Meat-Free Fridays: 5 Vegetarian Pizza Pies

A pizza, by any other name, would smell … just as delicious. 🙂

For this week’s Meat-Free Friday, I’m starting the series with an old Lenten stand-by: Pizza! Pizza can easily be meatless — contrary to what any fan of a “Meat-Lover’s” pizza pie will tell you. While meaty toppings are often quite tasty, vegetarian pies on Fridays are such a great Lenten meal. Here are 5 Vegetarian Pizzas to try on a Friday.

Fun Fact: I’ll also throw in a BONUS recipe for whole grain dough that you can make at home. If you’re pursuing healthy eats in general, why not go whole hog (er, whole … vegetarian hog?) and try your own dough? Happy eating!

Laissez Les Bons Temps Roulez! Quick Jambalaya for Mardi Gras

Hi Y’all! Today is that greatest of holidays, Mardi Gras!

Image sourced from google.com/images

Also known as Fat Tuesday, Pancake Day (Hullo hullo, UK friends!), Carnivale, and a slew of other names, it’s the last day in the Liturgical (read: church) year before the season of Lent begins. Once upon the middle ages and Renaissance, Christian folks would give up sugar, butter, meat, and most of what makes a diet pleasurable during those 40 days and 40 nights, leaving them with nothing to do the day before but … eat, well, everything. Hence, one of the world’s best food-fests was born!

When Life Hands You Lemons … Make Cookies, People!

(Sung to the tune of “Badger Badger Badger”): Lemons Lemons Lemons Ciiitrus, Ciiitrus …

None of this lemonade nonsense! (Though a lemon cocktail sounds about right, too!)

A romp around the interwebs recently led me to a new recipe — Martha Stewart’s Glazed Lemon Cookies. With a friend’s housewarming BBQ* coming up soon, I thought they’d make the perfect “Hey! Thanks for the invite! Love your place. Want some baked goods?” sort of gift. 🙂 Plus, as something of a lemon addict (see: lemon pasta; lemon tea; impending other dozens of lemon-based recipes…), they seemed right up my alley.

Now often, Martha (arguably The Queen of Domesticity, minus the whole insider-trading-sent-her-to-jail thing) uses more challenging techniques and some hard-to-find ingredients; or, at the very least, her expectations of you, lowly little chef, are very high. And more often than not, Julia Child-style, I want to meet those high expectations with vigor! And spirit! And some sweat and tears thrown in for good measure! But for these cookies, on a relaxing and slightly rainy Saturday afternoon, I was on the hunt for something easy.

And easy I found. The recipe couldn’t be simpler; it’s essentially a standard sugar cookie infused with lemon zest and lemon juice, both in the actual cookie dough and in its light, lemony glaze. Try these for a holiday party (something slightly classier, like New Year’s, comes to mind) or to indulge the sweet tooth of a lemon-lover like myself.

* Out of 26 or so cookies originally, 5 were left by the time I decided to head home. Win!

Tragically, I didn’t remember to take any pictures of the cookies before heading to my friend’s housewarming. BUT! You can see them sealed under lots o’ plastic wrap here. … Tasty, right? 🙂

Martha Stewart’s Glazed Lemon Cookies — makes 24, or fewer if you’re into the “cookie-as-big-as-your-face” thing.

You’ll need:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp freshly grated lemon zest, plus 2 tbsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed or from a bottle are both fine)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

For the glaze, you’ll need:

• 1 cup confectioner’s (powdered) sugar
• 1 tbsp freshly grated lemon zest
• 1/4 cup lemon juice

Here’s what you do:

• For the cookies, Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, whisk or sift together flour, baking soda, salt and lemon zest. In a large bowl using a hand mixer or electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until “light and fluffy.” (Direct Martha quote!) Add egg, vanilla and lemon juice and beat until combined. Slowly add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients mixture, keeping your mixer on low. (If it gets too thick to beat with your hand mixer, finish combining ingredients using a large wooden spoon.)
• Drop hefty tablespoons of batter onto ungreased cookie sheets (or nonstick, if you have those) and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Switch the sheets halfway through baking (as in, if one is on top of the other in the oven, swap them after 7-8 minutes). Allow to cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes; then, transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
• For the glaze, combine all ingredients using a small whisk or fork in a small bowl. Spread or drizzle glaze mixture onto cooled cookies. Allow the glaze to harden, then commence the nomming.

The best thing about these cookies, I think, is the combination of subtle lemon in the batter and “HOLY COW THAT’S LEMONTASTIC” in the glaze. You end up with cookies that, ironically, do taste like lemonade. 🙂 Enjoy!

What are your favorite lemony treats? What are your go-to cookie recipes? This one might work its way into my repertoire — how about you?