Salmon and Roasted Vegetable Pizza

Tone. I think it is by far the most important part of communication. When you communicate using the right tone, everything goes smoothly. Ever accidentally used a wrong tone to communicate something? Notice how the person receiving that wrong tone pushes back or shuts down? Yup, I do that. Someone comes to me and says, "hey, it would be super helpful if you could help me out with x, y, z. Do you have the time to do that right now?" My answer is usually sure, no problem, happy to help, easy peasy, consider it done (enter major smiley face now).

Rewind a little bit to the same situation: "hey, I'm super busy and I need x, y, z. Can you just do that for me? It's probably just easier if you to just do it anyways". My reply? Well I'm sure you can enter something much more entertaining than my little PG blog can handle.

In all of my interaction experience the tone seems to set the whole scene. And I honestly believe it is a fact of all interactions. As soon as a conversation loses the tone, it also loses context. Ever notice how often an email gets misinterpreted? It's because there isn't any tone.  If you write an email and think you might be coming across as different than you intend in an email, the reader is probably going to take it a totally different way again! But, this makes communication even harder, because sometimes finding our own tone means that you have to watch how you come across. It makes sense why a lot of people avoid discussing items face to face for that very reason!

I am so glad the world has moved to smartphones and we don't actually ever have to communicate to any one person. We can simply tweet our moods, or use a picture to do that talking and then just wait until someone pays attention to us for five seconds and comments. I love that. Some may feel that we have lost our expression of conversation, but just like that tone or misinterpreted email, I look at it differently. I look at it as we have expanded our prose and potential for creative expansion. We have allowed ourselves to express our inner most desires in anyway we chose. It's almost medieval that we can use poetry, quotes, pictures, songs and even food (yes!) to explain how we are feeling at one time. And lucky for us, we have the technology so that we can change and update how we are feeling as things change. Speaking of that, I wonder how Romeo and Juliet would end up nowadays if they could have bbm'd each other about the poison and known when each other had read the message...

Ok, I am not out to change history today. Just out to think just a little bit. And yes, that last thought was a bit facetious, but the concept about creativity is cool. Tres cool.

Speaking of pushing the envelop, I have seen this pizza recipe a lot lately and thought I would give it a try. It's the pizza that is made with a cauliflower crust. No flour, no rising, no gluten (which I super like). This is the second attempt, and it's still not perfect. So if you haven't attempted this yet, then at least try to learn from my mistakes.

Mistake 1: MAKE SURE YOU DRY THE STEAMED CAULIFLOWER RICE. All the moisture that is release during the steaming process will mean that your pizza crust won't necessarily bond together. Aka you won't be able to hold it very well like you would a real pizza slice. It's still delicious either way, but your friends might be a bit suspicious as to why your "pizza" crust is disintegrating when they try to pick it up.

Mistake 2: LET THE CAULIFLOWER CRUST COOK BEFORE ADDING THE TOPPINGS. That's pretty self-explanatory.

Wow, only two mistakes?! I would say I'm doing alright! Let's get into take two of my almost fail, but some how I kept it together cauliflower pizza.

After steaming, drying (lots and lots of drying) and mixing in the egg, cheese, salt, pepper and oregano, we marvel at what comes across as a mashed potato layer.

A little left over cheese for snacking.

Topping choices are key. I went for roasted egg plant, brussel sprouts and yellow peppers. I also used some left over salmon I had from a previous night's dinner. I am all about the philosophy of using what is ready in the fridge.

 What comes out is plated deliciousness. Note: I decided to leave all of the cheese in the crust and not top with additional cheese. This was my decision, but how you make it is up to you! Go cheese crazy!

Salmon and Roasted Vegetable Pizza

Crust:

2 cups cauliflower rice, well dried

1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

1 egg

salt, pepper and oregano to taste

Pizza:

1/3 cup spicy tomato sauce

1/2 medium yellow pepper, cut into thin strips

1/2 cup  eggplant, diced

4 brussels sprouts, sliced

1/2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup cooked salmon, split into pieces

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl combine cauliflower rice, mozzarella, egg, salt, pepper and oregano. Mix until well combined.
3. Toss yellow peppers, eggplant and brussels sprouts in the olive oil. Spread over one baking sheet. Place in the oven and allow to roast while the cauliflower crust is cooking.
3. On a baking sheet, spread the cauliflower rice mixture into a thin layer. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the top is golden brown.
4. Once cooked, top the pizza with tomato sauce, roasted vegetables and salmon (or desired toppings).
5. Bake for 6-8 minutes at 400 F. Broil for an additional 2-3 minutes on high.
6. Allow pizza to rest for 2-3 minutes before slicing and serving.