Another April Recipe?! Bacon & Corn Pizza on Whole Wheat Crust

Yay for homemade pizzas! Although, this time around, I didn't use any sauce, so does that make it a flatbread? In any case, it tasted delicious, so you can call it whatever you want! In January, I made pizza dough for the first time using Deb Perelman's recipe (link). This month, I decided to change things up a little by using 1/3 whole wheat and 2/3 bread flour instead of all purpose flour. It actually tasted pretty good! After spreading out the dough and placing it on top of cornmeal, I spread around some minced garlic and olive oil in place of a red tomato sauce.

I put that off to the side and lightly cooked sliced up bacon in a frying pan. 

Mmm, bacon. When that was almost fully cooked, I moved the pieces to a kitchen towel to get rid of excess grease and fat. My next step was to simply sprinkle healthy amounts of mozzarella, shredded bacon, and frozen corn on top of my pizza crust. 

I stuck this beauty into the oven at 500 degrees for about 12 minutes. I think that was a tad too long because the crust was cooked perfectly, but some of the toppings were starting to look a little burnt along the edges.

I'd say that it was pretty successful! And I'm not a big sauce person for pizzas anyway, so I didn't even notice the absence of the sauce on this pizza. I will definitely be making it again and again and again...

-jennkay

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April Recipe! Zucchini Fries

So, when is the right time to try out a new recipe? A leisurely weekend? A beginning of a vacation? Apparently, for me it was the night before a major exam. Hmm, yeah, my brain doesn't always make sensible decisions. I loosely based my recipe on the one I found on The Recipe Critic (link). 

First off, I cut up my zucchini into some pretty uneven sticks, oops!

Next up, I set up a little station that reminded me of breaded chicken. An egg station and a breadcrumb/parmesan station. I think I probably had a 3:2 ratio of breadcrumbs to parmesan. In the future, I would probably reduce the parmesan part of it. I also added a sprinkle of Italian seasoning and salt. It occurred to me that it may have helped to have flour, then the egg and breadcrumbs/parmesan. I was just too lazy to go through another step to be honest.

So I had a bit of trouble getting the second stage to stick and ended up sprinkling some of the leftovers on top at the end. After baking at 425 degrees for about 10-12 minutes (can't remember exactly), this is how they looked!

They definitely weren't a replacement for some good ole greasy, but crispy french fries, but these zucchini fries were pretty good in their own right. Now let's just hope that my exam grade doesn't suffer too much as a consequence of my side cooking adventure!

-jennkay

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Too Full! Boston Restaurant Week

I totally meant to post this right after Restaurant Week when I had this meal, but life (mostly school) got in the way. So, I'm finally posting about this delicious meal that I had during Boston's Restaurant Week at Bambara in Cambridge. Bambara is a restaurant at a hotel, so the vibe was very classy. While I was waiting for my friend in the lobby, I snapped a few pics of the lobby. There was also a really funky, but classy seating area that I didn't photograph because people were sitting there, and I felt too awkward about it. Point is, it was pretty cool! Not what you'd expect from a nice hotel.

Anyway, on to the more important stuff: the food! If you don't know about Restaurant 

Week, it is basically a week (or two) during which fancy restaurants offer 3 course meals for a fixed price. It's a great way to try out these restaurants without having to shell out as much money as you would normally. As my first course, I chose the arancini (crispy risotto balls, short rib, parmesan, fontina, tomato & aoli sauces). While the short rib was absolutely delicious, my food came out warm rather than piping hot, so it was a bit disappointing. You can see in the background of this next photo that my friend ordered the chorizo flatbread, which was also delicious.

Next up, I had the seared yellow fin tuna (sesame crusted, soy glaze, lemon butter, coconut rice, green mango salad). The tuna itself was fine, but the coconut rice and green mango salad really made the dish. It was so wonderfully fresh and tropical. I just kept eating until I was ready to burst.

The last part, dessert, was really just too much because I was already stuffed to the brim from the first two courses. Nevertheless, my friend and I really made the most of it, and split our two desserts: chocolate zabaglione (left) and warm caramel date cake (right). Both were very good. I wish I had an extra stomach to polish them off!

Overall, I would call this Restaurant Week adventure a success! I may even come back later to try the Lobster Sliders and Chocolate & Bread Pudding. On the other hand, I need to try out as many different places in Boston/Cambridge before I leave! Oh, the delicious dilemmas of life :)

-jennkay

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