Okay alright already - here's your update!

Another Snow Day, February 11th, 2010

After spending a busy busy couple of weeks not updating the website, I find myself stuck at home under mountains of snow! More on that a little later...

Earlier in the month, we enjoyed beautiful crisp weather.

Work is fun!

Ohhhh Doug!

My brother Anthony came to town a few weeks ago, and we decided to make a big dinner at Gram's house. For the occasion, I made an Outback Steakhouse "imposter" dressing - six raw eggs and a ton of olive oil...

Blended!

Ready to go! It tasted exactly like it does at Outback - success!

I miss it already.

These are the chicken kebabs that Anthony so kindly grilled - teriyaki glaze and pineapple! It was a great time, even though it snowed. At the time, we thought it was a bad snow storm, and it was a harrowing drive, to be honest. Now it seems like nothing!

After watching yet another contest show on the Food Network, I made hamburgers with an awesome root beer glaze reduction.

It was INSANELY GOOD.

So anyway... we got some snow.

Not a lot, mind you.

And we enjoyed it!

But suddenly... we get two feet dumped on us, which pretty much paralyzed Baltimore (and Maryland!).

Lisa made Focaccia from scratch! It was awesome.

We shoveled.

Even as it came down.

Clearing the car was exhausting...

We slowly carved Echo Base.

And then I took a hot shower to get the ice out of my beard.

So much tired behind that smile ;)

It was beautiful.

Even though we couldn't see the cars.

And the backyards are gorgeous.

We went to work on Tuesday, and I took some pictures from the 10th floor.

Natty Boh watched over the city.

But the next day, round two bore down on us and dumped another two feet!!!!!

Seriously insane.

It snowed into the evening.

And made me even more nervous as it sat on the roof.

The icicles are beuatiful though... I hope the gutters hold.

By nightfall, the snow stopped. A long exposure made it look earlier.

Same as the front - and I must give massive thanks to our neighbors Lisa and Denise who have a SNOWBLOWER.

Last night Lisa made delicious chili, and I made a spread for the bread. Fake butter, clove, powdered mustard, red chili flakes, pepper, garlic, and sage.

The chili was awesome!

This morning, things looked pretty good, considering.

So much snow on the rooftops. Blort!

See?

We had the day off of work again, too.

I am tired of snow!!

Click here to download a video (it's an m4v file, so open it in iTunes)!

Gordon and the Dough

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

So on March 6th, we get to pick up our new family member! Introducing Gordon - he's currently 6 weeks old.

As you can see, he loves the camera.

I painted a little Valentines cat for Lisa this year. Pretty awesome.

So last night we decided to hand make pizzas, from scratch! There were three of them:

Classic with pepperoni and mushroom
A riff on the Bertucci's Piadina Chicken Pizza
A riff on the California Pizza Kitchen Goat Cheese Pizza

Earlier in the day I carmelized some onions for the Goat one.

I also marinated a couple of chicken breasts in balsamic vinegar, powedered mustard, rosemary, red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, sugar, and minced garlic. After the chicken marinated, I reduced the leftover marinade for a good half hour.

Baked the chicken for 45 minutes on 400º.

Onions carmelized (butter/salt/sugar added) in about the same amount of time.

Lisa and I mixed and kneaded the dough, which then rested for 30 minutes.

I prepped toppings.

We rolled out the dough on pans slathered in extra virgin olive oil.

Carmelized onions, tomato sauce, mozerrela cheese, potato slices, chicken, red and yellow peppers, and chunks of Bulgarian Feta cheese (we didn't buy Goat cheese).

The Piadina was coated with extra virgin olive oil, chicken, light application of mozerella.

While that baked, I mixed the reduced balsamic glaze in with a bunch of field greens/spring mix.

Lisa used Taco and mozerella cheeses on the pepperoni/mushroom pizza.

This is the Piadina, out of the oven with greens applied. By far the most delicious "pizza" we made last night - it was AMAZING.

This is the Goat one - unfortunately I think the Feta was too "sharp/pungent" of a cheese to use, and though I enjoyed it, I wasn't blown away like I remember being with the one from California Pizza Kitchen. Still pretty dang good.

This is the "Classic" one - excellent, of course!

We'll be making the "Piadina" again soon!