A Quick Veggie Lunch

It's a casual ritual of mine to stop by Mitch's Tavern on Hillsborough street between classes and grab a quick bite to eat and a good beer. Today was no exception. I had the surprisingly filling and vegetarian friendly Mexican Tortilla Salad. At about $5 it's a great filler meal. I'll have to try to reverse engineer it sometime in my kitchen so I can post a recipe. Their salsa is just right, a bit of hotness with jalapeños but not enough to make you rush for a glass of water. The beer I had was a good light beer given the still warm 80 degree plus weather of mid September in Raleigh, a pint of the locally brewed Big Boss Company's Angry Angel. Certainly a sound meal for under $10 total.

Homemade Pizza

Every college student loves pizza, right? This was my attitude too when I went into making my first homemade pizza. I was fortunate enough to procure a great pizza stone with built in handles (seems simply but extremely necessary). This meal is extremely simple and allows for whatever changes you'd like. It's also become so simple that it's a weekly, if not more frequent, staple in my house.

The Recipe

*Serves 2-3, feel free to expand the recipe as needed proportionately.
*Prep and cook, approximately 1 1/2 hours.
2 1/2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup water
Flour/Cornmeal for dusting and handling of dough as needed.

I fortunately have a bread maker that also has a setting for dough. If you're fortunate enough to have this wonderful tool go at it. If not, a little more time will be required for you to knead the dough. In the dough creation process feel free to experiment. I've found adding a bit of garlic salt to the dough leaves a great extra kick to your pizza. I've also gotten bold enough to start adding Parsley and Basil to the dough for even more flavor. Only a pinch or two are necessary, but again, it's up to your individual taste when adding things to the dough. I caution less is usually more, you can always make your next batch stronger, but if it's overpowering, chances are the dough is headed to the trash.

As the dough is being prepped, be sure to heat the pizza stone in the oven. Any temperature between 375-400 degrees Fahrenheit(depending on the variance of your oven) is usually ideal for optimal baking. Once the pizza stone is at the oven temperature and the dough is prepared you can begin to add toppings to your pizza. For the sauce, anything goes. I have actually found pasta sauce to be more tasty than traditional pizza sauces, but again, this is a matter of preference. Spread enough sauce to cover the entire pizza except for the last quarter of an inch or so for the crust. Then add cheese. This is the part where you can make the pizza vegan if you feel the need and have the financial ability to buy a decent amount of vegan "cheese". Being liberal with your cheese is necessary. As it melts the cheese will take up less space than you think, and going cheap on the cheese placement will leave you with a lot of sauce in the end product. I've included a photo of a pre-cheesed pizza for you to get a good idea of the level of cheese necessary for decent coverage. Obviously whatever cheese you prefer is up to you. However, Feta simply does not melt (I've tried numerous times) and pre-shredded cheeses will save you the headache of grating cheese. I personally prefer to use mozzarella the majority of the time.



Now is the fun part. Adding any toppings your heart desires. I've had great results with caramelized onions and mushrooms. Simply heat up a frying pan, throw in a dash of olive oil and sliced onions and mushrooms and let them cook until the onion starts to brown a bit. Again, I've included a photo for your convenience.



Naturally, olives, pineapple, sun-dried tomatoes, peppers, are all great topping choices. Have you spread the toppings on however you'd like simply place the pizza back into the oven and keep an eye on it. It should take somewhere between 15 and 25 minutes to bake depending on the thickness of your dough and the amount of toppings you've placed. As a general rule I try to remove the pizza as soon as I see about 20% of the cheese browning in patches across the surface. Let the pizza sit for about 5 to 10 minutes before cutting and it'll make the cutting process significantly smoother. Check below for photos of finished products!

Running with Scissors (Merlot)

The first of many weekly beverages is the award winning (but shockingly affordable) Running with Scissors from California. The Merlot is extremely complex for such an affordable bottle, being between $10-$12 depending on where you live. So if you enjoy reds, this is one bottle of wine you shouldn't miss out on. It's good enough you might want to hold off on telling the price to your friends until after they take the first sip and ask how much it was.

So it begins...

Welcome to the first of many posts. Although this blog was created some time ago, I wanted to give myself a bit of time to get a few recipes prepared so that I would be able to post a slew of content for everyone's taste bud delights. Shortly you will find my first recipe, a great breakfast and lunch dish.

As the title suggests, Veggie Ventures in the chronicle of the culinary growth of vegetarian food that I encounter. I have been a vegetarian(read that as eats milk and eggs, simply no meat or seafood) since January of 2009. Keeping this in mind, I hope everyone, carnivores and omnivores included find my blog to be insightful into wonderful dishes everyone can enjoy. Perhaps this can be just one more example that vegetarians eat far more than just "veggie burgers" and the food can be quite enjoyable. From time to time I also intend to post vegan dishes as well, although this is more a matter of if they happen to be so.

I also hope to have a weekly featuring of wine or craft-beer, ideally for a particular meal if I can find the time to properly pair them with one another. So there's sure to be something for everyone. I hope you enjoy the blog as well as the food and please don't hesitate to send in suggestions for dishes. I'll be sure to give credit where it's due.

Welcome

Hello, and welcome! Very soon I hope to have a slew of recipes upload or everyone to enjoy. The aim of this blog will be to share great, simple, and inexpensive vegetarian recipes. Vegan ones from time to time, but cheese is so hard to give up!