In fact, food historians agree that the origin of pizza was not Italy, but Greece.

While flatbread was topped with other foods since it was first grilled on a hot rock in prehistoric times, ancient Greeks turned the process into an art. They topped a round flatbread (plankuntos) with stew, thick broth, meat, vegetables and/or fruit.

The result was a thrifty, convenient and tasty meal for the working man and his family, requiring no additional plates or utensils. (Injera, the Ethiopian flatbread, is still used for this purpose and is a mainstay of Ethiopian cuisine. More on the history of pizza).

Make a Grilled Chicken Caesar Pizza; then see how many different ways you can combine proteins and veggies on a pizza.

Look to your favorite sandwich and salad combinations. Instead of conventional sandwich bread, use the ingredients to top a pizza. You can use tomato sauce or barbecue sauce as a base, or any other sauce topping. We’ve used wasabi mayonnaise, blue cheese dressing and thousand island dressing with canned tuna, hard-cooked eggs and roast meat leftovers. Try a chef salad or spinach salad pizza.

Add romaine or other lettuce and some cherry tomatoes, and you’ve got a pizza salad-and-sandwich.

Pizza Dough Tips

 
Find more of our favorite pizza recipes.
  

Try striped bass for a change. Photo courtesy
EuroUSA.

What about the striped bass*, a coastal water denizen that happens to be the state fish of Maryland, Rhode Island and South Carolina, and the state saltwater fish of New Hampshire, New York and Virginia?

Native to the coasts of eastern North America, the bass live as far north as the St. Lawrence River in Canada to the St. Johns River in northern Florida. They are also found throughout the northern Gulf of Mexico.

Once fished to dangerously low levels, the population has recovered and is now found in record numbers. Right now, an abundance of wild striped bass from Maryland and Virginia are in markets. Plentitude means lower prices, so they’re a great buy.

*Also called Atlantic striped bass, linesiders, rockfish and stripers, among other names.

Fish Facts
Though wild striped bass can grow to six feet in length (and may live up to 30 years!), what’s in the market are fillets cut from smaller, three-to-five-pound whole fish.

Striped bass are also farmed in a hybrid of striped bass and white bass. But there’s no need to look for farmed fish when the real deal is waiting for you. (See a discussion of the difference between wild and farmed fish.)

Thanks to Euro USA Fresh Seafood for this ultra-easy recipe. Pair it with a sauvignon blanc or a Chablis.
SEARED WILD STRIPED BASS RECIPE

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. Take the fish out of the refrigerator 10 to 15 minutes before preparing.

2. Pat the skin dry with a paper towel and season the fish on both sides with salt and pepper.

3. Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan over high heat.

4. Coat the bottom of another slightly smaller sauté pan with olive oil (you can use a less expensive oil here—it’s just to keep the pan from burning). Gently place fish fillets skin side down in the larger sauté pan and place the smaller sauté pan directly on top of the fish. This technique creates a lovely crispy fish skin by gently pressing the skin of the bass onto the bottom of the sauté pan.

5. After a couple of minutes, remove the top sauté pan to allow steam to escape and the skin to become very crispy.

6. As fish cooks, it turns from translucent to opaque. Cook the fish two-thirds of the way on the skin side and flip it over for the last third of the cooking time. The rule for fish is about 7 to 8 minutes per inch of thickness, a little less if you like your fish more on the rare side (as we do!).
 
Serve the bass with your favorite vegetables. We followed the photo and went Asian-style, with steamed snow peas, edamame and water chestnuts tossed with a bit of olive oil and yuzu juice. Include a side of whole grain (barley, brown rice, quinoa or whole wheat pasta tossed in olive oil) and a salad, and you’ve got a delicious, healthful dinner.

Spice Market New York, owned by chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, prepares its own sodas for guests who’d prefer something soft—and special. You can do it at home for your guests.

The Fresh Ginger Lime Soda and Cherry Yuzu Soda are customer favorites at Spice Market. The sodas are mixed from a base to which club soda (soda water) is added.

Impress family and guests with these homemade soda recipes, courtesy of Spice Market.

CHERRY YUZU SODA RECIPE

Makes 1 quart.

 
*You can make it by puréeing frozen cherries in the blender.

1. Fill a highball glass with ice. Add 1/4 cup cherry yuzu base and 1/2 cup club soda.
2. Stir, garnish and serve.
 
 
GINGER LIME SODA RECIPE

Makes 1 quart.

Ingredients

 
Preparation Per Drink

1. Fill a highball glass with ice. Add 1/4 cup ginger lime base and 1 tablespoon simple syrup over ice. Top with club soda.
2. Stir, garnish and serve.
 
Find more of our favorite soft drinks.

Nabisco has introduced belVita Breakfast Biscuits: lightly sweet, whole grain, crunchy breakfast biscuits in Apple Cinnamon, Blueberry and Golden Oat. The concept is popular in Europe, and a welcome addition to American breakfast options.

“Breakfast biscuits” may not sound sexy, but think of them as very nutritious and tasty cookies. Yum!

According to survey data, 63% of Americans admit they are energy deficient in the mornings and 48% say that it is difficult to find a breakfast food that is both nutritious and delicious.

Nabisco, part of Kraft Foods, worked with nutritionists to create a cereal and breakfast bread substitute that provides nutrition plus sustained energy to help fuel the body throughout the morning. The sustained energy release results from both the ingredients and a special baking process that helps preserve the integrity of the grain, so that the carbohydrates are slowly released.

The company’s nutritionist spokesperson and author of The Sonoma Diet, Connie Guttersen, recommends the biscuits as a balanced breakfast with a piece of fruit and a serving of fat-free or low fat dairy—a banana, yogurt and nonfat latte or fresh strawberries and nonfat Greek yogurt, for example.

More Ways To Enjoy belVita Biscuits

The biscuits are also delicious with cheese; we’ve been serving them with Brie and goat cheese. All three flavors have a touch of sweetness and a rustic texture that work well with cheese. (The biscuits evoke Carr’s Whole Wheat Crackers, called Wheatmeal Biscuits in the U.K., a longtime favorite with cheese).

More ways to enjoy belVita:

 
Great taste and crunch, a bundle of nutritious benefits and the convenience of grab-and-go portioned packs should make these biscuits a winner. Nabisco only needs for you to try them and like them as much as we do. (The only thing we don’t like is the small “b” in belVita. It looks like a typo.)

The biscuits are certified kosher (dairy) by OU.

belVita Biscuits Nutrition

 
There’s more information on the company website.

Find more of our favorite crackers and bread products.

Naan with a yogurt dip. Photo courtesy
Stonefire Naan.

Just about every society makes a delicious bread. India, a very large country, makes many. If you’ve been to an Indian restaurant, you’ve seen some of the regional specialties: chapati, dosa, naan, paratha and numerous others.

We were thrilled to discover Stonefire Naan at our local supermarket, a buttery flatbread in original, garlic and whole grain varieties.

Now, we can expand our bread choices. Even if you don’t care for the cuisines of India, naan fits in with most foods of the world—including burgers, PB sandwiches and wraps. You can also use it as a pizza-type base.

Check out the full review, including recipes with naan bread.

Want to bake your own naan? Here’s a video recipe.

Find the different types of bread in our beautiful Bread Glossary.