Failcess – Vegan Pizza

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So this is probably one of my weirder experiments. I tried to make a totally vegan cheese pizza. It also happened to be gluten free or potentially gluten free if you want to go for the whole pop hypochondria thing.  If this sounds weird, you don’t know me.

So, this potential mad creation of mine was . . . failure and success.  Let’s take a look.

Cheese

The cheese is purely from the Forks Over Knives Cookbook. It’s simple and it was “cheeseque” – good enough to use as cheese in something that needs a taste kind of like cheese.  It wasn’t cheese but, well, close enough for this.

  • One white onion, diced
  • One red pepper, seeded, diced
  • One tablespoon peanut butter
  • 1 cup nutritional yeast.

Just puree all of these in a blender- it’s surprisingly easy. I puree the red pepper and onion in batches, and it’s surprisingly “liquidy.” I then blend in the peanut butter and then the yeast.

Sauce

I used a can of tomato sauce. Because I was being lazy.

Crust

  • 3 cups besan (chickpea) flour (by the way, this awesome high-protein flour is great for nutrtion, cooking, chips, pudding, and more)
  • 6 tsp xanthan gum
  • 1 tbsp baking powder.
  • 1 cup water

Mix the dry ingredients together, then slowly stir in the water. Finally coat your hands with chickpea flour and knead it a bit. Then place it in a nonstick pizza pan.

To cook this, I tried

  1. Cook the crust for 8 minutes.
  2. Remove, add tomato sauce as needed (about a cup)
  3. drizzle cheese sauce (about 3/4 of it)
  4. Cook for 12 minutes.

And how did it come out?

Imagine an extremely lame homemade pizza. Dough wasn’t quite done, the tomato sauce soaked in, the sauce didn’t cook in well, everything was drippy. It tasted “eh” but didn’t quite blend so was ultimately unsatisfying.

Except . . . it was recognizable as a pizza. Just a really bad one.  It was a failure as a pizza, but a success in that I made a completely vegan low-fat pizza that still had quite a protein kick due to the chickpea flour and nutritional yeast.  It was just a bad pizza.

Failure as a pizza, but at least it was a pizza.

So I think there are ways to improve this:

  1. The crust probably needs a bit of a sweetener and/or salt.  Not a bad idea as the only sodium source was the sauce – and next time i’ll use homemade.
  2. I’d also flip the crust over before adding toppings so they don’t soak in so much and the other side gets to cook.
  3. Go easy on the tomato sauce.  Also crushed tomatoes may work as well.
  4. I wonder if I could thicken the cheese sauce a bit, perhaps chilling it, cooking it and then adding some arrowroot.
  5. Overall it needs to be baked longer – probably 8-10 minutes, flip it over and add toppings, and then 15 or so.

So a failure on one level, a success on another.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Geek As Citizen: Boost The Signal – The Basics

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Paper And Stars

So as noted, if you want to Boost The Signal on good works (as opposed to complaining about the bad), you need to take an Ambassador mindset. You have to choose to represent good works or a good work in a human, connecting, conscious way – as opposed to evangelizing or being annoying.

But, what do you do as this newly self-designated ambassador? I’m glad you asked because I’m happy to order people around. Here’s the basics.

Leave A Review. Seriously, we’re often bad at this. Leave a review on a website about the work in question so people can see it. It takes a few minutes and its worth it. I know I could do this more myself.

Leave A Review II. There are sites like Goodreads or Yelp or LinkedIn that let you review, comment, or recommend books, things, and people. Leave a review there. That artist you met who did some work for you could use a LinkedIn reference, that great indie bookstore needs a Yelp review. Also keep in mind there are multiple review sources.

Tell People. Don’t be annoying (remember: Ambassador) but take a moment to tell people about the work when appropriate. You might be worried about overdoing it, so use your common sense. An example for me is that when a co-worker decried bad science fiction, I told him about Flight of the Vajra (and now that you’re reading this, I told you).

Tell People 2. Just found a great anime, bookstore, comic, etc.? Take time to tell people on social media. Again, don’t spam, but go out of the way to mention it and tag things properly. You never know how far a message can spread.

Gift Time. If something is good, and you want to share it, share it with others. That great manga series is a perfect birthday present. That fantastic movie in the Criterion collection is something you can toss to a friend who wants something to read.

(also notice I just plugged the Criterion collection)

Donate. Donate some of the media you want to promote if possible. Give it to libraries, schools, bookshops, use as prizes, etc. Some people promote themselves this way; you can promote others as well – again, just don’t overdo it.

Tell the Author. Liked a book or series? Tell the author. Write them. Let them know you care. They probably need the feedback and would like the boost, especially if they’re a bit obscure. Always offer to help give them a nudge or a boost.

These are basic things you can do now that you decided to be an Ambassador. But there’s more you can do if you really want take it far, and I’ll cover that next . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Odd Books Have An Ally

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I recall so many odd books in my time. I’d see these odd things on the shelf and pick them up or wonder. Or maybe read them and forget them. I especially loved science fiction and fantasy.

Thomas Anderson in part is reliving my childhood and then some by reviewing odd, forgotten, or strange genre fiction at Shlock Value.  It’s really worth reading his reviews as he finds amazing things.

What’s odd is how many of these books seem almost quaintly odd or imaginative.  I can’t see many of them getting published today, and we’re poorer for it.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.