Why I Oughta...

When we were up in Holland a last week, I made it clear that we had but one option for dinner that night: Fricano's, Too . We'd walked past it over the summer and I posted a shot of their sign which boasted that they were home to "The Original and Most Famous Pizza in Michigan".  At some point, someone chimed in with a comment on that original post shaming me for not going.  You should've made room for a Fricano's pizza that day! None of this American-ized, three-inch-thick, beef stew on a dough disc nonsense here! Fricano's are paper thin, 12" only, a little burnt around the edge of the home made crust, and is the best pizza you'll ever eat. I challenge you to NOT eat a whole one yourself! So...we went.  And, guess what?  It kind of sucked.  Maybe "sucked" is too harsh a word, but I have NO NEED to ever go back. It seems that this place has grown over the years and is clearly very popular with the locals.  We were there on a Tu

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

When we were in Holland Michigan last week, we were pretty bummed to find out that their big bookstore closed.  Seems they're part of a national trend of bookstores closing - succumbing to the digital revolution.  Sad.

Our local Jewel has rolled out a new private label brand that they've positioned as a bit more upscale called Culinary Circle .  They bill it as "chef inspired" and generally, the products are pretty good.  As I was in the store this week doing checking out my favorite Home Run Inn frozens, I noticed that Jewel (and their parent Super-Valu has  recently extended the Culinary Circle line to frozen pizzas.  They're nicely packaged, merchandised well, and generally look pretty appealing.   Being a store-brand, they get a lot of real estate in the freezers.   But, things get interesting when you take a closer look at the boxes.  From a few feet away, things look harmless enough, right? But, once you zoom in on the lower left corner (where the pizzaiolo is shaping the dough), we run into a bit of trouble.  Note the text:  "Product is NOT handmade."  As if we all didn't realize that each frozen pizza didn't start from a hand-stretched skin. Really? 

At what we still call "The Hilltop" even though it is a Harding's Market - and has been for 10 years or so - I ran across these retro Doritos in the chip aisle.  (The store was called "Hilltop Groceries" or something like that prior to being bought by Harding's.  We began going there in 1989, and the change happened sometime in the Aughts, so 20+ year long habits are hard to change!)  You can tell this is Michigan because you can spot the price tags on the Fritos dip below the chips.  More here about price tags in Michigan ) But...back to the retro Doritos.  I didn't buy them, but the bag just about had me convinced that I should!  The new bag is CLEARLY aimed at teenage boys - the same demographic who are buying Monster Energy Drinks - with the edgy, electric graphics.  But the cuddly, retro, 80's logo is aimed squarely at 30-somethings that will be hit with a wave of nostalgia - remembering their childhood of brown-bagging their lunch to grade

Last week, Google (Full Disclosure:  I work there !) kicked off our fourth annual Doodle 4 Google contest - a competition open to K-12 students in US Schools.  Students are invited to create their own Google Doodle (those creative adaptations of our logo that run occasionally on our homepage) inspired by this year's theme of:  "What I'd like to do someday...". Google is upping the ante with some pretty rad prizes, but those are secondary to the top prize:  one lucky student gets a chance to have his or her artwork appear on the Google.com homepage for one day and admired by hundreds of millions of people! There are two key differences this year.  First, is that instead of making teachers/schools register their entire classes, we've now opened it up to anyone - parents can now register their kids, too!  Second, Google has recruited some celebrity judges (Whoopi Goldberg, Jim Davis - creator of Garfield and others).  To register now, head to the contest page

After MUCH experimentation, the High Priests of Pizzanerds over at Slice are able to claim that these plum tomatoes from Trader Joe's are the BEST tomatoes for pizza .  (Go check out their spreadsheet.  There's nothing I like more than a food-based experiment tracking spreadsheet!  Seriously!) Many of you know that for the past five years or so, I've been using 6 in 1's - and liking the results.   In fact, I was a 6 in 1 evangelist - telling everyone that I knew about these canned beauties.  So, considering a new tomato product for my pizza making is serious business.  Upon some inspection, the key difference is that with these from Trader Joe's (that Slice recommends), you have whole tomatoes whereas the 6 in 1's are mostly sauce/pureed.  For my deep dish pizzas, the chunkage is nice, but when I'm making my skins thin, I want my pizza sauce to be smooth.   Nothing a stick blender can't fix, right?  I don't think I'll totally convert over