Grilled Pizza Goodness

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I love pizza. There I said it. I’m an addict. I’ll take it any way I can get it. Neopolitan, Pizza Hut, New York, Chicago, it’s all good to me (well, within reason anyway). For my money though, it just doesn’t get any better than making your own. Sometimes though, you don’t want to crank up the oven, especially in the summertime when it gets so hot. For those occasions, we make grilled pizza.

Easy Vinaigrette

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This post is for Lynne, the woman who cuts my hair.  I was in her chair yesterday, on my way to fabulous, and we were talking about how nasty bottled salad dressing is.  Indeed, it's gross.  I started making my own dressing a couple of years ago in a really basic way.  I bought a bottle of balsamic vinegar and I would just dress my salads with a little dash of that and a little dash of olive oil.  That's good, but sometimes I want something a little different.  I consulted my trusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook compendium, and I found this recipe.  It's easy, fast, and really cheap.  Best of all, it's delicious!  You can toy with this basic at will - different herbs and vinegars will change the taste to match what you are serving.


Basic Vinaigrette
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup vinegar (balsamic, red wine vinegar, rice wine vinegar, or you can substitute lemon or lime juice)
1 T. sugar
2 t. fresh thyme, oregano, or basil OR 1/2 t. dried crushed thyme, oregano, or basil
1/2 t. paprika
1/4 t. dry mustard OR 1 t. dijon mustard
1/8 t. black pepper

Things to add: parmesan cheese, red pepper, garlic, celery seed, ginger...

Half Acre Brewing

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I don’t even know where to begin.  A couple of Saturdays ago our group of friends were able to take a private tour of the Half Acre Beer Company brewery in the North Center neighborhood (just a couple blocks away from our old apartment over Bowman’s).  If you haven’t had their beer, you’re missing out.  Bookmark this page, shut down your computer, go out and buy some Half Acre right now.  I’ll be here when you return.

Back?  Great.  Pretty good huh?  You can thank me later.

Where Did January Go?

Joel looking dazed and confused trying to figure out his accounting homework while on vacation.

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It is amazing how much can change in just a few weeks.  After the holidays, school started and while it has been a rewarding experience on a number of levels it doesn’t leave much time to cook and even less to write about it.  What we don’t lack are stories and pictures that we want to share, so hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll be able to carve out more time to documents some of the fun things we’ve been doing in our kitchen.

The Baking: Sugar Cookies & Royal Icing

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For years, I have been laboring under the assumption that this recipe was my aunt's.  This year, I saw it in my Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook!  Scandalous!  The dough is very fragile, so the chill time is absolutely necessary.  Make sure you have similarly sized cookie cutters so the baking time is consistent.  The thing I like most about these cookies is that they bake up nice and soft, as opposed to a crunchy, shortbread-like cookie.

You can frost these using the royal icing recipe below or you can use baking sugar to decorate them before baking.  The sugar is definitely easier, but the icing is nice if you're looking for an art project.

The Baking: Haystacks

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I make these every Christmas.  The first time people see them, they are usually skeptical, but they taste awesome.  I always make them too big - they're really best if they're a little smaller since they are so rich, but the chow mein noodles cling together, so it's difficult to make them super small.  This is the recipe from the back of the Nestle butterscotch chip bag, omitting the marshmallows and increasing the noodles.

Twelve Beers of Christmas

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Between getting married, buying a place and starting school, the past few years have been chaotic swirl of activity. With everything going on (and the amount of money that flew out of our coffers) buying gifts for our friends was impractical, but we still wanted to do something for everyone. Luckily our friends like beer, and eating what we cook, so out of this the Twelve Beers of Christmas party was born.

Spending time with our friends and slowing down even for an evening was the best way we could think to celebrate the holidays and in its second year it is proving to be a great success.  Clare and I cook a bunch of heavy appetizers and we ask everyone to bring a different beer to share.  Then everyone votes for their favorite brew and the winner gets a prize.