PIzza place, but that review will have to wait

Last night I was able to leave the land of freezer food and headed out with a friend since both of our hubbies were working late. We decided on Russo's New York Pizzeria for dinner. I have dined there several times, but the pizza will be a later post, I have to get a good picture. Last night I indulged in pasta. I ordered the Baked Ziti over the Pasta Puttanesca at the waiter's recommendation. Bad Waiter...Bad, Bad Waiter. It was a little bland and not nearly as cheesy as a good Baked Ziti should be. Their tomato sauce was nice and light, but it left me wanting something heavier for a classic baked dish like ziti. The menu says the pasta is homemade, but I doubt the penne in the ziti dish was anything but boxed. I found myself looking longingly at the gnocchi with bolognese across the table and the pizzas ordered at the table next to us. On a plus note, their salad's are delicious. I got the greek with the balsamic dressing at it was exactly as it should be, crisp lettuce, ripe tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, tart olives, a smattering of feta, and a drizzle of light and tart balsamic dressing. So the pizza will soon be included in my pizza quest, but I will avoid the pasta for awhile.

A bit of a rut...

Two asides that will come together...

Aside #1-

I used to subscribe to several culinary magazines that I would get really excited about. I also used to use my printing allotment at Texas A & M for the purpose of printing off recipes from the internet. This has resulted in a 3 inch, 3 ring binder stuffed full of recipes I am sure I will never get all the way through.

Aside #2-

Matt and I have decided to clean out our freezers. Both the inside freezer attached to the fridge and the deep freezer have several meals that need to be consumed. This means no new recipes with pictures for the next couple of weeks.

Bringing the two asides together-

I do not want to leave anyone out in the dark, thus I will pick a few random recipes as often as I can and post them here. If you wish to try them out...great. If not...fine. If you do try them out please comment about them after the fact. So...

Carne Asada

8 poblano chiles

2 bunches green onions (about 12), dark green tops trimmed

2 pounds skirt steak, cut crosswise into 6 inch wide pieces

4 garlic cloves, minced

Coarse kosher salt

Corn or flour tortillas

2 avocados, peeled, pitted, sliced

lime wedges

salsa of your choice

Prepare grill on high heat. Grill chiles and onions until charred all over, about 3 minutes for the onions and 5 for the chiles. Transfer onions to a plate and cover with tin foil to keep warm. Transfer chiles to a large bowl, cover with plastic and let stand 15 minutes. Peel and seed, cut into 1 inch wide strips. Transfer to onion plate and keep warm. Rub steak with garlic, sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper. Grill until cooked to desired doneness, about 3 minutes on each side for medium. Transfer to cutting board and let stand for 5 minutes. Grill tortillas until warm and slightly charred, about 10 seconds per side. Cut steak crosswise into strips, transfer to onion and chile plate. Serve beef, chiles, onion, avocado, and salsa wrapped in tortillas with lime wedge (and a Corona) on the side.

And just for the heck of it here is something completely different:

Italian Chicken and Vegetable Soup (by Paula Deen)

2 tablespoons of olive oil

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces

1 small onion chopped

1 cup sliced carrots (about 3 small)

2 1/2 cups sliced zucchini (about 2 medium)

2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano

2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth

Grated parmesan for topping

In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook for ten minutes stirring frequently. Add onion and carrot, and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in zucchini, tomatoes, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Top with parmesan and serve with crusty bread if desired.

Blueberry muffins

This is my recipe for Blueberry muffins, it is modified slightly from The Betty Crocker Cookbook. A small aside about the blueberries. For pancakes we like to use fresh, but find that frozen work better in muffins. Something about the baking time that is involved in muffins causes the blueberries to get mushy if you use fresh. With frozen we have never had this problem and it allows the blueberries to stay whole enough that you get that pop of fruit that makes blueberries so delicious!

These muffins are great muffins, they are slightly crisp on the outside and soft and fluffy inside. The muffin itself is not too sweet and the blueberries give it just a bit of sweetness. So enough talk, here is the recipe!

3/4 cup of milk

1/4 cup canola oil

1 large egg

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

Heat oven to 400 and grease a 12 cup muffin tin (I like off brand Pam myself). Beat milk, oil, and egg. I do this with a wire whisk until extra fluffy. Sift dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. Dump all but about two tablespoons of the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and mix until just combined (batter will be lumpy). Take the extra two tablespoons of flour mixture and toss the frozen blueberries. This will coat the blueberries and help them stay suspended in the batter (so all of your blueberries aren't at the bottom of your muffin). Fold into the batter. Evenly place into your muffin tin. I find that a cookie scoop makes this easier (usually two scoops or so per tin). Bake 20 to 25 minutes (until it's done and golden brown). Top with butter and enjoy!

I love the slightly blue color they get

Look at that distribution of perfectly, "burstable" blueberries!

Enjoy with venison sausage or on their own on your way to work! I have contemplated making them with half whole wheat flour, I think they would be pretty good!

A brief side note...

I rather love salad. I could eat a dinner sized salad many nights of the week. I enjoy preparing salads and eat a good portion of every salad I make. I think salads are wonderful because they are so versatile. I found this slide show while perusing the Internet today. Maybe you will get some enjoyment from one of these recipes.

One of the stops on the quest...

I am going to start off by saying this: this is not the best pizza I have found so far. This is not even near the top. There are many reasons for this not being the best pizza, but this place (and thus this post) does serve many purposes...

BJ's Brewhouse was actually introduced to us by some friends who were visiting from Philadelphia, they had visited a BJ's in Dallas and because they were down to visit suggested we give it a whirl. BJ's is great for a number reasons:

First, they brew their own beers and they brew many different kinds of beer. I like a wide variety of beer to go with my many different moods so having a wide selection is nice. The waitstaff is usually somewhat knowledgeable about the different varieties (Imperial style stout to Pilsners and Wheat beers) and will gladly bring you samples to try before you commit to just one. They also will mix beers (half and half/ black and tan style) which makes for an even better variety and they also periodically have hard ciders which is nice in the fall and winter. Below is a picture of one of their beer flights which is reasonably priced and gives you ample tastes of four of their most popular beers.

Second, their bruschetta is a delicious part of their menu and we have often purchased it, a salad, and a beer or two for dinner alone. The tomatoes are diced and tossed with olive oil, basil, salt, and a nice touch of fresh garlic (which gives it a wonderful bite). The tomatoes are served with a foccaccia style bread which is toasted making a perfect platform to soak in extra olive oil and tomato juice from the topping. I also like that they serve the bruschetta in a bowl with the bread fanned around it so that you can choose how much topping you want on your bread. (The picture below is from my I-phone which doesn't make the best quality display of such a wonderful treat)
Third, they have a wide variety of pizzas from thin crust to Chicago style deep dish with a large array of toppings. You can make your own or choose from some of their suggested mixes. Their toppings are generous in portion and of decent quality.

You would think with the praises already sung about BJ's that it would be higher ranked in my eyes, but despite all of the wonderful aspects of the place...something is missing. The pizza is simply fine for lack of a better word. The deep dish is greasy (which might be a defining characteristic of deep dish pizzas, which I don't normally choose to enjoy) and the thin crust is thin and chewy, not crispy. There is nothing special about their pizzas, I feel like I could get the same sort of pizza in a number of different places around the city. The things that make BJ's great is the beer and the atmosphere...not the pizza. Granted they do not advertise themselves as being an exclusive pizza place (they also have sandwiches and American style food), most go for the pizza. I would think of BJ's as being a football watching, beer drinking, and oh-yeah we can order a few pizzas kind of place. The pizza is a good addition, but not an immediate factor into choosing to go there. I really enjoy BJ's, but I don't think pizza and BJ's in the same breath...not like you do for Lombardi's...

Thus...the search continues...

The beginning of a quest

We were on the search for the original New York pizza. We were well aware of the arguments that other places were better (often more tense than the arguments of which Philly cheesesteak is better), but we wanted the first, the original, the pizza that every other pizza would be modeled after. We found Lombardi’s with relative ease after all, we had heard about the place on the Food Network and in our trusty guide book for our first trip to New York. We walked in and immediately smelled the huge vats of bubbling tomato sauce exuding their aroma from the kitchen. Arriving before their remodel, we were seated in the older section of the restaurant which means we were guided past the coal burning oven that makes their pizza so unique. We were sat at a table ordered a few drinks and picked out a few pizzas to try. You do have to wait for your pizza, but we didn’t mind as we looked around the walls taking in pictures of celebrities and wannabes that graced their restaurant over the years. We continued taking in the aroma of the previously mentioned sauce and used that as our appetizer for what was to come. When our pizzas arrived we knew it had been well worth the wait. The crust was a cross between thin and hand tossed and while their were a few charred spots on the edge, we took that as a sign of authenticity. My choice of pizza was sausage, red onion, and mushroom. The sausage was thinly sliced into ovals and had good flavor with a mild bit of heat. The red onion had a nice sharp bite and the mushrooms added texture and a woody flavor to the pizza. The cheese was not overpowering, but rather balanced out the rest of the flavors on the pizza as well as helping to keep the toppings in place. The sauce was wonderfully simple in that you could taste tomatoes and a bit of seasoning and nothing else. The crust was something all together difficult to describe. It had a wonderfully salty flavor combined with a warm, yeasty, bread-like texture. Because of the char of coal burning oven, the crust was slightly crisp and wonderfully chewy. There were spots that tasted more charred than others, but not in a bad way. I can only describe it as being perfectly burnt (in the way that sometimes a few pieces of extra done popcorn is a nice balance to the rest of the batch). Combine all of these wonderful ingredients: the toppings, the cheese, the sauce, and the crust (oh man...the crust) and you have, quite simply, the best pizza I have ever tasted. Add in a Peroni or two and you are set for one of the best meals of your life.

The second time we went to eat at Lombardi’s was two days later...it was just as delicious.

The third time we went to eat at Lombardi’s was a few years later...we got off our plane from Houston, got our baggage, found a taxi, rode to Lombardi’s (straight there), and asked for a table. I thought this time that there would be no way our memories of the pizza could be as wonderful as the pizza actually was...I was wrong...if anything it was better! We polished off a few pizzas between the two of us and were glad for the long walk (with our luggage in tow) to the hotel where we would be staying.

The fourth time I went I was without Matt. This past summer I was in New York at the JFR Lerner Fellowship. I stood up on Sunday at dinner and said "I am going to Lombardi's to get pizza tomorrow night...if anyone wants to eat at the original (and in my opinion best) pizza place then you are welcome to come with me. I am going regardless." Out of the 30 of us, 9 brave souls followed me to Little Italy and were not disappointed with the results.

We have recommended Lombardi’s to others and they are always polite about thanking us for our recommendation and smile saying “We will see if we can try it...there are so many places to eat”. Once they have tried it though, they see what we mean and thank us with enthusiasm for mentioning the place.

The one drawback is the location...obviously being in New York we cannot go every day which means...we have to find something equal...

My Top three Foodie websites

I wanted to share some of my favorite foodie websites...

The Pioneer Woman is a new favorite of mine. She is clever and spends a lot of time updating her blog on a regular basis. She has a wide variety of recipes and takes time to show pictures of the porocess of each recipe.

I am really getting into the idea of making my own baby food for the T-Rex. One site that has been helpful is about making Wholesome baby food. It has a lot of recipes and schedules for when to start different foods.

I also of course love the Food Network website. It is sometimes tedious to wade through all of their recipes, but have a lot of luck with their recipes. It helps if you know what you are looking for (if you saw an episode and wanted a specific recipe), but you can also search other ways (by ingredient, chef, meal time, ect).

Enjoy!