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!