Gluten free pizza dough

I tried there two different recipes

https://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/gf-pizza-dough/

And

https://minimalistbaker.com/easy-vegan-gluten-free-pizza-crust/

I preferred the GFOAS recipe because it actually rose, but they were both quite heavy and chewy. For reference, I had a gluten sensitive crust from pizza ranch, and it was light and fluffy, but also crisp on the outside.

Pizza at home

We finally found the right pizza crust recipe. We put the ingredients into the bread machine on dough mode and it's ready a couple hours later, so we do need to plan ahead. One recipe makes two pizzas that fit on our 15" round pizza stone.

https://www.food.com/recipe/easy-peezy-pizza-dough-bread-machine-pizza-dough-35805

With this dough recipe, at one point I was missing Somerville and Flatbread pizza, so I made this as one of our favorites from there.

http://planetofcrepes.blogspot.com/2014/06/punctuated-equilibrium-rip-of-pizza.html?m=1

One day we had some extra dough, so we tried making dessert pizza. It tastes like Godfathers cinnamon streusel pizza!

https://www.keyingredient.com/recipes/14610060/godfathers-streusel-dessert-pizza/

Pizza dough, NYT "easy"

This recipe for pizza dough was easy, and I thought it came out pretty good.

Pizza dough

I tried this dough recipe from the NYT. I didn't give it enough to rise-only about 1.5 hours- so I will hold final judgement until I follow the recipe better, but it was just ok with our  cheese and cheese, onion and roasted red pepper pizzas.

Home made pizza - sorta

Last night I made pizza using our pizza stone for the first time.
I used a crust we purchased and here's Ebon's handy work for the first pizza:

Our go-to toppings are green peppers and onions, so that was one of the pizzas. The second was a margherita of sorts - I used defrosted basil cubes (from the garden) and tomatoes.

It was about 1/4 of a large yellow onion and about 1/4 to 1/2 of a green pepper. In this case it was frozen from the CSA earlier this season. Ebon wasn't a fan of how it tasted, but I couldn't tell the difference.

Here are the leftovers!

The stone definitely helped - it was pre-heated about 30 minutes before using it. The margherita pizza was a bit soggy in the middle because the basil cubes had a lot of water in them, the tomatoes exuded some water, and I added a drizzling of olive oil, which I'm sure didn't help. However, it was still quite tasty!
They baked at 450degF for about 10-20 min - I just watched to make sure the cheese was bubbly and getting brown.

Busy post-work

The last couple of days have been kinda busy after work, so we've ordered in. Thai on Tuesday and pizza (can you tell Ebon likes pizza!) last night.
On Tuesday morning, I walked to the polling place to find the line out the door and down the block, so I opted to not be late to work and vote afterwards. As I was walking to polling place after work, I spotted another polling place with a line down the block and around the corner for quite a ways and I was worried that I would meet the same fate. Fortunately, the line I had to stand in didn't go around the corner. I did have to wait in line for about an hour before attending to my democratic duty. Because of that and I had to meet up with the end of rugby practice to attend to my rugby treasurer duties, Ebon ordered Thai food. I tried to go with something a little different and asked if one of their chicken dishes could be made vegetarian by using tofu instead - they agreed and I had Cashew Tofu. I'd say it was decent, it probably would have been better if it was hot, but rugby practice delayed my return to home. Ebon got Sweet and Sour Tofu and the staple Crispy Tofu Basil which is always yummy.
Last night I went to my first book signing (at least that I can remember) for my favorite blog, Young House Love and go buy their book: Young House Love, the Book! . I went with a friend from work and as we drove the Nor'easter that was predicted started dumping and blowing snow everywhere, so that made for an interesting drive into Boston from Chelmsford. The signing was at West Elm near Fenway Park. After waiting in line for about three hours we spent a very short amount of time chatting with John and Sherry, they signed my friend's book and my bookplate, and then we took the obligatory picture.

The employees snaked the line around the whole store, which I thought was ingenious for them because it forced people to look at all the stuff they had in stock. Forced window-shopping was definitely way better than the alternative of standing outside in the blowing snow. It was fun- as fun as waiting in line for the second day in a row can be- they gave us cookies and hot chocolate, we made line friends with some of the people standing close to us, and I got a couple ideas for "re-doing" our bedroom. We need a new duvet cover and I have been thinking about getting or making new drapes/curtains for a while since the ones I have are probably 9 years old and getting a little drab.  This morning while I was getting ready for work, I looked at our room I thought that it might work better if I re-arrange the room a bit. My design wheels are turning!
Soooo, after getting home at about 9:30pm, Ebon had ordered some pizza which I think he got for free from Papa John's. After that I was beat, so I went to bed after a little TV and internet browsing (I heart the Daily Show!).

Have you ever been to a book signing? What was it like? Do you ever get sick of pizza? Ebon doesn't!

Coffee Cake

It takes me quite a while to finish my post when I have to upload photos - not so great ones at that...Anyway, this post is from a few weeks ago!

When I want to procrastinate or am bored, I'll often bake. Such was the case on this rainy Sunday morning. I have a ton of work to do and the house is a huge mess, so I'll make a coffee cake instead. Sounds like a perfect idea to me! I made THIS coffee cake with a few variations - of course.
I added about 1/2 cup chopped pecans to the struesel and instead of putting all the streusel on top of the cake, I layered the batter and the streusel so there would be the yummy surprise inside! I also used an angel food/bundt pan, only because there is still lasagna in my large baking dish :)
Here are some pics of the results:

As far as taste goes, I would say that it is OK. I think I was expecting a little more of a pumpkin flavor, but that may also point to the pumpkin I used. The oatmeal made it hearty and moist, but maybe a little bit too chewy.

We had pizza from Domino's for dinner - exciting!

Not very exciting weekend - food-wise

This is from last weekend, I'm a little behind - it took me some time to transcribe the recipe.

Friday night we ordered pizza from Pizza Days.
After a gorgeous day working in the garden and another hike to the Middlesex Fells, Saturday we had leftover pizza. I did make pumpkin bars, though. When I was in grade school, we would bring treats to share with our class on our birthdays and I would request these all the time:
Recipe pending
1-1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
16oz pureed pumpkin (2 cups)
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Mix ingredients together and pour into a greased and floured jelly roll pan (I used a 9x13 pan) and bake at 350degF for 25-30 min or until a tester in the middle comes out clean (I think it took about 40-50 min in the smaller pan).

Frosting
One 8oz package of reduced fat cream cheese/neufchatel cheese - room temperature
4 tablespoons butter or half a stick of butter - I used unsalted - room temperature
2 cups powdered sifted sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons of milk
cream the cheese and butter together, then add in the sugar and vanilla, blend until smooth.
This frosting is a bit on the runny side, so the milk might not be necessary.

Sunday I had pizza again at a rugby "social" in Newport, RI before it started raining and blowing and Ebon ate leftover Chinese.

Way too much pizza for my own good, but I did get a lot done in the garden and was able to salvage some green tomatoes and some basil is still going at one garden. I also transplanted one rhubarb plant and there were some stalks left. I'll try using all of them, but I'm not sure how it will all turn out.

I also made some hot chocolate and Ebon made a special treat - "hard rice." Also known as 누룽지 or "noo-roong-ji".

I found a good tutorial at this blog, but we don't soak it. Basically it's pan-toasted cooked rice. It's kind of like Korean popcorn only with a "ricey" taste!

 What are your favorite fall treats?

Long weekend

Thursday - Thai food leftovers - exciting!
Friday - On our way up to Stowe, VT, we stopped to get dinner. Driving along I-89 in NH, it it difficult to tell what kind of food is at the exits. In most other states, there are signs telling you which restaurants are at the exit before you get off, but this is not the case along I-89. There is only a sign that there's food, so you have to take the exit to find out what kind of food is there and if you like it, great. We kept getting on and off the interstate because as vegetarians, our options are somewhat limited when it comes to fast-food on the go. In previous travels, I had been to the Lebanon/Hanover exit and I thought I remembered some food there. We got off one way, but there wasn't anything, so we turned around and went into the town. There in the "historic distict" of Lebanon, NH we had dinner at Three Tomatoes. It was pretty decent, we had the Margarita pizza along with an arugula and beet salad. Though as a wood-fired pizza place, I'd put the pizza below Posto and Flatbread Pizza at Sacco's.
Saturday - attended a wedding at the Stoweflake Resort. The food was excellent. Other Saturday activities included a trip to the Ben & Jerry's factory and the Cabot Cheese annex where there were many samples to be had!
Sunday - Before departing Stowe, we had breakfast at the Dutch Pancake Cafe. The food was great, but we waited sooooo long to get it. Our waitress must have been in another world, because she wasn't doing her job attending to us - that's for sure!  Once we finally got our food, that kept us full until we got home.  At that point, Ebon had the Burger King he was craving all weekend and I had the leftover pizza from Friday night. We also stopped at the Cabot Cheese annex once more to buy cheese to bring home with us. We ended up leaving with about five pounds of cheese! Plenty to last for quite a while. Grilled cheese and tomato soup will be on the menu sometime this week!

Monday Night Football and Pizza

I had the day off for the Columbus day holiday, so I ended up pursuing quite a bit of time in the kitchen. After leftovers on Sunday, we decided on pizza for Monday dinner. I enjoy making pizza, but the crust takes just enough time that I don't usually make it after work during the week.
I can't seem to find the right pizza crust recipe this one is OK, but maybe is a bit oily and it doesn't get enough air.

1 cup warm water (~100degF)
1/2 teaspoon yeast
1/2 cup oil
3 cups+ AP flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
Combine yeast and water until yeast dissolves, add in the oil and slowly add in the flour and salt until combined. The dough should form a ball that's not too sticky. Leave it out at room temperature for at least 4 hours for the gluten to develop.

Pizza sauce
3 cloves garlic
~2 Tablespoons olive oil
saute garlic until just before browning
Add 28 oz can of pureed tomatoes and 1/2 can of tomato paste
Add herbs ~1 teaspoon oregano and a small handful of dried basil crushed

Pizza toppings
Pizza 1
1/2 red pepper
1/2 yellow pepper
1/2 onion

Pizza 2
some onion
heirloom tomatoes sliced thinly
Trader Joes Soy Italian "sausage"

Spray a cookie sheet with oil, sprinkle with corn meal and press/spread 1/2 the dough on the cookie sheet. Spread enough sauce on the pizza to cover the crust, add toppings and add mozzarella cheese.
I only bought an 8oz bag of mozzarella cheese, so the first pizza got all mozzarella  but I ran out on the second, so the soysage pizza also got some Parmesan and shredded fontina cheese that I had on hand.
Bake at 450degF for about 15-20 min or until the cheese starts to get bubbly and brown.

They turned out pretty good, but I need to revise the crust recipe a bit and make sure I get enough cheese. The fontina cheese was an excellent substitute.