Some of the best pizza I have had is brick oven and wood fire pizza. One place in WA I went to, don't remember the name... and recently in St Augustine FL at Carmelo's Marketplace. It's from a Sicilian family recipe. They use fresh ingredients and deli meats and cheeses. The slices are huge and soo delicious! I like plain ol Pepperoni and lots of cheese! I also like a hawaiian pizza and discovered I like spinach too.

I love anything seafood :)

I think one of my favourites was a prawn, baby spinach, camembert and avocado pizza I had once in Melbourne. I thought that was a pretty creative combination.

Wood fire pizzas just add that lovely smokiness. Yum. Actually another cafe on campus does wood fire pizzas... hmmm, now I have a dilemma!

Hmmm. Sun, is this soup for eating? It sounds like a recipe for glue!

Ohhhh no, Sun, if I tried to do this on purpose it would mess up, lol... it's much better if I just cook for Gryph... who, by the way, is not addicted to 48 Hour Bone Broth and it makes me sad because he honestly is losing his sense of smell. He likes the food I cook but he doesn't smell the cooking scents anymore.

I mourn for your butternut squash, btw. Glad it didn't char. I walked away from quesadillas tonight *eyeroll* like I couldn't have predicted what was gonna happen there if I'd just thought about it, eh? But Gryph came home and I completely spaced what I was doing. :blush:

Quick flip out of the skillet, opened them up and cut off the burnt halves. I ate the unburnt halves... but the kitchen still smells faintly burnt, hours later. (And now I'm gonna have to get the burnt residue out of my cast iron skillet, too.)

Glad you rescued the butternut. It's my favorite squash, although yellow summer squash runs it a close second!

Way off the topic, but I'm watching Kitchen Nightmares online, and keep thinking that even I could cook better than some of those chefs-and my cooking isn't anything to write home about.

I also keep hoping Sun doesn't spew profanities and scream all over her kitchen ;). Ramsey's so unpleasant, but I guess a great chef.

Not I, for sure. If I were a chef, and had to work under that man, I'd have an ulcer within a week. I also believe that the negative energy from the kitchen "seeps" out into the restaurant itself.

I hope you didn't take it that I thought you were like that :(. You always come across as very Zen here, your staff must love you. It's just not necessary to yell and scream profanities to be a leader.

Rather have one of my world-class peanut butter sandwiches in happiness, than some food I can't even pronounce in stress.

I invested in some vintage Griswold and Wagner cast iron skillets. Australia doesn't have the same wonderful heritage as the U.S. where cast iron is concerned, so I got them shipped all the way from the U.S. via Ebay.

It was expensive, but as I said before, it was an investment. I expect to be cooking with them for a very long, long time and pass them on to Bek one day. Besides, it was still less than a brand new Le Creuset skillet from a local department store, and many will say superior quality, so I still feel like I got a great deal. Plus, I am never going to have to send another useless two year old teflon coated non stick frypan to landfill ever again. I am really excited about that!!

I researched it up and down all over the place. Here is a good discussion:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/615264

I cherish the two skillets I have and love cooking with them. Maybe one day I will buy myself some more :)

Wow Ursy you did well. Ok I should have checked with you before I drove myself mad searching for these things. But really, I wanted to be able to see the cast iron skillet, touch it, feel it. That is one of those weird things with me, I really want to be able to handle the item if I am going to take it home. So I guess I had ruled out mail order but am now rethinking this.

My Dad had an awesome skillet that he cherished and I assumed that I would inherit this when he died. That never happened. That is a whole other story. When I started trying to learn to cook Filipino food, I realized how much I needed a cast iron skillet for frying fish, but had long been discouraged by trying to find one. Ok, ebay it is.

As for Le Cruest, I believe that every serious cook should have at least one piece in their collection. I am madly in love with the line. If I had to have just one piece it would be a round dutch oven. Though I love my stock pot too and use it for soup. The dutch oven is perfect for braising.

This is the one that I would suggest:

http://www.surlatable.com/images/Coo...utch_slot1.jpg

It will last for generations.

A friend said "Oh those are too expensive"

I replied, "really? How much did you pay for your iphone?"

I love mine even though they're only Lodge--I think Griswold and Wagner must be awesome! Someday I will find some.

Nothing like a good dose of perspective, eh? :cheesy:

Kalua Pig: This is a local favorite that traditionally involved digging a pit and slow cooking an entire pig inside, but there are modern options that conveniently just involve an oven or crock pot. Here is an oven recipe. Although it is simple, it takes a long time to cook, but the results will be worth it.

Ingredients
Pork Butt (Boston Butt) or Pork Shoulder Bone-In
Couple of Tbsp Hawaiian Salt or Kosher Salt for rub
2 Tbsp Liquid Smoke
6 Ti Leaves to wrap pork

Cooking Instructions
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Prep Ti Leaves by removing the spines of the leaves. Cut some slits in pork, about 1 in. Rub Pork with salt and make sure to put some salt in the slits. Add 2 Tbsp of liquid smoke over pork. Wrap pork with Ti Leaves and tie closed. Place in Roasting Pan and top with aluminum foil tightly. Bake in oven 10-12 hours at 250. Pork will steam in its own liquid in the roasting pan. When complete let pork rest for 30-60 minutes. Open foil, unwrap Ti Leaves and pull pork. You can serve the pork over white rice and/or you can mix the pork with some steamed cabbage.

Anybody got any Ti leaves????

I heart pizza.

I enjoy making my own really-- my favourite toppings are all just depending on my mood of the pizza. I like making...

1. a BBQ chicken with red onions and cilantro
2. meatball, marinana (that I make in 20 min), fresh basil, with mozz.
3. artichoke hearts, calmative olives, basil, roasted peppers, spinach, feta cheese, parm on a pesto.
4. roasted garlic, spinach, parm/mozz, with o/o

and my favourite place here in ABQ is Pizza by the Slice-- they make some killer thin sliced pizza with some really great green chili. MMM.

There was a 20/20 that just showed about the worst places in resturants that have the most bacteria and 1 of them was lemons. The number 1 place of worst was the menu --just something to think about.

YUM!

I LOVE squash-- I get so excited when the leaves start to change because I know its squash season. I just bought 2 butternuts and a spaghetti squash-- mmm.

Last christmas, my mother-in-law got us this kind of dutch oven and its orange/red and we LOVE it. My honey makes this great Trinidadian Chicken Stew w/ citrus rice-- OMG! YUM!



This sounds awesome!
But what are Ti leaves? anything like banana leaves?

I enjoy cooking fish in banana leaves.

OH and HI btw-- I've been so bleeping busy with school this week -- I have 4 tests, 1 final tomorrow, and working on putting a resume together as well.

We made meatballs yesterday and had subs-- very tasty.

Now I move on to other threads I've missed in the past few days, sip some tea, and start studying again. Hope all my foodie friends are doing wonderful today.

Best. :tea: