred. It's heaven!!!
I know what you're thinking. How did you cave? What stopped you from being low carb? Well...hmmm...it's simple. You will move into a teeny 1 bedroom apartment with Casey when you graduate from college. Your parents will freak out but it's just because moving in with a boyfriend is a BIG deal. You'll understand this a few years later. They weren't stupid; they knew what they were talking about. You'll spend your nights cooking for the two of you and he'll convert you into a pasta loving addict. Don't worry, you'll weigh less in the future than you do now. See? Carbs aren't so bad! However...Casey? He becomes your husband and he puts on a few pounds but it's only because you feed him really well. He's still a handsome guy, even with gray hair!
Tracy, please know this-- Carbs are good. Just remember to eat more salads to balance it out. Now....could you please go and get yourself a sandwich on a fat sourdough roll? Stop torturing yourself.
Carbingly,
Tracy the Carb Lover
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Ahh-mazing Tomato & Basil Pizza
My name is Tracy, and I've wasted 31 years of my life being afraid to make my own pizza dough. I've used flatbread as a substitute for pizza and yeah, it's a GREAT substitute...it's just that I don't always have the time to make my own dough...and why should? It never turns out the way I want it to. Some parts are too thick and doughy & not completely cooked. Some sections have holes in them and the middle is always so soggy that the cheese slides right off. I've never been able to shape the dough into a perfect circle because I have some expectation that I can toss the dough into the air like a scene from Mystic Pizza. I really can't do that and I'm not Julia Roberts.
Then I found this recipe...this fool-proof EASY pizza dough that abolished my pizza dough fears.
Mix dough together. Let it sit. Cut it in half. Let it sit. Pull it across a lubed baking sheet. Heat your oven like a mofo. Top the pizza, bake and BANG. You have a thin crust pizza that tastes it came from a pizza joint. The bottom is nice & crispy and slightly oily. The sauce is sweet & salty and the cheese is absolutely divine. It may not be round and it may not look perfect, but just one bite will make you forget perfect triangular pizza slices. Those pizzas look silly anyways. This dough is a game changer and I'm a believer.
Other things to note:
- This recipe makes two pizzas. You can freeze one round of dough or refrigerate it for a day if need be.
- Don't be worried if the dough springs back when you shape it. Let it rest for 5 minutes and try again. Gluten is funny. It's not you.
- Don't be nervous if the dough doesn't seem super wet and smooth after you initially mix the ingredients together. When you let the dough rise in the moist dish towel, all will be good. There's no knead to worry. ;)
- If you are making this on a weekend for lunch, start the dough at 9:30am & you should be eating pizza by lunch time.
- I completed another item from my 31 comes before 32 list! #6. Make my own pizza (and not fail!) Wahoo!
Broder- Portland, Oregon
I'm baaaaack! There's TOO much to tell you; I don't even know where to start! My batteries are finally recharged but I'm kinda having a hard time getting back to reality. So much laundry to catch up on, a toddler with a temperature and sooo much to unpack. It will get done. Yes, Tracy. It will get done. Tonight I was looking through my pictures, thinking... How do I even start? What do I tell you first??!
Why don't we just start at the beginning? That seems like the best idea.
I flew to Portland, Oregon on Wednesday and had lunch with my dear friend Jessica & her adorable daughter. A few months ago, she took a few snapshots of her breakfast at Broder and I was intrigued by all of the cute dishware! I put in a request to go there for our lunch because I had to see one of their egg skillets in person. What a treat! The food was tasty and I thought of Megan the whole time. Have you been, Megan? I bet you have & I bet you had a good time.
There were soo many cute details! Let's take a look:
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Fantastic Mayo-Free Egg Salad Sandwiches
OK so I made it clear that I don't like mayo. You know what's weird? I kind of like egg salad. Totally bizarre since mayo makes up the base of a traditional egg salad, right? When I was a kid, my mom made really good egg salad sandwiches on toasted wheat bread (the only kind of bread we were ALLOWED to eat). There was definitely mayo in her rendition, but the trick was to eat a sandwich fast enough so I didn't have a chance to think about the mayo part. It totally worked.
I wanted to make egg salad last weekend but there's no way I am going to buy a jar of mayo. Hell to the no! I don't EVER EVER EVER want to see a grocery receipt of mine with the word mayonnaise on it. So here we have an mayo-free egg salad with the help of creamy ricotta and Greek yogurt. I added some chopped red peppers to add color & texture and it turned out pretty good! Next time I might add a little bit of chopped onion... a squeeze of lemon or a few minced jalapenos to the mix because it needs a little kick. Other than that, I'm pretty stoked to find a recipe for a mayo-free egg salad.
Brussels Sprout-Potato Hash
You know a dish is a winner when you find yourself making it twice in one week. Say hello to my new addiction, Brussels Sprout-Potato Hash! Breakfast potatoes just got a WHOLE lot better with the addition of Brussels Sprouts! They add lots of depth to the dish, rounding out all the carbs. Yes. I can never get enough carbs, but sometimes my guilt takes over! I don't feel as bad binging on breakfast potatoes now when there's a huge heaping pile of caramelized Brussels Sprouts in the mix. I must also note that the addition of lemon zest & thyme make this hash stellar. Casey immediately asked me "Ooh! what's this spice?" Thyme, baby. Thyme. Other things to note: vegan, low fat, low calorie, gluten-free & fantastic!
Lunch Ideas- ROUND TWO!
Hi! It's time to clear out my cell phone, so welcome to Round Two of my Lunch Ideas for work!
If you are new to this, you should check out Round ONE!
Let's begin!
On this day at work, I brought some some leftover chicken & kale noodle soup with an orange. The next day I added a few dashes of hot sauce, chunks of avocado & cilantro and it turned into a Mexican themed lunch! Olé!!
