Spaghetti with Anchovy Carbonara (p86 April 2011 Food & Wine)
I did not have enough ducks in a row...I over cooked the garlic. And it showed when we ate it. I should try this again, but probably won't.
Thin Crust Pizza (p8 January/February 2011 Cook's Illustrated)
So I ran a little experiment. I added some fresh ground pepper to the dough while I was making it. I thought, perhaps it would ad a little flavor to the pizza as a whole (though with the already good flavor of the dough and the strong flavor of the sausage didn't enter my thought process). And when you had some of the edge pieces, it was there, as a peppered dough, which was good. However, layered with everything, it didn't add much or anything at all. Now if it was a simpler pizza, then perhaps, but in this case it was good. Overall I should have cooked the pizza a bit longer and perhaps drained a bit more liquid out of the sauce I made. It still tasted good though. I added a bit of cheddar (~3 oz) to the cheese mix and after I snacked on the Graziano sausage it ended up being probably 12 oz that went on the pizza. I do like this, it reminds me of the sausage and cheddar pizza that we'd order in college (except not totally greasy and gross).
Hamburgers
So I talked with the neighbors (I feel all neighborly after I went over to ask why someone was moving out of the duplex and if there was something wrong with the place and found a bunch of dirt about the previous tenants) and we talked about grilling out once the weather got a bit more consistently warm and I agreed, it would be a fun time. I just wish I could remember their names. Anyways we had burgers they were quick and simple.
Steak Picadillo Soft Tacos (p36 April 2011 Bon Appétit)
I don't know why skirt steak is so hard to find. Yes it is often used interchangeably with flank, but apparently it's not the same thing (you misled me hy-vee guy). Anyways, I ended up using flank steak and it did actually make for some tasty tacos
Grilled Cheese and Fried Egg Sandwiches (p36 April 2011 Bon Appétit)
So it calls for pancetta and what would I use? Certainly not the over priced nonsense they generally stock at my normal grocery store (though they have had what I would buy from time to time). So I went out of my way to find the La Quercia Pancetta I wanted to use. It is so lovely and delicious. It made for a good sandwich too. Though the sourdough bread I found was...meh. I did have a conversation this month with Brandon about sour dough and he pointed out that it is kind of a pain to keep a good sour dough culture going, which I agree, but given the choice it certainly does play in my mind as a possibility. Though I only have had sour dough bread 2 times, probably, in the last year and both of them have been this month. Anyways, these were delicious (how could they not be?).
