Pizza Time

"What's better, a medium amount of good pizza or all you can eat of pretty good pizza?"- Michael Scott

Any Michael Scott fans out there? I would have to go with a medium amount of good pizza. Last night, I created what I believe to be good SCD pizza. There is something so satisfying about pizza. I can remember many a Friday night, mom would make homemade pizza dough, we'd top it with cheese, hamburger, or olives,  and serve it up along with carrot sticks and a "treat" of diet Coke. I loved not only the routine in that meal, but also the way we all sat around the table talking about our days. I have so much to learn from my mother!

So obviously even homemade pizza dough is full of illegal ingredients, so I wanted to find a pizza dough that was hearty enough to replace the crust of my childhood. For the first two years of being on the diet, I used the recipe in Elaine's book "Breaking the Viscious Cycle" (if you don't have this already and are following the SCD diet, please consider buying it, as it was a godsend to me when I first started!). Then, one day I ran across this recipe from the blog Heal-Balance-Live. Not only does it crisp up nicely, but it also holds together well.

One of the great things about pizza is the array of toppings to choose from. When I first started making this pizza, I would top it with Havarti cheese, grilled chicken, SCD-safe black olives, or hamburger. Now, since I am trying to limit my intake of cheese (yes, I do use the Parmesan in the crust), I have tried chicken and pesto pizza, which was delicious. I also most recently tried topping it with homemade pizza sauce, prosciutto, broccoli, and grated Parmesan. It was equally delicious. What toppings do you like to add to your pizza?

Cheers!

Summer eats: pulled pork and more!

I always look forward to summer time. Not just because of the nice weather or being on school vacation, but also because of all the cooking I can do with my free time. Though I use this time to explore new recipes, there are some summer classics I look forward to all year. For example, blueberry pie (made with hand-picked Maine blueberries of course). Then, there is what I consider foods that I borrow from our neighbors from the south, which will make up our menu for this meal:

•  pulled pork
• cornbread 
• coleslaw
• baked beans

Pulled pork: this recipe I adapted from a few different places. But since I forgot to write the final compilation down, I'm posting a recipe from Turtle Soup. The only change I made to the recipe was that I put the dry rub on first, before putting it in the crock pot. For a fun variation, I have used that dry rub and then put SCD legal BBQ sauce and diet root beer in the crock pot for 4-6 hours. It adds a sweeter touch.


For the cornbread, I have used the recipe from austinscdfriends.com for the past two years. Topped with a little butter and honey, it melts on your tongue. Before serving, I like to toast it to give it a bit more crunch. The recipe is called Mock Cornbread and it is worth every second it takes to make it.

Right about the time we turn the calendar to the month of July, I start craving some serious coleslaw. I am a friend to all things vinegar, and this Creamy Coleslaw recipe from the Comfy Belly site satisfies that craving just perfectly. The only modification I made was to buy a coleslaw mix that is local from the supermarket, rather than chop up the cabbage. My mother-in-law continued snacking on the slaw even as we were cleaning up from the meal!

Finally, what would a pulled pork recipe be without some baked beans. Being from New England, my family takes pride in their homemade baked beans recipe. And each August, my family would pack up and drive the three hours north to our rustic cabin on an island in the North Woods, about a half hour boat/car ride from my grandparents' house. Without fail, at least once during our week at camp,  I would hear the boat coming across the lake, and as it rounded the point, would see my grandparents and and the cooler that contained gram's hot baked beans and oatmeal rolls. Even after Gram died of cancer, Gramps took up the baking of the beans in the same pot. Since I no longer can partake in these due to the illegality of molasses among others, I set out to find a replacement for Gram's baked beans. I have tried three different recipes, and the one that I most resembles the baked beans of my childhood comes from the scdrecipe blog. I do add a few other spices that I borrowed from Gram's beans including: 1 tsp allspice, 1 bay leaf, and a clove of garlic.

I hope you enjoy these summer eats as much as I did. Cheers to the chefs who came up with such delicious eats all SCD friendly (or "BFF": Becca Friendly Foods).