Freschetta PizzAmore 10-Topping Supreme

We had an errand to run last evening and we stopped off for a quick slice of pizza in Yonkers, NY. I'd had the pizza before because Steve wanted me to try it. He thought it was pretty good. But when I had it, it was just okay. Last night, he took a piping hot, fresh pie out of the oven for us. I almost burnt my tongue. It was better this time than the last and I was better satisfied. Well, our appetite for pizza didn't end so when we got home, we threw in the Freschetta frozen pizza. It smelled pretty good as it was baking away on its exclusive tray that they claim bakes the crust evenly. Steve & I adore pizza. Neither of us could live without it.

This was our first time trying this variety of Freschetta pizza. I once rated the taste as being 7 out of 10 for one of the varieties I can't seem to remember. My least favorite frozen pizza so far is DiGiorno's. Anyway, here are the 10 toppings: Mozzarella, Parmesan, pepperoni, spicy sausage, bell peppers (green, yellow and red), roasted red onions, garlic and oregano. Phew. I don't think I've ever had a pizza with so many toppings. No, I definitely haven't. The crust was "interesting". It was supposed to rise as it baked. According to Steve, it did not rise. He did, however, confirm that the pizza was pre-sliced. Steve didn't like that. He's the pizza cooker and the cutter with his little pizza cutter that he's wanted for years.

The verdict. Steve thought it was alright. He ate 3/4 of it. I, however, found that there were too many peppers. Also, I didn't hate the taste of oregano in it - you know I don't love oregano in some Italian foods. Anyway, the rest of the toppings were sparse (the meats) and it didn't satisfy me. A word about the crust. I didn't like it. I'll tell you why. Despite there being no mention of cornmeal in the ingredients list, the crust had the texture of a pizza coated with cornmeal on the bottom. I'm not opposed to cornmeal like at Two Boots Pizza in NYC (East Village). I really enjoy their pizza. But on this frozen pizza, the effect of the cornmeal-like texture was not pleasing to me. The outer crust was no better. More of that weird texture. The sauce wasn't outstanding. Again, the peppers and oregano altered the taste a little . The cheese was good. It was slightly above average for frozen ones. I won't be buying this variety of pizza anymore but I will continue to buy faves and try different ones. You can do the same and Eat Something Good!

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My Traditional Mac n Cheese

This is officially my traditional (as I'm calling it now though I've only made it twice) macaroni and cheese. I think I goofed last night and used sharp cheddar instead of extra sharp cheddar. It was missing a slight tang. Steve noticed and I had to agree with him. He is, by the way, a macaroni & cheese expert. The texture turned out nicely. The macaroni wasn't at all overcooked and the cheese (as you can see) formed a very nice crust. Thank goodness we have leftovers to feed the macaroni monster, my honey the expert. Yey! Mac n' Cheese!

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Basic Mac n' Cheese

Every Thanksgiving I make some form of macaroni & cheese. I'm never satisfied with how it turns out so I'm on the eternal search for a good recipe that doesn't necessarily use tons of different cheeses. That'll rack up the cost for sure. So I felt inspired. I felt inspired by asiago cheese. I like it lots but it's a little strong. I only used like 1/2 cup. The other two cheeses: extra sharp cheddar and monterey jack. I used regular elbow macaroni for this one trying to keep with the basic theme. I made a roux (butter & flour mixture) and added a quart of whole milk. Once it thickened a bit, I added the three cheeses that I had Steve grate. Yey! Then I poured the cheese sauce over the macaroni already in the baking dish. On top, I sprinkled more of the cheese mixture. Oh, I forgot. I grated some nutmeg into the cheese sauce and I did season, however, I should've gone stronger.

The verdict. Mmmm. Last night I thought to myself. Wow, I found a basic mac. And I was all happy. Steve loved it. I wanted to give a piece to his mom but he frowned and I quickly figured out why. He loved it so much that he wanted to save it all for himself. *giggle* The macaroni was cooked very well. Perhaps a tad overdone, I don't know. The top was nicely browned in places. And it needed a little salt. Once you hit it with salt, the dish opened up quite a bit and it was nice. Yey! Macaroni & cheese!

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Pecorino Romano

We didn't have a bite for dinner until after 11:00pm. We'd both had a late lunch and we weren't feeling particularly hungry. (Sid is eating a napkin.) Anyway, we had nothing in the house so I just cooked up some Ronzoni thin spaghetti and we had it with tomato sauce from Batch #2. I tell ya. Freshly grated pecorino romano makes a huge difference in the enjoyment of pasta. I've always liked romano cheese but I didn't have it too often. I remember once, in college, there was a chain restaurant in town called 'Houlihan's I may have botched the spelling on that. Anyway, they had a delicious chicken & pasta dish. The chicken was breaded and it had plenty of romano cheese in it. I never forgot it how the cheese tasted.

To the eating of the pasta. The sauce, our sauce, nice as per usual. The cheeses. At first, we were using store brand grated cheese. (I keep some in the house for trash meals. You know what I mean? Maybe not.) Anyway, you could hardly taste it. When we made the switch to the freshly grated pecorino romano, *bam*. An amazing thing happened. It transformed the flavor of the sauce and the dish developed depth. And though I've always favored parmesan cheese, Steve prefers romano. Perhaps because it's tangier. I like romano very much as well. It's a good cheese. Okay guys, time to Eat Something Good!

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Asiago Cheese Omlette

I was feeling uninspired last night so I made a trash meal. I made omlettes. Steve & I differ on cooking methods. He tends to let the omlette just sit there, (not touching it) until the top sets up enough to put the cheese on. The result tends be a well cooked omlette. Browned on the bottom. I've eaten plenty of them over the years. When I make it, I slowly stir the eggs around. Then I swirl it around the pan by literally picking the pan up and tilting it this way and that to redistribute the liquidy, uncooked egg that sits on top. I lower the heat and let it cook slowly as not to burn the bottom. Half the time, when I'm not feeling incredibly lazy, I put a little foil tent over it very loosely. Sometimes it's a hit; sometimes it's a miss.

These were three egg omlettes. I used plenty of butter making them. I like asiago cheese, I was gonna add some sauteed tomatoes to it but I got lazy. Actually, I thought we had to be somewhere so I was rushing. I served them with hash browns (the McDonald's kind) - only these were store brand, a little bigger and actually crisped up nicely in the oven. (Though they were darker in color than theirs.) Previously, Steve fried them in oil. I know I don't make the wisest food choices in the world, but frying already fried potatoes made me feel like - uhh, not good. Something like veins busting. Anyway, I also made whole wheat toast (Pepperidge Farms farmhouse bread) with plenty of butter again. I don't know why the heck I was using so much butter last night. And it's been me trying to get us back on track. Hmmm. So that was dinner last night.

The verdict. The omelette was somewhat greasy (from all the butter) but it tasted good. Asiago cheese melts nicely. And its flavor is really good. I really like it. I can't put my finger on what I like about it but I'll keep researching it. Ie: Gobble, gobble! The problem with the asiago cheese is that it almost overwhelmed the flavor of the omelette (the eggs). (Perhaps I used a little too much.) That's where the whole wheat toast came in. Steve likes to cut off a piece of omelette and place it on the toast. Then he folds it in half and takes a bite. He encourages me to do it all the time. The first time I did it, I didn't fold the toast. I placed a bite size piece on the corner of the toast and took a bite. I enjoyed that very much and continue to do it today. But I only do it at home for some reason. I eat my toast separately in diners. The hash browns were very crispy and very doable. Steve & I were quite surprised. He was convinced that baking them wouldn't produce a nice crunch. Mmmm, I love breakfast foods at dinner. I even do pancakes! I hope I gave you some nice ideas so that you can Eat Something Good!

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Frankie & Augie'z Pizza

Steve's friend raved to him about a new ristorante & pizzeria in town. It's called Frankie and Augie'z. It's right near the Pork Store where I get nice raviolis sometimes. Anyway, we felt like we were cheating on Gigi's (our favorite pizzeria). And we were especially because the pizza slices, meatball calzone and pepperoni roll were, gasp, ok I won't say it but I'll say that they were definitely with a capital "D" - on par with Gigi's. The old man from there would probably get really upset if he knew we'd betrayed him.

The slice, not as thin as G's, and not quite that thin at all was great. It was crunchy, crispy and the dough had a good, pleasing strong flavor. The calzone. The meatballs are thicker and better quality. They're also substantially bigger. And Steve says this place uses the kinda mozzarella he likes. It's pretty gooey and thick'ish. Ya know how some pizza cheeses are too soft meaning not gooey. You don't get that satisfying pull. And they tend to be less flavorful as well. Except for a little salt, I thought the calzone was pretty darn good. And I took one bite of my pepperoni roll. (Cause I was stuffed - they have "heftier" slices.) It was good and used about the same amount of pepperoni G's uses. Their sauce. It's awesome. Steve says it tasted like ours. Now I don't know if ours is quite as good but let's use the phrase again, it's on par. How hope you have a positive pizza experience today. Eat Something Good!


Frankie & Augie'z Ristorante and Pizzeria
3673 Hill Blvd
Jefferson Valley, NY 10535

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Harlem Eating Spree

Last night we went to a jazz concert in Harlem. We only caught the last half but it was good. Afterwards we fell completely off our diet. We went to two separate places and gorged. The first stop was Patsy's pizza. They're known for their super thin crust. And indeed, they have the thinnest crust I've ever had and I've had some pretty thin crust pizza. Anyway, there was a situation. The guy forgot to put our pie in and this other guy (who was waiting for a friend to get money) offered to give us one of his. So we took it though I don't think we should've. The crust wasn't crisp as it usually is - it'd been sitting in the box for too long. Despite all this, the pizza was good. The flavor is darn good. They used very little cheese and the right amount of sauce. You could taste the fresh tomato flavor. Delicious.

The next pit stop was at what I've heard was sometimes called "ghetto" fried chicken. These chains only appear in poorer neighborhoods. Gosh, I hope I wasn't being racist calling it ghetto. I don't mean to be though I know there's a possibility that someone might get offended. Sorry. Anyway we got tons of food from Crown Fried Chicken & Pizza. I had a breast and leg and Steve had a breast and wing. The meat wasn't dried out but it could've been hotter and juicier. It came close to sucking completely but it was edible and we were still hungry after the pizza. The pizza is really for like one person but we split one. So the chicken. It was crispy and a medium-dark brown in color. It was seasoned but not heavily. The mashed potatoes. Ugh. Tasted awful but I ate it. And the cole slaw didn't taste fresh and had a metallic ee flavor.

But the cheeseburger we shared was pretty good. The burger patty was cooked up while we waited and wasn't sitting under heat lamps like the chicken. The burger had every imaginable typical burger topping on it. Lettuce, tomato, mustard, mayo, ketchup, onions, pickles and it was sorta like eating a Whopper from Burger King. We split one. Then we had one more side: Mac n' cheese. It looked better than it tasted but it wasn't bad. Steve liked it a lot more than I did. And then to go further off our diet we had warm sweet potato pies. They were the best part of the meal. We bought four more to go and had another one when we got home around midnight. We're gonna go to Crown Fried Chicken & Pizza again tonight because we're going back to the most dangerous part of Harlem to see another Jazz concert.

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Palermo Pizza

We went grocery shopping last night. Finally. We bought almost $200 worth of goods. They were promoting a new thin crust pizza. They were selling it for $2.50 a pie when the regular price is $4.99. Well, the pizza. We got two of them. One was margherita and one was grilled chicken cesar. The flavors of both were good, pretty good. Not really, really good. The chicken cesar one was a little better than the margherita. The crust. It was thin alright. But it was like eating pizza on a matzo. For real. I wasn't loving it. I don't think we'll buy this pizza again because of the crust. So you guys, buy a better frozen pizza and Eat Something Good!

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Lucia's Pizza

We had a bad pizza experience yesterday. Steve thought it was awful. He didn't like their sauce and there was a lot of it and he said the cheese was breaking up. And the guy behind the counter said it just came out of the oven so we both wondered why it wasn't crispy or crunchy. I gave it a 6 out of 10 because I liked that they put a lot of sauce cause I like sauce. It wasn't the best sauce but it certainly wasn't the worst. Steve gave it a much lower rating than I did and he went into great detail about it. As we left, the cashier apologized about the noisy children. That's when we realized that the two old ladies and the kids were family. And I was all, oh no. All that we said. I feel a little bad about it. I thought maybe one of the old ladies made the sauce or something. They were both feasting on chicken cutlet sandwiches. To undue all this we decided to go to another pizzeria that we were somewhat unfamiliar with. This was after a stop to Mrs. Greens to pick up some wheat germ and ground flax meal. Anyway, the second pizza stop was better but not by much. I actually gave it a point less because the sauce was too sweet. The crust was way better though. Steve liked it more but I think, overall, it was just a very average, no frills, slice of pizza. Eat something good!

Lucia's Pizzeria & Deli
115 Secor Road
Mahopac, NY

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Roma's Pizza

We took a motoride this evening to a place called Roma's. A place that the locals swear by in lower westchester county. And sometimes when Steve speaks excitedly about a place, I take it with a grain of salt. But tonight, he did good. The pizza was really good. Brick Oven. Thin crust. Hesitate to call it flaky cause I always think of buttery pastries. I can't call it crumbly either. But it was both. It was an imperfect crust with little areas of almost blackness. Burnt. But didn't taste burnt. It was really good. And the sauce, thumbs up. I like my sauce to have a good fresh tomato flavor mildly seasoned with herbs. Usually just basil. I don't like my pizza sauce to be too herby (especially if they're dried) or too spicy. I don't like spice at all on my regular cheese slices. Specialty pies are another story. Oh, the cheese was good. Gooey but not too much of it. I didn't feel like I was gagging on cheese. It's been an issue with me lately. On the ride down, I was having so much fun. I got the giggles and was laughing so hard that I made noise on the inhale. I was struggling to get air back into my lungs. The ride back was a little chilly here and there but we made it back in one piece. Why is it that the rides back always feel faster? Anyhow, I'm way tired. Niters.

Roma Restaurant
29 Columbus Ave
Tuckahoe, NY 10707

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Self-Rising Crust Pizza Review

So who doesn't like pizza? Everybody likes it. Grandmas, adults, small children and dogs (and my dead cat Sonny - he was usually a very picky eater. He didn't eat stuff that you'd think cats did. But when it came to pizza, he'd sit on top of the box until I gave him a piece of crust.)

And not too long ago, my brother and sister-in-law asked me to review frozen pizzas. I wrote a couple of reviews but never blogged 'em. From what I remember, I disliked DiGiorno's and I liked Frescetta. These pizzas are the ones with the self-rising crust. (The one I liked best so far is an ultra thin crust white pizza made by California Pizza Kitchen.) So, the rising crusts. The one we had tonight was, *hold your breath*-a store brand. Yes, Stop n' Shop was having a sale. We got a couple (well, 3). Tonight, we baked some up with freshly grated pecorino romano on top. Afterwards, I tore up some fresh basil and we were in business. Okay, the crust rose alright. It was a lot denser than I expected it to be. It just barely made the cut off for being too doughy. Actually, I think maybe it didn't - it was doughy. The sauce was a little on the sour side. Not too much flavor there. It was doable tho' - it didn't gross me out the way DiGiorno's does. The cheese was nothing special. It was okay. It was the extra romano we grated on top that did the trick.

All in all, with 5 being average, I'd say it's about a 5. (DiGiorno's gets a 1; Frescetta gets a 7.)

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