Birthday Party Aftermath

Last night we celebrated a successful observance of Pizza House inhabitant Elizabeth Elton's birthday. She turned 23 years old and the event was themed "Party in the USA/Baby's 1st Dance." With such a light hearted motif we clearly didn't plan any high class cooking.

We did however grill some mixed vegetables that were a real hit. We were out of tinfoil though, so what we did was take 2 baking sheets, and place all the chopped veggies on one, and then use the other as a lid. It worked great!

We used:
2 whole green peppers
2 bunches of broccoli
1 red pepper
1 smallish zucchini
1/2 an onion (I hate onion!)
minced garlic (to your taste!)

We put it all in a bowl and then drizzled it with vegetable oil (not olive oil because it will burn on the fire) and salt and pepper and oregano and rosemary and mixed it up. Then we dumped them on the baking sheet and threw the whole pan on the grill after the coals had mellowed out a little bit.
Just pick the lid up every couple minutes and stir everything around! It only took about 5-7 minutes to finish! (approx.)

BUT THE REAL STORY IS that we woke up this morning, exhausted and 1/2 of us hung over and realized, it was time for party breakfast! I was dressed, and even though Abigail and Liz were in their PJ's this did not stop us from piling in the van at 10:00 AM and heading over to the newly opened LITTLE CEASERS off Lake on Nicollet. (The opening of such an establishment so close to Pizza House is probably a terrible thing, it only took 2 minutes to drive there if even.) Since I was the only one who was dressed or even wearing shoes, I was in charge of going in and buying our 1 cheese pizza and 1 order of crazy bread, only $8.

(Here's Abigail giving me money, what a sweetheart!)

We came home and enjoyed our disgusting but incredible breakfast, topping it off with cans of Mtn. Dew, Diet Coke, and some left over birthday cake for good measure.

(Birthday Girl & Future President!)

It's a party in the USA!

- Corrie

P.S. Abigail claims that the Little Ceaser's helped her hangover, which sounds terrifying, but you never know.

Relaxation Cookies

So some of you may know that I (Corrie) work a rather stressful job. Two nights ago I was having a particularly bad evening and realized that, amid death threats from a disabled man directed at me, my dog, and everyone I love, I should simply unwind with RELAXATION COOKING.

So! I made chocolate chip cookies from the recipe off the back of Tollhouse Chocolate Chunks and it was delicious and it certainly brightened up my evening. Then I was so excited that the next day on my day off, I decided to make them here at Pizza House again! Unfortunately, I accidentally melted the butter instead of simply softening it, and also added the eggs later than I should have. They were still workable, and are actually still really good, despite being just a little salty. This time I used the MINI chocolate chips, which I prefer HANDS DOWN to the chunks.

I was lucky though! You should always stick to the directions pretty close when handling baked goods, in the words of Liz Harrigan: "It's a pretty exact science."

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) Tollhouse Chips of your choice
  
• 1 cup chopped nuts (SICK. I hate nuts but maybe you don't.)

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

PAN COOKIE VARIATION: Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan. Prepare dough as above. Spread into prepared pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack. Makes 4 dozen bars.



Also could I ask you to please never make cookie bars out of this recipe, which is an option, but I think it's an abomination on the world of cookies and you should never participate in it.

Patty Pan Party!

oh, hi again!
This week I, Abby, accidentally entered into a contest with a few co-workers at the Linden Hills Co-Op. What was the contest, you ask? It all began when we were stocking veggies, as usual, and started discussing the beauty and mystery that is the Pattypan Squash. We decided to see who could cook the best meal with one, and after much conversation with Liz Harrigan via speaker phone, this delicious treat was born:


6 squash
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 small onion
salt 1/2 tsp
pepper 1/4 tsp
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup grated parmesean cheese
2 tbsp chopped basil (or oregano)
You could even add a little finely chopped tomato in here if you wanted, I wouldn't cook the tomato, add with bread crumbs.

boil patty pan in 1 inch of salted water for 8 minutes. cool.

While cooling the squash saute chopped onion in butter until softened. Turn off heat and add remaining ingredients, mix well. Cut the top of the squash off and scoop the pulp out (leave about 1/4 inch wall in squash) Add pulp to the mixture, mix well but don't mush it up. Fill the squash with the bread crumb filling liberally. Sprinkle the top with a little butter and/or cheese and bake 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

Pasta Fail

Here is one of the most common things that I cook here at Pizza House. It's an Angel Hair pasta dish which was a recipe given to me by my mother that entails diced tomatoes, olive oil, sun dried tomatoes, crushed red pepper, butter, basil, feta, and roasted pine nuts. (Taylor claims that one time I referred to this pasta as "the bomb pasta" but I think he just thought that my pasta was so BOMB, he created this title himself and is now embarrassed by his dated slang.)

Clearly this was a total disaster and an epic cooking fail, but most of the time I am much more successful than this.

Lately our new roommate Abigail Mullen and I have been cooking lots of new and interesting things! We started this blog to prove that we eat more than just frozen pizza's here at PIZZA HOUSE (although we do eat many of these. I had a delicious Tombstone Cheese Pizza w/ Siricha Sauce drizzled on top for lunch yesterday!) We will use this blog to chronicle the food we cook and other adventures of 3129 Emerson Ave South.

We are Corrie, Taylor, Liz, Jillian, Gordon, Abby, and also Huck, Scout, & Geo.
We play music, take pictures, like movies, draw things, pet pets, build stuff, and cook.
Come over and we will show you all these things.

- Corrie