Survivor night PIZZA!!

And Survivor did not disappoint.

Blackbirds brother did such a great job at recapping that I just don't need to go into it myself. But the oil guy? I hope someone takes him to the middle of the jungle and leaves him for dead. But strip him first and burn HIS clothes. Yeah. That's what I would do.

I have a deep, deep, very deep love of all things pizza. If it's flavored like pizza I have probably eaten it. AND loved it! But since this petuna is constantly arguing with these 10 pounds (they come, they go, their back again) I am back on the low carb wagon. So pizza? Is pretty much out of the question for me. Sure I could slide the toppings off and eat them only, (and don't think I don't.) but, I really like to hold the thing in my hand and eat it like a person that doesn't care about the evils of white flour and how they force lard to coagulate on their hips.

I tried many many low carb crusts. That's where it all starts folks. The crust. I've tried the Carbquik crust. Easy. Just add water and whatever spices. DONE! Not fond of the flavor. Texture ok. Easy ok. Just one special ingredient and your done ok. Flavor. It's the flavor. While I love Carbquik and will use it for pancakes, crepes and a host of other things, it is not crust to me.

I tried one that was mostly moz cheese and eggs. Good. Flavor good. Texture good. Lots of mozz for the crust, well, by the time I made the crust I had little left over for the topping. Not good.

I tried one that called for crushed pork rinds. Again. Flavor good. Texture good. Grinding up pork rinds. NASTY! I love pork rinds but food processing them was horrible and they don't smell so good. Big turn off for me.

I've been playing around with oopsie's for awhile. I love me the oopsie roll but they tend to be a little on the delicate side. I found a recipe for an enriched roll that I really love. It calls for a lot of ingredients, most of which I keep on hand anyway. I decided to give that a go and see ifin it would make a good crust.

I decided to double the recipe because I knew I would be feeding one hungry man and one pizza starved petuna.

Oopsie's are the brain child of Cleochatra and they are more or less Adkins Revolution Rolls. A must have staple of all serious low carbers that stand in for bread, rolls and even desert. All Oopsie's (and RR) begin with the beating of the egg whites.

Would you look at those peaks!! Huh? Nice eh?

This is my favorite part.
If I think about it I will leave 6/7 eggs out on the counter until I get home. If not I bring them to room temp in a little warm water. Eggs are much easier to separate when they are at room temperature. The whites also whip up nicer when they are at room temp. So you'll separate the eggs and whip them up in your trusty dusty Kitchen Aid. Without a Kitchen Aid or other stand mixer? Use your handheld. I will say that beating up 6 whites takes a whole lot longer than 3. You'll be standing there awhile.

But I don't, my mixer does the work and while it's doing it's thing you grab your egg yolks and whatever binder you are using. You can use cream cheese, cottage cheese, ricotta or sour cream. I like sour cream the best. I can keep a huge tub of it in the fridge forever and I like the way it whips up. I use a whisk to incorperate the yolk, cream mix then I stir in the 'flour'. All the little goodies that I use to enrich these rolls. And then it looks like this.

Yeah. Kinda yucky looking. You will also have to add a touch of water here and there as it can get riduculasly thick. Then you fold in the whites. I so love the whole folding part. I always enjoy making these rolls and can never make enough of them. For fun and eats.

I bought a large non stick pizza pan. My old one was so gross I just tossed it. This was the size of a large or even xtra large pizza and thought it'd feed us both with a few left over for breakfast.
The double batch was perfect. I sprayed the pan first and then carefully spread the dough around the pan and made a little dent around the edge to catch any cheese and sauce that might try to escape. There is a special way you have to cook this particular oopsie but I'll get into that when I post the recipe at another time.

IS THAT BEAUTIFUL OR IS THAT BEAUTIFUL?

It was so good that I made noises the entire time I ate it. So so so good. It's love at first bite.
This is a little time consuming crust. I don't think it takes much longer to make this pizza than it does to make a crust with frozen prepared dough. Much less time than from scratch. Both of which I've done. It's best when it's hot and fresh. It's pretty good cold. Ok when re heated.

Still. It's a keeper.

And BH liked it lots. He's not terribly fussy and never minds my funny diet food.

Pizza craving? Satisfied! WIN! !

It's THURSDAY season again

IT'S MY FAVORITE TV SEASON AGAIN !!!!Oh how I love thee. . . .

And it seems there will be enough cleavage to keep BH interested the entire season!!

Now I'd planned to make something Samoan for tonight. This is what I found

Food

Food is a very important part of Samoan life. Wherever and whenever Samoans travel they take food with them. If you spend any time traveling in and around the Pacific you will undoubtedly come across the sight of Samoans at airports carrying special boxes with the words 'Umu' printed on the side. They are the equivalent of a take-away, but more of these later. If they are traveling farther afield to visit friends and relations in America or Europe then you can be pretty certain that somewhere in their luggage is a tin or two of Hellaby's corned beef.

Samoan food tends not to be highly spiced or seasoned and consists of a number of cooked ingredients that are relatively unfamiliar or prepared in unusual ways to most Westerners such as cooked breadfruit, taro, taro leaves, cooked green bananas and raw fish.

Wherever you go and whatever you are presented with you should eat what you are presented with, with perhaps one exception; the easiest way to make friends in Samoa, and it is not difficult to do, is not to behave like a palagi.

Umu

An umu is the traditional method used by Samoan's for cooking food. A fire is built and stones placed on it. When the fire is down to the embers green bananas, breadfruit, taro, fish, and lu'au are placed on the stones. When everything to be cooked has been placed on the umu, it is covered with banana fronds and left to cook.

Oka

Most cultures eat raw fish: smoked salmon, sushi, Bismark herring, rollmops etc. Oka is the way Samoans prepare and serve raw fish. It consists of small bits of fish that have been left to marinate in a mixture of lemon juice, coconut cream, salt and onions. (This sounds disgusting)

Lu'au/Palusami

Lu'au is probably the dish that Samoa is most famous for and once eaten will never be forgotten. It is made from the leaves of the taro plant and coconut cream, however onions now tend to be added to it. The coconut cream, onions and some taro are wrapped up in whole taro leaves and, ideally, cooked in an umu. When cooked the parcel of taro leaves is opened and the contents eaten.

The taste is impossible to describe, but suffice it to say that this is truly a food fit for the Gods.

If you cannot obtain taro leaves it possible to produce a pale imitation using spinach. Take 2 pounds (1kg) of chopped spinach, two finely diced large onion and a pound of coconut cream. Boil the spinach for about 25 minutes, so that it is horribly overcooked, and fry the onions until they are soft and brown. Mix both of these together in a frying pan, add the coconut cream and salt to taste. Simmer this over a low heat for about 45 minutes. (ummm, maybe, but where to get this lu'au)

Pe'epe'e

A general purpose sauce made from coconut cream and onions and eaten with taro, breadfruit or anything you like. (sauce? I like sauce, I like coconut, I like onions. Taro? I don't know taro)

Looks a little like a worm, or cocoon, or, well just insect like.

Sea

This is a Samoan delicacy that is made from the innards of a sea slug. It is normally sold in coke bottles at the food market. For the bold of heart and strong of constitution only. (ARE YOU SERIOUS?)

Supoesi

Eaten for breakfast, this is a hot soup made from pawpaw and coconut cream. It's is worth trying once because you might like it, but there are many samoans around that wont touch it. (pawpaw? I might like pawpaw. Do they sell pawpaw in California?)

Supasui

A Samoan variation on chop suey, consisting of chunks of beef marinated in soy sauce, ginger, garlic and onions, which is then simmered with vermicelli, water and more soy sauce. (YES!! Finally something sounds familiar and yummy, I could do Supasui, except, how do you pronounce it?)

Povi Masima

Salt beef is the same the world over. However in Samoa it is one of the most common ways of eating beef, and most families will from time to time have large barrels of the stuff lying around. (Are they trying to gross me out?)

Fausi

Fausi is a dessert traditionally made from taro, but outside of the islands it is more commonly made from pumpkins. It is essentially baked pumpkin, served with a caramelised coconut cream sauce: sweet and sticky.
If using taro, then finely grate it, but if using pumpkin cook it first until it is very soft, then drain it mash it and some plain flour to thicken it. (Yep, I like all things pumpkin.)

Maybe I'll just make a pizza.