Lilija

I'm no pro, but as far as I know, Calzones are mostly ricotta and mozzarella, sometimes with a bit of ham or pepperoni, and sauce on the side. Around here, calzones are huge half-moon pillows stuffed with cheese. Stromboli are usually either a single (or double) serving or a whole pizza-type crust rolled, filled with mozzarella and or provolone, generously stuffed with pizza type toppings, then baked. They come long, like a fat baguette, or curved into a horseshoe shape.

Now you have me thinking about a chocolate version... As far as healthy...I throw about half a cup of broccoli in one of mine, that's practically a salad!

Those look really good, I love stromboli. You even make your own dough, I might steal the recipe... Generally I get dough from my pizza place. I make them a lot, for finger food, unexpected company, lazy Sunday dinner, stuff like that. The family seems to like them better than homemade pizza. The leftovers are incredible, too (when we -have- leftovers...which is extremely rare). My favorite filling is one very similar to yours, only I add salami and I never put sauce. I prefer sauce on the side, for dipping. Sliced cooked Italian sausage and deeply carmelized peppers and onions is one REALLY good combo, too layered with provolone. Another great filling is diced lightly steamed broccoli, diced turkey lunch meat, or ham, cheddar, jack or a mix, and a bare drizzle of caesar dressing, wrapped. The sky's the limit, really.

My favorite wintry "lots o garlic" recipe is a chuck steak braised for a few hours, with a can or two of crushed tomatoes, hot pepper flakes, a few branches of rosemary laid across the top, and a bulb of garlic broken apart, with the papery outer stuff removed, and scattered over everything. At the end, the garlic and rosemary perfume the tomatoes and beef, and the garlic tastes good squished out onto toasted bread, or onto the beef. I like the sauce tossed with chunky pasta, or gnocchi, with the beef sliced on the side.

Blueberries are a dusky violet, blue corn chips are bluer, but still more purply to me. I would love a shockingly blue natural food, like if they developed a new pepper or something. I've had the Superman ice cream, and I recall loving it! Call me crazy, but those colors and the Superman aura make vanilla taste better. Could be that, or could be because I'm a hopeless comic book nerd. Or just a nerd...

I love tidbits of info like this, not only does it remind me of a very yummy bit of fast food, it gives me a new appreciation for it (and craving). The Filet-O-Fish has always been my alternate choice, when I wasn't in the mood for nuggets. So good, but the best part is opening it up and eating about half the tartar sauce (I KNEW it was good, now I know why...) with my fries.

My best friend is Brazilian, lived there till he was in his late teens, has been begging me to make feijoada. His request includes all manner of pork parts, ears, feet, jowl, belly, ribs, whatever, but he was adamant about the ears and feet, said it won't taste the same otherwise. He said his mom puts sausage in it sometimes, too. Seasonings are onions, garlic, bay leaf, salt and pepper, as far as I know, but I really have to research it. He doesn't mention salt beef, though it's something he might overlook. His version is made with only black beans, and served with a side of farofa or potato salad, bread, and orange slices, like his mama used to make. This is a good thread, I'll have to show it to him. Once it gets rolling, I won't have any excuse not to make the stuff. Edit: He's from Rio, and his mother's family is from Sao Paulo, if there's any regional differences.

I agree here, too. I like some of the "tini" style mixed drinks, like a nice espresso or chocolate flavored one. Once, I had one made with Cuarenta y Tres that was like a creamsicle in a glass, deee-licious...nothing tini about it. As far as boneless "wings" even my 9 year old regards them with disdain. He calls them "hot nuggets", pronouncung the nugget part with an "ugh". He's a pretty strict wing purist. We just had a talk about this a few days ago. Wings have bones, period, and in no circumstances should they be hickory or mesquite, or applewood smoked flavored.

I was reading this thread and thinking to myself, bagels. Leave the friggin' blueberries OUT, please. And while your at it, get those pineapple slices off my pizza! ← Absolutely on the bagels. I'm okay with onion, garlic, long island (no, it's not an 'everything'), what have you. But the moment you put a blueberry near one I'm thinking you don't deserve a bagel. I'm not so much an purist about dishes. I'm a purist about the ingredients. It says butter? Okay, don't even think of using anything else. Don't tell me I can use fat free half-and-half. Don't leave out the fish sauce and then complain that the dish didn't turn out well. Don't swap out the sugar for splenda, or even suggest it. You want something low sugar? Than go find a low-sugar recipe ← I have to agree, there. Blurby seems to have the right of it. That, and I'm tough on pizza, too. Don't even get me started in the cocktail department...

One (1) pound of Fudgie Wudgie Amaretto fudge and one nearly empty bottle of Knob Creek sitting on my desk, along with a small glass (one of those cute 4 oz juice glasses, from the 50's) and a knife. It's bad, girls, and I am being a bad girl. (the tiny glass makes it medicinal, without actually doing shots...)

We got this far, and no mention of Cheez Whiz or Velveeta? I'm suprised at you people! I have not much to add, except my enthusiasm and extreme desire for pictures of said meal.

In our area, there's a mom & pop joint on every corner, literally. Easily 40 pizzarias that deliver to my neighborhood, not including any chains. We have such a range to choose from, there's no excuse for second rate delivered pie. Bad pizza just wouldn't survive here, I don't think. The place we've been calling for the past few years is outstanding, the crust, sauce and cheese are exactly what we look for in a take-out pie. Thin, blistery, crispy, chewy crust, fresh light sauce adorned with fresh whole basil, high quality cheese and toppings. I seriously can't imagine it getting any better. The service takes a little long, it takes us average 45-50 minutes to get our order, but they make up for it with the food. Again, I'm blessed pizza-wise, where I live. As far as I've seen, NY has nothing on good NJ pizza.

Figs, right off the tree, warm with September sun.

HAHAHA I thought the same thing when I read it, no way. I refrained from making the reference, because I didn't think anyone would get it. Hiro: Coolest delivery boy EVER.

To this, I agree wholeheartedly. When I said "no biggie" I was looking a it purely from a clinical point of view. So we pass some bacteria betwixt us, with potential double dippers, I'm not gonna avoid guacamole because of it. I'm quite certain, in my almost 30 years, that I've put worse and more suspect stuff in my mouth. The ACT of doing it, however, is nasty, greedy and....I'll trail off here, before I start a full-on rant. I also hate when people finger communal food, or stand or sit at the buffet table. (some rube sat at the CAKE table, at my wedding reception. Yes, the eensy little pedestal where the wedding cake was perched. Had his plate right on the edge, but I digress...) Myself, I go with Sandy's method, I take some on my plate, at a function, even informal parties. At home, we're all up in there, it doesn't matter.

I dunno, ordering a pizza on the phone is pretty fast. I get to talk to a human, and I can say "What's the special this week? I'd like my crust a little more well done, thanks. Oh, and come in the side entrance, please." Ordering out is already a major convenience, I don't need it stripped down to a one word command or button click, I guess. I like just a tad more interaction when it comes to my food. But then, this is why I don't order Domino's, to begin with.

I don't claim to know what it's like nationwide, but here in central Jersey, I can leave my driveway, drive in ANY direction for 4-5 minutes, and hit a Domino's. I'm not exaggerating, either. Off the top of my head, within a 5 mile radius, there's about 5 stores. Now, with that many places, no one is far from a Domino's...would you even NEED to track it? I know it's like that on Guam, too, the only other place I've been exposed to Domino's. There were at least 5 stores THERE, and that was over 12 years ago. I would rather have GPS sticking to my Lucisano's (or any mom & pop joint, really) pizza. When they say "it'll be there within the hour", and Will, the 72 year old delivery "boy" moseys on up around 59 minutes later. There's some pizza (and wings, and a calzone) that I actually wonder about. Either way this, like texting or online ordering (or from inside a game, even), is entering the realm of ridiculous.

Shoot. Now they're gonna outlaw dip. Unsafe communal food or some such. It's no biggie, to me. I tend not to hang out with the diseased, or inconsiderate.

I don't have much to offer on top of all this great advice and commiseration, but maybe make a few of your old favorites, your "knock'em dead, couldn't screw this up if I did it with my toes" recipes, to get your confidence where it should be. That's what I normally do, after a failed dish, and yeah we all have'em. Me? I can't make a stir-fry to save my ass. I can make elaborate Thai curries from scratch, but combine chicken, some veggies, and some sort of seasoning sauce as a stir fry, comes out like glop. I know it's a similar technique, it blows my mind.

I do my French toast almost exactly like this, only I blend into the egg/milk about a bit of sugar, a Tbs. of flour and a scant teaspoon (or large pinch) of baking powder, for every 3-4 eggs. Same ratios of eggs and milk, with spices and vanilla though. They are light, puffy, crisp, flavorful, soft and sweet on the inside, and not one bit eggy. I think you were one of my egg-hating compatriots on the "stuff we hate" threads, so I wouldn't steer ya wrong, man.

This is kinda similar to some of the roasted glazed recipes above, but I dearly love roasted sweet potato wedges finished with a honey chipotle glaze. I cut even sized dark fleshed sweet potatoes into wedges (eights for a good sized potato), toss them in oil, season with salt and pepper, then roast till they're brown and yummy. A few minutes before they come out, I baste them with the glaze, drizzling on a little more when they come out. On the stove, while they're roasting, I reduce an orange, honey, shallot, and chipotle glaze. I make it with the juice of an orange, and about a tsp of the rind, 1 finely chopped pepper and a tsp. of the sauce they're packed in for a half cup of honey, plus a sauteed diced shallot. There is something amazing, incredible, and miraculous about the flavor of sweet potatoes and chipotle. My second favorite recipe is a sort of a hash or breakfast skillet made with partially cooked sweet potatoes in 1/2" cubes, red peppers, diced beets, and smoked turkey sausage, or just smoked turkey, or chorizo, or whatever sausage you have laying around, garlic, cayenne, salt, pepper, etc. All sauteed together. This was a recipe born of necessity the last day we were camping, and all we had left was half a lb of turkey lunch meat, and a few veggies. It was. DELICIOUS. Made it another weekend with an apple-turkey sausage, and it was even better!

Ok, one more, thanks for reminding me. I love cold rare steak. Just eaten off the bone, standing in the kitchen. Big, cold, bloody, feral bites, sometimes dotted with hot sauce.

I love this thread, and I wish I had more to add, but besides a few thin shreds of chicken picked off the carcass (or turkey) I like everything hot. Cold pizza gives me the shivers. To me, cold potatoes are so sad and tired.

I was a good girl. I was urging for buffalo wings, and how, so I got a huge tray of Costco mesquite wings for a small get together at the house last night...BUT I baked them, and made my own buffalo sauce with half-ish the amount of butter of what I normally do. I only ate about 9, but I ate about twice as much celery, so I'm still good. That's what I'm telling myself. It was dinner last night. Dessert was a handful miniature carrot-cupcakes. Oh, and all the fruit from a pitcher of sangria, that no one was eating, and about half the pitcher of said sangria. I don't need Midol.

I was just chatting about this with my a friend of mine, and his reward is a pint of ice cream, every time he goes shopping, or in season, a quart of egg nog. My tall, lean muscle and metabolism of a race horse, friend. Jerk