We ate so bad this weekend… how bad did you eat?  We ate SOOO bad this weekend that we kept oil on the stove at all times in case we had the urge to fry!  And fry we did.  This particular fry session was around 12:30 on fry-day night (he he). 

Calzones are the oft neglected brother of the pizza.  When faced with the option of calzone or pizza, most people I know would choose the pizza.  But what most people don’t realize is that at home it is 10 times easier to recreate a delicious takeout calzone then it is a takeout pizza.  And what’s better is you can do it with leftovers!  Last night we made these calzones because we had made pizza over the weekend and had pepperoni, peppers and onion leftover.  Mandi made some cheesesteaks for a work event and had a bunch of leftover cheesesteak filling.  These would also be good with a filling of leftover Buffalo wings, pasta, sausage, chicken parm, taco meat, or really anything you could think of!  My opinion is that the wackier the filling the better the calzone. (Disclaimer: this is the opinion of Dan only and not the opinion of Mandi. Also TFIMB is not responsible for your awful chicken parm-pad thai-taco-mozzarella stick calzone with orange flavored dipping sauce)

About 2 and a half years ago, my mom found some random recipe online.  It was really simple and delicious she said.  So I decided to try it out for a dinner party.  It was our first dinner party ever, Mandi Rich and I fresh out of college living in Allston, MA and having 5 people over after work on Thursday to watch the office.  Mandi and I worked on the meal while Rich (1/2 of design team) cleaned up and prepped for the guests.  As we ate, we all just laughed the entire time.  This was the best food any of us had ever tasted!  I think that moment caused me to get more into cooking because seeing the joy on everyone’s faces was really awesome.  These days, I make this meal occasionally and it always reminds me of that night.  It is no longer the best thing I have ever tasted since my palate has changed and I have eaten much more types of foods since then, but it always brings me back to those days on Lorraine Terrace.

Does anyone remember that party?  Was it as good as I remember?  Or was I just drunk… Anyways, the recipe is here.  It is called chicken Tuscany although I don’t think it has anything to do with Tuscany.  We decided to put a Jamie Oliver risotto recipe with it.  Before I get into the food part, I found 5 pictures from that party a few years back that I want to share with you.

As I was making these meatballs, I was a bit worried about posting the recipe.  My mother told me the recipe, as my grandmother had given it to her.  I didn’t know if there was some sort of embargo or block on passing it out for all to see.  Would I be blacklisted by my family and never given any recipes again?  No more Gnocchi secrets or Lasagna tips?  No more making tortellini’s for the holidays?  I didn’t know what to do.  Then last night I was watching Molto Mario (Re-Runs on fine living!) and the weight was lifted!  Mario made meatballs almost the exact same way as my family!  This did 2 things, for one, it made me proud because Mario is as authentic as you can get for Italian food, and 2, it released the ban on the recipe because it is no secret, its already out there for the world to see via Mario Batali.

One great application of chicken stock is making risotto.  Because of the effort involved in making it, I like to throw a lot of veggies and meat in and have it as a meal instead of a side.  Not that it is hard, it’s just time consuming and needs attention.  Like all the things we make, we made a ton and had lunches for work the next day.  It kept great and possibly even tasted better the next day!  This recipe is similar to a Giada recipe you can check out here.
Click below for more

Note- This is the second pasta recipe in a short period of time.  I have 3 comments:

1.  We love pasta and make it all the time
2.  I am trying to clear out pictures taken with my old camera
3.  Next week has a theme – “Happy Chicken Week” – no pasta there

Anyways, there are a ton of pictures here, but I couldn’t narrow them down any further cause this was an awesome night and a great meal.  We cooked for almost 4 hours then watched a foodie movie.  What more can you ask for?

This is a direct recipe from Giada De Laurentiis.  You can find it here on the food network website and in her cookbook “Everyday Pasta.”  I am going to explain the recipe as we go today.

This past Sunday afternoon I had a big plan to make stock. Unfortunately I hadn’t checked my bank account in a few days and when I was about to leave to buy the supplies I realized there was no chance. I quickly flipped through Mandi’s new Jamie Oliver cookbook thinking pasta would be delicious and knowing we had eggs and flour so the actual noodle part would be free. I found an extremely simple recipe for pasta with meatballs and tomato sauce. This intrigued me because I suddenly realized that I follow all sorts of recipes for all types of food, but when I make spaghetti and meatballs I always just do my same variation on my mother / grandmother’s recipe. Something new might be fun. Click below for recipe.