Pizza: Redux
Okay, so I suppose it isn't quite fair to call this post Redux when I didn't post about the first pizza, but gorram, I'm too excited.
So I decided to try a recipe from Bryanna Clark Grogan's (awesome) vegan cookbook, 20 Minutes to Dinner for Spanakopita Pizza. It's basically spanakopita filling but baked on a pizza crust instead of in finicky little phyllo triangles. The recipe calls for a pre-baked pizza crust, but when I went to the grocery store last week I found that the pizza crusts are only available in 2 packs (or 4 packs, but I certainly didn't need four pizza crusts). So my mum, brilliant thing she is, said, "Well, buy the two-pack and we'll make another pizza." Anyway, spanakopita pizza was delicious and all, but it was spanakopita on a pizza crust, it really wasn't like pizza.
Today we made FUCKING PIZZA. It's kind of like a meat-lover's, although technically I suppose it's turkey-lover's, since it involves only turkey: turkey bacon and turkey soboro. (Does the inclusion of Japanese-style stuff make it fusion? I unno. Mostly it came about because mum decided at the last minute that she was too tired to make meatloaf out of the ground turkey so she would make soboro instead - it's easier and more versatile - and we decided to slap some on the pizza. It was a really great decision, incidentally.) We used the pizza sauce that came wrapped with the pizza crust, and I made Melty Pizza Cheese, also out of 20 Minutes to Dinner. Bryanna Clark Grogan is a fucking GENIUS. It felt a bit odd pouring "cheese" goo over a pizza instead of sprinkling on grated stuff, but I went with it, and a few minutes later what came out of the oven but pizza. The cheese was all gooey and it actually tasted like real pizza. OM NOM NOM NOM. This may seem like I'm overreacting, but I haven't eaten pizza (or at least anything that tasted like actual pizza) in a really long time and so this is kind of a huge deal. My mum and I were dancing around the kitchen going "It's pizza! It's pizza!" Incidentally, if you're a vegan and/or have problems with dairy and/or have my particular stomach issues, I highly recommend you go buy some of Bryanna Clark Grogan's books. They're all in the $10 range on Amazon and they're fabulous. Even if you're not, you'll probably still enjoy them. Unless you're highly suspicious of things like tofu and you consider a mealtime wasted if you don't get at least three kinds of animal protein down you.
In other news, I bought winter boots today. They're pretty intense (guaranteed leakproof for 1 year, comfort certified up to -20ºC, made in Montreal so they're designed for our winters, etc.) but they're still not horribly ugly. They satisfied my main requirements, which were that they be warm, have good treads, be somewhat attractive, and that they be either pull-on or zip up. I can't do another winter in my Docs, which are uninsulated and require tying and untying pretty often. Also I didn't really see myself going into work in them. The new boots also come up higher than my Docs, which means less chance of snow getting in them. It was kind of funny because the saleswoman was telling me that once people buy a pair of this brand, they tend to stick with them forever, and a few minutes later a woman in the store saw me trying them on and came up and said "Is this your first pair of [brand name]s? You're going to be very happy. I have three pairs at home!" I'm assuming the shoe store doesn't pay random customers to go endorse the shoes, so I think this is a good sign.
So I decided to try a recipe from Bryanna Clark Grogan's (awesome) vegan cookbook, 20 Minutes to Dinner for Spanakopita Pizza. It's basically spanakopita filling but baked on a pizza crust instead of in finicky little phyllo triangles. The recipe calls for a pre-baked pizza crust, but when I went to the grocery store last week I found that the pizza crusts are only available in 2 packs (or 4 packs, but I certainly didn't need four pizza crusts). So my mum, brilliant thing she is, said, "Well, buy the two-pack and we'll make another pizza." Anyway, spanakopita pizza was delicious and all, but it was spanakopita on a pizza crust, it really wasn't like pizza.
Today we made FUCKING PIZZA. It's kind of like a meat-lover's, although technically I suppose it's turkey-lover's, since it involves only turkey: turkey bacon and turkey soboro. (Does the inclusion of Japanese-style stuff make it fusion? I unno. Mostly it came about because mum decided at the last minute that she was too tired to make meatloaf out of the ground turkey so she would make soboro instead - it's easier and more versatile - and we decided to slap some on the pizza. It was a really great decision, incidentally.) We used the pizza sauce that came wrapped with the pizza crust, and I made Melty Pizza Cheese, also out of 20 Minutes to Dinner. Bryanna Clark Grogan is a fucking GENIUS. It felt a bit odd pouring "cheese" goo over a pizza instead of sprinkling on grated stuff, but I went with it, and a few minutes later what came out of the oven but pizza. The cheese was all gooey and it actually tasted like real pizza. OM NOM NOM NOM. This may seem like I'm overreacting, but I haven't eaten pizza (or at least anything that tasted like actual pizza) in a really long time and so this is kind of a huge deal. My mum and I were dancing around the kitchen going "It's pizza! It's pizza!" Incidentally, if you're a vegan and/or have problems with dairy and/or have my particular stomach issues, I highly recommend you go buy some of Bryanna Clark Grogan's books. They're all in the $10 range on Amazon and they're fabulous. Even if you're not, you'll probably still enjoy them. Unless you're highly suspicious of things like tofu and you consider a mealtime wasted if you don't get at least three kinds of animal protein down you.
In other news, I bought winter boots today. They're pretty intense (guaranteed leakproof for 1 year, comfort certified up to -20ºC, made in Montreal so they're designed for our winters, etc.) but they're still not horribly ugly. They satisfied my main requirements, which were that they be warm, have good treads, be somewhat attractive, and that they be either pull-on or zip up. I can't do another winter in my Docs, which are uninsulated and require tying and untying pretty often. Also I didn't really see myself going into work in them. The new boots also come up higher than my Docs, which means less chance of snow getting in them. It was kind of funny because the saleswoman was telling me that once people buy a pair of this brand, they tend to stick with them forever, and a few minutes later a woman in the store saw me trying them on and came up and said "Is this your first pair of [brand name]s? You're going to be very happy. I have three pairs at home!" I'm assuming the shoe store doesn't pay random customers to go endorse the shoes, so I think this is a good sign.