Adventure Begins in the Kitchen
Pictured above is the magical tofu press I’ve spoken so highly about over the past few weeks. It’s convenient, compact, and saves a boat load of wasted paper towels. No more water soaked cookbooks, spills in the fridge, or partially pressed tofu.
I. Am. In. Love.
The only downside of pressed tofu is the foresight required as it takes a few hours to get it right. It’s easiest for me to stick it in the fridge overnight.
I sliced the pressed block in half, rubbed with olive oil, and then sprinkled with garlic salt.
Then I put it in a 450 degree oven for 45ish minutes.
After it was crispy on the outside, I topped with chopped spinach, marinara, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and mozzarella Daiya. I baked for another 10 minutes, until the Daiya was melted.
This dish reminded me of a cross between pizza and eggplant parmesan, a combination that I eagerly embraced.
I bought a gynormo jar of green olive salad from the olive lady at Sweetwater. I knew within seconds of exchanging dollars for jar I’d be dolloping this spread all over homemade pizza as soon as possible.
I googled ‘pizza dough recipe’ in the grocery store, knowing I’d be able to find a familiar blog on the first page. Sure enough 101 cookbooks appeared. I confirmed I already had all of the necessary ingredients and moved on to the produce department to buy a boat load of roma tomatoes.
When I got home, I noticed that the 101 Cookbooks recipe required the dough to refrigerate overnight. That was not a part of my plan! I ran to my computer and without a second thought searched Eat Live Run. Surely Jenna wouldn’t have me wait twenty four hours for pizza I wanted now!
I whipped up some FoodFash marinara while the dough was rising.
Then I rolled out the dough, opting for a “rustic” shape requiring little patience and even less skill. I spread the marinara and olive salad over the dough and used some of the oil from the olive salad to coat the exposed dough/future crust.
The crust was PERFECT!! It’s always a gamble whether or not a hearty portion of marinara will create soggy crust, but there was no sog in sight tonight. As far as the rest of the pizza goes, it was exactly what I had imagined earlier in the day at checkout.
Whether it be Crowdsavings, Restaurant.com, Living Social, TaDa, XYZ – they’re all Groupons to me. Groupon is the new Kleenex.
So Val has mentioned using this Groupon weekly for… lots and lots of weeks. And I’ve been saying “take your sister” for lots and lots of weeks. But this week is her birthday week and I have a really difficult time saying no on a birthday week.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Pizziaolo’s cheeseless pizza. It’s the only wood fired pizza in close proximity and I am so down with wood fired-ness!
But this is what happens… I cheers and finish my wine.
Delicious mushroom and artichoke marinara pizza arrives.
And I finish the WHOLE. DARN. THING!