Experiments in the Kitchen

Aside from my baking adventures, dinner has become another of my canvases. It is a chance for me to experiment with new recipes, and it usually challenges my creativity. I have always been very fond of wandering through the kitchen to see what is "in stock," then creating a meal out of what I have. It is a quite necessary skill to possess when you are a young, newlywed couple, still unemployed and on the job hunt. Let's just say our kitchen is currently quite sparse. Thankfully, hubby supports my endeavors and is a good sport when it comes to eating my concoctions. 

The other night, I was reminiscent of something hubby and I did often last year, when we were gluten-eaters. We would get a whole wheat pizza crust from the store and make our own pizza for dinner, usually topped with spinach, olives, red pepper, and parmesan. Since it had been at least 6 months since we've had a pizza, I decided it was time for one. Prepared with my new gluten-free flours in hand, I attempted a pizza crust, blind baked it, topped it with pesto, spaghetti sauce, carrots, cauliflower, zucchini, mushrooms, (the only veggies we had on hand) and mozzarella. The final product: 

Did it look tasty? Yes. 

Toppings: delicious.

Crust: fail. 

Not only did it taste funny (I can thank the garbanzo/fava bean flour for that), but it did not hold together well. Probably from my mistake to leave out xanthan gum. (A replacement for gluten.) I figured the flours themselves had enough protein in them to hold the crust together, but alas, I was mistaken. So, needless to say, hubby ended up just eating the toppings off of most of the thing.

However, last night was a complete success! We had bragg-marinated porkchops (bragg's is Bragg's Liquid Aminos, a gluten-free alternative to soy sauce) with a GF rice pasta, zucchini strands, and carrots, all topped with a coconut curry cashew cream sauce (made from just cashews, coconut milk, water, curry paste, and some seasoning). A GF, dairy-free masterpiece!

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Yumm!