What makes this "Stuffed Pizza" and not a calzone? I am not really sure, but my Great Aunt and Grandmother sure had a very specific definition. Let me start at the beginning. I was out to lunch with my Great Aunt Nancy, and I was having pizza. She asked if I ever had stuffed pizza. "Like a calzone?" I asked. "No, it's thin and flat like a pizza, and has caramelized onions, your great grandmother used to make them for me and your grandmother when we were younger." I told her I liked to mix caramelized onions with ricotta and pepperoni. "But then that would be a calzone." she replied. I was confused, so I invited her and my grandmother over to make some stuffed pizzas to hopefully clear things up.

On Friday I mentioned my gluten free friend and the Dosas we made last week. I also brought some gluten free brownies with me that night. This black bean brownie recipe has made the rounds on the web, including an appearance in a foodie fight battle! (P.S. foodie fight fans, we are working hard on 2.0, and hope to have a battle in march at some point.) It basically uses the beans to bind the brownies instead of flour. I thought they came out dense, fudgy and delicious, but my mom and sister were not fans. The goat cheese brownies idea came from an episode of throwdown. Two women from Vermont made them, they looked amazing and have been stuck in my head ever since! The recipe was not on the food network site, so I used Bobbys brownie recipe from that episode and made my own filling.

A new friend of mine has a gluten allergy, and I offered to cook for her the other night. It isn't really my style to go easy and just make some meat and veggies for her. I wanted to make bread! I didn't want to fake bread and try to re create pizza or anything like that. I had to find a bread that is already gluten free. I had some lamb leftover in the freezer, and luckily everyone was cool with Indian food. I found a traditional south Indian flatbread called dosa that is made with rice, lentils and fenugreek.

Mofongo is a Puerto Rican dish of fried mashed plantains that I have always wanted to try. Any new way I can eat plantains is welcome to me! There is a large Puerto Rican population here in Springfield, but I have been unable to make it to a restaurant. The beef I made with the mofongo was in the pack I recently received from U.S. Wellness Meats. Normally I would braise a beef bottom round, but the quality was so nice that it came out perfectly as a roast. I just wish I had a bit more time to marinade it.

Before we start, I want to mention that there was a lot of internet outrage over the wining couple. Click through, and we can talk about it. Also, did you guys see my interview with Judge Sarah Willingham yesterday?

Sarah Willingham is one of the judges on the TV show "Last Restaurant Standing"  I have been recapping and reviewing the show on the website weekly, and the season finale airs tonight at 9pm on BBC America.  I was lucky enough to come across Sarah's Email address, and she was kind enough to grant me an interview.  I had a lot of fun talking to her this week, and I hope you guys like the interview as much as I did!

Today's post is from the cover of Food and Wine this month. I have looked for soba a few times in the past few months and been unable to find it. I recently saw it at a random store in the mountains, driving home from a snowboarding trip. The next day I got this issue of F&W in the mail and knew I had to make it. It tasted fantastic and was totally worthy of the cover. I actually followed the recipe closer than I have followed a recipe in awhile. I added broccoli to mine, but I treated it the same as the shrimp.

Before we start, Let me tell you guys why I decided to make borscht in the first place. John recently went to Poland and visited with family over there. Being the food lover that I am, I didn't ask how his family was, or what he saw there, all I asked about was borscht. What is it like? Do you like it? Are there a million different types? When he got back, I begged him for a secret family borscht recipe. After a few months, he finally emailed his cousin for the recipe. a few weeks later she got back to him with what seemed like a very simple beet broth recipe. The borscht John had described had lots of "chunks" and very little broth! I googled a sentence from the recipe and found that it was copy-pasted from the BBC website, and one of the first google results for borscht. We got scammed! I suppose they didn't want to give away family secrets to the world. I was so excited to try borscht that I decided to research it a bit and wing a recipe. John said it tasted nothing like the borscht he had in Poland, but that's cause you didn't get me the damn recipe John! I don't claim this to be authentic, because I have never tasted borscht before and made up this recipe. I DO however claim it to be delicious.

There is a large Polish population here in Western Massachusetts, and pierogi are a very popular dish. I myself had never tried one until recently, but really, I sort of had. This is because pierogi are like a mix between ravioli and potstickers, both of which I make all the time. John and Steph are both part polish, and were craving some polish food, so the other night we made pierogi and borscht. I will be posting the borscht recipe tomorrow.

This week, Last Restaurant Standing was more of a continuation of last week's show. We start out seeing Raymond doing the BEST COOKING DEMO EVER! Pregnant Vanilla? You crazy Ray. In a good way. Hmm, I wonder if this episode will be about demos? We learn that the couples will have to teach a cooking class, then run a normal service, then do a demo in front of 100 people. Click through to read the rest of the review, with spoilers.