Bring on the Pizza!

I got started talking about pizza at a wedding I went to over the weekend and just couldn't put the idea of making some new creations out of my head. I came up with a Asian pear gorgonzola pizza, a sweet potato feta pizza and a Hawaiian Tex Mex pizza. They were all delicious, but I loved the Asian pear. I think it's the creaminess of the blue cheese combined with the sweet crunch of the pear and the earthiness of the walnuts. Here are all three. Enjoy!

Asian Pear Gorgonzola Pizza
John Robbin's Pizza Dough
1/2 Asian pear cut into thin slices
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 yellow onion sliced
1/2 cup gorgonzola or blue cheese crumbled
1/4 cup of walnuts chopped
3 tablespoons of olive oil
a pinch of brown sugar
handful of corn meal

So the first thing to do is to caramelize your onions. Heat up your olive oil over medium heat. Once it is warmed up, add your sliced onions to it. Let this cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. They will get nice and soft and turn slightly brown. Then mix in a pinch of brown sugar to bring out the sweetness of the onions and cook for another two minutes. The onions should look like this


Once your onions are done, you can roll out your pizza dough. Make sure to put some corn meal down on your pizza stone before you throw it on there. In order, I first put down a layer of mozzarella. If you don't use any cheese here, you run the risk of getting soggy crust and limpy pizza. After the mozzarella, you place your sliced pear pieces down. Then you top with your walnuts, gorgonzola or blue cheese and lastly your caramelized onions. Then bake it at 400 for about 20-30 minutes, it really depends on your oven, and you will have delicious pizza!

Sweet Potato Feta Pizza
John Robbin's Pizza Dough
1 small sweet potato thinly sliced
10 kalamata olives quartered
10 semi or sun-dried tomatoes coarsely chopped
1/2 yellow onion
1/2 cup of feta cheese cubed or crumbled
3/4 cup of mozzarella
2 tablespoons of fresh herbs chopped (I used rosemary and oregano)
1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil

The first thing to do is to roast the potatoes. Place them into a small baking dish with the olive oil and fresh herbs. Place them in the oven at 400 for about 20-30 minutes, turning them a couple of times. When they are done, they should look like this

Next you want to caramelize your onions. Just follow the same recipe as given for the Asian pear gorgonzola pizza.

Once the potatoes and onions are done, roll out the dough and get started! First put down your layer of mozzarella cheese. Then place your sweet potato slices and top with feta, caramelized onions, kalamata olives and semi-dried tomatoes. Cook at 400 for 20-30 minutes and enjoy!

Hawaiian Tex Mex Pizza
John Robbin's Pizza Dough
1/4 cup of salsa
1/4 cup of pizza sauce
3/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup of shredded pepper jack cheese
1 serrano pepper coarsely chopped
1/4 cup of red onion diced
1/4 cup of black beans
1/4 cup of pineapple coarsely chopped

This one is so easy to make! I have been wanting to put pineapple on pizza for a while and it finally clicked to add it to my usual mexican pizza. The pineapple provides this sweet refreshment from the heat of the rest of the pizza and is amazing!

So first thing is to mix your salsa and pizza sauce. Spread it out on the rolled dough. Mix your cheeses together and spread it over the sauce mix. Then top with serrano pepper, red onion, black beans and pineapple. Place in the oven at 400 for 20-30 minutes and have a great twist on your normal spicy pizza!

Southwestern Pasta Primavera Sauce

I know I've been away for some time and thought I'd kick off my return with some spicy spaghetti sauce that I recently made with my Mom (thanks for the pictures Mom!). It is absolutely delicious and is a twist on your regular pasta dish.

Southwestern Pasta Primavera
1 1/2 lbs of tomatoes (you can use heirloom, roma, vine, whatever large tomatoes tickles your fancy)
1 pint of cherry or grape tomatoes
2 yellow onions (thinly sliced)
2 heads of garlic (skins removed)
1/3 chopped cup of fresh herbs (I used basil, rosemary, oregano and thyme)
1/4 cup of olive oil
olive oil for brushing
3 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
1/2 tablespoon of salt
1/2 tablespoon of pepper
3 anaheim peppers
3 jalapeno peppers
2 zucchinis
2 summer squash
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 ear of corn cooked and cut off the cobb (you can use frozen corn too)
1 large bag of spinach
18 oz tomato paste

First thing you want to do is slow roast the tomatoes. Set your oven to 200 and cut all your tomatoes in half, cutting out any remnants of stems and place them into a large roasting pan with the sliced onion and fresh herbs. Toss them with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Roast them for two hours, turning them after an hour.


After the tomatoes are nicely roasting, you want to roast the anaheim and jalapeno peppers. So turn the oven up to 400 and brush the peppers with a little bit of olive oil. You will need to turn them every 10-15 minutes once there skins start to blister like this:


Once these are completely roasted, you want to place them into a container and seal with a lid to let them sweat for about 15 minutes. This makes the skins easy to peel off. Once they have finished sweating, remove the skin and add them to the tomatoes. Now you need to blend this. I use a stick blender but if you don't have on you, you can blend this in batches in a regular blender.


Now that the tomato base of the sauce is done, you want to roast your vegetables. So chop the remaining vegetables into chunky pieces, except for the corn and spinach, and toss with a little bit of olive oil and roast them for 25 minutes at 400.


Normally, when roasting vegetables you would want to roast them for a little longer, but these veggies are going to also be cooking when you simmer the sauce. You want to turn them once or twice. Once they are done you add them to the sauce along with the cooked corn that has been cut off the cobb and the tomato paste.

Now, the last thing to do is to wilt the spinach. You can do this by placing it in a saute pan over medium heat with a little bit olive oil. Cover it and stir occasionally until its a little wilted. Then add it to the sauce and stir.


After you add the spinach to the sauce, let it simmer for about 2 hours over low heat. It will thicken up nicely and be perfect to serve over any pasta. I love it over tortellini along with some delicious garlic bread and a tossed garden salad. Yum!

Yummy Yummy Fried Tofu Veggie Sandwich

As a vegetarian, a lot of times people ask me, well what do you eat? My answer to them is always the same. The tastiest food I have ever eaten was vegetarian. As a tribute to that idea, I introduce my fried tofu veggie sandwich. Actually, this was my boyfriend's idea, so I must tip my hat to him. Nonetheless, here we go!

Fried Tofu Veggie Sandwich (makes 3 sandwiches)
1 package extra firm tofu
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 avocado mashed
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoons of hummus
Few slices of cucumber
Few slices of tomato
Few slices of red onion
12 thin slices of cheddar cheese (mine were about 1/2 a centimeter thick)
2 leafs of romaine lettuce coarsely chopped
6 slices of your favorite bread toasted (I used sprouted Ezekiel Bread)

The first thing you want to do is take your tofu out of the package and drain it. Just dump out the water in the package. Put a couple of sheets of paper towels on a plate, place the tofu on top and cover with any plate with a heavy object on top of it (I used my bottle of canola oil). Let this sit for about 20 minutes. What this does is gets rid of a lot of the excess water, which will shorten your frying time. Next, you want to cut your tofu into slices that are about 1 centimeter thick. Heat your oil in a frying pan and pan fry your tofu. This took me about 7 minutes a side. Just keep your eye on it and make sure it doesn't stick to the pan. Essentially, you want your tofu to have a nice golden color, like this:


Once your tofu is done frying, you want to mash your avocado and add your salt to it. Then you're ready to assembly! Slather some of your avocado mixture on one slice your toasted bread and slather some hummus on your other slice. You can stack your ingredients however you like. My sandwich went avocado, 2 slices of tofu, 4 slices of cheddar cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, lettuce and hummus. It was so delicious. Mwah, enjoy!

My Almost Vegan Easter Dinner

I am by no means religious, but I will never pass up an opportunity to make great food for great company. So as Easter approached I knew I had to come up with something to share with my favorite friends. The menu: homemade pita chips, spinach and artichoke dip, apple walnut sourdough stuffing, roasted sweet potatoes, southwestern corn pudding, sauteed portabella mushrooms spinach and green beans and biscuits. Even though there were three non-vegetarian at the table everyone enjoyed the food along with good wine and good laughs.

Pita Chips
1 package of mini whole wheat pita bread (you can use regular sized pita, but I find the minis are easier to work with)
3-4 cloves of large garlic minced
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper

I love home made pita chips. They are so crunchy and delicious. At least ten times better than store bought pita chips and at a fraction of the cost. Really, you can put any toppings on them. This recipe has always brought home the gold for me.

Preheat your oven to 400. Mix all your ingredients, minus the pita bread together, and set aside. Next take your pita bread, cut it into fourths and break apart the bread so each fourth becomes two chips. Continue to do this with all of your bread until all your chips are made.


Then, with a spoon or brush, lightly brush your olive oil mixture on top of the pita bread. When your spread is all added them pop them in the oven for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them though as they burn easily. But when they are all done you have the perfect chip for dipping into your favorite spread.

Spinach and Artichoke Dip
16 oz frozen spinach thawed
14 oz canned artichoke hearts, quartered
1/2 cup of red onion diced
1 red pepper roasted and diced
1 tablespoon of olive oil
4 tablespoons of pesto
4 tablespoons of vegan mayonnaise
3/4 cup of soy milk
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper
Pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (optional- I thought about adding this after I made the dish. So next time I'm going to add this to give it a nice kick!)

I love spinach dip, but most spinach dips don't taste very much like spinach, instead they take on the flavors of cream cheese and sour cream. Not to mention that they are incredibly unhealthy and fattening. So I wanted to make a healthier choice that tasted more like veggies. The first thing you need to do is roast your red pepper. Set your oven to 400 degrees. Then brush your red pepper with olive oil. Place it on a cookie sheet and into the oven. It'll take about 30 minutes to roast. You need to keep your eye on it and turn it ever so often to get it evenly roasted. When its ready to come out it will look something like this:


Essentially, you want parts of the skin to burn and for the whole pepper to be soft. Once you take the pepper out immediately put it in a container and cover it. This allows the pepper to sweat so the skin will be easier to remove. You should leave the pepper in the closed container for about 15 minutes. Once it is cool enough to work with you want to slowly peel the skin off your pepper. Then you want to cut the top off and remove all the seeds. Once all the seeds are removed, dice up your pepper and set aside. After this is done, all you need to do is mix all your ingredients in a large bowl, combining thoroughly, pour the mixture into a 8x8 baking dish and cook for about 15 minutes at 350. If you want, you can make this dip earlier and refrigerate it. If you do this then you'll want to add another 10-15 minutes onto your cooking time.

Apple Walnut Sourdough Stuffing
6 firmly packed cups of diced sourdough
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 large red onion diced
1 apple cored and diced (I used gala, but you can use whatever is your favorite variety)
3 bunches of scallions diced (white and green parts)
3 celery stalks diced
3 tablespoons of your favorite fresh herbs (I used thyme and rosemary)
1/2 cup of walnuts coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups of apple juice
Freshly ground pepper to taste.

Take your diced sourdough bread, spread it on a cookie sheet and place it in the 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Essentially, you want your bread to be dry like croutons. Once these are done, take them out and set aside.

Now you want to saute your red onion, garlic and celery over medium heat in your olive oil for about 5 minutes. Until your onions are translucent and soft. Then add your chopped apple and saute for another 5 minutes or so.


Once this is done you're ready to combine all your ingredients, but don't add your apple juice until all your other ingredients are thoroughly combined. After you toss it well with the apple juice, put your stuffing into a long baking dish and cook for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes
3-4 large sweet potatoes diced
3-4 cloves of garlic cut into fourths
3 tablespoons of your favorite herbs (I used thyme and rosemary)
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil

Okay, so this is just about the easiest and simplest dishes to make. Not to mention delicious! You can use this same recipe with any other type of potato, but sweet potatoes have more vitamins and minerals than other potatoes.

Once you have all of your ingredients cut, all you do is toss the potatoes with your olive oil and herbs and pop them into a oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Toss the potatoes a couple of times while cooking to make sure they cook evenly. But yes, it is as easy as that and absolutely delicious!

Southwestern Corn Pudding
2 tablespoons of olive oil
4 cups of corn (fresh or frozen)
1 red bell pepper diced
1 green bell pepper diced
2 jalapenos diced
1 cup of soy milk
1/4 cup of corn starch
1/2 cup of corn meal (I used blue)
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
3 bunches of fresh scallions chopped (green and white parts)
1/4 cup of fresh cilantro chopped
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
Pinch of salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste

I found this recipe in a great book called Veganomigon. I modified it slightly by adding green pepper to it and substituting coconut milk for soy milk. So first thing is to lightly grease a 8x8 baking dish and set aside. Then you want to saute your corn, bell peppers and jalapenos over medium heat for about 10-12 minutes. While this is sauteing, whisk your corn starch into your soy milk and let the corn starch dissolve. Once your corn is done sauteing, put it in a bowl and add your soy milk mixture. Using a hand blender pulse the mixture about 15 times, so its a chunky consistency. If you don't have a hand blender you can use a regular blender or food processor. Then add the rest of your ingredients and pour into your greased dish. Place it in the oven at 350 and let cook for about 40-45 minutes. Now you have a spicy twist to your normal corn pudding recipe!

Sauteed Portabella Mushrooms, Green Beans and Spinach
16 oz of portabella mushrooms chopped
1lbs of green beans (tips removed and broken in half)
5oz of baby spinach coarsely chopped
1 small yellow onion diced
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic minced
3 tablespoons of sherry
3 tablespoons of soy sauce

Apparently in the wildness of my kitchen I forgot to take a picture of this side! My apologies guys. This is a really easy recipe to make, so hopefully the picture isn't a deal breaker.

Boil a pot of water (enough to cook your green beans in). Once you have a rolling boil going, drop your beans in for about 5 minutes. Then dump them into a colander, rinse with cold water and set aside.

Next saute your onions and garlic over medium heat until the onions are translucent. Add your mushrooms and continue sauteing until the mushrooms are slightly browned and have released some of their water. No you can add your spinach, green beans, sherry and soy sauce. Bring it to a simmer and cook until the beans are cooked through and the spinach is wilted (about 5 minutes). Then serve!

Biscuits
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups of white flour
1 tablespoon of baking soda
3/4 stick of soy margarine cut into small pieces
1 1/2 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar

I love biscuits! I make them for just about every big holiday meal and these little guys here are amazing. They aren't difficult to make, but they do make a mess. I suggest laying a towel down on your work space to collect the excess flour.

First combine your soy milk and vinegar and set aside so it can become butter soy milk. Then add your flours and baking soda. Now is the fun part. Add your cut pieces of margarine and using your hands crumble them into the mixture to create small pea sized pieces.

Once that is done, add your soy buttermilk to the flour and combine. The dough is going to be a little sticky, so make sure you flour your cutting board or whatever you are using to knead your dough. As you knead the dough add extra white flour until your dough is smooth and elastic. Then roll out your dough so its 1/2 inch thick. Using a small floured glass cut your dough into biscuits.

Place your biscuits onto a large ungreased cookie sheet as you go. After you cut out your first round of biscuits, form a dough from the "scraps" and repeat until you have used up all your dough. Then place them in the 400 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes. The biscuits will have a slightly golden color to them and sound hollow when you knock on them. Enjoy!

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!

Anyone that knows me knows that I make a ton of pizza. My love for making pizza grew exponentially once I realized how much room for creativity there truly is. You can put whatever you want on pizza and I've tried nearly every concoction that I could think of. The other day I was eating a salad at Za in Arlington Massachusetts and was inspired to try squash and apple on a pizza. Obviously, this isn't enough for one pizza so I thought about it some more and decided to add sage, pistachio nut, mozzarella and gorgonzola. As I invited friends over for dinner I thought of a regular favorite I could make and two other new recipes; Roasted veggies with pesto and goat cheese, Spinach mushroom and asiago, and Jalapenos kalamata olives and garlic. With my recipes all set up I was ready to go and now I'll share them with all of you.

Roasted Squash and Apple Pizza
1/2 acorn squash (originally I wanted to use butternut squash, but they didn't have any at the grocery store)
1/2 apple diced (I used cameo, but you can use whatever apple you want)
1/4 cup pistachio nuts
15 leaves of sage minced
1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese (this is an approximation)
A couple handfuls of gorgonzola cheese
1 pizza dough (recipe to follow)

First thing to do is roast your squash. Set the oven to 350, cut your squash in half and scoop out the insides of side you will be roasting. Don't scoop out the seeds from the side you will be putting in your fridge. For some reason the squash keeps better with the seeds in it. Next brush some olive oil on both the inside and outside of the squash. Place the squash with the flesh facing down on your cookie sheet and roast for approximately 45 minutes. Its ready to come out when you can pierce the skin with a fork and it feels soft and a little mushy. When you take it out the inside should look like this:


Set the squash aside and let it cool. Once it is cool enough to work with again, peel the skin off. This will be really easy to do. You just use your hand and slowly peel the skin back. Then dice the squash into edible bites. Once your squash is done, you are ready to make your pizza. Take your pizza stone out, or if you don't have one you can use a large baking pan, and spread some corn meal on it so your pizza doesn't stick.


Then you're going to grab your dough ball and cut it in half. Save the other half for your next pizza. Roll out the dough so it is a little bit bigger than your pizza stone. I still can't roll my dough into a perfect circle, so don't worry if you can't either. Then transfer your dough onto your stone. It should look something like this:


Next you are going to take your edges and roll them into the dough to form a crust. Some sections may have more dough to work with then others. Just rip off some the excess dough and work it into a another area of your crust. When you have the crust all worked out seal the edges into the dough. Ultimately, it should look something like this:


Now you're ready to put your toppings on. So take the cup or so of mozzarella and evenly spread it across the dough. You can use more if needed. Essentially, you just want a nice even layer of cheese which covers your dough. Next spread out your squash. I had a little left over, so you may too, but just put it into a little container and save it for later. Then add your diced apple. Sprinkle with your pistachio nuts and sage. Now you're ready to add the final touch, the gorgonzola cheese. Using a couple of handfuls slowly top with gorgonzola. Keep in mind that this is a potent cheese, so try not to add too much or it will overpower the flavor of everything else on the pizza. Before you put it in the oven it will look like this:


Place the pizza in the oven and set to 400. It is important not to set the oven before placing the stone in the oven. It can crack the stone. Even if your not using a stone, its better to wait to turn the oven on until the pizza is in because it cooks more evenly that way. The pizza will take approximately 30 minutes to cook. If your oven is like mine, you'll want to rotate the pizza for an even cook. To check the pizza, flick the dough on each side. When the dough is cooked it will be hard and have a somewhat hollow sound to it. Make sure the cheese is melted and your toppings look nicely cooked before taking it out. Now you have lovely pizza to share!

Mushroom and Spinach Pizza
4 oz of portabella mushrooms diced
5 oz of spinach sliced finely
1 small onion diced
2 cloves of medium garlic minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 head of roasted garlic chopped
1 cup of mozzarella cheese (approximation)
A couple of handfuls of shredded asiago cheese
1 pizza dough (recipe to follow)

Pizza Sauce (enough for 2 pizzas)
15 oz can tomato sauce
6 oz can tomato paste
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 tablespoon of fresh basil chopped
1/2 tablespoon of fresh rosemary chopped

Although I came up with this recipe last, it turned out to be the best pizza of the night. The mushroom and spinach flavors really shined through making it an amazingly delicious pizza. A shout out to my friend Steve for the thumbs up.

So the first thing you're going to do is roast the garlic. If you are making the roasted squash and apple pizza, you can do this at the same time you roast your squash. Take a head of garlic and cut off the top and place it into a piece of tinfoil. Drizzle one tablespoon of olive oil over it like this:


Roll the tinfoil up, so your garlic looks like this:


Place this in the oven between 350-400 and roast for about 40 minutes. Just until the tops of garlic start to brown. Then pull it out and set it aside. Once the garlic is cool enough to work with, pop them out of their skin and coarsely chop them.

Next you are going to saute your mushroom and spinach. But before we do that, I want to show you an easy way to diced your onions. Cut your onion in half. Take each half and run your knife through making some slits, but not cutting the onion all the way through.


Now run your knife horizontally through the slits, again making sure that you don't cut the onion all the way through.


After that is done, you can just dice the onion as you would normally, but now you have perfectly shaped pieces.

Okay, so now we are going to saute the mushroom and spinach. Put a pan on medium heat and heat up your remaining olive oil. When it is heated add your onions and minced garlic. Saute for a couple of minutes until your onions are soft and translucent. Then add your mushrooms. Saute them until they are slightly brown and have released most of their juices. This should take about 5 minutes.


Then add your spinach and saute until it is just wilted, which will take about another 2 minutes. You still want the spinach to have that nice vibrant green color to it.


When this is done, set it aside and get to work on your sauce. With the sauce you are just going to add all your ingredients together and stir. Make sure to work the sauce well to combine the tomato paste with the tomato sauce. You don't want a lumpy sauce.

Once this is all set you are ready to assembly your pizza. Follow the instructions listed above. Once your pizza dough is on your stone and has a nice crust, then evenly spread out half the pizza sauce you just made. On top of that spread out your mozzarella. You may want to use more. Essentially, you are looking for a nice coating of cheese. After you mozzarella is on, add your mushroom and spinach mixture. Sprinkle your roasted garlic and asiago cheese and set in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. Viola, pizza is served!

Jalapeno Garlic Kalamata Olive Pizza
1 medium jalapeno thinly sliced
12 kalamata olives sliced into 4 pieces
4-5 cloves of garlic minced
1 cup of mozzarella
1 cup of cheddar cheese
A couple of handfuls of feta cheese
1/2 of sauce made in Mushroom and Spinach Pizza
1 pizza dough (recipe to follow)

Once you have all of your ingredients sliced and diced you are ready to assemble your pizza. Spread out your sauce on your dough. Mix together the cheddar and mozzarella cheese and spread onto the pizza. Next place your slices of jalapeno around the pizza. Sprinkle with the kalamata olives and minced garlic. Then top with a couple of handfuls of crumbled feta cheese. Pop this into the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes and you have nice spicy pizza.

Roasted Veggie Pesto Pizza
For this pizza you can roast whatever your favorite vegetables are. Ultimately you want to end up with about 2 cups of roasted veggies. Here is what I used:
1/2 eggplant diced
1/2 zucchini diced
1/2 summer squash diced
1/2 red pepper diced
1/4 sweet potato diced
1 small onion quartered
5-6 cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
1 cup of pesto
1 cup of mozzarella cheese
4 oz of goat cheese

The first thing you need to do is roast your veggies. Once you have all your veggies diced place them into a baking dish and toss with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.


Place the veggies in the oven at 350 for about 40 minutes. Toss them a few times while they are roasting. You want them to be soft and well roasted, but not too mushy. They should look something like this when they are done:

While your veggies are roasting you want to make your pesto. Just click on the pesto link and follow the directions included in grilled veggie sandwich. Once your pesto is ready you are all set to assemble your pizza. Roll out the dough, transfer to your pan and form a good crust. Once this is all set, spread out your pesto base. Top the pesto with an even layer of mozzarella cheese. Next add your roasted veggies. You may have some left over. If so just pop them in the fridge. These go great with some freshly made ziti and a little bit of olive oil and Parmesan cheese. After your veggies are on, crumble up 4 oz log of goat cheese and sprinkle on top. Pop this in the oven at 400 for about thirty minutes and presto, you have veggie pesto pizza.

Pizza Dough
The best pizza dough recipe I have found came from John Robbins' book May All Be Fed. For anyone of you out there that are thinking of becoming vegetarian or already are, this is a must read book. Actually, all John Robbins' books are pretty amazing. But anyhow back to pizza dough.

2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups of all purpose white flour
2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast
1/2 cup of lukewarm water
1 teaspoon of maple syrup
1 cup of water
1/4 cup of olive oil

In a medium sized bowl add the yeast, warm water and maple syrup. If you don't have maple syrup, you can use agave nector, honey or regular sugar. The sugar is only there to activate the yeast. Let that sit for about 10 minutes until the yeast grows like this:


While you are waiting for the yeast to do its magic, in a large bowl combine your two flours. Once your yeast is ready add to it the remaining water and olive oil. Once these ingredients are combined you can add them to your flour. Mix these with a wooden spoon until the ingredients just start coming together. Dump the dough onto a floured surface and start to knead it. Kneading should only take about 2-5 minutes.

Once your dough is nice and elastic, form into a ball like this:

Place the dough into a slightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Place the bowl into a warm location and let the dough rise for one hour. After that hour the dough should have doubled in size and will look like this:

This dough is good for two pizzas or two calzones. Once it has risen cut it in half, roll it out and cover with the toppings of your choice. Enjoy!

Grilled Veggie Sandwich with Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

This sandwich is one of my favorites. I usually make it in summer time when there is an abundance of wonderful fresh veggies, but yesterday was so beautiful. I simply couldn't resist the urge to make them. I love sweet potatoes and don't use them as much as I'd like to, so I thought the fries would be a great addition to the meal. Although this recipe does have cheese in it, it is easy to veganize by omitting the Parmesan cheese from the pesto and by substituting the goat cheese for your favorite vegan cream cheese.

Grilled Veggie Sandwich
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 loaf fresh baguette bread
1/4-1/2 cup fresh pesto (recipe to follow)
4 oz log of goat cheese (I used one with garlic and herbs)
1/2 medium eggplant
1 medium yellow onion
1/2 medium zucchini
1 small yellow summer squash
1 tomato (thinly sliced and cut in half)
handful of fresh baby spinach


Before doing anything, make the pesto (the recipe is below). After your pesto is all set, place your grill pan on the stove and turn the heat to medium. You can use an outdoor grill too, but I live in New England and its the middle of March, so my grill has not come out yet. Once your grill pan is starting to heat up start chopping your veggies. I cut mine about half an inch thick, like this:


For the eggplant, your rings are going to be big, so I recommend cutting them into fourths, which makes it easier to build the sandwiches. Depending on the size of your squash and zucchini, you may want to do this as well or cut them in half. After you have all your veggies sliced, place them in a bowl and toss them with the olive oil until they are evenly coated.


Then you can start grilling. Try to space them evenly on the pan, so there is plenty of room for everyone. They are ready to be flipped when they look like this:


Your veggies may need a couple of turns on the grill. You want some nice grill marks and you want them to be a little soft too. When your veggies are all done, they should look like this:


I think what really makes this sandwich is toasting the bread on the grill pan. It gives it a great flavor and a great crunch. So once your veggies are done, cut your baguette bread into the sandwich sizes you want and spread a little olive oil on the fresh side. I love sourdough, so when I saw fresh organic sour dough baguettes at the store I immediately picked them over the whole wheat, but you can use whatever kind of baguette your heart desires.


Then start grilling. Keep an eye on these guys. You don't want to burn them and you want to make sure they are getting evenly toasted. When they are ready they should look something like this:


Once the bread is toasted you can start assembling your sandwiches. Spread some of your pesto on what is going to be your bottom side of the sandwich and on the top side spread some goat cheese. On top of the pesto build a layer of your grilled eggplant. On top of that build a layer of your zucchini and squash, alternating between the two. Top with a couple slices of your tomato and a few fresh spinach leaves. Place your prepared goat cheese top on your sandwich, pressing down a little, and your ready to gobble this sandwich up!

Pesto
4 oz fresh basil thinly chopped
1 garlic clove (minced)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts (coarsely chopped)

The first thing you want to do is chop your basil. It can be kind of difficult to chop this much basil, but I picked up a trick from Rachel Ray. Take some of your basil leaves and stack them, like this:


Then roll them like cigar leaves, so you have a long "tube" that looks like this:


Then you thinly slice the basil. Once you have the basil sliced, dice it slightly by giving a few chops length wise, so your basil now looks like this:

Keep working the basil like this until you have it all chopped. Then combine the rest of the ingredients, in your blender, food processor, etc. I place everything in a Pyrex container and used a hand held blender. It makes clean up super easy and I can just cap the left over basil and place it in the fridge for next time. Once all your ingredients are combined, blend them. You want a creamy consistency, so try to make sure there aren't any stray basil that didn't get blended. In the end your pesto should look like this:

Although this is enough pesto for these sandwiches and probably for a pizza sauce, it is not enough if you are going to use it as a past sauce. If you want to make pesto for pasta double the recipe, except for the garlic. This is a raw sauce, so one clove of garlic goes a long way.

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries
1 1/2 large sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

Sweet potatoes are like butternut squash, a little difficult to cut. Just use a big knife and slowly cut them into fourths. After they are in fourths, they are more manageable and you can switch back to your normal knife. Slice the potato pieces about half an inch thick and then cut each slice into half inch pieces, so you have a fry. Ultimately your fries should look like this:

Once all your fries are made, place them in a bowl and pour on the other ingredients. They may sound like your fries are going to be too sweet, but trust me the 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne goes a long way. Combine all the ingredients with your hands to make sure the fries are evenly coated.


Then spread them evenly on a cookie sheet and bake them at 400 for 20 minutes, flipping them after 10 minutes. I recommend making the fries before your sandwiches and placing them in the oven after you place your veggies on the grill. That way they come out of the oven at the same time that your sandwiches are ready. Dinner is served!