Restaurant review: Pacific Coast Pizza

One of the foods I miss the most while living a balanced-carb lifestyle is pizza. Eating pizza with whole-wheat crust alleviates some of the guilt, but until Pacific Coast Pizza opened up a couple years ago, there was no place in Wichita that served it.

Happily, that has been remedied. In addition to a traditional white crust, they also offer a "rosemary wheat" crust. I haven't asked for specific nutrition info, so I'm not sure it's 100% whole wheat, but it looks and tastes like it, and that's enough for my conscience, once in a while!

They offer a wide variety of pizzas, from classic to pesto-based to vegetarian to "Pacific Coast Style." There's also the "build your own" option. (Find the menu here.) My favorite is the San Andreas: rosemary wheat crust topped with red sauce, low-fat mozzarella, roasted chicken, red onion, mushroom, roasted red pepper and pineapple.

Their strength is definitely their pizza. I haven't tried any of the pasta, sandwiches or wraps, but pass up the salads. The "Caesar" is just a normal salad with what tastes like bottled Italian dressing, with some Parmesan sprinkled on top. Don't expect much from the atmosphere: what little decor there is consists of beer brand signs. There is a patio, so on those precious few days when Kansas weather makes sitting outdoors comfortable, that's a nice option.

It's located in Sienna Plaza, on the northwest corner of 37th Street North and Rock Road, and parking is never a problem.

Almond poppyseed shortbread

This recipe has been in my favorites file for decades. Back when I made bunches of Christmas cookies every year, this was in the mix year after year, and it was a big hit at our recent birthday party. It makes a delicate, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread with a subtle almond flavor.

Don't be alarmed if you sneak a taste of the dough and it seems a little bland. The shortbread itself is not very sweet, but that is purposely so, to balance out the sweetness of the glaze. If you want to try making these without the glaze, you'll probably want to double the sugar, at least.

Recipe: Almond Poppyseed Shortbread

1/2 c. + 2 T. real butter
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
3 T. sugar
1 T. poppy seeds
almond glaze (see  below)

Take 1/2 c. of butter and soften it slightly; just enough to make it mashable. Mash it with a fork, then sprinkle the almond extract over and mash some more to work the extract through the butter. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar and poppyseeds. With pastry blender, cut in the almond-butter until mixture resembles large crumbs.

Try forming the dough into a ball; if it will not all stick together, cut in another tablespoon of soften butter. Test it again, and keep adding butter a little at a time until all the dough sticks together when pressed into a ball. 

Once you have it worked into one large ball, place the dough on a cookie sheet. Because this dough is so buttery, you don't need to grease the pan or use parchment.

Begin patting the dough out and flatten it. It may crumble apart in places. Just pat them back together.

After it's patted out, use a rolling pin to smooth the surface more.

As the edges crumble apart, periodically gather and pat them back into the circle.

Use the rolling pin to make the top smooth, and your hands to pat things back together, alternating between the two as needed. Work the dough gently until it's a circle approximately 8" in diameter, and 1/2" thick.

For cutting the pieces, you can just eyeball it, or, if you want very uniform pieces, use a ruler to measure and a toothpick to mark spacing in the dough.

Then use the ruler as a straightedge guide, and a pizza cutter to make the slices. I cut this batch into 16 squares, but you could also cut them into bars or diamonds. You do not need to separate the squares before baking.

Bake in 325 F oven 25 to 35 minutes, until edges just start to brown.

Remove from oven and slice through again with the pizza cutter, in the same place as your first cuts.

An offset spatula works great for moving these delicate little square cookies.

Let cookies cool completely. Drizzle with almond glaze. (Recipe below.) To avoid the globby drizzles seen on the left here, don't start your drizzle on top of a cookie. Start the drizzle just a bit off to the side, then when it becomes a thinner, uniform stream, move over the cookie and wave the spoon gently but quickly back and forth as you move along over the cookies.

Ain't they purty?!

Makes 16 cookies (plus a few scraps!) if cut into 1.5" squares.

Almond Glaze
1.5 T. milk
1/4 t. almond extract
1 c. sifted powdered sugar

Combine  milk and almond extract. Add to powdered sugar and mix thorough. Add a little more milk if necessary to make of glazing consistency.

This makes enough glaze to cover two batches of dough.

Pin It


You might also like:
Seven special occasion cookies
Nut tarts
Five sweet treats for your Superbowl party

Orange-cranberry chicken salad

I came up with this recipe one day when I was craving curry chicken salad for lunch, but couldn't find any recipes that didn't call for chutney. How could I do a quick fake for chutney? I tried onions sauteed till soft, then combined them with orange marmalade. Pretty good!

An alternate and easier approach is to just use green onions, and skip the sauteing step. I've tried both, and it's good both ways.

You can use the nuts of your choice. I prefer the contrast of salty cashews, but since they just disappear in the salad, I decided to use pecans for the photos. Again, both are tasty, and you can use your choice. Sliced or slivered almonds would work nicely, too.

To keep the carbs down, I use a sugar-free marmalade and make sure my mayo has a minimum of sugar and no corn syrup. One of these days, I want to try making mayo from scratch. But not today.

Recipe: Orange-cranberry chicken salad

2 c. cooked, cubed, cold chicken
1/3 c. yellow onion, diced fine (or 5-6 green onions, sliced thin)
1/3 c. mayonnaise (more if your chicken is dry)
2.5 T. sugar-free orange marmalade
1/2 t. hot curry powder
1/4 t. freshly ground black pepper
dried cranberries & nuts to taste
hearts of romaine or whole grain crackers, optional

If using yellow onion, saute till translucent. If using green onion, reserve a bit of the green tops for garnish, if you like.

In a small mixing bowl, combine the onion, mayo, marmalade and spices; stir till well combined. Add an extra tablespoon or two of mayo if your chicken is on the dry side. Stir in the chicken, and green onions, if using. Add dried cranberries to suit your taste. Don't add the nuts until just before serving.

You may eat it right away, but the flavor improves if chilled it for an hour at least. It's also a great dish to make a day ahead.

Just before serving, stir in the nuts. Garnish with green onion and extra cranberries, if desired. Serve with hearts of romaine or whole-grain crackers.

Serves 2.

You might also like:
30-second Caesar salad