Good Food and Great Family Time

Absence makes the heart grow fonder and as I have mentioned before, this is my relationship with Italian food. Today I went out to lunch with my Aunt and Uncle who were in town and we went to a local Olive Garden. When going out for Italian I don't usually go to Olive Garden because there are other Italian restaurants in a closer range to my house so I was delightfully surprised. I started with the Minestrone soup with some fresh grated mozzarella on top. I like Minestrone, but this bowl surpassed my expectations. The broth was just spicy enough and the vegetables were very fresh (much better than the soggy overcooked options in my dorm).  I'm not a huge soup person, but I could have eaten the entire bowl. I stopped myself to prepare for my pasta-Grilled Chicken Caprese. It had fresh tomato, basil, grilled shrimp on angel hair pasta with a garlic butter sauce.  Needless to say it was heaven. The ingredients blended perfectly to create a light pasta that was full of flavor, but not overwhelming. I left the restaurant happy, pleasantly full and fully appreciative of good Italian food and good family. Thanks Aunt Karen and Uncle Tim for taking me out!

Dewey's Pizza

To celebrate the conclusion of our midterms, some friends and I headed out to dinner. We chose Dewey's Pizza, a small chain in Ohio. We ordered the house salad (greens and romaine with pine nuts, goat cheese, and craisins) which had just enough dressing. The "side" size was basically the size of a regular so it was perfect to split. We also got a pizza-half "Caprice" (Margherita) and half "Ryan's Inferno", which is a delicious blend of buffalo chicken, celery, ranch, and mozzarella cheese. The food came out fast and tasted delicious. It was a thin crust pizza, but it wasn't crispy. The crust was soft and overall the entire meal tasted very fresh. The Margherita had a nice balance of tomato and basil and overall the pizza tasted light and refreshing. Compared to the 4 am pizza that I've become accustomed to in college, Dewey's was a new experience and one I hope to repeat.

Home Cooking

Last weekend when I was home for Fall Break I finally found out what I had been missing from my dorm meals. It wasn't the ability to get free food whenever I wanted or even having things prepared the way I like, but it was who I was eating with. Sitting around the dinner table with my family was much more intimate than eating with 200 other students in my dining hall. I missed being able to talk to them around the concept of a meal. Eating meals with my family was probably one of my favorite parts about going home.
My other favorite part about going home was access to a kitchen. One day I spent about three hours in the kitchen baking. It was nice because I got to choose what I was making (Puppy chow and Oatmeal Skotchies). Baking for me is something that is stress relieving and after a few weeks in College it was nice to be able to relax in the comfort of my own home. For me, being able to share the food that I made is so important to me. I left some with my family, sent some to my grandmother, some to a friend at school, and shared some with the girls in my dorm. I'm not a super creative person, but with baking and cooking I feel like its something I can share or contribute to the people around me.
Another recent experience I had with home cooking was at a friend's apartment on campus. A group of us got together and we were served steak, baked potatoes, cheesy broccoli, and asparagus. Not only was the cooking delicious, but sharing a "family" style dinner with a group of my friends was a great way to end my first week back after being home. After a delicious dessert of chocolate cherry cake and my own contribution of mocha fondue I've realized that it isn't necessary to be at home to get home cooking!

Brinner

Brinner, or the breakfast for dinner, is a meal that I have fond memories of. As a child, whenever I had a chance to have Eggo Waffles for two meals in a day was a treat. Eventually as my palette developed I have found that breakfast is a meal that has some of the most options and one that I rarely get tired of. Now Brinner is a special meal, one that I associate with cooler weather because many of the items served can be considered comfort foods. When my college's cafeteria posted a sign saying that we would be having dinner, I was intrigued. On the weekends here, they serve breakfast foods through the afternoon and usually have quite a spread. There's always eggs, an omelet station, pancakes, french toast, belgian waffles, yogurt, cinnamon rolls and a variety of breakfast related meats. I was expecting a similar spread, but was delighted to find that they had expanded on their regular menu. Instead of just plain pancakes they had banana pecan. I was fortunate enough to try a Hot Flyer omelet. Eventually I will post about the regular Hot Flyer, but to get an idea it is either a sandwich or flatbread filled with buffalo chicken, chipotle ranch, and cheese. For the omelet version they included all of these ingredients plus onions and peppers. I added a little bit of hot sauce for an extra zing and ended up having a great meal that combined a favorite lunch item with a breakfast twist. Good job Crest, bring back Brinner soon!

Brio

So I've been eating dorm food for over a month now, and I haven't encountered too many problems with it, but sometimes you just need a good meal. My best friend and I were already planning on heading off campus, but when we realized we were hungry for Italian we made our minor excursion an impromptu dinner date. We've had our fair share of Italian meals together, and I don't know if it was because I've been deprived of good Italian food, but last night I had one of the best pastas I've yet to experience.

 Now I know my Italian food. Two summers ago my friend and our families took a trip to Italy where I ate the best meals of my life for two weeks straight. There I experienced tons of gelato flavors (Nutella and Peanut butter please and thank you), ridiculously thin traditional Italian pizzas, and overall some of the freshest and most flavorful ingredients. The weeks after the trip I became addicted to Giada De Laurentiis' show "Everyday Italian" and she remains my favorite chef on the Food Network. Italy was a huge development in my love of food and cooking and I'm always looking for food that reminds me of my time there. 

Because of the spontaneity of our decision we showed up to Brio Tuscan Grille a little underdressed and starving. Even though we were seated in a back corner near the waiter's drink station and our food took awhile, the food presented to me made up for it. I had the pasta pomodoro with chicken. It consisted of angel hair pasta, a "cilantro pesto drizzle", tomatoes, pine nuts, and grilled chicken. It was absolutely delicious and I'm slightly embarrassed to say that I ate the entire thing. The cherry tomatoes were fresh, the sauce was light and flavorful, and the chicken was cooked perfectly. Though simple, the dish was a harmony of flavors that blended together to create a masterpiece of epic proportions that was worth the endless days of dorm food. The grand finale was a mini dessert of caramel chocolate cake (Go big or go home, I'm working if off today). It would have been absolute perfection if it had been warm, but overall the meal was worth the extra few dollars. 

Sometimes you just need some good Italian, and after experiencing Italy dorm Pasta Night doesn't exactly cut it. Brio was a memorable experience and I would recommend it!

Happy Day that the Ice Cream Cone was Applied for Patent!

The last few days my dorm dining room has been plastered with posters and signs for FREE ICE CREAM. I mean, whenever there is free food it is an event, but I was a little confused on the reason for the  free ice cream. The signs advertised that it was in celebration of the invention of the ice cream cone so I decided to do a little research. Googling "Ice cream cone invention" kept coming up with the date July 23 which is obviously not today.  Trying a few different searches I found "The History of Ice Cream" on http://www.chevroncars.com/learn/food-recipes/ice-cream-cone-history where I was able to find September 22. Apparently an Italian named Italo Marchiony created one of the first ice cream cones for his street cart business selling lemon ice in NYC. He did so to lessen his dish load and so that people could walk away with their frozen treat. He applied for a US patent on September 22, 1903. Many people recognize July 23 because it was also invented by another man a year later and sold at the World Fair. Hey if people want to have two ice cream days that will always be alright with me.
Now my free scoop consisted of spoonful of melty vanilla on a kiddie cone, but its free and I'm celebrating a foodie holiday so there's nothing wrong with that. So have some ice cream and I hope you have a great time celebrating the anniversary of the day an ice cream carrier was applied for a patent!

Go Big or Go Home.....but Don't Go Home Big

The feared freshman 15 has been looming over most college freshman as the new school year has begun. I have found college eating to be very different from home eating. For starters you have so many options. At the same mealtime I can get a deli sandwich, mongolian stir fry, chicken pot pie, pizza, calzones, salads, yogurt parfaits, candy and more.....just in my dorm cafeteria. For the most part I have found this to be a positive experience. I like being able to choose what I want to eat and when I want to eat it. I now have the freedom to eat a salad when I'm feeling the need for some veggies or try new foods like the chicken philly cheesesteak that I never knew existed. Sometimes the freedom is more of a blessing than a curse. I now have an addiction to chocolate covered strawberry flavored fro-yo with Oreo and Reese's toppings. I've also fell in love with my cafe's Mexican Bar where you can get a quesadilla, burrito, nachos, burrito bowl, soft tacos and the famous walking taco at any time lunch through dinner on certain days. Overall the good is outweighing the bad and because of my love of our outstanding exercise facility I'm pretty sure I haven't been gaining weight (at least so far).  College has come with lots of new experiences so the motto between my friends and I have been to "Go Big or Go Home" but as long as I keep taking advantage of the health facilities and be smart about my food choices I hopefully won't "Go Home Big".