Easy Colorful Vegetarian Pizza

I get much color in my homemade vegetarian pizza from buying green peppers that have some color on them. This saves me the trouble of buying yellow and orange peppers as I look for those colors on a green pepper. If I buy a red pepper and a green one with yellow and orange sides, it adds much color to a homemade vegetarian pizza. Onions add much flavor and I microwave all the vegetables gently to reduce the vegetable juice exuding from the vegetables onto my pizza.

One can easily spot the liquid left in a bowl after the vegetables are microwaved for a minute or two before adding them to the homemade pizza crust covered with sauce.

For pizza sauce, I have found that there are many options and everything works! Sometimes I mix a can of tomato paste with a bit of ketchup, sometimes I use spaghettis sauce or if I have a plentiful tomato harvest, I have placed fresh tomatoes on my pizza. I love putting basil sauce on my pizza too.

The peppers give the pizza much color and along with the onions, much flavor. I selected green  peppers with some color.

                                     
I cut one of the green peppers and a red pepper into small pieces to make the pizza below:

                                                                                                                 
My husband asked me to make pizza today and I will mix the yeast, lukewarm water, sugar, and whole wheat flour, and let it rise while I finish my blog and run errands!

Vegetarian Pizza without Cheese

Everything Eggplant

           Wow, we seem to have the most beautiful eggplants in our markets this fall!

To select an eggplant, I look for one that is lighter, rather than heavier, for its size. I like a shiny, dark purple coat with as few blemishes as possible. To check for freshness, I look for a greenish stem near the top of the eggplant.

In the late summer and early fall, I put eggplant on the grill. Just spraying slices of the eggplant on both sides with a little bit of Pam Cooking Spray, keeps the eggplant from sticking to my grill. We eat the eggplant right from the grill, but the skin. I never peel my eggplant as love the deep purple color of the skin!

When I want to have a softer, edible purple skin, I prefer to gently broil the eggplant. I place slices cut to about 1/8" on a baking sheet and broil for a few minutes on each side. I only put a bit of cooking spray on the bottom of the sheet or broiler pan, to keep the slices from sticking. One must be careful as once the eggplant slices begin to turn a bit of brown, they can broil to the overdone stage almost instantly. Some say to only broil the eggplant on one side, but I prefer to broil the slices on both sides.

I make lots of homemade pizza as my husband loves it. However, since he is "sensitive" to cheese, I make cheese-less pizza's for him, or refrain from putting cheese on his side of the pizza.

A medium sized eggplant, cut into 1/8", round slices, filled up my homemade pizza very nicely. The slices were broiled as described above, then placed over the sauce on the pizza. The skin of the eggplant in this case was very soft and easy to chew after baking!

                                                                     
It is easy to see the eggplant slices in the areas of the pizza where there is no cheese. We love any kind of fresh sweet pepper and onions on our pizza too, as they complement the eggplant well. I always microwave the diced or sliced peppers and onions, just to the soft state, before placing on the pizza, as we don't like raw onion on our pizza and prefer the peppers soft too.

                                                                     
We like lots of toppings on our pizza, over our mostly whole wheat crust, the recipe for which is earlier in this blog. I doubled the recipe to make a 9" X 11" inch square pizza and the very large round pizza above.

I generally pre-bake the crust for 8-10 minutes on a high temperature, such as 4025-450 F. A secret to keep the crust from getting soggy, is to put cheese as the very first topping on pre-baked, homemade pizza dough, but because my husband is "sensitive" to cheese, I can no longer use that secret trick.

I have discovered that microwaving the vegetable toppings, such as onions and peppers, helps to get rid of some of the veggie juice that would otherwise make my pizza soggy!

I never bake in the summer, but it is October 9 2012, and am glad to turn on my oven in these cooler days of fall in Cleveland, Ohio!

Walk Forward

My book, Walk Forward, was published on Amazon Kindle Select yesterday. and for the moment it is #6 of  47 in its category!

The book includes foods loved by my family, such as potato pancakes, German spaetzle, homemade applesauce, and streusel kuchen.

I made the best streusel kuchen for my Mom earlier last year and remember how she enjoyed it.

I am so thankful that I took the time to make the yeast dough, while she gently and precisely made and distributed the streusel over the yeast dough base. She created wonderful butter streusel, while sitting at my kitchen table.

I was honored to have her call my house, her "home," for her last three years on this earth.

In my book, Walk Forward, I describe my mother's visits with her cousin Wilma, whose father was a baker. For a barn raising, he would bake huge streusel kuchens and cut them in long strips, about three inches wide. He would  place the strips in a layer, and place the next layer of strips over the one below it, going in the opposite direction.

When I close my eyes, I can still smell the streusel kuchen baking in my oven and imagine my Mom sitting in my kitchen. Recipes are connected to family and memories, as are sights and smells in the kitchen. We eat with our nose and our eyes, but also with our memories.

I will include recipes for foods mentioned in the book, Walk Forward,  in future posts,  but if you are interested in reading about my family and its roots, please check out a free chapter of my book, Walk Forward, on Amazon.com at:

http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Forward-ebook/dp/B009H6Y7AC

and "Yes," that is a picture of my Mom, taken in 1938, on the cover of my book.

If you like reading the chapter, download the entire book, come back for the recipes, and continue to Walk Forward!

Secret Russian Tea Biscuits

Russian Tea Biscuits freeze well and are a wonderful treat to bake in cool weather to enjoy anytime. A single recipe makes containers full of wonderful treats to share with family and friends. I like to keep some on hand in the freezer for special company or for those occasions when it is too hot too bake as this summer of 2012. Luckily, I baked a load of the raspberry treats in the early spring. Since I don't bake them as often as I would like, my biggest problem is to remember how much filling to put on each biscuit before I roll it up.

The secret to great tea biscuits is to buy the best filling products,  such as the best raspberry jam you can find, as it will be worth the wonderful aroma these biscuits have even after months in the freezer!

My husband prefers pecans to walnuts, thus, I use pecans but walnuts work fine too. I use Smucker's raspberry preserves as preserves are easier to spread than jam and don't try to use jelly, the pastry dough is too delicate!

Turn off your phone and prepare to spend some time making the most wonderful Russian Tea Biscuits. You will not regret it. The dough comes out perfect every time and does not stick to your rolling pin or break as you role up the cinnamon, raspberry preserves, raisins and chopped nuts.  I have used orange juice or lemon juice in the dough and both work great!

For those dairy allergic or following Kosher dietary rules for a Parve desert, use a margarine that does not include dairy products. I have used Fleishman's and Mother's margarine for an excellent product. Per its healthful benefits, I prefer using canola oil which tastes great in baked goods.

Here is the recipe and the next time I take some out of the freezer, I will post a picture, enjoy!

Sift together:

4 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3/4 cup sugar,  note:  (you will also need a few tablespoons of extra sugar for the biscuit tops)

Make a well and add the liquid ingredients:
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup margarine melted
1/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 whole eggs plus, note: you will need an extra egg white as a dip for the rolled biscuit dough. 

Mix the above and knead for ten minutes until the dough forms a soft ball. Divide into quarters if making the normal size biscuits. Roll each quarter of the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness and add filing of red raspberry preserves, raisins, nuts and cinnamon. Try not to over stuff the roll with filling but you can use as much or as little as you like. Please note that if you use too much raspberry, the roll might leak yummy juice in the oven. Roll up the stuffed roll like a jelly roll.

Spread the top of the roll with egg white and dip the roll in granulated sugar before you cut the roll into slices as it is much easier this way (I can verify that it is time consuming and tedious to cut the roll into serving pieces and dip each piece into the egg white and granulated sugar). Cut the roll into one inch slices and bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes on a greased cookie sheet.Share with your best friends and your favorite cup of tea.