Pensacola pizza and Italian tomato sauce

The other day while we were picking up some things after I got done with work I was super ready to go home when Peter said that we had to swing by the hospital to pick something up for his mom.  I was suspicious because 1) It was like 7:30 at night 2) He kept coming up with random details which didn't make for a very convincing lie.

After driving in what I was pretty sure was the opposite direction from the hospital, we pulled up to Ozone pizza! I was on a surprise date! Yay! I had always wanted to go there and apparently it is a Pensacola hotspot.  Also I've really been missing pizza.  Nothing can fill the void that Panda Pizza left in my soul... nothing.

It had all of my favorite toppings! Including vegan cheese.  As soon as I ordered it though, I thought to myself "Oh gawd I hope it's not Daiya."  Unluckily for me, it was Daiya.  Daiya is good for many things, but unfortunately pizza is not one of them.  So I learned my lesson there and I can't wait to go back and get a cheese-less pizza.... this time probably with thin crust also.  But it was so fun!

We haven't been on a date in forever and Ozone was so cool.  I'm not used to restaurants that have decorations that aren't pictures of the owners' family or a framed apron or something.  Ozone had these cool paintings on the wall that you could buy.  There was one with Mae West that I loved but I forgot to take a picture of it because I am a terrible blogger.

While on the subject of Italian food... I started thinking about the amazing pasta sauces that I got back home.  Jarred pasta sauces are great and convenient and I love them, but there's something so fresh and simple about Italian tomato sauce.  I tried a bunch of random recipes but nothing tasted right.  I would try to recreate it and add spices and garlic and it was never right.

I wrote to my parents and asked them to send me a sauce recipe from one of my mom's Italian cookbooks.  Once I got the recipe, I saw why I could never recreate it.  That's because there is like nothing in it.  Tomatoes, onions, white wine and salt.  That's it.  The Italians had it so right!

The recipe for this sauce came from the cookbook made by Miss Vera.  If you lived in Naples for a decent amount of time, you or someone you know probably went to one of Miss Vera's cooking classes.  I genuinely enjoyed mine! She has someone that cleans up your mess and where else can I drink wine with my mother at 10 in the morning?

Her recipe called for fresh tomatoes put through a food mill.  But I don't have one of those so I adapted it.  I decided to put it on here to give everyone missing Italian food an little piece of home.  One batch makes about eight cups of it so I plan on using it as pizza sauce and in lasagna and pasta.  There are a lot of carbs in my future.

Speaking of carbs.  My working out has been going really well! Except for the running.  I am just not a runner.  I hate running.  About a minute into all of my runs my chest gets tight and I just can't breathe.  So I started doing HIIT in addition to the toning workouts and yoga.  It's only been a month and I don't really SEE results, but I can feel myself getting stronger.

Anyways! Here's the recipe! Enjoy!

Authentic Italian Tomato Sauce
1 onion - diced
6 oz can of tomato paste
6 oz of water
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup of white wine
28 oz can of diced tomatoes
56 oz container of strained tomatoes

1. Sautee the onion in the olive oil in a pot.
2. Add the wine and continue to sautee until the wine has evaporated.

This is the strained tomatoes that I used! They were so good! Use them if you can find them

 3. Add the tomato products and water and salt to taste.

4. Let simmer to two to three hours.

ENJOY! I was going to post a pic of the finished product on my pasta, but I used spelt pasta and it looked kind of gross even though it tasted so great.  I'm going to make my own pizza though and use it as the sauce and I think it's going to be amazinggg.

Garden progress and Bruschetta

So despite having no job and no car (I have inquired about both though), I have been up to a lot lately.  I planted my garden, made my own laundry detergent, got a new iPhone 6, cooked a few new dishes and even made up one of my own.

Peter has been busy beautifying the outside and has done hours of yard work.  Just tearing down stuff and bagging leaves and cutting hedges.  Everything looks really nice.  All of that below was overgrown with vines and leaves and you couldn't even tell that there was brick there.

I'm thinking about planting something in the corner, but I'm not sure what to put there because that area gets little to no sun.  I'll figure it out though.  I made my own laundry detergent out of Borax, Washing Soda, Baking Soda 2 bars of soap and essential oils from THIS "recipe" that I found on Pinterest.  When you do the math, it ends up costing only 2 cents a load of laundry.  The recipe makes a HUGE amount.  If I were to do this again, which I probably will, I would add more essential oil because my clothes come out clean, but they don't smell like anything.  I guess that's not a huge deal but I like it when my clothes smell good.

Also, I finally got around to filling in my raised garden bed.  I seriously think that using an old bookcase as a raised garden bed is the best idea ever.  It is perfect for the lazy or carpentry-challenged gardener! All you have to do is reinforce it if it's a little bit wobbly and you are good to go!  I feel like it my responsibility to inform everyone in the world about this so I'm going to pin this on Pinterest.  There isn't really a "how to", you just rip off the back and the shelves and put it on the ground.

You can see from the picture that I have kale, spinach, basil and tomatoes growing.  I bought all of those plants because I wanted something to take care of.  But what you can't see are the onions, garlic, arugula, carrots and green peas.

The carrots and green peas poked out of the soil today and I think I got more excited about that than I have about anything in a very long time.  Look at them! Aren't they cute?!

If I was to ever describe a plant as "adorable" this would be it 

Eeeee they're so cute and small

I put the tomato in the ground two days ago and it's already grown a pretty decent amount.  I am a proud plant-mother.

In other news, I came up with a recipe for bruschetta.  If anyone knew me in Naples, my favorite pizzeria that isn't Da Michele's or Di Matteo's is Panda Pizza.  It is a 2 minute walk from my house and I've been eating there for years.  The only thing that they do better than pizza (in my opinion) is bruschetta.  I compare every bruschetta that I have to Panda's bruschetta.  There are a few that come close, like Cerbero's or Old Friends and there are some that taste like garbage... I'm looking at you Fratelli la Bufala.

I always say that I'm going to try and come up with something similar, but I never actually have.  This is my attempt and it was pretty darn good.  It wasn't the same as Panda.  But let's be honest, nothing will be the same as Panda.  Their bruschetta has a zing to it, that I have determined to be white vinegar.  

Bruschetta alla Pomodoro 

A few tomatoes - diced (I used 5 plum tomatoes)

A loaf of crusty bread cut into slices about 1 inch thick (I prefer sourdough)

a bunch of fresh basil finely chopped (I used the plant from my garden... so fancy) 

1 clove of garlic, halved

1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano

EVOO

3 tablespoons white vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Mix the tomatoes, vinegar, basil, about a table spoon of olive oil and salt and pepper in a bowl.  Let the mixture marinate in the refrigerator for at least two hours, stirring occasionally.  I know this isn't how you make traditional bruschetta but it's worth it! Trust me.

When you're ready to serve, toast the bread on both sides.  Rub the clove of garlic on the side that you will be putting the tomato mixture on, then drizzle with olive oil.  Spoon the tomatoes on with a slotted spoon and you're done!  I like to splash a little bit of balsamic vinegar on it.

very sharp and new knife!

Peter did this. So fancy.

I can't wait until I have my own tomatoes to make it with! Enjoy!

Ciao ciao
xo Katelyn

Balsamic Tofu Burgers and Gardening

I feel like it's finally fall here in Penacola.  The air has a coolness to it, and it isn't so humid that every inhale feels like you're drinking a glass of water.  I have a recipe for this week!  Most days, I just make up meals but I never take pictures or write down the ingredients, so I can't post about it.

It's been so long since I posted something that I actually made up, so I figured I should be proactive and document my cooking experience.  I made my own veggie burgers last week, and I saw a pin for a tofu burger on Pinterest, so I thought, Why not?  Here's what I came up with...

Balsamic Tofu Burgers
1 block of firm tofu
4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon of ketchup
1 teaspoon honey
Squirt of barbecue sauce
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon basil
salt and pepper to taste.

Press your tofu to get the water out.  I use the Tofu EZPress.  A really good investment if you eat a lot of tofu! See it on Amazon HERE.  Cut your tofu into desired burger size and shape.  I used one block and made four burgers.

Mix together everything else in a bowl. Pour it on your tofu and let the tofu marinate in the refrigerator for at least two or three hours. I flipped them over in the marinade halfway through.

Cook them! They're best on the grill but I just pan-fried them the other day.  Super easy.  Three or four minutes each side.

Should have used a grill pan but I don't have one

Keep in mind that my measurements are just recommendations.  I literally just threw in random amounts of random stuff until I came up with something that I liked.  I think some rosemary would be good in there too.

Also keep in mind that these are TOFU BURGERS.  Tofu gets a bad reputation for being plain, but marinating it helps.  But it all comes down to them being made out of tofu.  So I add a bunch of toppings.  I usually make my burger like this (in order from bottom to top): whole wheat bun, baby spinach, tofu burger, smear of barbecue sauce, some vegetables, ketchup, whole wheat bun.  My favorite topping is a mixture of sauteed onions and mushrooms.  Here's the recipe for how I make them!

Sauteed Mushrooms and Onions
1/2 a white or yellow onion
2 garlic cloves
Five good sized white mushrooms
Tablespoon of olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Splash of white wine
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat up a saucepan.  Add the olive oil and the garlic.  Once the garlic is fragrant, add the onions and then a little while after add the mushrooms.  Add the white wine and the balsamic and let it cook on medium heat until the majority of the moisture has evaporated.  Then eat it alone or put it on something.  Whatevs you want.

mmmmmm

Moving on... I've decided to make a garden and I've become kind of obsessed with the idea of having a raised garden bed.  If you follow me on Pinterest, you can see my garden board here.  I'm pretty sure that half of my pins are just links to raised garden beds.  Peter and I went through a phase where we were going to make one from random wood in the backyard, then where we were going to buy the wood from Home Depot and then finally we were like, let's just buy one.  Turns out those things are like $100.  After I had resigned myself to the fact that I was either not going to have a raised garden bed or I was going to have to make it myself, the neighborhood had a yard sale.

One of the girls that had lived here before me left behind an old book case and the shelves were falling off, so we took out the shelves.  Peter and I looked at each other like they do in the movies and I was like, "Wait.... this is a raised garden bed."  I felt like a genius.

Not sure where we are going to put it yet!

So now I have a few containers and a bed that needs to be filled.  I planted arugula, onions, garlic, peas, carrots and daffodils.  I have no idea how this is going to turn out.  I've never really tried that hard to grow something before so I'm excited.

Because I am a very impatient person, I needed the instant gratification that planting flowers provides.  I can't wait for the months while my seeds grow, I needed something to be proud of now.  So I made hanging planters.  By "made" I mean I bought the hanging things and picked out some flowers and put the flowers in the hanging things.  I put one on each side of the porch.  I'm kind of proud of them.  Also, in case you didn't know Lowe's has a military discount.  Sadly my ID expires on October 28th so I have to use it while I can.  

In other news, I have a few new books.  I'm 75% done with Ken Follett's Edge of Eternity which has 1,120 pages.  It's the finale of his Century trilogy and I'm kind of depressed that it's over.  It is an epic multi-generational historical fiction saga.  I know more about the characters in this book than I know about my own relatives.  Read more about it HERE. I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes historical fiction and European and American history.

I also have the two most recent Phillipa Gregory novels in her Cousin's War series that somehow I just missed that they came out!  This is the fault of the bookstore in Naples who stopped carrying books and magazines because their supplier went out of business.  I'm catching up slowly but surely.

That's all for now! If you have any gardening tips, suggestions for what I should plant or book suggestions, let me know!

xo Katelyn

Weekend in Ischia

So I haven't blogged in a while.  This is because 1) I haven't done anything too interesting since I got back from Budapest, 2) I haven't had a lot of free time and 3) I wrote an entire blog and it didn't save and I was so frustrated by the whole thing that I just couldn't go on.  It took a lot of self control to not throw my laptop across the room.

Anyways, Peter and I spent a week at Tasha and Jason's watching their dogs while they took an anniversary trip to London and Paris.  I took advantage of the free house and kitchen and I made soooo much food.  I was really on a roll.  The only thing is that I didn't really take any good pictures of the food.  I do that every time.  One night I made the Seitan Mushroom stroganoff in the Isa Does It book and then I made tacos.  I taco-seasoned Light Life veggie crumbles and I made guacmole, salsa and the vegan sour cream from the Oh She Glows cookbook and oh my gosh it was so amazing.  I made too much so I ate tacos for breakfast for the next three days.  THEN I made a stir fry with veggies and tofu and udon noodles and it was so good.  I used a wok(!). I need a wok, I can't believe I don't have one.  The pictures don't make anything look appetizing, but I promise you everything was great!

The vegan sour cream was so great.  Just 1 cup of cashews, 1/2 cup of water, two tablespoons of lemon juice, one tablespoon of ACV, one teaspoon of salt and blend.  So good and light and refreshing.  The first time I made it I used orange juice because I had no lemons and it was still pretty good!  At one point I was just using it as dip for tortilla chips.

Now for the best part of the post! This weekend Peter took me to Ischia, and island by Capri on the coast of Naples.  It was supposed to be a surprise but I'm a really good detective and I hate not knowing things so I found out.  Soooooooo romantic.

Saturday morning we took the ferry from Naples where it was RAINING!  It continued to rain off and on until we got to our hotel around 11:30.  We stayed at the Park Hotel and Terme Romantica in Sant'Angelo which is the southernmost part of the island.  Link here. 

It's a hotel with a spa and thermal pools.  I didn't utilize any of the spa facilities because the cheapest thing was a massage for 40 euro.  But our room was really cute.  It was set off from the other rooms.  I called it our "little square".  I'm pretty sure it was the only room standing by itself.  We were pretty tired when we got there so we took what was supposed to be a two hour nap, but when we woke up five hours later, it wasn't raining anymore and it was beautiful.

Prosecco waiting for us in our room!

Our room even had its own little gate

We made reservations for dinner at La Casereccia in Forio.  Their Tripadvisor page is here.  We had to take a bus from our hotel and then walk almost a mile, but we got there eventually.  I was freaking out because our reservations were for eight and we were about fifteen minutes late, but there were maybe two families there.  However, thirty minutes after we got there it was a packed house.

We started with appetizers... like most meals do.  We got bruschetta (obviously) for the first of probably five times this weekend.  The tomatoes were huge and ripe and the portions were pretty large.  Then we got an Antipasti plate which is basically just mixed appetizers.  There were grilled eggplants and zucchini, both of which an employee was grilling all night.  Various pickled vegetables, a fried zucchini flower stuffed with cheese (that was AMAZING...sorry) and potato croquette and more.

I'm a bruschetta snob now

Antipasti before

Antipasti after

On TripAdvisor, this restaurant is advertised as vegetarian.  It's definitely not vegetarian but it has a plethora of vegetarian options.  Not too many vegan options, but enough to fill up on.  I got gnocchi and Peter got this really amazing pasta in a white sauce.  Every dish was obviously homemade and fresh.  The owner of the restaurant, who was this cute little old man, made his way around the restaurant asking everyone if their food was okay.  Overall I would recommend La Casereccia.  It was adorbs and the food was amazing.  It was worth the .8 mile up-hill walk.

Also, their decor was really cute.  It was rustic/typical Italian, but they had real tomatoes and garlic hanging on the walls and around the tables, I may or may not have made a vampire joke.

They also had this super trendy sign

 After dinner we walked into the town of Forio, which was also where we took the boat into and looked at some shops.  I spent the entire weekend looking for a sun hat.  I never got one because I didn't find one that really spoke to me.  I am very picky about hats.

Then we took the bus back up to our hotel and passed out.  We spoke to our concierge about renting a scooter (eeeeeeeeeeeeep) for the next two days.  My family has a scooter, but it scares the crap out of me-- the way that they weave in and out of traffic and come out of nowhere.  Peter knows how to drive one though.  I was still scared.

When we woke up the next day, we were going to go to the Mortella gardens, but it wasn't super high on my list of priorities and I'd rather just go to the beach.  I've been to Ischia several times before to go to the thermal spas.  I always go to Negombo.  It's a really nice place with thermal pools terraced up the side of the island and they have their own private beach.  I've heard really great things about Poseidon so I thought that this would be a good time to try it out.  They both have their pros and cons, the main con being price but I would say that visiting either Negombo or Poseidon is a must-do for anyone visiting Ischia.  Nothing really beats going back and forth between the extremely hot pool and the ice cold pool.  Apparently it's supposed to improve circulation.  

Oh and did I mention that we went to Poseidon on the scooter?  It was a little traumatic at first but I got used to it.  After we tried out all of the thermal pools (we had to wear swim caps) and finished up at the beach, we headed back to the hotel.  We decided to get dinner near Ischia porto so we could look at shops after.  My phone took us to the highest point of the island on the way.  What is technically a 3 mile journey ended up being 10 miles because of all of the twists in the road.  I didn't get any pictures because taking pictures on a scooter is not a good idea but I wish I did because the views were breathtaking.  Ischia is such a beautiful island.  The water is so blue and the skies were so clear.

We walked around for a bit and ended up eating at La Luna Rossa.  When we walked in, every employee said "Buona sera" to us and it was really sweet.  But after they took our orders everything went to hell.  The tables next to us, even the people that got there twenty minutes after we did got their food and we didn't even get bread! It was really frustrating.  Once I asked for bread I think the waiter realized that he dropped the ball and after that everything was great.  

My phone died so we had no GPS on the way back.  We were both sure that we knew the way but we didn't.  We eventually stopped and asked some Italians who gave us the best directions ever.  He just wrote down which signs to follow.  It was a completely different way from the way that we came but it was a lot easier and it was a huge relief getting back.  Side note: has anyone else noticed that all Italians have exactly the same handwriting?

Pretty sure this beach is Sant'Angelo

When we woke up the next day, we had to check out, so we had to do something that we could bring all of our stuff to.  I personally did not feel like I got enough sun so we decided to hit up the beach at Sant'Angelo.  We ended up using the beach that our hotel had a discounted rate at-- Michaels and for twelve euro we got two chairs, and umbrella and the use of a paddle boat.  I finally got my massage because I paid some Asian lady ten euro to massage me.  She poured so much oil on me that I'm pretty sure I'm still oily but it was a quality massage and I'm glad I didn't drop 50 euro at our hotel for one.  She even got my calves and my feet.  Ooooo boy.

Peter got viciously attacked by the paddle boat when we jumped in and I immediately got back into the boat because no matter how clear the water is.... something could be down there.  

this is my helmet

After a few hours in the sun, we had to head back to Naples (sad) so we rode the scooter down to the port in Forio.  Our hotel had arranged something with the scooter company where we were supposed to drop the scooter off at a bar called La Cambusa.  We had no other details.  We were like, "So we just walk into this bar and find someone to hand the keys for this scooter to?"  The answer was yes.  I literally just said, "Scooter?" and some guy said "Yes." and took the keys from me.  As far as I know, it was the right scooter man.

Getting on that boat back to Naples was kind of sad because I had so much fun in Ischia.  Just me and Peter and an island and absolutely no one and nothing to talk to or do or anything.  Living an hour away from an island paradise is something that I'm going to miss when I go back to the states.

Ciao ciao!
x - Katelyn

Budapest part 1

I'm currently blogging from Budapest, Hungary.  But this isn't any ordinary vacation.  I'm here for Peter's sister, Anne's wedding.  I got here on Saturday and I leave on Sunday.  I was lucky enough to have visited Budapest before with my family, but I didn't appreciate, so this is Round Two and I'm loving it. 

Let's start with the prospect of being vegan in Hungary.  There is basically nothing.  About 95% of the dishes feature meat heavily and if they don't the main component of the meal is grilled cheese.  Other than that, there is the celery in my Bloody Mary and a variety of pickled vegetables.  I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but I caved and I commenced vegetarian mode.  I'm with about half of Peter's entire extended family so it's not like I can be like, can we please go somewhere that serves vegan food.  Yes, I could have ordered the grilled veggies without the grilled cheese on top, but I'm on vacation and I decided to go a little crazy.  Peter ate most of the cheese though.  He's basically vegetarian now, which I'm really proud of/psyched about.   

Grilled vegetables and mozzarella

However, when I'm not eating out with Peter's family, I explore my vegan options.  I bought the HappyCow app for my phone and I've looked around at what's nearby.  Today Peter and I ate lunch at Thai Wok, which is my favorite kind of place.  Where you basically build your meal by choosing the base (I chose rice noodles), your add-ons (I chose tofu and mixed vegetables) and your sauce (I chose pad thai sauce, which I made sure did not have fish sauce in it).   If you go there, make sure that you ask for no eggs in your noodles because I made that mistake.  It wasn't listed in the description, but it was in there... I considered sending it back but I didn't.  I also got the Pad Tea and it was phenomenal.  

But this blog post isn't about how I screwed up at being vegan, it's about my trip to Budapest!  The first night we had a traditional Hungarian meal (I had the grilled veggies which I showed above) and then Peter, his sister Jackie, his brother Kevin, cousin Ian and I went out to explore Budapest.  We ended up riding a giant ferris wheel which is very similar to the London eye, just smaller. 

Then on Sunday we all slept in and then met up at the Hard Rock where I had my first Bloody Mary ever.  Something about tomato juice just always turned me off, but it was so so tasty.  I had a normal one and a spicy one and ooooooo boy I will be having more of those in the future!!

Then we went and ate lunch and walked down this long street with people selling old things and things that they have made.  I am trying to be fiscally conservative on this trip so I didn't buy nything but a few things caught my eye, like this one Soviet Union-era hat and a flask and some "energy crystals", but let's be honest I do not need an energy crystal.  We also found this random old car show with a bunch of cars and motorcycles.  Peter was super excited about it. 

1998 Lotus (I have no idea the significance of this)

Then Peter and I walked along the water, where I was STUNG BY A BEE.  It hurt so terribly.  This was only the second time that I was stung by a bee and I'm not going to lie, I cried.  THEN Peter and I stumbled upon a beer festival, where we killed about two hours waiting for dinner.  It's crazy being in a city where there are so many things to do!

Then we met up with everyone for dinner in a boat/restaurant on the water.  Peter and I communally ate a Greek salad, stuffed shells, gnocchi in a parmesan cream sauce with porcini mushrooms and spinach and this thing that was basically lasagna but instead of noodles, there were potatoes.  The view was so beautiful and by the end of dinner I was no longer terrified by all of Peter's relatives. 

Then we went back to the hotel for sleeeeeps.  This morning we slept in again.  Peter and I ate at Thai Wok and then met up with everyone.  It's his brother's birthday, so we went and did this cool Trap thing where they basically lock you in a room for an hour and you have to solve a series of riddles and use random props in the room to get out.  The guide (for us it was Robert) can see you and hear you to help you if you need a hint or an idea.  We definitely utilized Robert but I think we did a pretty good job getting out of it.  We finished right before our hour was up.  We were in the medieval room.  There was also an Egyptian room that looked preeeetty cool.  You can learn more about the Trap thing HERE.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Budapest.  It's only an hour and it's really fun!

So far I am LOVING Budapest.  If I was here by myself I would probably try harder to find vegan options, but it's not my priority.  But I'm having the time of my life right now.  I've been keeping up with the World Cup religiously and I am super duper excited to watch Team USA play tomorrow night!! Italy is out but it's whatever.  I think this is the year for a non-European team to win but it will probably end up being Germany or The Netherlands. 

I'll post more as the trip goes on!!

ciao ciao! - Katelyn