My sister and I went to a pizza-making party last week.  It was a fun and genius idea on the part of our friend.   It was especially fun for me because I got to teach a whole bunch of people how to stretch and toss dough!  Rolling pins?  Pshaw!   Who needs rolling pins when you have hands?   There were little disks of dough flying through the air, threatening to land on a head or two, crashing into lumpy messes, falling lopsided into our hands… but in the end, everyone had some pretty great pizza.  And I made some heart-shaped breadsticks out of the same dough.  Because I’m cute like that.

Anyway, we came home with a mass of pizza toppings, which have just been sitting in the fridge since Sunday.   So last night, when I decided to make a stir fry to go with some incredible tomato-lentil soup, I peered into the fridge and a lightbulb went off!  Eureka!  So after changing the lightbulb  …  (Just kidding! The lightbulb was a metaphor. Don’t roll your eyes too much! They’ll get stuck that way.) … Anyway, how fantastic would pizza stir-fry be?

I decided to answer my own question.

Stir Fry!

Crispy tofu, fresh basil, farmers’ market tomatoes, black olives, button mushrooms, kale, tomato sauce, and a “cheesy” sauce.   Tastes like pizza but without the crust.  Win!  Maybe next time I’ll pile it on top of a whole wheat tortilla, sprinkle on some Daiya, and broil it for a few minutes.

I’m sure this is infinitely adaptable.  Just throw in whatever pizza toppings you like best.   I’d give you a recipe, but I bet you can figure it out.  I recommend using Post Punk Kitchen’s cast-iron stir-fry method.

Ok.  Here is a kind of recipe.

Pizza Stir-Fry

• Extra extra firm Tofu
• Olive Oil
• Spices
• Pizza Toppings
• Your favorite cheese sauce
• Tomato Sauce
• Whatever
• Healthy stuff?

Directions

1. Heat a cast-iron pan… or non-stick pan… or whatever pan you like.
2. Fry tofu until crispy in a small amount of olive oil and spices. Basil, oregano, the works.
3. Fry tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, kale until soft and tender
4. Mix together and cover with some tomato sauce and a bit of vegan cheese or cheese sauce.  The humnut sauce is simple and pretty good.
5. Eat it.  Yum.

Oh yeah, I always always cook my tofu with turmeric.  I don’t know why exactly.  I guess it’s because my mom always did it that way?  And so now tofu looks funny to me if it’s not that bright turmeric yellow…

My blog has been all sorts of broken over the past few days.  I’ve been working hard to fix it when I can… but I’m no code expert and the whole thing has me hitting my head off the wall.  Wordpress, why must you torment me so?    

As soon as things really do seem to be in working order again, I’m going to post about scones, strawberry chocolate cake, and nanaimo bars.  Om nom nom.

Hello the internet!

This is my very first post as Dharma Bakery. I’ve been waiting for the banner to go up… and unfortunately wordpress won’t let me edit the blog at all! I guess because it wasn’t set up on my computer or something. A very nice computer savvy friend of mine has offered to fix things up, but hasn’t had the chance yet.    In any case, I didn’t want to post until it was looking good, because I’m weird and a perfectionist… but I can’t wait any longer!

A little about me and what this is going to be. My name is Dina and I graduated from Duke with a degree in political science and decided, “Hey! Why not be a pastry chef?” Well, of course I’ve been baking since forever because my lovely dear mother owns a bakery. But in any case, I spent the last 6 months working in a local bakery making more croissants and pastries than you can imagine. I had my last day yesterday and now Dharma Bakery is my full time job!

I plan on using the blog to post news, pictures, specials, recipes, and anything that amuses me. The news right now is that tomorrow at 3 pm, everyone is welcome to come to Dharma Bakery’s Sunday Pastries.  I’m making rainbow cookies, chocolate peppermint cake, and something not-sweet.    

I’ll be posting regularly from now on.  Yay!