Every friday night is pizza night as far back as I could remember, I desparately miss my mohter's homemade pizza so tried to recreate it tonite, but even though I had ample time, the dough was not rising to the right light/fluffiness... but i often remember her sayin "the dough didnt come right this time, or it didnt rise right this time" and its true, depending on where you get it and the atmospheric conditions, it can fluctuate... I think my problem tonite was other than it not rising fast enough, i put the oven on 500F when i think 450F would have given the dough more time to cook and would have browned the cheese on top less (which I like anyway) but the crust was not browned on the bottom... its trial and error... if i can't make it, i go out searching for it and its sad its VERY hard to find very good pizza anymore, at least in this area... you have to travel outside the town limits to find something decent...

We went last night and the food was amazing and the staff were great they couldnt do enough for us,i had Garlic bread with Mozeralla and it was beautiful! i then went for the mixed grill and words cant describe how good it was.The prices were pretty dear and the drinks definetly were £3.10 per pint (my uncle nearly cried when i told him ) but all in all it was a great night

I think the Yankees did the finger down the throat trick last night.

No. I think they choked without benefit of any finger.

To get the bugs out of their mouth

Speaking of which...

Last night's attempt at dinner was a disaster.

It was around 3:30 in the morning, and I was staggering around the kitchen. I thought about making either chicken or shrimp with a box of Rice-a-Roni I had in the cupboard. When I opened the box, I found everything was infested with little crawly things. Ugh.

Down the toilet it went.

(The problem came from the store where I had just purchased it. Long story, but the couscous I made the other night was fine, and that box had been stored for months in the same cabinet.)

Then I saw a can of white clam sauce staring at me. I thought this would suffice. Pasta and clam sauce - why not? I opened the can, emptied it into a small saucepan and proceeded to add my usual seasonings. Finally, a couple of pinches of salt. As I reached for the spoon to sample everything, the rubber stopper on the bottom of the salt shaker came loose and dumped a huge amount of salt into the sauce. It was no use - the clam sauce was absolutely and totally ruined.

Down the toilet it went.

By now, the desire to cook even the simplest meal was gone. I felt like the life had been totally drained out of me, and no power on earth could restore it.

Tired, angry and frustrated, I opened a can of tuna.



Tomorrow is another day.

Signor V.

Poor SV, that's awful. I guess you just were not meant to cook dinner last night. I hope you went out to eat? I certainly wouldn't have the patience to try a third time.

I hate it when I'm cooking and everything goes wrong; or...when I'm cooking or baking something and "think" I have all the ingredients and as I am eagerly preparing, find out I have to run to the store for eggs or something that there is no substitute for.


TIS

In my opinion Chinese and Buffet do NOT go together! And throw Duck on a chinese buffet and your goose is cooked!


SB- what's the matter with you? You know better than that! Every Chinese restaurant worth their salt won't even make you duck unless you order it from them at least a day in advance.

Hope you're feeling better today.

When I'm staggering around the kitchen at 3:30 AM, I can't even find the cupboard, let alone the rice-a-roni.

Tonight I made Philly cheesesteaks, hoping it will bring the Phillies luck tonight.

A chicken and pasta casserole.

Today was one of those days I seemed to be nibbling all day. I wasn't real hungry so I had a frozen rice/chicken/vegetable tv dinner type thing. Perfect if you're not real hungry. (the portions of these tv dinners are always pathetic IMHO)

TIS

Chicken and Steak Paninis.

My eyes must be going bad I thought that said Chicken and Steak penis.

Geez Mig, we know what's on your mind.


TIS

No. They only come in Spaghetti-O's.

Here we go again

I only eat Spaghetti-O's when I am in the mood for some real Italiano food

I'm curious what Geoff had for dinner lol. I only ate 2 baby back ribs, 2 pieces of spicy cajun chicken and some calamari (cocktail hour food)... no meal tonite... but I think i was better off after seeing the food in this place lol.

I saw that, too, Miggy! Which do you prefer, the chicken or steak penis?


You mean during my Black Tie wedding (in which, apparently, the guests themselves didn't need to dress up, just the "help")? lol The members-only-except-for-expensive-events Eagle Oaks Golf & Country Club was beautiful. Cocktail hour food was pretty decent, but nothing more than the usual rolled cold cut platters, eggplant rollatini, chicken marsala, sliced pork/beef loins (I didn't try those)... it was okay for any hungry person...

As last week, "the help" (me, 2 photographers, and a huge band) got fed plated chicken dishes w/ potatoes and veggies. A bit dry, understandable, but edible for the most part. I've had better and worse, so... :shrug:

On the way home (12 hours after I left it) I stopped for a well-deserved martini and ordered the calamari fra diavlo app which was pretty decent for where I ordered it (not an Italian place).

The calamari was the best of the night...

Justin's done this for years, but after my 4 weeks, it broke down to 2 buffet dinners (very good, even 1 at the Holiday Inn! ) and 2 plated chicken dinners from "fancy" places (ehh.)

My girlfriend makes the BEST split pea soup and that's what we are going to have tonight. It's torture waiting because it takes most of the day to cook so the rest of us keep walking by and checking on it and stirring it... and sniffing it and wiping the drool from our mouths

I'm so hungry, I can't wait to eat it!

You don't drool INTO the pot, do you????

I made a nice eye round, some oven-browned potatoes, spinach, brown gravy and oven-warmed semolina bread.

Chicken 'n Ribs from my friend's take-out restaurant. AWESOME! but I try not to go there too often

Why, is that a bad thing?

Right now she's frying the bacon and onions to add to the soup.

Well, we had the Caldwell Street Fair today... which meant $25 for:

1 Sangria Iced Tea ($3)
2 Rice Balls the size of a small meatball ($3)
3 Shumai + 3 Gyoza ($3) (From Tony Soprano's fave sushi place in the last season)
1 Brisket Sandwich ($7)
6 Zeppoli ($4)
1 "Domestic Beer" ($4)

So where did that missing $1 go? Well, at the "Beer Garden" -- you pay for your beer first, and you get one color for domestic, one for imported. I've had imported beer, i wanted to try something different from a local microbrewery, so I purchased a "domestic" beer ticket because I saw this new brewary from Long Island. I handed him my ticket and he said "thats for domestic beer". Oh really, and which country is Long Island in? and he said "this is domestic premium, you want the beer over there" and pointed, So i shook my head and went over to the other table and thought i would settle for a sam adams... that guy said my ticket is "only good for coors light". Now, why would they put on the sign DOMESTIC $4 and IMPORTED $5 rather than say "Coors Light $4, all others $5?" Anyway, it wasnt about the stinkin dollar but being mislead and pettiness. The guy was actually cool and poured me a Sam Adams and I tipped him a dollar to show I appreciated it and it was not about the money... I hope the other idiot saw -- The reality was, I was hoping to try a new, different beer, and because the signage was misleading, they didn't just lose a dollar, they lost someone that probably would have went out and bought a case of the stuff if I liked it... now i will avoid it all together (cant remember the name but I remember the logo) but in any case, ALL beer from Long Island is on my DO NOT BUY list lol. Thats my rant for today (:

Dumbazz! lol Leave the beer to beer-drinkers, huh?

Ok. So as I was telling a few of the other board members we are up in upstate New York this weekend so my son can attend a college open house.

Last night we ask the hotel manager if she could recommend a good restaurant to us for dinner. She tells us that there is this great one about a half a mile away and even shows us a menu. It's a steak and seafood restaurant. Menu looks really great. The manager tells me that they make a really great T-Bone steak! Now I'm all jacked up to have a nice steak. The manager of the hotel even writes a little note on the back of the business card for me to give to the restaurant manager telling them to give us dessert on the hotel. Ok, I get the picture

Now I drive to the restaurant all set on having this great steak. We pull up....no cars on the parking lot. Scary. I walk to the door and there's this big sign that says "Closed Sundays."

Now how the fock does this hotel manager who obviously lives in the town NOT know that they are closed on Sundays? H-E-L-L-O!!

Every decent looking restaurant on this town is closed on Sunday. They practically pull in the sidewalks here! We wound up having dinner at a Friendly's. Well I didn't have a steak, but I had a really great Crispy Chicken Salad along with this outrageous all chocolate desert which had triple chocolate chocolate chip ice cream, a scattering of mini chocolate chips, a bar of Ghirardelli Chocolate all on top of a piece of Chocolate cake!

You can take the boy out of Brooklyn but you can't take Brooklyn out of the boy.

Happy Columbus Day, paisan!

DC,

Wnen I lived in Michigan, bars were closed on Sunday (in certain parts of town), but for the most part restaurants would be open. A lot of people go out to eat on Sunday.

SC, I remember getting Columbus Day off from school. Out here, they don't have it off. Whatsa matta these people? I Guess that means no mail today.

TIS

Its still a big deal here, TIS. Many businesses are closed, most banks and post offices, city offices, etc. We still have the big parade in the City (the second best one after St Patrick's Day).

The Italian influence is obviously very strong here ... out there, you get egg noodles and ketchup.