A little bit about me: I am 28, live in Portland Oregon, am a server in a very busy restaurant, and am currently in school trying to figure out what the hell it is I want to do with my life. That last part is another reason why I am starting this blog. I know that I have a passion for food and drink, and do enjoy working in a restaurant because everyday is different and also for the fast pace of the job. But, I do know that being a server is not a sustainable career for me in the long run, and so I have some figuring out to do.
My other interests lie in health and nutrition. For the last year I have been working on science pre-requisites to prepare for Physician Assistant (PA) school. Everything has been going great until I signed up for this chemistry course that was a whole year's worth of content jammed into 9 weeks, and I just couldn't keep up and risk getting a bad grade, so I dropped it. It was seriously the worst two weeks of my life...like, the seventh circle of hell but with metric conversions. This has left me feeling pretty crappy about myself and really questioning whether or not I am pursuing the right career. So, to make a short story long, I am hoping that through this blog I will learn more about myself and find some direction as to what it is that I want to do with my life.
Current options include, PA (still considering), ND (Natropathic Doctor), flight attendant, or leaving to go live in France to get my Sommelier or maybe an MBA in Food and Wine in Bologna, Italy. Or maybe this blog will turn out to be world-famous and I can be a famous food writer or the next Anthony Bourdain...right.
OK, I promise this will be the wordiest of my posts. I know that humans have virtually no attention span and that I have probably lost most of your interest by now...so how about some pictures!
Homemade White Sauce Chicken Bacon Pizza (gf)
Homemade Margherita Pizza (gf)
Pizza! Pizza is one of my favorite foods in the world. It is just so comforting and really speaks to my soul. It is also my ultimate weakness. Maybe I was an obese Italian in a past life. I should mention that I am gluten-free, yes I am one of those people, but it's for health reasons, and not because it's trendy...and I definitely cheat...often. My reason for this is because a few years ago it was suggested by my doctor to do a trial and see how I felt after two weeks without gluten, and wow did it make a world of difference. My bloating went away, I wasn't lethargic, and I also wasn't so foggy-headed anymore. Gluten-intolerance is a real thing and it is different from celiac. Celiac people are bed-ridden if they have a drop of gluten and have no room for cheating...which sounds awful. So when it was suggested by my doctor that I go gluten free, I was a little bit devastated because that meant no more pizza! Or so I thought, but today it's pretty easy to find gf pizza in stores or pizza places. Anyways, this is my first 100% from scratch pizza(s) that I have made, and it was so fun! So let's get to it!
The top picture (above) features a white-sauce with chicken breast, bacon, and red onion. The bottom picture is a classic red sauce margherita. The crust for both is from a package of Bob's Red Mill gluten free pizza dough.
The white sauce is a classic Bechamel sauce made up of garlic, onion, basil, gluten-free rice flour, butter, and cream with parmesan added at the end.
Bechamel Sauce
The chicken breast I pan-cooked, made the bacon, and topped with fresh, raw red onion and baked for 18 minutes. Salt and red peppers to taste for eating.
For the Margherita pizza, I sauteed a half of a white onion and garlic, and poured the mixture along with a can of chopped tomatoes into my Ninja blender, and presto. The sauce was a little watery, so I tried to thicken it up with some cream and parmesan cheese...which didn't work.
The toppings were just some fresh sliced mozzarella and tomatoes, and topped with some fresh basil leaves and baked for 16 minutes.
I have to say that making the sauces was my favorite part. The dough, eh, not my favorite. I'm honestly not too crazy about baking. The Bob's Red Mill was fine, just a little hard to handle and really difficult to spread out to make that thin crust I like. The dough actually ended up being very thick, but it got the job done. Plus, everything is gluten free! Hip hip hooray!
I hope you have enjoyed this first installment of my blog and stay tuned for more to come!
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