Why I Oughta...

Nat found these "meat shredders" at Crate & Barrel recently.  They're certainly going to make pulling pork shoulder a bit easier on the hands and I'll end up with less burns.

After suffering through a few weeks of trial and error with my Detroit-style pizza recipe, I finally decided to get serious and order *REAL* Detroit-style Blue Steel pans - directly from Michigan.  Actually...turns out they're made in Mexico, but sold from a restaurant supply shop *in* Michigan ! So, why special pans?  Well, the lore around Detroit-style pizza is that these pans were originally intended for the automotive world:  they're pans that auto repair/assembly works put the various pieces/parts that they're working on.  Detroit being an Auto-Town, the transition to using them in a pizza joint seems quite fitting.  They have a higher lip than standard pans and are even a bit taller than my deep-dish pans. They are Blue Steel 10" x 14" pans and come with a weird grease on them - that I'm assuming is food grade?  I seasoned them as best as I could by coating them with corn oil (olive oil won't work for this because it has too low of a burning/sm

For the past three or four years, this delicious salted cured meat has been in my life.  It must have been a pizza blog (likely Slice ) that turned me onto the meat.  Needless to say, I'm a Sopressata evangelist now.   That's a slice of the stuff in the photo above.  As you can see it looks a lot like salami or pepperoni, but is more oblong shape instead of round.  And, it is spicier and (of course!) tastier. It won't be taking over pepperoni on your regular run-of-the-mill thin crust pie, but at most artisan pizza joints these days, you'll find this meat gracing many a skin where regular old pepperoni would have done. We buy ours at Caputo's in Addison and the care they put into packaging our slices speaks to the importance this sliced meat holds in the hearts and minds of Italians.  When my pizza oven comes to life next year, the second pie out will be a Sopressata one.  First?  Has to be Margherita, right?

I received a pair of these 'Ove' Gloves from my mom back at Christmas and I scoffed at the idea.  My mom persisted and said that they came highly recommended and in fact, the woman at Walgreens (yeah...that's where she bought them!) told her she HAD to buy 2 of them! Guess what?  These have become my go-to oven mitt and I don't even reach for anything else.  For breads, this thing works perfectly as I can pick up the loaf directly.  Same with pizza skins. I know what you're thinking...my oven mitts are fine.  That's what I thought, too!  This is one of those "As Seen on TV" products and, surprisingly to me(!), this one really works well.  Can't recommend it more.  Sounds silly, I know! Go buy it here with the link below:

Having made Tom Thayer's Italian Beef recip e twice in the past few weeks, I've been to the grocery store buying a lot of giardinera - as each batch calls for two bottles.  I've tried a lot of them, and I keep coming back to what is my favorite:  Scala's Original Giardinera .  At the local Jewel's, you have to be a savvy shopper to know where to find it because they keep it on top of the deli counter, not in the salad dressing aisle with the rest of the various giardineras (including Il Primo, Marconi, and others). They've always had that distinctively generic white label you see on the left.  But, the last time I went to pick it up, the display (Which really is just a small basket of 8-10 jars) had both the white labels and this new, much more professional-looking red/green/white label and identity.  I don't love change, but in this case, I think the new look is an upgrade.  But...most importantly...they've only changed the jar - not the recipe.  The

*Looking for the recipe?  You can skip the story & find it here:  Tom Thayer's Italian Beef Recipe With the Bears in the NFC Championship game, Chicago is all orange & blue all the time.  Both papers are draping themselves in the Bears flag, the local newscasts seem to be leading with a Bears angle, and there sure are a lot of Bears jerseys at Menards today. But...there's also something else going on:  party planning.  Based - solely on ONE DATA POINT - it seems like everyone MUST be looking for recipes to make for the various parties they are hosting tomorrow.  That one data point is the seemingly random popularity of a recipe I posted almost a year ago:  Tom Thayer's Italian Beef Recipe .  Over there on the sidebar of my blog, Google Analytics displays the top posts - based on traffic - for the past week.  There are a few usual posts that get a bunch of search traffic and a few "current" posts.  But...this particular one has never appeared before. 

How to Roast Chestnuts 1.  Score each chestnut's outer shell with an "X". 2.  Place on a baking sheet in a single layer. 3.  Roast at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes. 4.  Place in a towel and rub together.  Then, when cooled, peel off outer shell. 5.  Enjoy! Seems that chestnuts have fallen out of favor as a Christmas delicacy.  We hear plenty about them in songs and books, but in my 32 years, I don't think I've ever seen one served - let alone eaten one - during the holidays.  Trader Joe's is trying to make it easy to bring the chestnut back.  They were selling packages of the nuts and also posted easy to follow instructions adjacent to the nuts (that's where the 5 steps above are from).  Sounds pretty simple.  But...what to do they taste like?

A few nights back, Nat made a big batch of red gravy.  Or...as you guys might call it:  tomato sauce.  Using a bunch of varieties including Romas, Mr. Stripey's and Green Zebras, it turned out delicious.  She used a recipe that called for roasting the tomatoes after halving them and de-seeding them.  She put together a couple pans worth and made gravy to last weeks! I think she improvised a bit, but her gravy/sauce was based largely on this Alton Brown recipe : 20 Roma tomatoes, halved and seeded 1/4 cup olive oil 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon pepper 1 cup finely diced onion 2 teaspoons minced garlic 1 tablespoon finely chopped oregano leaves 1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme leaves 1 cup white wine Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In 2 (13 by 9-inch) pans place tomato halves cut side up. Sprinkle with oil, salt and pepper, onion, garlic, and herbs. Bake tomatoes for 2 hours. Check the tomatoes after 1 hour and turn down the heat if they seem to be cooking too qu

Last summer, I kept seeing cucumber pickles at our Farmer's Market week after week.  They weren't too terribly expensive, but I had never pickled, so I was hesitant to buy them.  After a few searches, I settled on an easy recipe for  refrigerator pickles .  I made them spicy and gave away a few jars.  They were good, but they weren't really pickled using traditional methods.  The refrigerator method takes away a lot of the brining, processing, and storage time, so it was a good introduction to pickling. This year, after finding a book at the library entitled " The Joy of Pickling ", I decided to give the longer-version a try with all the boiling/processing/waiting that traditional pickling calls for. At two markets, we purchased the pickles, garlic, and dill.  I threw in black peppercorns and red pepper flakes.  The slices were packed in pints and the spears were packed in wide-mouth quarts. Both recipes call for a one-month storage in the root cellar (our ba

We bought all the necessary tools and ingredients.  Candy thermometer, cheese cloths, etc.  We're ready to make cheese!  In honor of our nation's independence, we're going to cook up a specatuclar Mexican feast featuring carne asada and housemade queso blanco. If I move quickly enough, I'll be able to take photos.  I still have to make a home-brewed cheese press, but that won't stop me from starting the process!

Earlier this week, Nat and I spent some time at the Elmhurst Public Library where we were trying to pick up some books for our vacation.  With school over, my backyard projects winding down, and plenty of free time on my hands, I went looking for a project book.  And...did I ever find it.  I haven't put down jam it, pickle it, cure it since we brought it home. The book includes instructions on curing one's own bacon, making one's own jams/jellies, and plenty of other goodies.  I have a list of projects that I want to dig in on, and I've begun to shop for ingredients!  Stay tuned for the results....

Earlier this year, Nat and I bought Nat's mom the Pioneer Woman Cook s cookbook for Mother's Day.  We sent the book away via the USPS and also sent the PW a note via email telling her that it was coming.   (We also paid for the return shipping ahead of time.) A few weeks later (kind of disappointing that we didn't get an email response), this arrived back in the mail. While I am thrilled to get the book back, the whole process made me re-think my expectations of "people on the internets".  I held the PW in pretty high regard, and, at the end she delivered (the signed book), but the process and no email response back were a bit of a bummer.  I bet she gets A LOT of email, but a simple "I'm on it" response would have been perfect.  (and would have allowed us to actually print it out and give it to Nat's mom on Mother's Day instead of giving her an IOW.   In the end, she still makes tasty food.  And...the Crash Hot Potatoes are in regular

For the most part, the pizza making season in the Parrillo household is winding down.  Sure...we'll grill pizza pies a few times this summer, but on average fall and winter are our prime pizza making seasons.  Each year, I try to add an element to our pizza making routine.  In the past it was using Scamorza Cheese (more on this later) or 6 in 1 tomatoes for sauce.  They were nice improvements that lead to better tasting pies. This year, I decided to make the move to "00" flour - which is an Italian-style very "fine" flour .  While I didn't notice a HUGE difference, I believe that was because I have continued to tinker with the flour recipe - both in ingredients and proofing time/method/containers.   I'll be watching this stuff go on sale at Angelo Caputo's Market this year (it is a bit pricey - about 4X the price of normal flour), and see if I can finally settle on a crust recipe by this fall.   If you want to know more about Caputo, check out this

Last weekend, we hosted a party for my Dad's birthday.  I made turkey meatballs for everybody but Vic - we made eggplant "meatballs" for her.  I'd share recipes here, but I just kind of 'winged' it.  The 'balls' turned out ok, but the real hit of the party was Crostini with Ricotta and Roasted Tomatoes.  They went fast and were very easy. There's a very famous pizza place out in Arizona - probably the "most" famous pizza place called  Pizzeria Bianco  that is run by a guy named Chris Bianco.  Martha Stewart featured him either in her magazine or on her tv show (or probably both!) and included  this recipe .   I went to Angelo Caputo's to do the shopping, so I came back with some house ricotta which made everything taste better! The party was a lot of fun - and a real team effort.  We made some food, my sisters all brought something (including the birthday cake!) and my mom helped clean up.  Most importantly, we were able to gathe

One of Nat's besties had a baby recently (a boy!) and Nat - being a busybee - wanted to lend a hand. Unfortunately, the friend lives out of state, so the best we could do was to prepare some meals, freeze 'em, and ship them off with her friend's mom when she went to see her daughter. (If you gave us a nice gift for the birth/baptism/pregnancy - thanks.   I loved it soooooo much!)  However, one of the best gifts anyone gave us during the pregnancy/baby was frozen meals.  We still have some of them in the freezer - they're the gift that keeps on giving!  When Nat is dog tired from battling the babe all day and I have class, so I don't get home until 10 pm, these are saviors.  We had tacos, enchiladas, chicken and salads and even chicken tetrazzini (although it wasn't frozen!).  While I'm certain Nat enjoyed all the "onesies" and such that our friends and family showered on us, I really appreciate the care that goes into the frozen meals.  These cam

TOM’S TAILGATER ITALIAN BEEF COURTESY OF Steve Dahl  and  DAHL.COM Ingredients: One 3 ½ to 4 pound boneless beef chuck pot roast One package of Zesty Italian Salad Dressing and Recipe Mix One 16 oz. jar of hot giardiniera One 16 oz. jar of mild giardiniera One dozen baguettes (French rolls) Directions: In a four-quart Crock-Pot, pour in one bottle of giardiniera. Place the roast on top of the layer of giardiniera. Sprinkle the salad dressing mixture on top of the roast. Add the second bottle of giardiniera to the top of the roast. Cover Crock-Pot and cook on high for 6 to 8 hours. When fork tender, shred the roast in the Crock-Pot and allow it to combine with the other ingredients. Slice the baguettes in half and pile on the beef and giardiniera mixture. ------------------------------------ For the babe's baptism party, we hosted a collection of family and friends back at our house after the church proceedings. We ordered some of the food from Maggiano's in

As I've mentioned before, I'm not the baker in the house - Nat (when she has time) enjoys it more than I do.  Her mom shared a recipe for "Red Velvet" cupcakes late last year and much to our chagrin - it called for numerous bottles of red food coloring.  We walked down to the Jewels (yes...I said "Jewels".) and plunked down $4 a piece for the little bottle of McCormick's coloring and went on our way - knowing that had to be a better way. Fast forward a few weeks and we found ourselves in Schweppe's on North Avenue near our house.  Schweppe's is a kitchen-supply shop featuring industrial supplies for commercial applications.  They allow the public in - and charge us a bit more than their restaurant customers - but it is still very cheap! They have everything there from spatulas to snow-cone machines to industrial-sized containers of ketchup.  They also happen to have big bottles of Evon's "Red Color" syrup.  It's about $4 for

Over the weekend we had some of Nat's friends over to say hello and see the babe.  Nat said that we couldn't just put out a partially eaten sleeve of saltines and sugared fruit slices; we had to pull something together for a brunch-ish crowd. Now....I'm not normally the baker in our house - that's Nat's domain.  But with her having her hands full (with the child-rearing and all), it was time to play flour scientist and bake up a cake of sorts - a coffee cake. For my birthday a few years ago, my mom started to give us a Cooks Illustrated subscription.  She renews it every April and I've come to enjoy thumbing through it each month.  I've occasionally referred to it when making something (like potatoes in the oven), but I've never baked anything from their pages. Aside from the crazy quantities (you can sense that they really did tinker with them - I mean what's with all the 1/8 of a teaspoons!  We don't even have one of those!), we didn'

It was a Julia Child Christmas for Nat (and secretly for me!).  She was gifted the Julie and Julia DVD set and her mom, after much searching, came across a reasonably priced First Edition of Julia Child's seminal work:   Mastering the Art of French Cooking . The real joy in this gift is seeing that this book has been used and loved by cooks before arriving at our house.  With little notes on some pages and an inscription up front, this book - a First Edition - meant something to someone; and now it means something to us. The beautiful tome took it's proper place on our kitchen bookshelf right next to such literary and culinary masterpieces as Diners, Drive-ins and Dives . I'm so glad it found a nice home in Elmhurst.