Five Friday Favorites: 4.21.17

Happy Friday!  I haven’t done a Favorites post in a while!  Here are some things I have been loving lately.  Have a great weekend, friends!

Uuni Portable Pizza Oven

When this Uni pizza oven arrived on out doorstep a few months ago, I thought my husband was crazy for ordering it.  It looked like an Easy Bake Oven, but for pizza.  I could only roll my eyes.  Plus, our “backyard” is actually a patio and I didn’t exactly see where we were going to put it.  But then we made our first pizza and I was eating my words, so to speak!  This thing is small but mighty and has made the most perfectly charred and crispy pizzas, just like we make at my parents’ house on Long Island, where there is a real-deal wood-burning pizza oven. The Uuni oven is powered by wood pellets that fill a small compartment in the back of the oven. Once ignited, the oven can heat up to 932 degrees in just 10 minutes and the actual pizzas take 5 minutes to make! The outdoor oven is made by a company called Uuni, and while it is somewhat pricey ($299), believe me when I say that is a whole heck of a lot cheaper than having an actually pizza oven put in your backyard.

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Cauliflower Steaks with Cauliflower Puree and Mint Pesto Recipe and Video

Cauliflower Steaks with Cauliflower Puree and Mint Pesto | Pamela Salzman
Cauliflower Steaks with Cauliflower Puree and Mint Pesto | Pamela Salzman
Photo by Morgan Pansing

I never could have predicted that cauliflower would become what it is today.  Who knew that it would surpass kale in popularity?  (Although 20 years ago, did you ever think kale would be a thing?)  I mean, there is nothing that cauliflower cannot do!  We can steam it, blanch it, roast it, grill, puree it like potatoes, rice it and that’s just the beginning.  We can turn it into a pizza crust, an alfredo sauce, pack it into smoothies, combine it (or not) with oats into oatmeal, form the basis of a great taco, and we can even make a “steak” with cauliflower.  Ok, maybe it’s not a real steak, but you get the picture.

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Dinner Planner: Week of April 17, 2017

Happy Easter!  I hope you are able to enjoy a relaxing day with your loved ones.  One of my fondest Easter memories is hunting for plastic eggs in the backyard and then continuing to find them months later in the summertime!  My sisters and I also used to save a few jelly beans for the next year by tucking them under the fake grass in our baskets and sure enough, they were in perfect condition one year later.  Go figure!

Here’s your dinner planner this week:

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Grain-Free Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

Grain-Free Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting | Pamela Salzman
Grain-Free Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting | Pamela Salzman
Photography by Morgan Pansing

This cake.  I can’t even be alone in the same room with it.  I originally developed this for Clean Eating Magazine’s April 2017 issue and I have been finding excuses to make it for several months now — my daughters coming home for spring break, Jenni Kayne’s Easter brunch, having friends over, going to a potluck.  Even though one cake would have been enough for Passover, I made two.  This cake changes the grain-free game.

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Thai Crunch Salad Recipe

Thai Crunch Salad | Pamela Salzman

Just taking a wee break from Passover prep and other cooking class-related work to share a recipe I know you will love.  I taught this Thai Crunch Salad in my classes a few years ago and I still hear from my students that they make it all the time.  It’s a season-less salad which is appropriate at any time of the year.  And now that peanuts (which are a legume) are Passover-approved, you can make this salad this week for dinner and put it in the kids’ lunch boxes (or yours) the next day.

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Dinner Planner: Week of April 10th

I am knee-deep in shredded coconut and almond flour, preparing for Passover!  My mom is visiting for a few days and we’re having a great time, squeezing in some shopping, ladies’ lunches and museums in between cooking.  If you don’t observe Passover, you can look at the menus anyway and see if there’s something you can make on Monday and Tuesday.  Have a great week!

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Pea and Mushroom Sauté with Mint Recipe

I receive a lot of requests for recipes – more entrees, more low-carb, more “kid-friendly” (I don’t like that phrase, by the way), and the most popular, easy.  The term easy means different things to different people. In my opinion, easy means not complicated, something that a cook of any skill level can successfully prepare. Or perhaps easy implies very few steps.  But what I have deduced is that most of my students think that easy implies “quick,” as in quick to put together and minimal hands-on time.

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Greek Pasta Salad Recipe

Greek Pasta Salad | Pamela Salzman
Greek Pasta Salad | Pamela Salzman
Photography By Erica Hampton

My husband, my son and I just came back from a quick, but delightful, weekend in Park City, Utah. My son has 2 (!) weeks off for spring break and my husband and I do not have 2 weeks off LOL. We scooted away for a long weekend and I’m so glad we did.  It’s so important and enjoyable to spend quality time together, especially when it’s outdoors in the fresh air, disconnected from our devices. But I have a very busy week ahead and now it’s back to business. I am starting a new menu in my classes this week and I also have to start preparing for Passover.

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