I won't even comment on the "Kobe" this time.



I will say one thing, though... I did a wedding at the Lobster Shanty in Point Pleasant (NJ) and for some reason I said yes to the filet mignon (at a seafood restaurant! (I was hungry, it was in her hand lol)) -- it was perhaps the best filet mignon I ever had. Blows Shula's away! But what kills me is, we have a Lobster Shanty here in Toms River, and it's horrible. It's ON the river, and the seafood SUCKS, so I never make it a point of going. But the one in Point is terrif' on the dance floor (if they had one large enough to hold a band, plus also people dancing! lol)

We tried a new place for pizza that delivers. It was pretty good, except that they forgot to deliver our 2nd pie and the guy had to go back for it. They were pretty quick about getting back with it, though, and I guess mistakes can always happen. It was nice to find a decent place that delivers.

Drank a good deal of cheap wine, so maybe anything would have been good.

There are several excellent Italian restaurants here on Staten Island that are reasonably priced.

There are very few good Italian joints out here on the Island... cheap or expensive.

I'm making good old normal pasta tonight; no theatrics. Spaghetti or penne, I can't decide.

I'm out on the piss later, so I need to absorb it all up. I'm looking forward to it so much.

SC, there's an Italian restaurant on Merrick Rd in Massapequa that we've gone to with our friends, who live in Lyndenhurst, called BUTERA'S. It is very reasonably priced serving generous portions and the food is excellent!

If you go, you want to eat on the Cafe side (there are two sides, the fancy side and the cafe side). The cafe side serves the same food but has more of a relaxed. laid back, comfortable atmosphere. I know your taste in food and Italian restaurants. You'll like it there.

I'm making my own chicken soup (from scratch).

I cheated in that I bought a whole chicken already cut up, but other than that, this is the old-fashioned chicken soup.

The chicken is in the pot with a couple of quartered onions, some large carrots, some celery and some parsley. Its boiled already and now has to simmer for 2 hours. I'll then pick the meat off the chicken bones, return the bones to the broth and let simmer for another hour.

Then the fun starts - I'm making my own matzoh balls. The broth has to cool (in refrigerator) and after I skim the fat off (and save for the matzoh balls) I'll end up making the balls and putting them in the soup.

This MAY end up being tomorrow night's dinner.

I know where it is. Thanks for the tip.

SC, your own soup? I'm impressed. There's nothing like homemade soup. My grandmother used to use the chicken feet, though. And the very idea makes me a bit nauseous.

lasagna tonight

But yet you wanna show me your cootied foot.

The Google ad below currently says "Got Poop? We Scoop" -- did Pizzaboy post here?

It's funny, because whenever I go to the butcher and ask him to cut up a whole chicken for me and tell him to throw away the insides and stuff, he'll always reply " You're grandmother would be mad as hell if she heard you say that!"

I remember her even using the turkey neck and giblets to make turkey soup on thanksgiving.

The old timers were very resourceful when it came to cooking and making things from scratch. They threw NOTHING out! Even stale day old bread was used to make bread crumbs! I guess back then, with the little money they made and the amount of mouths that had to be fed, they had no choice.



Tonight for dinner we're going out to one of our favorite local Italian restaurants, Luigino's. A real family place that's been in business for about 30 years and still makes great food.

As I've mentioned before, there are 4 Italian restaurants that we go to on Staten Island. Each restaurant is excellent, and each makes a specific dish that I favor.

This one, for me, is their Veal Saltimbucca and their Mozzarella kisses appetizer.

Taco Bell

My mother STILL refuses to throw out old bread. She puts it in the oven to dry out and then into the Magic Bullet it goes to make bread crumbs. I'm like, "Ma, here's a dollar. Buy some bread crumbs," but she likes to do it.

what youse guys got me on a fucking pay-no-mind list or somthin'? answer me!

Day-or-three old bread (depending on the type) is good for French Toast, too...

And BTW I forgot to include Friday night's dinner when I actually didn't forget about Lent for once! Salmon filet over streamed spinach (I held off on the hollandaise) with mixed veggies and a salad. And 6 or so pints.

Take a deep breath and relax... people normally don't answer "no" 100 times. But some day someone might say "yes". Barking commands here doesn't work.

The secret to great meatballs are REAL breadcrumbs, the make them more moist than the pulverized stuff you get in a can, when they are "chunkier" it really makes a difference. I will be making some tomorrow I hope. As for chicken feet, believe it or not ever wonder what purdue does with them? Its like our biggest export to china, where they eat them, ironic no? There are tons of great italian restaurants, especially in the boroughs of NYC, many consider north jersey a borough, but I admit my fave slice of pizza comes from queens, but its a shame i have to travel over a bridge/tunnel to get a slice! I was thinking to have them overnight me a few pies to even freeze, because I just cant deal with cross bronx express traffic after 1pm. In any case, you would THINK being in a heavily-concentrated area of jersey we could do better than some places... the search continues (:

ok, JG is there a bizzaro's pizzeria up there?

Never heard of it.

ok, that is what I was wondering, then it is a local chain, The significance of it was, It is hard to get good cannoli down here, and Bizzaro's Pizzeria, has the best cannoli in Florida (That I've tried) they are the traditional ricotta ones, marone they are good

Santino, what part of Florida are you in?

Palm bay, it is near Orlando

Palm Bay, huh? About an hour - hour and 15 minutes from Orlando, right? I'm somewhat familiar with it. Back in the mid to late 90's, I had a very good client who lived and worked out of Palm Bay. Whenever he came up to New York I always took him out for dinner. He'd constantly talk about this place where he lived named Sorentos. ( I'll never forget the name because he always brought up the same place whenever we talked about Italian Restaurants ). So one time while I was vacationing down in Orlando, I drove over to Palm Bay to meet him for lunch and he took me to Sorentos. They had pretty good Italian food from what I remember. You familiar with the place?

No, but I'll check it out, Grazie mille

This cold I started last night sucks! Tonight I went out for pasta night, had a nice big bowl of penne w/ vodka sauce w/ shrimp and mixed veggies... and couldn't even get halfway through it before feeling all crappy. And the 20 oz beer didn't go down too well, either. Ah well, at least I have dinner for tomorrow ready. Gonna cuddle in front of the TV...

How the hell could any cold survive in your body considering all the alcohol that goes into it??

Feel better, bro.

I baked a chicken, made some mashed potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower. A whole roasted chicken is just so much better than chicken parts. I don't know why that is, but that's how I feel.

SC, you never let us know how the soup came out.

I made a month's worth of sauce with meatballs & sausage. Instead of using veal/pork/beef for the meatballs, I used half kobe and half wagu ::sees geoffy turning the corner:: err, um, I mean, yea the traditional recipe, pork/veal/beef. I used an AMAZING brand of crushed tomatoes, Sclafani, never seen it before, $1.25/can, and it blows any other brand away, I used to favor Tuttorussa, Cento, etc, this had nothing but tomatoes (no additives), it made a huge difference. If you guys got a Pathmark by you, check it out, I am going back to buy more this week! I will have to do very little cooking this week since I still have the beef stew leftovers and froze most of what I made today, but still have a few servings in the fridge.