Back on the grid w/ flat breads

I have been storing up my dairy-free food adventures until I had more time to post. I was so excited about my Christmas present from Dad that this seemed like a good time to share all of the good stuff I've been saving up. This is going to be an awfully long post.

Cooking for Isaiah: Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Recipes for Easy Delicious Meals

I haven't really be interested in any cookbooks on this subject yet. They seem a little more like snobbish guides on keeping up with diet trends.  This cookbook on the other hand, is just a mom trying to feed her kid the type of food he ate before they found out he was gluten and dairy intolerant. I don't know about you, but I have a lot of great food memories from growing up. I'd love to be able to eat this sort of food again, but paired with a cocktail since I can now also reap the rewards of being a grown-up. I am starting to gear up to try some of these recipes soon.

In the meantime, I recently had some successful food adventures with the universal delights of flat breads. I am on a mission to eat my way around the world and everywhere you go they all seem to have a local unleavened bread. You can't go wrong with naan from India, pitas from Greece. My two favorites though are tortillas from Mexico and the dressed up Italian flat bread, pizza! Get ready to go from south of the border to across the Atlantic.

For flour tortillas I went with the recipe from my online cooking bible The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I thought I'd share the tips I picked up.

1. I highly recommend getting a pastry cutter as the recipe calls for. I did this twice, once with two knives and once with the pastry cutter. Boy was the second time easier. You can plunk down anywhere from $5 to $20 for one, but you won't really use it enough to justify spending more. Check out the options on Amazon here or hit up your local Target. You won't regret it if you ever do any more dough making.

2. If you don't have a tortilla press, then cellophane (a.k.a. saran wrap) is your friend. Start by balling up all of your dough.

Then take one of the dough balls and place it between a piece of saran wrap folded in half. From here you can use a rolling pin or you can slowly flatten out the dough ball with your fingers. I went with the second method and was able to get the dough nice and thin.

Have a dry nonstick skillet ready on medium high heat. As you flatten out your dough, put them straight into the skillet, about 1 minute on each side. The first tortilla is always the best because you get to eat it to make sure your skillet is set to the right heat and you flipped at the right time.

3. Finally, remember that Crisco is only for use sparingly. I think it tastes weird straight out of the can, but apparently some people disagree.  Just remember the warning on their labels before you decide to go buttering your toast with it.

Once you've made your delicious dough discs, you can eat some right away and then the rest will keep.  They freeze really well, or last in the fridge for about a week. Tortillas are good with just about anything, but my favorite is guacamole. All you need is pico de gallo, lime, a dollop of mayo, and the fruit (yes it's a fruit) of the gods, avocado.

For pizza I cheated, but why reinvent the wheel? I went with the delicious whole wheat dough and pizza sauce from Trader Joes as my base. They even have delicious directions right on the bag.

Once you have a good base, you can start building. I went with kalamata olives, shallots, mushrooms, and white truffle oil which was an awesome combination.

Add a good friend to eat it with you are in business. I can't even tell you how delicious this was!

That concludes my last post of 2011. Happy new year; I hope 2012 is full of foodie adventures for us all. See you next year for more posts.