Review: House Pizzeria

I'm starting this post with an admission: This review is going to be biased. very biased.

Mr. O and I celebrated a very special day here. We are lucky enough to have friends that are more than cool with us having our wedding (!) shower at one of the best and newest pizza/pubs in Austin, House Pizzeria.


cupcakes: peanut butter, chocolate and vanilla (not provided by House Pizzeria)

On to the food:


Meatballs! (mmm.)




Rosemary, goat cheese and potato pizza (my favorite!)


Eggplant tapenade (awesome)


Seriously, this place kicks ass. And I'm not just saying that because I love everyone there. The pizza is excellent and the beer is plentiful.

I probably shouldn't have used "kicks ass" and "wedding shower" in the same post, but it's that good.

Go visit if you haven't!

Heat

It's too hot to cook.

whole wheat focaccia

Yet another recipe from the Pillsbury Complete Cookbook. This focaccia bread uses an egg, which is a little different than most of the focaccia recipes I saw on the internet before just going to Mr. Doughboy.



I added about two cups of whole wheat flour and a little white. What I've noticed about whole wheat is it takes a hell of a lot longer to rise, but it's good in the end. Just give yourself a good amount of time (um, 2-3 hours/rise) to achieve palatable results. Earlier this month I tried to make dinner rolls, and allotted the same amount of time for them as I had white rolls. We had dinner pucks.




Tasty stuff!

Strawberry cake

Well, dear reader, I am back - albeit temporarily. Life has decided to get pretty crazy.

On the upside, I'm now a certified librarian! Now if only I could find a job. Ha. ...not kidding there. Anyone need a baker for hire?

At any rate, I got to host a lovely party for some friends earlier this week and happened upon a veritable truck of strawberries at Costco. Out of that came a salad with strawberries, almonds and basalmic vinegar and this lovely strawberry cake.

I can't say enough good things about the Pillsbury Complete Cookbook. It's got some awesome recipes for baking that never fail. Thanks, mom!




At any rate, I used the yellow cake recipe from this book and made a simple cream cheese icing:
1 block cream cheese, cold
1 stick butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups strawberries
powdered sugar to taste

Beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add the strawberries and then add powdered sugar until it reaches a good consistency. I should have added more but was reluctant to kill the taste of the cream cheese. The cake melted in the warm weather of the evening, but it was awesome.

Forgive the questionable pictures - it was late at night and the host may have had a few drinks by the time the party was jumping enough to cut the cake.

Hot recipe of the week: Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Lemon and Milk

I'm coming out from the corridors of the library archives to say hello. I'm sorry I've been gone. One month out from finishing my final reports has left lunettes a very tired, boring cook. I can't write about pasta and meatballs every week for a month, and lentil soup never ever looks pretty when I make it.

On the other hand, something piqued my interest this week. Apartment Therapy's The Kitchn had a recipe linked for Jamie Oliver's Chicken with Lemon and Milk. I decided to pick up a chicken yesterday and give it a try.




I had to substitute limes for lemons and some dried herbs for fresh, but it was a really nice chicken. It's kind of hard to futz this up.

I had some trouble turning the chicken as it had a tendency to stick to the pan while browning, so be warned some of the skin will go during the process. Thankfully my enameled cast iron cleans up really pretty with a good soak.



I made sure to leave the pot lid on for an hour and then basted and uncovered the chicken for the last thirty minutes. The result was a moist, tender chicken with a great sauce.



I couldn't really taste the cinnamon in the dish. I did take Apartment Therapy's recommendations and used the pan drippings for potatoes.... butter and chicken fat can never go wrong. It was good.

All in all, I'd make the dish again. The curdled milk isn't as gross as it seems - the 'cheese' gets a really nice, butty flavor and the sauce goes very well with the chicken, which is moist as all get-out to begin with.

Crab legs

So I decided to pick up a few crab legs last night while shopping at my local H.E.B.

This further proved that I really shouldn't try to cook fish at home - the smell just does me in every time. I had to air out my place until late in the night from the strong smell. If you're in central Texas, you probably shouldn't be buying fish from a grocery store anyway.



It was kind of neatly carnal to attack them with my hammer, though. 'Neat' being a one-time experience that is not likely to be repeated.

Still cleaning shell shards off the floor,

lunettes

Review: Grapples

Okay, so I bit.

Grapples? They're kind of grayish-red when you get them. This picture makes them look really nice and juicy, but they're more purplish in real life.



They have an aftertaste that is highly reminiscent of grapes, but it's really hard to taste it while you're eating them. I imagine that grape burps would be interesting. My apartment smelled strongly of grape flavor while they were in the fruit basket.

Cost: $4.99/4, in a special case. Free Frisbee with purchase of three packs!