Happy Memorial Day!

I wanted to make something for today that is red, white and blue so I came up with this fabulous gluten-free pizza. Organic raisins are for the red (I understand that they are more of a maroon color but that is still part of the red family and it is a holiday so extended family is invited!), the gluten-free dough is for the white and a Gorgonzola Dolce is for blue (blue cheese). I thought the idea was cute and I hope you all enjoy my “Red, White & Blue Pizza.”

Red, White & Blue Pizza

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 60 minutes (which includes 40 minutes for the dough to rise)

Servings 6 slices

Pizza Dough

Ingredients

One box of french bread & pizza mix (I suggest Gluten Free Pantry)

2 1/4 teaspoon of yeast (yeast comes with the Gluten Free Pantry mix)

1 3/4 cup of warm water

1 teaspoon of organic apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon of raw organic honey

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/3 cup of organic extra virgin olive oil (plus a little extra to grease the baking sheet)

3 eggs (2 full eggs and 1 egg white)

Directions

1. Grease a baking sheet with olive oil and a piece of paper towel.
2. Combine the entire bag of french bread & pizza mix and yeast packet into a large bowl.
3. Add 1 3/4 cups of warm water, 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon of honey, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/3 cup of olive oil and 2 eggs plus 1 egg white.
4. Mix together as well as you can.
5. Put the batter into your Cuininart.
6. Press the “Dough” button and allow it to mix for roughly 2 minutes.
7. Place the sticky dough onto the baking sheet and spread with your hands.
8. Cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap.
9. Leave the covered dough on the counter for 40 minutes (to rise).

Red, White & Blue Pizza

Ingredients

1/2 organic Granny Smith Apple (green)

1/2 cup of organic raisins

1 pound of Gorgonzola Dolce (blue cheese)

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

1. Uncover the gluten-free pizza dough.
2. Thinly slice 1/2 a Granny Smith apple.
3. Place the apple slices onto the dough.
4. Crumbled the Gorgonzola Dolce overtop the entire baking sheet covering the apple slices and dough.
5. Sprinkle the raisins overtop the cheese and apple slices.
6. Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges of crust are golden brown.

Red, White & Blue Pizza

Sprinkles and kisses,

Photograph by Chase Coughlin

Sprinkles and kisses,

The sun is bright and I’m feeling alright.

So glad it’s Sweet Sundae Sunday.

I had such a hard time figuring out how to make gluten-free and vegan sugar cookies this past week. I actually had to make them twice because the first time I ruined the batch of cookies by using olive oil instead of raw cashew butter. In the end they turned out great!

White House Sugar Cookies

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Servings 2 1/2 dozen

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup of raw organic cashew butter

1 1/4 cup of organic pure sugar cane

3 cups of organic white rice flour

1 1/4 teaspoon of organic xanthan gum

1 teaspoon of Kosher salt

1 1/4 teaspoon of organic vanilla extract

1 cup of almond drink

a dash of  organic extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Grease a baking sheet using a dash of olive oil and spread by using a piece of paper towel.
2. Combine raw cashew butter, pure sugar cane, white rice flour, xanthan gum, salt and vanilla extract into a large bowl.
3. Mix together as much as possible.
4. Add 1/2 cup of almond drink to the large bowl.
5. Begin to mix the ingredients using your hands.
6. Add the other 1/2 cup of almond drink to the large bowl and continue to mix all the ingredients together using your hands.
7. With a spoon, take the batter and roll into balls.
8. Place on a baking sheet.
9. Once the baking sheet is full (you should be able to fit almost 2 dozen on it) place inside the reheated oven and bake for 40 minutes.
10. Place the cookies on a cooling rack and let stand for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Tip

The center of the cookies will be a bit raw which is actually more tasty and completely safe since there are no animal ingredients.

White House Sugar Cookies

Sprinkles and kisses,

Photograph by Tim Melideo

Sprinkles and kisses,

With all the quick weekend getaways and BBQ’s we all need easy-to-make healthy snacks. Crisp Apple Chips to the rescue! These treats are easy to make, wholesome, gluten-free and vegan (it’s like living in a perfect world).

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ Crisp Apple Chips ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Preparation Time: 2 minutes

Total: 122 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 organic red apples

2 tablespoons of organic ground cinnamon

Directions

Preheat over to 225 degrees

1. Take two baking sheets and line each sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. Core each apple.
3. Slice each apple paper-thin. Use a mandoline slicer if you have one.
4. Place the apple slices over top the cooking sheets/parchment paper in a single layer.
5. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of cinnamon over top the apple slices.
6. Place the baking sheets into the oven for 1 hour.
7. Flip the apple slices over and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of cinnamon over top.
8. Bake for 1 more hour or until golden brown.

Tip

If you don’t happen to have parchment paper around the house don’t worry! Go ahead and place a cooling rack (covered in tin foil) over top the baking sheet. It works just as well!

Sprinkles and kisses,

“The First Annual Fish Taco Cook off!” in Brooklyn was the place to be a couple of Saturdays ago. With 3 cooks with 3 different styles of tacos all competing for the “best fish taco” title, I was definitely in my element. The tacos were awe-inspiring because of these phenomenal cooks;

Ben, Jesse & Julian's tacos!

Ben Sargent

Jesse Kaufmann

Julian Vasquez

In the end they all were winners but my vote went to…

♥     ♥     ♥     ♥     ♥     ♥     ♥     ♥     ♥     ♥

Dick was feeling a bit spicy tonight so I went with the flow and made him some Spicy Fish Tacos. The guacamole is dairy-free, gluten-free and deeeeeelicious. Can you handle the heat?

Spicy Fish Tacos

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

6 servings

Ingredients

2 organic avocados (ripe)

1 organic lemon

5 organic garlic cloves

1/4 cup of eggless, vegan light canola mayo (I suggest Spectrum Naturals)

2 organic jalapenos

1 bunch of organic kale

2 organic tomatoes

1 organic green bell pepper

1 organic yellow bell pepper

1 organic red onion

1.25 pounds of freshwater cod

1 teaspoon of organic cayenne pepper

12 organic sprouted whole grain tortillas (I suggest Ezekiel 4:9)

Directions

Guacamole

1. Peel and pit both avocados Add to your Cuisinart.
2. Take 2 of the  garlic cloves and mince. Add to your Cuisinart.
3. Juice 1/2 the lemon and add to the Cuisinart.
4. Take both of the jalapenos, take the tops off, slice in halves and add to the Cuisinart. You may take the seeds out if you don’t want it too spicy.
5. Put 1/4 cup of eggless, vegan mayo into the Cuisinart.
6. Place top onto the Cuisinart and blend until smooth. Set aside.

Veggies

1. Chop up both the green pepper and yellow pepper Set aside.
2. Slice the red onion into a desired size. Set aside.
3. Slice both of the tomatoes into a desired size. Set aside.
4. Wash and cut the stems off the kale. Set side.

Fish

Preheat the broiler

1. Rinse the cod in cool water and place onto a plate.
2. Mince 3 garlic cloves and spread overtop the cod
3. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper overtop the cod.
4. Broil the cod for about 3-5 minutes on each side depending on the thickness.

Now it’s time to build your taco! Have fun and be creative.

Tip

If you have a gas range stove you may place a tortilla, one at a time, onto a burner (medium flame) for 5 seconds on each side. Repeat 4 times. By doing so you are able to warm the tortilla up and add to your spicy fish taco!

Spicy Fish Taco made with love.

Sprinkles and kisses,

Photograph by Tim Melideo

This Wet Wednesday is dedicated to those of you who need the “hair of the dog” after a long (and hopefully fun) night. This would have helped me out Sunday morning (by morning I mean 3p.m.).

My Morning Coffee

1 pint glass

Ingredients

3 ounces of coffee flavored vodka

1.5 ounces of coffee flavor liqueur

1.5 ounces of an Irish whiskey & cream based liqueur

1. Fill a stainless steal shaker full of ice.
2. Pour the coffee flavored vodka, coffee flavored liqueur and Irish whiskey & cream based liqueur into the stainless steal shaker.
3. Place a top on the shaker.
4. Shake until the stainless steal shaker becomes frosty.
5. Pour into a pint glass.
6. Add more ice if it is not filled to the top.
7. Serve!

Sprinkles and kisses,

In order to get the word out about my fabulous blog I decided to order business cards.  Lesley Anne, suggested Moo Cards and I couldn’t be happier with her suggestion. I was able to pick as many images as I wanted and I had plenty of space on the back to include all of my info plus a little quote (“Bringing sexy to the kitchen”). Also, I had the option of printing on recycled paper which, of course, I did!

Sprinkles and kisses,

Photograph by Tim Melideo

Sprinkles and kisses,

What a wonderful Monday evening! I feel like I’m on cloud nine. I just finished up dinner at Jean Georges (my favorite restaurant in the city) with Dick (now don’t  think I’m getting all serious with Dick, remember, there is more than one Dick). Dick and I decided to go with the Prix Fixe meal so I started with the Coach Farms Goat Cheese Gnocchi , Caramelized Baby Artichokes, Lemon and Olive Oil. My second course was, of course, the Sweet Pea Soup, Croutons and Parmesan which is honestly the reason this is my favorite restaurant. My third course was the amazing Duck Breast Topped with Cracked Jordan Almonds, Amaretto Jus which is to die for. With lots of bubbly it wasn’t hard for me to be persuaded into finishing our magical meal with the Chocolate dessert tray which included;

Jean-Georges Chocolate Cake, Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Bitter Chocolate Curd, Sesame, Brownie, Cacao Nibs

Bittersweet Chocolate Sorbet, Olive Oil and Sea Salt

Caramelized Honey Ganache, Amaranth Seeds, Hibiscus Streusel

I was only able to take a picture since 20 minutes after we were seated the curtains were drawn and the lights were lowered at our secluded (and romantic) table.

Compliments to the chef!

While floating away from Jean Georges, Dick and I stopped into Whiskey Park for what turned out to be two sips of a couple of overpriced, stale cocktails and bad service. To save the end of our evening we popped into a cab to head over to The Peninsula Hotel (I realize that it’s only 4 blocks away but Dick wouldn’t allow me to walk since there was a bit of wind and I was wearing 5 inch heels with a super short dress…what a gentleman) and shot up to the Salon de Ning and had one last laugh overlooking our sparkling city.

Thank you for a perfect evening Dick. We will always have Jean Georges.

Sprinkles and kisses,

P.S. I am loving my new “Outside of Miss Poundcake’s Kitchen” category! It is making my last couple of weeks in New York City a million times less stressful and way more fun. I have to ask, yay or nay?