Health(ier) Pizza

I love pizza, and if I had the time I would consider making pizza a much more regular part of my diet, particularly when it tastes like this.

For the crust:

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar 

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.  In the mean time, combine the flour, olive oil, salt, and sugar.  When the yeast and water are good and frothy, add them to the flour mixture and stir well, until you have a nice stiff dough.  Let it rise in a lightly oiled bowl for about half an hour, until it's doubled in size.

I am a firm believer in par-baking pizza crusts (nobody likes a soggy crust).  So I preheat my oven to 350, then roll my dough out onto my baking stone and prick it a bunch of times with a fork.  Then I bake it for 12 minutes.

And it starts to get all puffy (but not TOO puffy!  That's what the pricking is for!) and golden brown.  Then I top it with lots of good stuff.

On this particular occasion, I went with store-bought pizza sauce, lots of spinach, mushrooms, and onions, followed by a little pepperoni and sausage and the mandatory mozzarella (I used a low-fat version).

Put the whole thing back in your 350 degree oven and bake it until it the cheese starts to bubble and the crust turns golden brown on the edges (cooking time will vary depending on toppings.  Since this pizza had many, many toppings it took about 20 minutes).  When I consider the expense of ordering pizza or making it myself, I really wonder why I ever call in an order.  This is just so easy!!!

Also easy is a great summer sandal, and I just received these last week.

Vince Camuto via Nordstrom

It is possible that I am, single-handedly, keeping my local Nordstrom in business.  But with shoes like this, how can I say no? 

Chickpea Sausage Soup

As a lover of garbanzos (both the word AND the bean), I am constantly on the lookout for recipes that employ this tasty (and cheap) ingredient.

I am also very aware of the fact that the best garbanzo is a shelled garbanzo.  Time-consuming?  Yes.  Worth it?  Absolutely.  When blended, the lack of shells makes them much more creamy.

I used this recipe from The New York Time's Diner's Journal with great success.  I also took the time to grill my sausage, which I think added a nice added flavor.

The final result was creamy, flavorful, and filling.  It didn't look a bit like the NYT photo, but I'm going to go ahead and guess that mine was superior.  Obviously.

The subtle complexity of a chickpea and sausage soup calls for, what else, Valentino.

via Neiman Marcus

I love that, from afar, these Rockstud pumps look like classic snakeskin pumps, but up close the studs really shine.  The PVC "collar" doesn't hurt, either.

Two Bean Sausage Chili

So what do you think of the blog's facelift?  I would love to hear from my readers; I think it's much more true to my personal style (black!  simple!  black!) and allows the food to be more of the focus.  I'm also going to work on better-incorporating the shoes into the post, by picking shoes that relate to the recipe at hand.  Ready? 

Two Bean Sausage Chili

1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can great northern beans (drained and rinsed)
1 lb hot ground sausage, browned
1 bottle beer of your choosing (can be substituted with water)
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
2 cans diced tomatoes (I used "chili" tomatoes, that had chili powder added)
2 jalapenos, diced (seeds removed if you're afraid of the heat)
to taste:  white pepper, cayenne, salt, cumin, oregano, rosemary, chili powder, garlic

Dump EVERYTHING into the crockpot, turn the heat on low, and watch the magic happen!  Seriously, 6-7 hours on low (4-5 on high) and this chili will be ready for game day (Tuesday).

I top my chili with plenty of cheese and lots of finely-diced red onions.  Typically I add oyster crackers to the mix, as well, but we were fresh out and I didn't miss them.

Chili with a kick calls for shoes with a kick, don't you think?

Christian Louboutin via Barneys

If these don't fit the bill, I'm not sure there are a pair out there that do!

Sausage and Zucchini Pile-up

I have recently started incorporating more turkey sausage into my cooking repertoire (one delicious example can be found here).  You may be wondering why, and so I will tell you:  sausage is almost always on sale AND there are coupons in the paper every single Sunday.  It's a struggling librarian's dream protein.

Don't worry, peeps, I'm not struggling.  But if I were, I'd eat even more sausage.  You can bet on it.

This recipe came from Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast: Over 280 Incredibly Flavorful 5-Ingredient 15-Minute Recipes (these people should pay me for this, really . . .) and consists of smoked turkey sausage, green peppers, onions, corn, and zucchini, all sauteed together in a spritz of oil and piled on top of potatoes (for the F) or biscuits (for me).  Delish!

I also think that I should get paid for all of the shoes I promote:

 Gucci via Saks

Said payment would, of course, need to be made in fabulous footwear instead of cash, but I think I can handle that.