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Almond Meal Pizza Crust

April 25, 2012 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 8 comments

I’ll be honest. It has been quite awhile since I cooked anything new or exciting. First I was away in New Jersey and then I was eating loads of pasta and other carbs plus lots of kale smoothies, prepping for the Boston Marathon. Once the marathon was over, I had almost no appetite, and when I did, I was starving and eating pretzels, chips, pudding, and other snacks or takeout.

After a week of that, I not only started to get bored with my eating, but I also realized that without the training, I need to adjust the way I eat. I am also going to be in and out of a new office for awhile, so eating real meals and planning is going to be key.

On Monday night, I decided to get back in the kitchen with a new ingredient I picked up at Trader Joe’s, Just Almond Meal. My original plan was to add it to yogurt for an extra boost of protein, and I did that for breakfast. After spending some time googling, I also decided to make a pizza crust.

Pizza crust made with almond meal is gluten free and has a nice amount of protein. Making the crust is easy, just 2 cups of almond meal, 3 eggs, a few drops of olive oil, and a pinch of salt. I added some garlic powder for seasoning, mixed it all up, and then formed it into a pizza on an oiled pizza pan.

To dry the dough out, I baked it for about 6 minutes in a 425 degree oven. The recommended temperature is 350, but I was roasting perfect Brussels sprouts at the time too.

While the dough got nice and dry for the toppings, I chopped leeks and melted them down in some nice brown butter. I also made a quick pizza sauce with canned plum tomatoes with basil, salt, and a pinch of sugar.

When the dough was dry, I topped it with the sauce, goat cheese, and leeks. I cooked it for about 15 minutes, until it was brown at the edges and the cheese was melted.

I served the pizza with roasted Brussels sprouts that had been drizzled with honey. I was trying to recreate the Russell House Tavern sprouts. Mine were good, but not that good.

The pizza? It was delicious. It definitely had a hefty crust that filled me up quickly, but I really enjoyed how buttery it was and how easy it was to make. The toppings were perfect. You can’t go wrong with leeks and goat cheese! I didn’t tell my husband about the crust until he finished and was raving about the pizza. We were both pleasantly surprised at how good this nutrient-rich option was. I’ll definitely be using almond meal to make crust and other baked goods in the future. But don’t worry, I am not going all Paleo on you, just mixing things up a bit.

Have you tried any new-to-you ingredients or cooking methods lately?

Technorati Tags: brussels sprouts, dinner, Food, leeks, pizza, vegetables, Vegetarian

Tags: brussels sprouts, dinner, Food, leeks, pizza, vegetables, Vegetarian

Tuscan Sun Chat

March 14, 2012 in Food, Travel, wine by traveleatlove | 9 comments

I am back from California, wishing I was still there but full of great memories and waiting on a shipment of fantastic wine to help us extend our vacation. I have more photos on my laptop and posts brewing in my head about Sonoma and Napa than I can even put into words right now, so hopefully you won’t mind seeing lots of vineyard shots over the coming weeks. It was heaven.

We really squeezed out every last second of our trip; when our friend Chef Robin White, a friend of Under the Tuscan Sun’s Frances Mayes, invited us to participate live in a tweet-up celebrating Mayes’ new book The Tuscan Sun Cookbook, we had to zip over to Napa Valley one last time to participate, even if it meant a little bit of anxiety on my part about getting to the airport on time. Turns out our flight was delayed five hours anyway, so I am glad we didn’t spend any more time in the airport than we had to.

Robin is the queen of virtual dinners, hosting all sorts of fun events that bring people together from all over to feast on food and wine and share the experience via Twitter. She wowed us with a Venge Wine Dinner at her home, and we have had fun participating in her Soup Week events.

The live portion of this tweet-up was hosted by Signorello Vineyards on the Silverado Trail in Napa Valley. Despite the soaking rain, the drive was beautiful, lush, green, and scenic.

The tweet-up was attended virtually by people from all over the world using the hashtag #TuscanSunChat. I was lucky enough to be with Robin, one of the hosts, and a bunch of wine country locals.

Signorello’s chef kept a constant stream of hot pizzas coming to the table that they had set up for us. He was cooking up the pizzas from The Tuscan Sun Cookbook outside in the rain, and they were delicious. This one had chili oil and agave nectar on it, giving it a kick of spice and a hint of sweet. With the chewy crust and flavorful toppings, it was pretty spectacular.

We also had this margarita pizza. Everything on it was so fresh. The pizza made excellent fuel for all of our tweets!

And of course there was wine. Signorello poured their Seta, a blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc, which was crisp, acidic, and full of lemony flavor, a bright contrast to the grey day outside.

We followed that with Signorello’s Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

My husband has attended a few tweet-ups with me, mostly in California, and I think he finds them a little funny. Most of the guests were communicating via Twitter more than we were talking. I , like many people, am a huge fan of Under the Tuscan Sun, so I found it a lot of fun to be tweeting with Frances Mayes and her husband. I am looking forward to picking up a copy of the book to bring a little bit of Tuscany to Boston!

Technorati Tags: California, Food, Italy, Napa, pizza, Travel, wine

Tags: California, Food, Italy, Napa, pizza, Travel, wine

Pizza Party

January 27, 2012 in Food, Restaurants by traveleatlove | 12 comments

Wednesday nights are usually the tipping point for us, where we go from a few days of eating really healthy meals to wanting to curl up with some pizza and beer. This is especially the case in the winter and even more so the day after a 15 mile marathon training run.

Luckily, this past Wednesday, I was one of the lucky Boston bloggers able to attend a dinner hosted by Stone Hearth Pizza, Clown Shoes Beer, and Pete & Gerry’s Organic Eggs.

I had only tried Stone Hearth’s pizza once before, at the Taste of Cambridge in 2010, and I was really excited to be able to sit down to try not just their pizza, but some of their fantastic appetizers and salads as well, all washed down by some beer from Clown Shoes.

Let’s start with Stone Hearth as a business. They are doing some awesome things to be SOL, sustainable, organic, and local. Not only have they built sustainable building space, but they also use organic flour, tomatoes, and growth hormone free cheese. They also source their ingredients from local partners and give back to the communities they are in through charity involvement. I love it.

The Allston restaurant is a short walk from the Harvard Square T station (It’s also on a bunch of bus routes, but I passed the bus, stuck in traffic, while walking.), and I lucked out with a warm-ish night. The walk over provided a good stretch for my achy legs and revved up my appetite! I was excited about the guest list for the event; it included some of my favorite Boston bloggers.

Our table was set up with beer glasses, plates, and Clown Shoes pint glass souvenirs.

I was greeted with a pour of Clown Shoes Clementine, a beer I have had and enjoyed before. I love the citrus notes; they make it a refreshing aperitif.

Then the food started coming. I could barely keep up with what everything was!

We had parmesan flatbread with roasted eggplant spread and some spicy meatball poppers.

And my favorite of the starters, cheddar covered olives. I thought they were fried, but the menu says baked. I like them even more now!

Fresh salads galore filled the table. Stone Hearth is a great place for people of all dietary needs as they had lots of veggie options and some cool, creative, and delicious salads. No iceberg and sad shredded carrots here!

I had a few bites of the spinach and avocado salad.

And some of this crunchy celeriac which was definitely unexpected but really good. Clearly a ton of thought has gone into this menu.

Then it was time for the main event, the pizza. I was actually ordering a pizza for my husband when these all came out, so I missed what some of them were. I just dove right in though.

I loved the bacon and blue which had a nice amount of smoky bacon and zucchini on it. I don’t think I have ever had zucchini on a pizza, but it is a good idea.

I also loved this special which featured curly kale, leeks, gouda, and sausage. Again, I haven’t had kale on a pizza before, but I will definitely have it again.

After all that food, there was also dessert, which I ended up missing. My husband and I made a deal that if he picked me up on his way home from work so I could avoid the T, I would bring him home a pizza. I ordered the buffalo chicken pizza about 20 minutes before he arrived, and it was hot and ready for me when I left.

You would think I would be too full for more, but I chowed down on two slices of this as soon as we got home. It was the best buffalo chicken pizza I have ever had.

I love the way that Stone Hearth tops their pizzas with creative ingredients, but most of all I love the thin crust. It is exactly the way pizza should be, in my opinion, with just enough crunch and dough to give you that chew, without being at all soggy or overwhelmingly doughy. We had a go-to pizza place with good crust for years but stopped eating there about a year and a half ago for ethical reasons. I miss it, but I am happy to have found pizza I actually like better from a company committed to being a good business.

We all left with a six pack of heirloom eggs from Pete & Gerry’s along with some coupons for their other eggs, including the eggs we buy, Nellie’s Cage Free.

I love eggs and have been eating them pretty much every day during my training, so I will post about them soon.

I was super impressed with Stone Hearth’s food, and the Clown Shoes beer was a great accompaniment. I think the only downside, for us, is that it is a very kid friendly restaurant. We only like kids that are our blood relatives, so other people’s screaming kids are not what we want to hear at the end of the day. Luckily, the Allston Stone Hearth location is right off the Mass Pike and therefore on my husband’s commute home.

There will be a lot more salad and pizza in my future. In the meantime, Stone Hearth, please open a South Boston or Dorchester location! Smile

I dined at the Allston Stone Hearth location, but they also have restaurants in Belmont, Needham, and Cambridge. Dinner was complimentary, but my opinions are entirely my own.