PIZZA! Allergen-free style

I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but I love pizza. Unfortunately, it’s almost one of the worst foods I could possibly eat. Well, a corn, tomato and cheese salad would be worse, and if you could incorporate chocolate into that it would be even more horrible. But a chocolate, corn, tomato and cheese dish sounds … odd. And unappetizing. But if you have any such recipes or meal suggestions, let me know!

But I love pizza. There’s nothing quite like pizza straight out of the oven with crispy pepperoni and gooey cheese … except for this recipe!

A couple weeks ago, I was craving pizza. I found dairy-free mozzarella cheese at my local Whole Foods. And while I can make pizza dough, I didn’t have a lot of time to do so (or really, equipment or ingredients to make it easily possible), so I stopped by my Trader Joe’s and bought some of their pre-made pizza dough. They sell three different versions of their dough – original, whole wheat, and garlic and herb. Obviously, I got the garlic and herb. While at Trader Joe’s, I also picked up some pepperoni.

I had my tomato-free spaghetti sauce tucked away in the freezer, portioned into half-cup servings, so I pulled some out and defrosted it.

Without further ado, the recipe!

Dairy-free, tomato-free pizza

1 bag Trader Joe’s pre-made pizza dough (I bought their garlic and herb dough)

1 cup tomato-free spaghetti sauce

Mozzarella Teese* (I probably used about 3 ounces)

Romano cheese

1 t garlic

Flour

Oil

Toppings

*Note: Teese is very soft and sticks to itself well. DO NOT grate the cheese until you’re ready to put it on the pizza. The best way to do it to just grate the cheese over the pizza itself.

As directions on the bag of pizza dough instruct, put dough on counter for it to sit for 20 minutes. While your dough is warming up, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Prepare your toppings. I used pepperoni, chicken and asparagus, but use whatever you want! Saute asparagus in a small frying pan until it’s crisp-tender. It will finish cooking in the oven. Remove asparagus from the pan and add pepperoni. This cooks off some of the grease, so your pizza isn’t swimming in the grease. After your pepperoni is slightly rendered, just so the edges are beginning to curl, remove it to a paper towel-lined plate.

Use paper towels to sop up the majority of the grease from the pan until one tablespoon remains. Add garlic and saute until fragrant, then add your sauce. Heat sauce until bubbling, then remove from heat.

Prepare your pan. I didn’t have a pizza pan, so I used a 9x13-inch glass baking dish. Lightly oil the pan, or else you’ll have your pizza crust absolutely glued to it and need to invest in a chisel to get your dinner out.

By this time, your dough should be warmed up enough. Cut the bag open and dust both sides with flour. Shape the dough (either by working on the counter or in the air) to the size of your pan. In my case, I shaped it into a huge rectangle to fit my baking dish.

Schlep your dough into the pan, top with the sauce and then the cheese. Grate your cheese directly over the pizza. Yes, Teese is very soft, and it can be difficult to grate. No, don’t try to grate it beforehand. It will just re-stick together and be impossible to sprinkle evenly over your pie.

Add your toppings and put the pizza into the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, then sprinkle Romano cheese over the top. Continue baking until the Teese is melty, pepperoni crisp and crust golden-brown.

Let your pizza cool for a couple minutes before cutting it.

If you have leftover pizza (as I did), the best way to reheat it is to slide a piece into a toaster oven. The cheese re-melts and the crust crisps right back up!

I loved this pizza recipe so much that I ate it for five meals in a row. The first pizza didn’t last that long, so I made another one the next day.

'The Fault In Our Stars'

Photo: Flickr/littleprincessdiaries

I just finished reading “The Fault In Our Stars” by John Green. 

Obviously, I’m a little late to the start for this one. I mean, c’mon, it’s already been made into a movie! It’s been on my “to read” list for a long time, but I finally did read it. And I read it entirely in one day.

Now that’s not hard for me. I read lots of books in one day. I just tend to not do anything else. This book accompanied me on my metro ride across D.C. tonight, then my entire evening when I got back. 

This is the first John Green book that I’ve read. I was planning on reading several last summer, but my library inconveniently never had them. But I just finished TFIOS, and I’m still quite emotional. 

John Green (as far as I can tell from this one book) is a brilliant writer. It’s real. It’s compelling. It’s life. Now, I have never had cancer, and I hope I never will, but it was still so easy to relate to Hazel in this book. 

TFIOS follows Hazel’s story. And it’s not just a book that shows her good days. It shows her good days, bad days, mediocre days and all the days in between. Hazel meets a boy at Support Group. Augustus Waters and Hazel get along well, share a book and it’s obvious that they will fall for each other. 

What’s not quite so obvious is that John Green will rip your heart out and crush it. And then make you laugh. Seriously, the emotions this book elicits are powerful. 

While toying with your emotions, John Green explores life through the stories of these kids with cancer. These kids look at their lives and see how short time is. And they understand better than most others (and definitely healthy people) that life is short. I won’t even pretend to understand the struggles they’re going through since I haven’t been through anything even close to what Hazel and Augustus go through.

But there were times throughout the book where Hazel and Augustus were talking about life in such a profound way that it made me just stop and think. These two terminally ill kids had such a different way at looking at life. It was normal to them. But it’s not normal to me. I don’t have to live with the weakness and oxygen deficiency problems that Hazel does. But she lives with those day in and day out. Yes, she has people who are supporting her. But she’s the one actually living with the cancer. The hope shown throughout this book is powerful. If someone like Hazel, who is very sick with cancer, can have that kind of hope, why not the rest of us? 

And through all of this, there are the quotes that have made their way around Tumblr and all other social mediums. The classic quotes like “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” I knew this quote for months before I read this book. And guess what? It’s even more powerful and profound in context. 

I know this is disjointed, but I still haven’t wrapped my mind completely around this book. I also don’t want to spoil any of this moving story for you. But seriously, I highly recommend reading “The Fault In Our Stars.” You won’t regret it. 

Okay? 

Okay.

Apartment Cooking? Basically 'Chopped'

After living in my apartment for a month and cooking for myself, I’ve realized something. Apartment cooking is basically like the Food Network show “Chopped.”

In “Chopped,” contestants get a basket full of the most random foods possible then have to create a hopefully delicious meal in only 30 minutes. Unfortunately, I don’t have the chance to win $10,000 after making dinner…

And that’s what it feels like when I’m making dinner after work. One day, I’ll buy food for a particular recipe and make it. But then, later that week, I have all those leftover ingredients I have to use up, but there’s not enough to make that dish again (and I rarely want to eat the exact same meal for an entire week. There was that weekend where I ate pizza for five meals straight, but that’s a different story).

But unlike “Chopped,” I don’t have the benefit of having a fully stocked kitchen in addition to my four or five really odd ingredients. So, apartment cooking might just be harder than “Chopped.”

So, one week I got home from work to an odd assortment of food in my fridge and cupboard. I had bread, eggs, butter, shredded pork, almond jalapeño jack cheese and asparagus (Note: I had some other food as well, such as pasta and oatmeal, but these are the ingredients I used that night). Naturally, that night, I made an omelet stuffed with shredded pork, sautéed asparagus and jalapeño jack cheese.

Another day, I had some veggie soup (the base to my spaghetti sauce), shredded pork, romano cheese and a fridge full of other random food. That night, I had veggie soup mixed with the shredded pork and romano cheese, and it was surprisingly good.

And last night, I had pasta, sautéed chicken, lemon juice, chicken bouillon, garlic, romano cheese, asparagus, butter and flour. I turned that into a quick pasta and blanched asparagus dish with chicken and a lemon-butter-garlic-chicken broth sauce, sprinkled with the cheese. Now that was good.

I’m sure that I’ll have many more cooking adventures a la “Chopped” as this summer continues … and then I’ll get back to college and have the same fun but with less cooking tools!

Fredericksburg Accommodations Vs. Historical Sites As Related To Tourism

Fredericksburg, Virginia, is full of history. Virginia was one of the original 13 colonies, and it's particularly known for the two battles that were fought there during the Civil War. Because of that, people come to Fredericksburg to walk the battlefield and visit the historic downtown area.

Over the years, the number of tourists coming has changed, as has the number of museums or historical sites (or similar institutions) in the city. In 1998, according to the United States Census Bureau, Fredericksburg had four such sites, with three museums and one historical site. That number was the same in 2012, but it changed in that 14-year period.

In 2003, Fredericksburg gained three museums/historical sites to bring the total up to seven with one museum and two historical sites. It immediately began to drop again, with three of both museums and historical sites for the next three years, then dropping another museum/historical site. After that, it dropped down to the 2012 statistics.

However, accommodation in Fredericksburg doesn't seem to have followed the same trend. In 1998, Fredericksburg had 18 services for traveler accommodation, with 15 hotels and motels and 3 bed-and-breakfast inns or other traveler accommodations.

As the number of museums/historical sites grew, the number of accommodation actually dropped slightly, getting to 15 services, with 13 hotels and motels and 2 bed-and-breakfast inns or other traveler accommodations in 2004.

Accommodations started growing in 2005, reaching their peak in 2006, which was the last year of the higher numbers for historical sites/museums. There were 21 traveler accommodations, with 18 hotels and motels and 3 bed-and-breakfast inns or other traveler accommodations.

Since then, accommodations for Fredericksburg has dropped lower than it was in 1998, even though the number of historical sites and museums equals that in 1998. By 2012, Fredericksburg lost three hotels and motels from the number they started with in 1998. However, they still have their three bed and breakfasts, though that number had minor fluctuations over the years.