Carol Fenster

If you're gluten free, and have not heard this name, you need to investigate it. NOW!

She is the author of a fantastic cookbook entitled
1,000 Gluten Free Recipes.
I picked this up at my local Barnes & Noble, but I'm sure you could find it at any number of bookstores, or probably much cheaper than what I payed at Amazon.

At any rate, it was worth every penny. She has created this fabulous flour mix of sorghum, tapioca starch and potato starch, which is useful in just about any recipe that you would otherwise use wheat flour.

So, anxious to try out my new book, I ran by the store and got some yeast ( I wanted to make bread) and headed home. My first endeavor was focaccia bread, which didn't quite do as I wanted it to. I'm pretty sure that was a pan issue, believe it or not. It tasted good, but it didn't rise like I wanted.

But then, still feeling sort of unsatisfied by my pizza experience last weekend, I ventured to the pizza section of the book. And after feeling brave enough to try to make my own dough from scratch, I got started. The dough was actually pretty easy to make. Yeast used to scare me... but then I found these things called thermometers. You should invest in one if you don't have one. So, I made my crust, and I wasn't quite sure how it was going to turn out. But after following the recipe to the letter, which is actually rather hard for me, I ended up with this pizza that was knock your socks off good! The crust was chewy, and kind of crusty; just as I remember pizza tasting. I'm not sure if it was so good because I haven't had "real" pizza in a year, or because it really is that good. Either way, I thought about sending it on to Lilly's and telling them to ditch the rice and go for this crust.

The best thing about it: It's egg free AND can easily be made dairy free! How great is that??

Gluten free pizza

Ok, so I try not to make this blog too geographically specific, but recently, one of our local pizza places started making gluten-free pizza. So we finally made our way to Lillys Pizza tonight to participate in my first pizza outing in a year. It was pretty exciting.

Well, I had forgotten what a pizza parlor smelled like. But it is good. I was happy the moment I walked in the door. They also started carrying Redbridge to accompany their gluten free pizza. You can't beat pizza and beer. You just can't.

So, we ordered two gluten-free pizzas, cause they're kind of small. They arrived and we just dug right in. There were no formalities at our table. I think that I had an idea that the pizza would taste like regular pizza, only with substitutes that made it gluten-free. So, I was disappointed for a split second. Then I realized that you can never think that a "substitute" could be interchangeable with the "real" thing. My disappointment quickly changed to happiness.

The crust is thin, and it's definitely a rice crust. I'm pretty sure there is no yeast in it, so all of you who have problems with yeast can eat happily. The sauce was pretty tasty, and who can go wrong with a boatload of melted cheese. I know, I'll probably pay for the cheese indulgance, but so far, I'm feeling no pain! I do know, though, that it is possible to go veggie there, so soy cheese is probably an option. You should check on that to be sure.

Either way, I think Lillys has passed the test. It's been about two hours, and I'm feeling pretty good. If you don't count the discomfort of eating a little too much pizza for dinner. If you are in Raleigh, or ever find yourself here, do yourself a favor and check out Lillys. The best thing is that the gluten-free pizza is the same price as the regular. How often does that happen?