Another seafood post.....

In line with my last post, I figured that I would post another one.

Did I mention that I love fried seafood? Well, if I didn't, allow me to mention it now. I LOVE (note the capitals) fried seafood. Now, living on the CT shoreline, that gives me a lot of options as far as places to go, but we do have a favorite. We started with a place in North Branford, called Supreme Seafood. Good stuff, however, they only take cash (which I rarely carry). http://www.supremeseafood.net/index.html

So, we located a place here in Branford that is amazing. Its called TNT Seafood, and is attached to a Ritas italian ice. Scrum diddly. They also use a little different batter at TNT that uses cornmeal.Its absolutely delicious. Reasonable as well. We also get an italian ice for dessert. I've never eaten in, but have generally taken it home, and its really good. The only downfall of them is that they are only open until 8pm generally, which is fustrating.

So, they have an extensive menu, but we stick with what we know. Allie really loves their burgers, and we generally get the double combo plate with whole bellied clams. Then we get the shrimp and scallop combo. Extra tartar sauce, and more onion rings then fries. The onion rings are delicious.

So the other night, I decided that we were going to have seafood, because I haven't had any in a while. So, I hopped down and went to order the usual. Well, as I was spitting out my usual, they informed me that they had no whole bellied clams. WHAT? REALLY? that almost put a kibosh on the whole order.

Anyway, I had clam strips. EW. Never again. There is a huge difference, and I personally prefer the whole bellies. WOW. Never realized that strips were quite so obnoxious.

Anyway. I got italian ice to go, came home, chowed down, and made the decision that I will go to visit on Thursdays, when I can guarantee whole bellied clams.

Do you prefer strips or whole bellies?

Lobster

There are few things in the world that I love quite as much as seafood....and lobster more than anything. Anyway, I wanted to go to the store to obtain soda. I dont drink a lot of it, as its not really good for you, but Billy loves soda, and I really had a craving this week for it. SO. I was looking to see the best deal for soda, and came across the best deal at Big Y.

Also, at the same time, I noticed that they had lobster for $4.95 a pound. They also had crab meat, fresh, for $6.99 a pound. Billy and I decided that lobster was what was for dinner. :-) We went to Big Y and bought not only lobster and crab, but soda and milk, and something else that I don't remember at the moment. Large score....one of my favorite sodas is Cherry 7-up. It was on sale. YAY!

Now, I have eaten lobster my entire life. However, i have never cooked one. I'm honestly afraid to...i feel badly. But, before you ask how I can eat a steak without feeling bad, but feel guilty about a spineless crustaecen, its easy....i'm not the one killing the steak. I dont think about it. However, I was goign to put the lobster in water. Thankfully, I didn't have to, because I was watching the Giants game, and Billy did the murdering for me. I made the accompaniments, including the butter, brussell sprouts, and rice. I laid out the plates. Billy put them in the water.

I have also only had steamed lobster once. I remember why. I cracked it open, and splattered greed GOOK (ewwwwww) all over my clothes. Its disgusting, and slimy, and reminds me why I generally eat baked stuffed lobster. Thats next. I'll try that next time. No green crap spewing all over me and my clothes. I suddenly flashed back to eating at Red Lobster in Portsmouth, NH with my parents about 12 years ago, where a similar thing happened, and I ruined my jacket. Nope. No more steamed lobster for this chick.

Anyway, it was fabulous, and we both sucked down claws and tails. Yummo. Absolutely fabulous. I will never pay 17.00 per plate out again for lobster. No thank you. Our whole meal, including sides, butter, lobster, and drinks was probably 15.00. The lobsters were 11.00, and each of our lobsters was about 1.25 lbs. Just enough. Would be better with stuffing. I'll save even more. Stuffing is cheap. :-)

Anyway, lobster. Thats what was for dinner. I was sad when there was no more left...maybe for my birthday we'll buy more. :-D

A little bit of everything.

I was watching QVC the other day (its my guilty pleasure with a cup of coffee on the weekends) and was watching the Kitchenaid special. They had mixers and food processors on. OH MY GOD. I need one of both. in Red. Santa, please?!

I went to the cheese place last Friday, since I had time. I picked up some fresh mozzerella...I'm guilty. I eat it like candy, and the guy who packaged it for me winked knowingly, and said he did the same. What I also got, in addition to fresh gnocchi, which I love, was cheese called LaTur.  It is amazing! Billy wasnt thrilled, because it is extremely pungent, and definetly different, and somewhat expensive (18.00 a lb, which I only bought 1/2 lb. It lasts, I swear, and its phenomenal). I am not generally one to spend money on stuff like that...I would rather spend it on fish or steak, but this stuff is unbelievable. check out a blog I follow, the Reluctant Gourmet, for his take on it. Its 3 different types of milk put together, and is the consistency of brie, sort of, only a little softer. I can imagine this baked in phyllo dough. OOH. I'll have to try that.
http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/blog/all-about-cheese/la-tur-cheese/

Mexican food. So on Sunday, we were out and about, and went to costco in Milford. While we were down there, we decided to eat at a new mexican restaurant (at least new in orange) called Puerto Vallarta. I have eaten at one before in Southington, and was not super impressed, so I was hoping for a good experience. Boy did I get one. I stuck with something I know, and know well....fajitas. I got the lunch portion, and honestly, did not need any more. What also made me very happy was they offered the lunch menu on the weekends, which many restaurants do not do.  They bring warm chips to the table throughout your meal with fresh salsa, and the fajitas are absolutely amazing. Sizzing flank steak with warm corn tortillas, homemade guacamole, rice and beans, peppers and onions. I was in total heaven, and I ate everything. Billy had some Mole thingy which he said was very good, and Allie had the burger said that it was one of the best she ever had. So, after I finished eating my sizzling plate (way better than
chilis, and i LOVE chilis) I decided that I wanted to try some kind of dessert.

Does anyone remember Chilis back in the day with the cinnamon tortilla bowl with ice cream? Well, Puerto Vallarta has it. However, it was cold, and I wasnt into something like ice cream. So, I got Sopapillas, which are fresh fried, honey and cinnamon tortillas with whipped cream and a cherry. Oh my god. They are amazing and different, and totally wonderful. And, they are incredibly reasonable price wise. ($3).  It was a wonderful experience, and we will definetly be back. For all our chow, which left us all stuffed and unable to eat dinner 3 hours later, I think with tip, it was $50. Thats pretty good for 3 people, with dessert. I definetly recommend it, and they have locations in Newington, Southington, and Orange (maybe a few more, but those are the ones i'm familiar with).

http://www.puertovallartausa.com/default.asp

Anyway....more later!

Fair Food

In the East (read: New England) there is a big fair type thing called the Big E. It is held in Springfield, MA, and spans about three weeks. There are vendors for crafty type things, and there are animals. There are horse shows. There is a carnival type thing. There are houses dedicated to each state in England And, there is food.

I"m a big fan of all things fairs. I like kettle corn. Allie likes the carnival type stuff. I like animals, and I like crafty type vendors. I like the Big E for the state houses. So, when my company started offering tickets at a discount ($10.00 a ticket (normal price is like 15.00 a ticket)), I ordered my tickets. We planned to go the first of October, which we did. The weather did not cooperate, and it rained (well, drizzled), but ew. But...we went anyway.

We stopped at Denny's in Rocky Hill on our way up, due to our early Saturday morning departure. We were going to do chow on the fly, but I had seen a Denny's commercial the night before, and wanted to try it. Deliciousness. And cheap. I'm all about good food for not a lot of money. They have these fried pancake bites with strawberry that are phenomenal, and I had a 4 cheese omelet with some kind of cheese sauce on top. Yes, cheesy overload, but I was being bad regardless, so who cares. Billy had chicken fried steak and eggs (I so love chicken fried steak...and he shared two little bites with me). Allie had eggies and toast...her new way of liking eggs is over easy. :-)

Anyway, we got to the Big E and got a great parking spot about a half block from the entrance. Parking alone is $10.00, which isnt horrible, considering when we left several hours later, it was $20 to park in our spot. We werent especially hungry when we got there, because we had eaten at Denny's.

We walked around, and inspected the big E house, which had a lot of interesting vendors. They had this cookware set that doesnt require water. They had a salsa mix that was darn tempting to buy....all you do is buy a can of chopped tomatoes, a jalapeno, and add this mix, and you have instant salsa. But, its expensive as heck, and we didnt want to spend $20 on it. They had showers that had blue lighting and multiple jets. Those were cool. Lots of different stuff. We went into the animal house...which had huge clydesdale horses..beautiful animals, but I want to be able to pet noses, and give carrots, and these horses were in stalls that were too small for them, and you couldn't reach. They had goats, and alpacas. They had piglets (so cute). They had the AKC, who had all kinds of dachshunds...They had US customs, who had a wicked cute beagle...

Then we went into the state houses. I was after New Hampshire, because I miss home, and I wanted maple candy, which is crappy when you buy it here. I'm such a sucker for maple candy. My mom bought me one back last time she went north, but I wanted more. I'm horrible. But, it is just SOOOOO good. so good. Expensive, but soooo good. We walked through the houses, and were really interested in a lot of stuff, including the dips in New Hampshire (4 of which came home). :-)

Anyway, by the time we did that, and a lot of walking around, I was hungry. Went into the Maine house SPECIFICALLY for a lobster roll. Now, I love lobster. LOVE IT. Lobstah, as we refer in the NE. Anyway, Deliciousness. However, the way to eat a lobster roll is to slap it on a toasted hot dog bun, and slather it in butter. yup. none of this mayo crap. But, they are expensive here (15.99 for a lobster roll on the CT shore), and I do not want to cook my own lobster. I thought...Maine. They'll make it right. SIKE. Mayo. And CELERY. EWWWWWWWWWWW. No thank you. The price was good, but not what i wanted. Needless to say, we didnt eat in a state house, although Rhode Island had some delicious looking chowder in a bread bowl (hmmm. maybe i'll have that for dinner tomorrow night)

So, we hit up one of the carnival good vendors. Specifically, the BBQ one. We liked the looks of the ginormous slabs of meat roasting earlier, and ordered a steak and cheese with roasted red peppers. WELL. it was good. not great, but good. the cheese was like melted velveeta (scrum), and the peppers were good. Allie wanted cheesy bacon fries from teh next cart over, so we got a bucket of those and shared.Those were PHENOMENAL. Crispy fries, crunchy bacon (real bacon) bits. oh my god. Deliciousness.

 We were really on the hunt for fried butter (Daly wanted to try it), and fried Koolaid, but couldnt find either, and ended up buying Billy and Allie fried oreos, which they both immensely seemed to enjoy. We split a Guiness at the international tent, and I bought tons of maple candy, and tried maple cotton candy....other samplings aroudn too...but we were good once we left.

So, fair food wasnt great, the big E wasnt great....but fun was had by all. The kid slept on the way home. We got starbucks twice in one day, and we watched Transformers 3 when we got in the door. :-)

Luizzis-North Haven

So we are lucky enough that we have an italian market within 20 minutes of our house. I did not know about this place until a month or so ago when Billy suggested that we go there. So this place makes much of the mozzerella in the area, and its always fresh. Yummo.

So yesterday, I wanted to go to this place. I wanted some fresh mozzerella and I like to see what else they have. Generally, I am not a splurger on things like that, but this place is a weakness. They have pasta in italian, and fresh gnocchi. They have a beautiful deli that has awesome meats and italian specialities. They have a fresh, homemade on premise olive bar. They have a whole fresh butchery and they have a whole section of homemade italian delicacies.

Anydoodle, I digress.

Yesterday, i wanted to go. I was after some fresh mozzerella and gnocchi. I love their gnocchi and I have not gained enough culinary bravado to try to make it on my own yet..I will in the near future though. I think I need additional kitchen porn to do that. Anyway, gnocchi and fresh mozzerella. This mozzerella is so fresh, they make it in the back and yesterday, they brought me out a whole new thing that they had just made. yummmmyyyyy.

So, i got this brilliant idea, thanks to a mention from someone from highschool, to make this great snack out of italian bread, roasted red peppers, vine tomatoes, fresh mozzerella, and balsamic vinegar. well, i have the balsamic, ut not the other ingredients, which is what I bought. I will be making this snacky this afternoon. Personally, I cant wait.

What I also bought was this delicioius, but ridiculously expensive spreadable cheese. We'll be eating that later too...SNACK! And, one of my favorite, baby mozzerella balls. Now, those little buggers are not good for my diet, but they are soooooooo very good. I cant resist them. I will gladly not eat dessert for weeks to be able to snack on those little puppies.

Sigh. Yummo. If you get a chance to go, dont pass it up. Its on State Street in North Haven. Delicioso!

http://www.liuzzicheese.com/

Pastitsi---Oh What The Hell......

A few months ago, a friend and coworker of mine shared a dish that she had made called pastitsio. Its a greek dish that has ground beef, veal, or lamb in it, with cinnamon and nutmeg. Its put over pasta, with a bechamel sauce and tomatoes and then baked like lasagna. Well, tonight I was at a loss with what to do with the ground beef that I had pulled out, and decided...What the hell....I'll just make the pastitsio.

I facebooked my friend, because I forgot about the tomatoes. Of course, at this point, I was committed to the pastitsio, because I had already cinnamoned up the beef.  Well, during all of this, I was talking to a realtor about a house that I found in Avon. So, I was in the cabinet looking for chopped tomatoes, since I didn't have any fresh ones....while on the phone with the realtor....while the ground beef/pasta was cooking, yadayadayada. Recipe for problems I tell you!

Anyway, I digress.

So, I decided that I would make my own spin on pastitsio, so I cannot really call it pastitsio, because it would be criminal for me to. Anyway, what I ended up with (with help from Billy making the bechamel sauce) is below. Layered ziti with ground beef and bechamel, then baked with some parmesan and asiago cheese grated on top. Then, when served, I put a crushed tomatoes with basil.

Not exactyl what I planned. Billy said it was ok, but was lacking flavor to the bechamel sauce. So, its a work in progress, but as I just said to my friend jenn, the chef, and all knowing of cooking related things....I can't call it pastitsio, because it was missing some important elements and structure. BUT...in my defense, not bad in 45 minutes, while on the phone with a realtor, and totally without a recipe.


Thanks Jenn, for turning me onto this delicious dish. Maybe next time I won't screw it up. :-)...and I can actually call it pastitsio.

Tonight was Fry Night!

So usually we fry (well, Billy does) when we are at a loss for what else to eat. Tonight was no exception. We didn't have anything that we really felt like getting involved with cooking, and its hot, and we really didnt want to heat up the house. So, fry it is.

Billy is a great fryer, number one. I can never tell exactly when things are done, and its just my thing. Baking, sure. Creativity? Sure. Frying? Not so much. We bought a fryer when we first moved in together, because we wanted fried calamari. That lasted the last 2 years, until we saw the granddaddy of all fryers on HSN. I like HSN, and I love watching the kitchen segments. Just cool stuff that I can add to the kitchen collection, or as one of my best friends calls it, kitchen porn. You will see me refer to it as that a lot.

Anyway, I digress. What makes this fryer so amazing is that it drains the oil automatically after use, into a sealed container for later use. This is huge, because it means the fryer is ALWAYS clean, and the oil lasts longer. Plus, you can fry things like twinkies the next time you fry after you fry fish. Anyway, you should check it out. Its not cheap, but it is awesome. This is the one we have, which is the smaller version (they have a larger one which holds 2.65lbs of food, but we didn't need a bohemoth). I also want to mention that I love Emeril. Not as big a fan as I was, but he has some great stuff. He may be a topic later!

http://kitchen-dining.hsn.com/emeril-stainless-steel-1200-watt-fryer-with-oil-filtration-system-by-t-fal_p-6357521_xp.aspx?webm_id=0&web_id=6357521&sf=qc&attr=4388&ocm=qc|4388&prev=hp!4388&ccm=qc|4388

Anyway, back to the food. Tonights menu consists of fried calamari, chicken nuggets, and tater tots. Now, fried calamari in my house is done with sliced hot cherry peppers, some kind of seasoning (tonight was cajun) and dipped in ranch. Delicious. The nuggets were to supplement the  and of course, to give the kid, Allie, the anti fish eater, something to eat. The tator tots were to add some additional crunch. Normally, we would have some kind of veggie too, but Allie and I both had veggies at lunch, and we just didnt want to cook anything else. So, don't shoot me on this one for no veggies!

So a little history lesson about me and calamari. When I was probably 9 or so, my parents were both in a fashion show at our country club in Woodbridge. My mother ages extremely well (god I hope I do too), and I was wandering around, trying food. Anyway, I came across calamari in a tent, and asked the chef manning the tent what it was. I asked if it was some kind of shrimp. He said yes. So I bounced back to my table and started eating what I thought was shrimp (which was good, btw), and my father came over. He asked what I was eating, and I explained that it was calamari, which the guy told me was shrimp. My father started to laugh, and I asked why. (yes, I do remember this clear as day). He made me eat the whole plate, at which point he informed me it was squid. I will never forget me running to the trash can, trying to wipe my mouth out....AND, running over to the chef and telling him he was mean for telling me it was shrimp. He laughed at me, and said he was sorry. LOL. :-) Anyway, I swore it off until I met Billy, and I realized that it was ok for me to eat weird things, as long as I liked them. And, squid now is more mainframe then it was then. However, I still will not eat squid unless it is fried. I'm not a fan of the rubbery texture. Billy's is NEVER rubbery. He really should market it. Anyway, back to tonight. Just thought I would share about my experience previously with calamari.

Billy said I cannot share his method for frying, and as stated earlier, I do not fry well. So, I can only show you the picture of the finished product, and say yummmo. Allie dunks in ketchup. Our nuggets and tator tots were dunked in barbeque sauce and ranch. Calamari, as stated previously, was dunked in ranch. I also made a strawberry alcoholic beverage on the side, with tequila, strawberry daquiri mix, ice, and berry punch. I made a virgin one for Billy's mom, so she could enjoy too. Unfortunetly, I didnt finish the whole drink, and as I sit here, there is still a few swallows left. I might have to finish it, just to not waste perfectly good alcohol.
LOL.

I will never bake tater tots ever again. These little pieces of chunked potatoes (I used Ore-Ida, because they were on sale at Stop and Shop last week), are PHENOMENAL fried, especially with salt on them right out of the fryer. We also liberally sprinkled ours with cajun seasoning, to tie them together with the calamari. You simply do not get the same crunch and texture off of the tator tots if baked as you do if they are fried. If you bake yours, you are missing out, in my humble opinion. I'm assuming that the same will now be said for all french fries and sweet potato fries (MY FAVORITE) because baking just doesn't do them justice.

Anyway, I have to go eat now, because while I"ve been typing, I"ve been nibbling, but I got salt on my mouse touch pad on my laptop. I will leave you with a picture of our delicious dinner.....

Introduction: Welcome to Mood of Food

So I got this great idea the other day, after struggling to write on my own personal blog, Life As I know It, that I would write a food blog. It would be a blog about things that we make and try here, and things that my friends (who I'm hoping will be guest bloggers here! :)) make, and reviews of kitchen porn (aka toys). It would also be a blog about meals out and about, menus found and therefore, featured. You might find some conversations about Food Network shows too, as that seems to be my main source of entertainment some nights.

 My daughter Allie has named this blog, and I'm excited to share our chow with cyberspace.

Billy and I are huge into cooking, and we are always trying new things. We also have some tried and true favorites. What you probably won't find on here is recipes, at least not precise ones. I tend to make things a little different all the time, and I'm a firm beleiver that you should ALWAYS experiment with food and flavor. Now, the one disclaimer that I make with this this blog is that I can't taste....everything is textural to me, and I have Billy taste test everything. SO. Just an FYI, I may go into a lot of explaination about plating and appearance, because, to be fair, we all eat with our eyes first.

So, without further ado......

Welcome to The Mood of Food!