Sip, Snap, Savor or That's How the Pizza Crust Crumbles

It's two days later and I'm finally cleaning up the remnants from my "showcase" dinner party for Sip Snap, Savor...a couple (Melissa & Phil) who are traveling the U.S. and time capsuling U.S. cuisine. They contacted me and I invited them to come experience (for their first time) raw, live cuisine.

They came to dinner on a Sunday night and thank you to foodie and former SF Professional Food Society President, Sandra Murray and her husband Greg Karras, for providing the delicious live cocktails we enjoyed (Cucumber, Celery Mint Julips and Pineapple, Orange and Rosemary mojitos).

Melissa came equipped with her notebook, curiosity and impressive wine knowledge, and Phil with his camera and ravenous laugh. Melissa is a wine aficionado. You should check out her wine tastings, classes and info at: http://www.praisecheesespassthewine.com/

The Menu:

snack - teriyaki kale chips

"Goat" Cheese and Tomato Tartlet

Firey Carrot Soup

Dandelion Salad

Live Pizzas - Sicilian & Italian

Coffee Mocha Cheesecake

I made two kinds of crusts 1) live buckwheat crust from Juliano's book (which I over dehydrated, it cracked, I panicked) and 2) onion bread crust which on it's own is over the top delicious, but I think it was too flavorful for a pizza crust.

Pizza Uno was a classic Italian Pizza (Juliano's cookbook) with a hearty red tomato sauce and Italian veggies (Roxanne's onion nut cheese, zucchini, capers, black olives, red peppers, etc.). Pizza Due - Sicilian Pizza was definitely different with an avocado base for the sauce, spiced with exotic middle eastern chutney spices and topped with sprouts, yellow peppers, green olives, scallions, etc. I think the favorite, however, were the tartlets I made as the first dish. I used Matt Amsden's goat cheese recipe, which is a sunflower seed "cheese" which I added chopped arugula to. The tartlets were the onion bread, topped with the cheese, then I had marinated zucchini shavings in a sweet lemon balsamic vinegar and topped with green, yellow and red tomatoes.

If you've never prepared a meal for complete strangers, who are then going to publish their experience at your house, let me tell you, no pressure at all.

When I chose to do this, I was all excited. I decided on an Indian menu and then thought better of it, as it involved so many steps, I decided to simplify. Pizza and soup seemed simple. But as the day drew near I started to doubt myself...would pizza be enough food?? I added a dandelion salad. Problem solved. But then, I began to visualize myself with these complete strangers. I knew I couldn't count on my husband...he would likely vaporize into thin air rather than have a social Sunday night. Oh, this was getting uncomfortable. Oh! I decided, what's wrong with me? I have all of the SF Professional Food Society to draw upon...who then? Sandra & Greg were my natural first choice to come and help me entertain these culinary travelers. Sandra and I have worked together for years in the Food Society and she and her husband are what I consider to be "Smiling Eyes Tribe"-- forward thinkers, open minds and warm hearts...plus they are real foodies! They generously agreed to come, and I realized it would be nice to have some live beverages, and with absolutely no arm twisting, Sandra agreed to bring the live cocktails, using Roxanne's book.

I began shopping days before carefully noting my bucolic plans. I started the crusts the day before. I composted the kitchen scraps that were buzzing with fruit flies. I vacuumed. I bitched at my husband for not helping. We washed the windows. I made the cheesecake. We went to a wine tasting party that night and I drank too much wine. Sunday: I did not have time to give into my hang over or take the dog for a walk, I flew out of bed and hit the kitchen. I checked on the crusts, and the buckwheat crust was starting to crack. I immediately removed it and it started crumbling! Panic manifested into hyperventilation as I dialed Dawn's number (co-owner of Cafe Soulstice) but no, they did not have any pre-made pizza crusts I could rush over and buy...they no longer make pizza at the cafe. I thought about crying but I didn't have time. See, this is the problem with live cuisine--you can't easily purchase replacement ingredients anywhere! My husband silently slinked into the car and headed for Sonoma. So much for the support.

Then I realized I didn't have any pretty glasses to serve the cocktails in. The thought of barreling off to CostPlus felt like a ton of bricks. A clear glass was essential to showcase these beautiful elixirs! Dinner was less than four hours away and I still had to mop the floor, clean the kitchen and prep the veggies! I enlisted deep breathing with a clenched jaw. I called Sandra. No problem, she says, I have the perfect glasses and I'll bring them. I sighed relief and then took a squirt bottle to the cracked pizza. This brilliant solution caused the crust to become doughy without patching the cracks.

When Sue called I was blow drying the pizza in the bathroom. She would take Dinah for a walk. Poor dog had been glowering at me all day. Thank God for sisters. OK, forget the cracked pizza. so what? By the time I dress it, it won't matter. And if it crumbles, it will still taste good, I told myself as I imagined these strangers as snooty professional chefs or haute cuisine food writers. The stress mounted.

The next epiphany came when I realized I didn't have any serving platters to lay these pizzas on!!! I needed a flat, solid 18"square surface to lay these pizzas on so I could dress and serve them. Usually, I just make one pizza, not two, and I use our butcher block, but this was for company! Writing, photographing, possibly-chef-people company! I tore the house apart looking for the pizza stone that never fit in our oven, which would have been perfect, but I never found it. Sue must be psychic because she called just then and before she could get a word in edgewise, I blurted out my predicament. No problem, she says, Paulette, her home-maker extraordinaire sister would surely have what I needed.

I went back to chopping vegetables and decided to forget about the crumbling crust, the missing glassware, or how the hell I was going to serve these pizzas. God, I prayed, Just don't let them be professional chefs. I have to say here, that delegation, that is sisterhood delegation, really works! Sue showed up with two marvelous blocks to serve the pizzas on. Dinah came home happy, and Sandra and Greg showed up bearing bags of drink-makings, fancy stemware, lovely freesias and even a bottle of wine that Sandra had designed the label for!

Melissa and Phil showed up and they were (thank you, God) not professional chefs, but good-natured and easy going. My favorite comment was when Melissa confessed she was pleasantly surprised and relieved to find the food so palatable, as they hadn't known what to expect from a raw, live food menu! That comment, along with Sandra and Sue flying in like angels to help me in my hour of stress, AND the fact that the crust did NOT crumble when we ate it, made my night! In fact, there was only a few scraps of that pizza left...and THAT'S how the pizza crust crumbles.

More than Just an Apple a Day...

The live food movement is an emerging culinary culture we are seeing come on the scene right now, much as the vegetarian movement did in the early 1970’s. People did not flock to a vegetarian diet when it first began, in fact we were somehow a little frightened! What were we afraid of? Did we think vegetables were going to kill us? Perhaps given our high-protein diets at the time we were terrified of not getting enough protein. But, slowly, as we began to understand that grains and nuts are super high in protein too, tasty recipes were introduced, and nutritionists and even doctors began to endorse it, our culture began to accept it. Now a vegetarian diet is not so unusual and most of us recognize eating this way as a healthier trend than the meat and potatoes diet we grew up on. We’re finally accepting that vegetables and fruits aren’t going to kill us and in fact, might improve the quality of our lives.

So like vegetarianism was 30 years ago, the live food movement is being met with trepidation and suspicion. How do you get your protein? Isn’t preparing raw food hugely time-consuming? These are the most common questions I get. Yes, changing your diet seems scary, but it doesn't have to be! And there is a learning curve, for any diet! Yes, live food may seem as weird as vegetarianism may have seemed the first time we heard about it, but like vegetarianism, live food too might one day (soon) be accepted into the fold.

But there’s nothing weird about live food, in fact it is the stuff life is made of. And furthermore is quite gourmet! Live (raw) food is vegetables, fruits, nuts and grains prepared in ways that retain the food’s enzymes, vitamins and other nutrients. That simple. Live foodists flock to this diet not just because of taste and purity, but mainly because they want to maximize the amount of nourishment (and healing) that takes place when they eat! In short, live foodies feel more alive than they’ve ever felt in their lives. Charged, clear, energetic, healthy and thriving.

Raw food is “alive” because these foods have not been cooked or heated higher than 118 degrees. Conventionally cooked foods have had their vitamins and nutrients cooked right out of them, plus it takes them from an alkaline to an acid state, but the cornerstone of the live food philosophy is enzyme retention. Cooked foods are stripped of 100% of their enzymes in the process of being heated at temperatures higher than 118 degrees. Enzymes are essential to digestion! In fact enzymes are essential to our very life! Enzymes act as catalysts for every metabolic reaction in our bodies. Cell division, energy production, brain activity, all need enzymes. Vitamins and hormones need enzymes to do their work, as does our immune systems.
The other interesting note is that cooking converts alkaline foods (most vegetables) to acid ph. Disease thrives in an acid environment, it needs it! Conversely, disease cannot live in an alkaline environment.

When you eat cooked food all the time, the body has to function and fight diseases in a pro-disease (high acid) environment. It also has to scramble to try to generate the necessary enzymes to digest that food. What stress on the body! Here we are trying to nourish our bodies with food and instead we’re stressing it out! The body is only able to poorly replicate the enzymes you just killed by cooking your food. So digestion is not maximized, and many of us suffer from bloated bellies, flatulence, constipation, acid indigestion/reflux, poor memory and other maladies, very probably originally caused by basic poor digestion. Ask a raw foodie the last time they were sick. Cold or flu this year? Nope. Their body’s in a higher alkaline state, resistant to disease, and their immunity is stimulated and on active alert. In the driving position to eliminate any threats to the body as they are introduced.

I’ve been practicing this diet (but still do incorporate cooked food regularly) about 50% to 80% each day for about 13 months. The first thing I noticed was that I had more energy and needed less sleep each night. That means I woke up in the morning more refreshed. I had been feeling before that time groggy, sore and heavy when I first woke up. I have not been sick with a cold or flu once, and it’s mid-January. My bowel movements have been more frequent and regular THAN EVER IN MY LIFE, and I have always been on the constipated side. My pot belly that I had accepted as part of my genetic physique, is no longer puffy but flat and smooth. About 7 years ago I was diagnosed with Hepatitis-C and while I have been a-symptomatic my blood levels showing stress to my liver had been slowly and consistently rising each year. This year my blood levels were down to as low as before I knew I had this disease! The other thing that has changed for me is my brain fog and memory issues have cleared up. My mind feels sharp and clear and I’m not having trouble recalling “that word” I so often had trouble remembering.

I did drop some weight initially but I have leveled off, which is good for me as I am thin, only about 120 lbs. My husband, however, who was overweight did lose 17 lbs. He has not practiced this diet as much as me and is more closer to about 20% to 60%, but he's had benefits besides losing weight. His skin conditions have been relieved somewhat and he also has not been sick once this year, although he is still slightly overweight.

The food is delicious and it is exciting learning to prepare foods this way, although I admit there is a learning curve. I hope you'll enjoy my trevails and recipes on this site, but know that this blog tackled a very off-the-charts high-end recipe book! There are many books with simpler gourmet recipes that prove to be successful your first time.

When you maximize your nutrition by adding foods with the vitamins and fiber intact and live enzymes to your body, metabolic reactions take place and your nerves, hormones and most importantly your immunity/health are maximized. They say the body already knows how to cure cancer and all diseases. It’s just that when we short-circuit the body’s ability to act, we disable this function. Eating live, raw vegan cuisine awakens our immunity and maximizes our health.

It can’t hurt to try it. Vegetables, fruits, nuts and grains never hurt anybody.