Review: Kinnikinnick Frozen Pizza Crusts

Last Sunday my husband and I spent Superbowl Sunday - at least before the game - in the kitchen. We'd picked up Kinnikinnick frozen pizza shells a couple months beforehand, and decided that Superbowl Sunday was the best time to try them out - along with wings and nachos. The package came with four 7 inch pizza shells. This was a good thing because we burned the first shells we tried cooking! (I blame a combination of no cooking directions on the package, and distracting SuperBowl ads).

The shells looked amazing - the crusts browned quite nicely in the toaster oven and they looked just like personal pizzas. We tried the pizzas, and....

Well, in a few words: the shells were just not good. Now, we're fans of New York-style crusts which admittedly is about a quarter of the thickness of these shells. But these were definitely not pizza shells - the crust was incredibly dry and just didn't taste good. it was the equivalent of eating pizza toppings on dry pita bread.

I ended up eating the olives off of my pizza and leaving the rest of it. My husband ate his pizza, but asked me not to buy these shells in the future.

Oh well - we'll still use other Kinnikinnick products in the future - their rolls have been palatable in the past - but for pizza, I think we've learned the lesson to stick with either making the dough from scratch or buying pizza in a restaurant like Uno's or Nunzio's.

Gluten Free goods, right in Stuyvesant Plaza!

On Friday, I took a half day from work and spent the afternoon shopping with my mother. Instead of hitting Crossgates like we usually do, we decided to change it up and check out some of the stores in Stuyvesant Plaza. Now, Stuyvesant Plaza is pretty close to where I live and we go often go there - however, I'm sometimes guilty of tunnel vision, and I had no idea there was a food store selling gluten free goodies until a co-worker clipped a coupon for me.

The store is It's Only Natural, LLC, and the sign outside their door boasts the largest selection of gluten free goods in the Capital District, with an added note that if they don't have it they can get it! That was pretty encouraging, so my mother and I went in to browse.

Now, I wouldn't say their selection was the largest I've seen in the Capital District, but it certainly rivals the gluten free selections available at the larger Hannafords in the area. They carry Authentic Foods flour (at a slightly higher markup than online, but it's really useful to know if we run out of something!), an assortment of baking mixes, cookies, pretzels, chips, crackers, and other snacks, and a wide variety of frozen items - breads, rolls, frozen pizzas, etc. They had some gluten free items that I'd never seen before, even online, including gluten free croutons and hot dog buns.

What really impressed me, though, is the fact that they've started carrying products from local bakeries. They had muffins from Sherry Lynn's Gluten Free Bakery in Brunswick as well as bread, rolls and cookies from Saratoga Gluten Free Goods. Everything was fresh and soft to the touch and looked amazing! I really wanted to pick up some of their whole grain bread, but figured my hubby wouldn't be thrilled with it - he grew up on Freihoffer split top wheat bread and isn't thrilled with a lot of the whole grain options available. It's a shame.

Still, I did pick up some yummy looking buns made by Saratoga Gluten Free Goods, a box of Kinnikinnick vanilla glazed donuts (we'd seen the cinnamon sugar donuts in Hannaford, and they were pretty decent, but hadn't seen the glazed donuts before), some gluten free rolled oats from Bob's Red Mill, and a package of Pamela's bread mix (I usually bake my bread from scratch, but I've heard that's the best brand and it can't hurt to have on hand if we're feeling lazy).

The next day I brought the rolls down to Yankee Stadium, where we tailgated with our dads before Old Timer's Day. Great time, great food - and those rolls from Saratoga Gluten Free Goods did not disappoint. They were amazing!

Overall - please, check out It's Only Natural, LLC in Stuyvesant Plaza. The odds are you'll see a lot of familiar brands and products, but you'll probably also see something new and worth trying. And it can't hurt to make suggestions for new products either!