Tuesday, October 23, 2007

I'm a photographer!?!??!?!?!

One of my pictures was chosen for inclusion in an on-line city guide of Edinburgh. The cool part is I did not submit it to a competition, they found me on Flickr.

I am going to try to add the widget, but I have no clue what I am doing so I hope it works out.

Update -- it did work out -- the link to the map is on the right.
Here is a link to my picture of Arthur's Seat.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Rosco

Sweet Potato Pizza -- Thanks Angela!

One of my good friends moved recently to Boston and went through a major purge -- seriously between her and her partner all of their worldly possessions fit in the back of a small Toyota pick-up. (Oh, I wish I could be so brave, but that is the topic for another day!). You know the saying, "One woman's junk is another woman's treasure," yep, I made out like a bandit (quoting my g-ma here!).

Angela entrusted all of her vegetarian cookbooks to my care -- and I am honored. My favorite to date is one unassuming 1,001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes, by Sue Spitler. This book contains over 800 pages of recipes (yes pure recipes!) in easy-to-follow text. There are no pictures, which is usually a deterrent for me b/c I like pretty pictures, but the recipes can stand no there own. I have been flipping through this book, earmarking yummy sounding dishes, and have found that most of the recipes are made with common ingredients (no weird vegan stuff!) and are straightforward to assemble.

Which brings me to the Sage-Scented Sweet Potato Pizza -- one of two pizzas I made on Saturday for Oktoberfest. The ingredient list was rather unassuming, but this is definitely one of those that falls in the "the sum is greater than the parts" category! I was amazed at how yummy this was. I modified it to fit our tastes and kitchen practices.

Sage-Scented Sweet Potato Pizza

2 cups evenly sliced sweet potatoes
1 cup thinly sliced onion (I used Vidalia -- my favorite onion!)
1 tsp. dried sage leaves
olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 cup shredded reduced-fat Colby Jack-cheese (I used one of those pre-shredded Mexican blends)
Salt and pepper
pizza dough (I used my old standby from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone)
Parmesan cheese

I am deviating a bit from her directions b/c I cook my pizzas on a stone, so no need to prep the pan!

1. Mix sweet potatoes and onion with sage, salt, pepper, a bit of olive oil (which is not in the original ingredient list) in a baking pan. Wrap unpeeled garlic cloves in aluminum foil. Roast at 425 degrees until tender -- 10-15 minutes (I overdid mine, but they were still good).

2. Pre-bake crust on stone for 8 minutes. Remove with pizza peel and brush on a mixture of olive oil, salt, pepper, italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes. Arrange roasted potatoes and onions evenly on crust, sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 420 degrees for an additional 18 minutes, until desired browning on cheese. Remove from oven, sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese ad serve.