Pizza on The Mind

Pizza pizza pizza!  Although it is summer and I try to always eat healthy, the one food I can never resist is pizza.  Whether it is New York style or a piece of Sicilian, pizza is definitely one of my comfort foods.

Now that I am living in New Jersey I find myself eating pizza more than ever.  That is probably because I live right across the street from Carmines.  When my boyfriend and I go to Carmines we always get the same kind of pizza.  Half cheese half mushroom broccoli.  The mushrooms are big, fresh and hearty and the broccoli is crunchy yet soft.  With Carmines, it's not the toppings or the cheese that make the pizza wonderful and deck opus, but the crust is heaven in a bite.  It is crisp and delicate all at the same time.  Whether you fold the slice hot dog style or simply eat it from the very tip, you are going to get that rustic crunch in every bite.

Carmines is a gem, but certainly not the only pizza paradise out there.  Look below for I have named out a few of my favorite pizza joints.

Flatbread in Amesbury, MA, Portsmouth, NH, Laconia

Riverview in Ipswich, MA

Porta in Jersey City, NJ

If I were you I would go to each of these places because you will not leave hungry.

Summertime sweetness

Summertime is the time of year where sweet and tarty drinks are most loved.  Whether it's a 90 degree day or just in the 70s a sweet and simple cocktail can make everything better!  When craving a sweet and refreshing cocktail there is one place that I always go running to; Salt Rum Bar and Kitchen.  Locals of Ipswich, MA, which is where this great hidden gem is located, simply call the rum bar and kitchen "Salt".  Not only do they serve up some wonderful and interesting drinks, but they also provide their customers with a great ambiance.  Now let's get to the drinks and reasoning behind my absolute obsession.

My favorite summertime cocktail is a classic Mojito. The mint, lime, rum, club soda, and sugar go hand-in-hand with each other resulting in a tasty combination of sweetness and tartness.  When Salt makes any of their drinks you are able to watch the bartenders which allows the customers to feel comfortable in knowing that all of the ingredients being out into each drink is fresh and of the best quality.  The key to their success is that they muddle every ingredient of the cocktail all together and then add the liquor.  By combining each component and mashing then all together, it allows for all of the flavors to resonate and marinate with each other.  

What makes Salt's drinks so great one might ask.  It may be because of their fresh ingredients or it may be that they put love into each cook tail they make, regardless of what it is you can't beat them! 

Best summer munchies

As the weather becomes better and better you start to bring out your go-to summer foods.  Me being a food lover I have so many summertime favorites that it was hard to narrow them down just to 5.  But here you have it, my top 5 summer foods! 

5. Greek salad with chicken or steak

4. Pasta salad (cold)

3. Fish (swordfish, shrimp, lobster, salmon)

2. Gaucomole and chips 

1. BBQ!

How to make a rainy night comforting

Rain is an act of nature that allows you to indulge in laziness as well as munching out.  When it rains at night, it encourages people to make a delicious, warm meal that can be paired with a glass of wine.  This was exactly what I did for my birdie end as well as myself .

After there being 2 days of solid rain in Burlington, VT I decided to create a warm and comforting meal that could go along the side a bottle of red wine, Russian River Valley's Picket Fence, Pinot Noir to be exact.  The meal that I chose to cook was a chicken pesto panini served on roasted garlic bread. The garlicky flavors from the pesto certainly complimented the garlic that was presented in the bread that I used. Although a chardonnay or Sauvignon blanc is the best to pair with chicken, the Picket Fence, Pinot Noir had a great bite to it and the smoothness of the wine overall accompanied the crispy texture of the roasted garlic bread very well. 

When making my famous chicken pesto panini I always like to toast my bread before placing the sandwich with all ingredients under my George Foreman.  By toasting the bread before  this will add an extra layer of crunchiness to each bite you take.  Once your bread is all toasted later it with a thick coating of pesto and then start to pile on the chicken, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes.  You can add red pepper to this dish to add some extra flavor.

Once your sandwich is ensemble throw it on the George foreman and leave it in there until the cheese is perfectly melted.

Cut it in half and there you have it, a decisions pesto panini.  The wine and the panini will make for a great night especially if the night is a wet one. 

Seafood Excitement

After coming home from college I have found myself craving seafood, all types of seafood, almost every day of the week.  Being at school I never truly trusted where our cafeteria was getting their fish, granted most of their food was fresh and local ingredients, so once I graduated all I have been asking for is fish, fish, and more fish!  When it comes to fish anything fried is always delicious, but my mom rarely makes fried fish, so in order to curve my craving I decided to go and grab some outrageously good fried fish from the very well-known seafood restaurant, the Clam Box.  With this hidden gem being named one of the "4 clam shacks" to eat at in Massachusetts by Travel + Leisure, it is no surprise that their clams and other fried fish dishes exceed many others.
Before I talk about the tasty meal that I ingested with my mother and father, I want to point out that my aunt owns the Clam Box and that I also used to work there back when I was in high school.  I worked there for two years and although it was tough working in such close quarters with so many family members, I can honestly say I will never grow out of the food that is served at this seafood heaven.  When working there I got to see all the hard work that went into making their clam chowder so tasty and their fried food so crispy and juicy all at the same time.     
Now moving onto the food!
When going to the Clam Box most people usually order the fried clams or the lobster rolls, but I ordered something completely different.  I selected a dish that within every bite left a tingle in my mouth; a fried scallop plate with onion rings and coleslaw.  The batter on the scallops were divine, leaving an extra taste of brown sugar in my mouth.  Each scallop was perfectly encrusted with a golden shell, that not only had crisp to it, but allowed for the juiciness of the scallop itself to come through.  The onion rings were lightly battered, allowing each onion to have that crunch you are truly looking for in an onion ring.  The coleslaw which contains the regular coleslaw amenities, has a creamy yet fresh sensation in each bite.  The sweetness of the tartar sauce accompanies the fish and the coleslaw to a tee. 
Although this meal was certainly satisfying on many levels I made sure to try both my mother's and father's meals.  My mother ordered a fried haddock plate with french fries, where my father ordered the fried clam strip plate which came with both french fries & onion rings.  The flakiness of the haddock gave that sense of lightness to the dish, which was certainly necessary since fried food is usually so heavy and filling.  The clam strips were battered with perfection and had that same golden brown coat on them as did my scallops.
It's times like these that make you appreciate good food and good family.  Not only was the meal great and filled my craving, but my dining experience was one for the books.  I saw many of the people who I used to work with, as well as many of my loving family members.

Home is where the good food and love is.

Back in Action

Hey Everyone, I'm back and ready to tell you more about my life of being a foodie!

As Easter comes closer my mind is focused on food more than usual.  Something about Easter just makes me so excited that I can't wait until I can indulge in the ham, broccoli puff, and all of the other great foods that my family makes.  On the note of keeping it in the family, recently I have been going out to eat a lot more, ultimately making me believe that the only way you are guaranteed a good meal is if you make it yourself!  When I was on Spring break I went to one of my favorite breakfast places, only to find myself leaving very disappointed.

When you think omelet you think 3 eggs, 2-3 toppings, and cheese.  Well this is exactly what I got, but in a gigantic form.  Usually I love being helpings, but this breakfast just over did it.  Not only did my omelet have about 3 pounds of cheddar cheese in it, but the veggies that I asked for to be included were exploding out of the omelet making it very difficult to eat as well as filling.  Now, when I eat my omelets I like to make them into omelet sandwiches, so I will take a big piece of my omelet and place it on top of my toast, fold it and there you have it.  For this dining experience it was very hard to make my omelet sandwich.  The omelet was so stuffed that it was hard to get all ingredients into one bite and the toast itself was drenched in butter, making the toast almost make the flavor of the omelet itself.  I can't forget to mention the insanely over sized home fries that came with my omelet.  They were so thick I could barely eat a third of what was on my plate.  The home fries themselves tasted more like a potato that you would serve with a dinner rather than a breakfast potato.

When it comes to breakfast I am very picky because you are starting off your day with this meal, so it has to be satisfying.  As I walked out of the restaurant I found myself missing something that I was hoping to get and that was satisfaction.  This dining experience is not to discourage those who love to eat out, but it is to inform them that sometimes home cooking is the only cooking that one should surround themselves with.

home is where the heart is, and the heart knows good food.

Daily Planet Dining

Wednesday October 9, 2013 I along with my boyfriend of three years went to the DailyPlanet in downtown Burlington, Vermont.

 When I first heard about the Daily Planet I was a freshman in college and very interested as to what kind of food they served.  Coming from a large Greek family I am in love with food, so when I pick a restaurant to go to I want to know that it is going to be satisfying.  With this time going to the Daily Planet as being an occasion, I wanted to make sure that they would make the experience memorable.  When first walking into the Daily Planet you are greeted by a lovely hostess and a warm welcome.  As you are talking all you can smell is all the delicious food that is being cooked and that is something about this restaurant that I hope never changes.  Once you walk in you are seated in one of the many multi-decorative rooms.  We were seated a room that I have sat in before the renovations were made.  The room was filled with different plants and flowers making the overall experience feel very organic and comforting.  We got to sit in the corner which made for the meal to be romantic to say the least. 

photo taken from Google

            When going out for an occasion, drinks are always a must!  I ordered a regular mojito.  My mojito was sweet and had just the right amount of lime.  My boyfriend ordered a beer, the Sixpoint: Sweet Action to start with.  “The beer complimented the appetizers” my boyfriend stated.  With that being said and with it being his birthday I wanted him to get all that he wanted.  So along with getting complementary pieces of their fluffy rosemary bread, we ordered two appetizers.  The maura’s salad along with the corn crusted calamari.  The execution of both the dishes was to perfection.  The maura’s salad was a combination of baby greens mixed with roasted garlic, bleu cheese crumbs, sliced red grapes, toasted pecans, and dressed in balsamic vinaigrette.  At first, we weren’t sure about how the red grapes would marinate with the other ingredients, especially the dressing, but to our surprise they added some lightness and sweetness to the dish I didn’t expect.  The toasted pecans mixed with the crumbs of blue cheese created a sensational flavor in my mouth.  “When you got all of the ingredients in one bite it made all of the different flavors pop” my boyfriend commented.  There was a perfect amount of vinaigrette which made the baby greens stay fresh and not become wilted or soggy.  The salad made for a perfect compliment for the corn crusted calamari. 


 With the breading being corn crusted which means that the calamari is made with cornmeal and flour, and it being fried in canola oil rather than lard, it made for each piece to be fluffy and crunchy in every bite.  Many places tend to over batter anything they fry, but in the Daily Planet’s case that does not happen.  The ratio of batter to calamari was perfectly distributed and disabled the pieces from being greasy or dense.  The sauce that was given with the calamari was a tangy, yet sweet dipping sauce.  It sort of reminded me of a tarter sauce, but that much sweeter.  They also gave you a slice of lemon to sprinkle over the calamari pieces which certainly added an extra layer of flavor.  As we finished our appetizers in record time, our waitress brought out our main dishes of the evening.  In some senses I was stuffed, but watching her bring our enormous plates over to us brought happiness to my mind and stomach.

I got the pasta rigatoni which was pasta with a basil puree, heirloom tomatoes, arugula, parmesan & manchego, and pieces of grilled chicken.  I was expecting the basil puree to be much thicker and more like a pesto sauce, but it was more of a broth if you will.  However, the chicken was grilled perfectly and the mixture of tomatoes and arugula added some freshness to the dish.  The two different types of cheeses was a big hit in my book considering I am a sucker for any kind of cheese and mixing cheese with any kind of pasta is a win in my book.  The pasta was perfectly tender and the way the chicken marinated in with the noodles and other ingredients could be considered extraordinary.  I saved some of the rosemary bread to dip into my basil puree and I was surprised as to how the basil and rosemary created another wonderful and fulfilling flavor in my mouth.  My boyfriend ordered grilled bistro steak which came with a port wine demi sauce, fig butter, and butter milk mashed potatoes.  Thin, crispy strips of sweet potatoes topped the well-cooked steak along with a bed of sautéed carrots.  After taking a bite of the steak mixed with the mashed potatoes I was in awe.  The butter milk mashed potatoes were fluffy and when mixed in with the port wine demi it created a sweet, yet savory flavor in my mouth.  “The steak was marinated and cooked to perfection.  The mashed potatoes and sautéed provided great accents to this overall delectable entrée” my boyfriend stated.