Friday, November 10, 2006

An old favorite

We made a pizza on Wednesday night. It's a favorite, and now especially since we learned to make dough ahead of time and freeze it, whipping up a pizza is not that difficult. We had some leftover sauce from VWaV as well as some Basil-Tofu Ricotta. We tried the recipe in Vive! recently for the Basil-Walnut Pesto, and found it to be much more to our liking than the pesto recipe from VWaV. This pizza showcases the last of our basil for the year. The toppings are simply mushrooms and kale. Mmmm...



With that, I'm out again until next Friday. My biggest, ugliest exam of the whole semester and perhaps even of my whole college career is next Thursday night, so I'm going to be devoting much time to that. There will probably be minimal cooking, but no blogging. If I make anything interesting, I'll be sure to catch you up on it soon. This should be my last push until next semester.

Last night we met some friends for dinner at The Grit, our local vegetarian restaurant. Sometime I will have to remember to take my camera when I go! I got the Mid-E platter, which is a small bowl of hummus with veggies and pita points, two falafel fritters served with lemon-tahini dressing, and a nice tabouli salad. I packed up half my meal and brought it home. Bob got the special, which was a Thai coconut curry dumplings dish and it was served with veggie spring rolls and a Szechuan tempeh salad. The Szechuan tempeh was very tasty (you think I didn't eat off his plate?? Hah!) and the flavor of the curry was great. The dumplings were quite heavy, and the coconut milk base was extremely thick and rich. Another meal that came home with us. But it was such a nice time!

Have a great weekend, and send happy thoughts my way! I need them!

11 comments:

madeinalaska said...

First of I am wishing you good luck on your exams! When I was in collage I was also a single mom and there was always some point during finals that I would get VERY overwhelmed. Its hard work to be a student.. but bravo for doing it!
Second Love the pizza. I have never froze dough before.. I was always kinda scared that it just wouldn't work.. at what point do you freeze it? do you let it rise first? or do you freeze it before it rises?
Anyway again good luck! you'll do awesome!

Nikk said...

Good luck with your exams! We're all rooting for you!

That pizza looks fantastic. Those dishes from The Grit sound great.

Jackie said...

Good luck with your exams.

Your meal at the veggie restaurant sounds divine.

Anonymous said...

best wishes in your exams, love pizza!

bazu said...

*GOOD LUCK* on your exams. From a fellow grad student to another, I feel your pain!

laura k said...

Madeinalaska, we usually knead our pizza dough and let it rise for about an hour, then punch it down and knead it a little bit more and let it rise again. At this point--at the second rise, just after punching it down and kneading it for a few minutes more--is where we freeze it. Then to unthaw it, we just set it out and then let it thaw and rise the second time. We've done it a few times now with no problems!

Thanks so much for your well wishes!

Carrie™ said...

Pizza is one of my favs. I never would have thought of kale on pizza. What a great idea! I'll have to give it a try.

Good luck on your biggest, ugliest exam. I'm positive you'll do just fine.

urban vegan said...

I'm sure you aced your exam. and that pizza porbably fortified you well. That tofu-basil ricotta is so versatile and yummy.

Candi said...

You've made me want pizza again! Yours look so very good!! I love the kale and mushroom topping!

I usually make the VwaV pesto, but I may try the vive le vegan one since you mentioned it! I usually make it up as I go though. I just made two batches to freeze: traditional walnut, and then a sun-dried tomato and pine nut one. Both were very good! I use less oil than the recipe calls for. I will have to check out Vive's recipe! :)

Good luck this Thursday on your big exam!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kate said...

MMM, pizza. It looks so good. I need to brave the cold and grill some pizza, you have inspired me. Good luck and hope you make it through the semester as stress free as possible.

Teresa said...

The pizza looks delicious. Oh how I love Kale, and pesto too of course.

Best of luck to you with your big exam and end of semester. I'm just about to reach that point myself, and am trying to figure out how I'm going to make it through the last strech. I'll be thinking of you!

-Teresa