Picazzo's

So everyone knows about Picazzo's, right? It's on Warner and Kryrene. It's been around for awhile, boasting gluten free pizza. Well, now they also have dairy free options. Yay! My whole family got out of lunch with a $50 something bill, and all of our orders were correct. They have gluten/dairy free pizzookies, guys. Pizzookies! With coconut milk vanilla ice cream. OMG! It was so good! Yum! Happy dining out, yo.

Pumpkin Muffins

I got this idea from Pinterest, but I tweaked it as always.

Pumpkin Muffins
1 15 oz can of pumpkin pie filling
1 package Bob's Red Mill vanilla cake mix
1/2 package of dark chocolate chunks (dairy free. I use Private Selection.)

Mix, place in muffin liners, bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Also, just saw Udi's is on Pinterest. Looks like a good account to follow. http://www.pinterest.com/udisglutenfree/

Cheetos

Earth Balance has a gluten/dairy free white cheddar cheeto. I'm not even joking. It's pretty good.

Fool Proof Pizza Dough

I have made pizza every Thursday night for at least 5 years. When we transitioned to gluten free as a family 4 years ago, pizza was number one on my list of recipes to master. After a lot of trial and error, I have been successfully making fool-proof pizzas for a couple of years now. And I use the same recipe for sandwich bread. Here's my secret:

Pizza Dough
1C brown rice flour (Bob's Red Mill)
1C sorghum flour (Bob's Red Mill)
1C tapioca flour (Bob's Red Mill)
2Tbl flax meal
3tsp xanthan gum
1 1/2tsp salt
1 1/2C warm water
2Tbl sugar
2Tbl active dry yeast
3 egg whites
1tsp apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Add first 6 dry ingredients (though salt) to the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk to to incorporate.

In a large glass measuring cup, mix 2Tbl of sugar with 1 1/2C of  warm water. Add 2Tbl of yeast and wait 2-5 minutes for yeast to proof. It should have a good foamy head before you add it to the dry ingredients.

While the yeast is proofing, separate 3 egg whites into a small bowl. Add 1tsp of apple cider vinegar and whisk briskly with a fork for about 30 seconds.

Add the proofed yeast and whisked egg white and vinegar mixture to dry ingredients.

Using the paddle attachment, mix on low for about 15-20 seconds to avoid being covered in flour and then mix on high for 3 minutes.

While the dough is mixing, liberally spray two pizza or baking sheets with cooking spray. I don't know how this would work on pizza stones or fancy baking sheets, but if you experiment, let me know in the comments!

Turn the oven off.

When the dough is done mixing, scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula. Dough will be very sticky.

Divide dough evenly onto two sheets. Wet hands with cold water. Gently press dough into desired thickness and shape. If the dough starts sticking to your hands, clean them and then wet again with cold water to continue. When dough is pressed out, cover each with plastic wrap that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

Making sure your oven is off, place both baking sheets in pre warmed oven for 25 minutes.

Once the dough has risen (after about 25 minutes) remove from oven and set oven to 400 degrees. Once the oven has reached 400 degrees, remove plastic and place baking sheets in oven for 15-17 minutes. I do mine one at a time because it gets a little steamy in there, but my oven is forty years old. You do what works for you.

Once the crust is baked you can top it as desired and bake another 7-10 minutes or until your cheese or whatever is just the way you like it.

These freeze and refrigerate well so you can make them ahead or make personal sized crusts just for you and have them ready to go any time!

Vitamix

For Christmas, Ryan and I finally broke down and bought a Vitamix. We bought the general all purpose wet blender as well as the dry blender. It cost a million dollars, but, BUT, we can now grind our own flours. Ryan is so happy about being able to buy 20 pounds of brown rice without me complaining. Much. If anyone wants to bring over their brown rice and give it a whirl, you're more than welcome. I've thought about buying sorghum pearls to to grind my own sorghum flour. We'll see . . . I'm lazy. And tired.

Sprouts Sucks

Ever since Sprouts took over Sunflower, it has sucked. Big time. Their products are either no longer there or there is an empty space on the shelf where it should be. It's pissing me off. I go there, pay more money for basic groceries, and find out the item I came there specifically for is not available. It makes me so angry! I composed an email to Sprouts corporate, and the store manager Tony Duval contacted me directly. You can email him ST20MANAGER@sprouts.com to voice your concerns too. Please do it! He's asked that I send him a list of the products I'd like to see in his store. This is the list I've put together. Some of these items they already have, others they don't. I'm hoping they add the items they don't have, and then, GASP, I may be able to shop at one store. I can't even think about it. That would be so nice.

Gluten Free:

Udi's: bread, hamburger buns, hot dog buns, bagels, pizza crust, dinner rolls

Unknown Brand: doughnuts

Food for Life: brown rice tortillas

Schars: bread crumbs

Pamela's: brownie mix, cookie mix

Kinnikinnick: S'moreables

Bragg: liquid aminos

Bob's Red mill: xanthan gum, potato starch, sorghum flour, tapioca starch

Gluten/Dairy Free:

Unknown Brand: pumpkin pie

Dairy Free:

Earth Balance: tub butter, stick butter

Daiya: mozzarella, cheddar

So Delicious: coconut milk ice cream, coconut milk yogurt

Tofutti: Sour Supreme Better than Sour Cream, Better than Cream Cheese

Soyatoo: Soy Whip

Justin's: dark chocolate peanut butter cups

Local Gluten Free Expo

I'm fairly certain my family is going. It's this Saturday from 10-4 in Scottsdale. It's $7 per guest, and 12 and under are free. The list of vendors is pretty impressive. I'm excited for Justin to walk through and get to eat whatever he wants. Anyway, I think it's a good place to get information and support what I already know.

You can find out more here . . .
http://www.phoenixceliac.org/