You know what really keeps me from posting? The damn pictures. I know that food blogs are so much more appealing with photographs and I do apologize for my poorly formatted page, lackluster shots and overall incredible lack of visual interest. This is not lost on me, it's just so overwhelming. Anyway, that's my way of saying that I'm going to write a little post anyway and hopefully this weekend I will have some time and decent pictures to post.
I read so many food blogs, magazines and the like and I often think I'll remember to make that green tomato and canteloupe salad from Gourmet or whatever but invariably, I forget. So it's surprising to me that I've had a recipe from smitten kitchen in the back of my mind for well over a year. It's not that remarkable, it involves roasting eggplant and tomatoes, which are then pureed and tossed with pasta. I finally got around to making it and I really like it, the pureed eggplant gave a lushness to the sauce that kind of reminded me of a vodka sauce, without the addition of alcohol or dairy of course. I followed the recipe closely, which is hard for me, but I added one thing that I highly recommend doing. While roasting the vegetable, add a banana pepper to what's already there. Don't puree it though, just slice it in ribbons and toss over the top of the dish with plenty of romano. It was oh-so-nice.
I had a dear friend visit me from New Orleans this past weekend and I took him on a ghastly culinary tour. Within hours of landing, we had scarfed down chicken finger subs and loganberry. The former went over quite well, the latter no so much. Then we had pizza and wings for breakfast. By the way, I will love you forever if you eat pizza and wings with me first thing in the morning. Anyway, I'm really over LaNova wings, I need to find a new spot. (Update: Ate wings from Just Pizza on Elmwood and enjoyed them much more than LaNova).
Sunday, we went to the lesbian anarchist diner, AKA Amy's Place. God, I love this place. We started with the Veggie Wet Shoes, which fries covered with their delicious lentils, peppers and onions and cheese. Mmm. Then I had my old standy favorite, the Margie Meal. Charbroiled, marinated chicken with fajita fries and garlic sauce all wrapped up in a pita. Yes, more fries, it's a diner, what do you expect? I love the Margie Meal, mostly for the way the sauce permeates the rest of the deal, but I have to say their pita is wack. It is dry, always so dry. Amy's Place, please find a new vendor for your pita!!!!!!
Finally, since Paul is Polish and we have a lot of Polish people here in the 'Lo, we headed over to the Slavic Bazzar for some treats. Yes, that's how they spell it so I'm just staying consistent. It was great, they had all kinds of stuff from Poland, some of it translated and some of it????? If you need industrial size containers of poppy seed filling or kraut with caraway, this is your place. Their prepared food though, well, it lookoed pretty tired so I decided to hit a new stop (new for me) for Polish food, the venerable Polish Villa. HAAAAaaaaa, this place is really fantastic; the decor, the patrons, the lifesize Polish dolls, wow. I ordered the pierogi and galombki platter, which included soup and a potato pancake. The was good and very different, a Polish classic called czarina, it had prunes and vinegar and spices. Paul had a chicken and spaetzle soup that was very tasty. I'd have to say their galombki, or cabbage rolls, were pretty nasty. They were huge and fairly flavorless. The pierogi though, were FANTASTIC! Especially the cheese, probably the best cheese pierogi I've ever tasted. Everything was served with a huge stack of rye bread, cabbage and bacon salad and lavish amounts of horseradish and Weber's mustard.
Whew, that all made me hungry. I think I might run over to Amy's Place for an early lunch!
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