Juicy steak bites top noodles and spinach for this quick and tasty bowl dinner. Steak plays an important role in Korean cooking. Here steak cubes are coated with a garlicky sauce glaze.
Noodles are another staple. There are many noodle shops throughout the country. This noodle side dish calls for spinach, but any green vegetable — broccoli, green beans or peas — can be used.
Helpful hints:
Any type of quick-cooking steak can be used (skirt, flank, strip).
Steamed or fresh Chinese noodles can be found in the produce department. Dried noodles or angel hair pasta can be used instead.
Four crushed garlic cloves can be used instead of bottled minced garlic.
An easy way to turn steak cubes over is with tongs or two spoons.
Linda Gassenheimer is the author of over 30 cookbooks, including her newest, "The 12-Week Diabetes Cookbook." Listen to Linda on www.WDNA.org and all major podcast sites. Email her at Linda@DinnerInMinutes.com.
arome.indah.link Bar Dough’s Pepe pizza, topped with Fresno and Jimmy Nardello chiles, red onion, and Taleggio. Photo courtesy of Bar Dough
When COVID-19 arrived this past spring I, like many others, went into a defensive cooking crouch. All the extra time I had on my hands meant producing massive amounts of comfort food for the freezer, and my flour purchases skyrocketed. I fattened myself and my loved ones on various baked and griddled doughs, batters, and hand-cut pastas. Also, scads of pizza. With convenience and time-saving no longer a priority, I moved from my usual reliance on Whole Foods’ pizza dough balls to from-scratch versions, proofing each iteration anywhere from four to 48 hours.
The problem with making pizza at home, though, is that most ovens max out at 550 degrees or so and cannot produce the Neapolitan-style puff-and-char crust that is the highest achievement of the art. The texture of the best pies in this style is elusive: chewy, moist, and substantial about the periphery while thin at the center, the whole slice foldable rather than cracker-crisp and, of course, never soggy.
Using a friend’s Italian pizza oven made it clear that no amount of fiddling with rack placement or 15-pound pizza steels in my humble GE convection oven would ever match the exquisite results of wood-fueled fire in an igloo of brick. The problem lies in the physics of heat transfer. At 700 degrees or even hotter, a professional pizza oven cooks toppings and crust in a couple of minutes, while the cooler home oven dries out the crust before the toppings are ready.
I made do while restaurants were shut down, but when they reopened, I headed to chef-owner Kelly Whitaker’s Basta in Boulder for a fix of real puff and char. Whitaker’s clam pie ($20) is a sublime example of Neapolitan crust combined with American-ish toppings. His light touch with the rich clam and cream combo yields a virtuoso riff on an old clam pie style famous in New Haven, Connecticut, and remains, as it was pre-coronavirus, a perfect example of pizza oven thermodynamics.
With many of the best pizza places in Denver now offering takeout, though, I wondered if that might be the way to finesse this sort of quality at home? (Delivery was out because I wanted to maximize the probability of getting the hottest pizza at my chosen dinner time, and I didn’t want to spend money on delivery services that cut into the makers’ revenues.) After organizing a three-restaurant test, I happily concluded that the answer is mostly yes, while stipulating that nothing equals pizza consumed directly from a superhot oven. And there are tricks to the pickup approach for attaining ultimate satisfaction.
Members of my takeout team fetched two pizzas each from Cart-Driver’s 11-month-old Highland location and nearby Bar Dough as well as a pair from Marco’s Coal-Fired near Coors Field.
Cart-Driver offers a parbaked approach, in which you briefly finish cooking the pizza at 450 degrees before serving. The other two restaurants boxed their pies ready to eat. We had every pizza back at our Highland apartment destination within 15 minutes of pickup.
“Another principle of takeout optimization: Simpler pizzas with fewer toppings tend to highlight the pleasures of a Neapolitan-style crust instead of overwhelm it. Austerity, rather than profligacy, wins.”
Six pizzas and a bottle of Costco Kirkland Champagne later—at $20, it’s the best value in real Champagne anywhere—I discovered that a wee bit of reheating is a good idea with Neapolitan-style takeout pizza, even if it’s been fully cooked at the restaurant. A minute or two at 450 or 500 degrees does the trick; you can put the pizza directly onto your oven rack. The exception to this approach is any pie garnished with fresh ingredients that would be wrecked by a heat blast, such as the Toscana ($19)from Marco’s, which had a generous draping of very tender prosciutto.
Another principle of takeout optimization: Simpler pizzas with fewer toppings tend to highlight the pleasures of a Neapolitan-style crust instead of overwhelm it. Austerity, rather than profligacy, wins.
Bar Dough’s Pepe ($15) is a good example of what holds up well, with its hot and fruity Fresno and Jimmy Nardello chiles, a few strands of red onion, and a thin layer of pungent Taleggio on a chewy, beautifully blistered crust. There were no fresh tomatoes or thick sauce to weigh down the crust. Paradoxically, Bar Dough’s Margherita ($15), though good and archetypally simple, did not travel as well. The Margherita is the classic pizza of Naples, but its toppings—acidic tomato sauce, milky fresh mozzarella, basil—have a vanishingly short box life and are prone to sogginess.
Marco’s Coal-Fired delivered a fine crust, and its odd-sounding pistachio pizza ($19) is among the simplest on its menu: Italian sausage, fresh mozzarella, olive oil, and a creamy pistachio pesto much subtler than its basil counterpart. If the gray, cubed chunks of sausage made this a less-than-pretty pie, that didn’t really matter; it was savory and rich and traveled well. The above-mentioned Toscana with the thin slices of prosciutto—plus fresh mozzarella, Parmesan, arugula, and grape tomatoes, no red sauce—was also a treat, even without reheating.
Both of Cart-Driver’s pizzas impressed my small team of judges, in part because the parbake approach yielded piping-hot pies that had already been charred in the restaurant’s ovens, and in part because the concise quantities of intensely flavorful toppings didn’t overwhelm Cart-Driver’s thin crust. My favorite was the mushroom version ($18), in which mushroom conserva delivered deep, earthy notes that balanced a thin application of creamy garlic Parmesan sauce. Its clam pie ($20) was also very good, though more about the virtues of salty, funky pancetta and sweet roasted garlic than of the too-scant clams.
I didn’t stop there. A couple of nights later, we picked up pizza kits ($12 to $15) from Blue Pan Pizza in Congress Park and Joy Hill on South Broadway. The kit idea is simple: two dough balls, tomato sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni (if you choose pepperoni), assembled and baked at home. Joy Hill also offers a parcooked crust, rather like a half-cooked naan, that you can finish at home with its simple toppings. Both kit pizzas were acceptable and a good idea if you want to practice pie-making with supple restaurant dough, but they return you to the original home-oven dilemma: 150 degrees short of the char and blister that these restaurants achieve in their own ovens. I would have preferred Blue Pan and Joy Hill takeout.
My conclusion: To-go is a fine solution for pizza night, except that the price of two pies and a generous tip to support pandemic-affected restaurant workers easily gets you to $50, and that’s a bit rich. So, for pizza, I’m back to homemade. Have I solved the puff-and-char problem? No. I completely dodge it.
I have found home-pizza bliss in a Serious Eats recipe for pan-baked Sicilian pizza with pepperoni and spicy tomato sauce, a formula perfected by one of the country’s great recipe technicians, MIT graduate J. Kenji López-Alt. It’s an interpretation of a thick-crusted pan pie found at Prince Street Pizza in New York City, featuring an airy crust that is basically fried in olive oil until crunchy on the bottom and thick enough to remain moist while the toppings cook.
López-Alt’s recipe starts with a simple dough that takes 10 minutes to make in a food processor. You leave it to proof for three hours on the baking sheet you’ll cook it on, sitting on a quarter-cup slick of good olive oil. The dough relaxes as it proofs so you can easily stretch it to the edges of the pan; then you add deli-style mozzarella, tomato sauce (I like using a good no-sugar jarred sauce with a bit of sautéed minced garlic and dried chile flakes thrown in), hand-sliced pepperoni, and a shower of grated Pecorino Romano. (Spinnelli’s Market in Denver is a good source for the ingredients.) Ten minutes or so at 550 degrees produces a field of cupped pepperoni slices and deeply browned crust edges. It’s very, very good—so much so that although it’s supposed to serve as many as eight people, in our house it rarely does.
It’s two days from the election. I don’t know about you, but I’m anxious as all-get-out, as my grandaddy would have said.
I thought about finding a poem about anxiety, or something noble about love of country. But I decided we need a moment of comfort above all. Pie! I adore chocolate pie from Grand Traverse Pie Company. I also love cherry pies from King Orchard. They have lots of cherries, not filler. I have their recipe and when I’m not being lazy, I make it many times over the summer for kids and grandkids.
Alberto Rios writes what is essentially an ode — a poem in praise of something, often humble, but raising the tone to near-elegance — a formality. Keats, Pablo Neruda, Alexander Pope, to name a few poets, wrote odes. It’s a tradition that goes back to the Greeks and the Romans.
He starts with the reputation of pies. Pies are what they are. They don’t fret about tomorrow. You could say they’re very Zen that way. Rios enumerates all the things pies aren’t about — getting a job, studying, getting ahead in business.
“A pie gets one chance.” I wouldn’t have thought of that line, but it’s so perfect I don’t have to talk about how perfect it is. You know it. And the rest of that first section is pure praise of the beauty and the comfort of a pie. My favorite line is “A full pound of round sound,” the sound being “Ahh” of course.
Then Rios avoids making a syrupy poem by changing course. In the second section (notice I didn’t say stanza. He has used numbers for even more separation), to the pies we aren’t that crazy about. The ones left over at Thanksgiving. Mincemeat, for example. He takes the point of view of the unwanted pies, their jealousy of the fancy pecan pies, their defense of their own history. People used to like them. People used to use lard, for example. But things have changed.
So pies have hidden in other things, like sweet pizzas. But a pie is a pie, and never was good for more than its day. Fashions are fickle. It used to be Jell-O people wanted, tomorrow it’ll be cake. I notice how the half-rhyme — day and cake — and the regular rhythm like a nursery rhyme in those last two lines, give a sense of ending, like closing a door.
Nothing deep and complicated here, but still, the poem does go deeper into the joy of pies, and their ephemeral quality, than you might have thought. It gives me a new angle.
You might like to read about Alberto Rios and his being forced to write in English instead of Spanish. He teaches at Arizona State University and his poetry has won many awards.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, all meals are take-out only
by: Carolyn Sistrand
Posted: / Updated:
WKBN
STRUTHERS, Ohio (WYTV) – A pasta dinner hopes to make enough money to help build a park in Rowan Sweeney’s honor.
The pasta and meatball dinner is Sunday from noon until 7 p.m. at The Embassy at 5030 Youngstown-Poland Road in Struthers.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, all meals are take-out only. Pick up times will be broken up to keep up with social distancing. Pick up time windows are noon to 2 p.m., 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
“I feel so blessed. I can’t thank everyone enough right now. I know that’s all I can say, but it really means so much more than that, so thank you all so much,” said David Sweeney, Rowan’s father.
Tickets are $15 per dinner and is cash only. There are limited tickets being sold at the door, purchasing tickets in advance is recommended.
For tickets, you can call Rachel Boyer at (330) 550-1771 or Vicki Dugan at (330) 550-4210.
Each dinner includes pasta and meatball with bread and butter.
There will also be a basket raffle, wine pull, 50/50 raffle and t-shirts and bracelets for sale. The winners will be drawn on Facebook Live. Winners can pick up prizes at The Embassy on Monday.
Masks must be worn at all times while at the event.
For six long years Italy had to go without a driver to call its own on the Formula 1 grid, until Antonio Giovinazzi ended that run when he joined Alfa Romeo with a full time seat in 2019, after standing in for Pascal Wehrlein in two races in 2017. Now in his second full season with the team, Antonio gets to enjoy three home races – Monza, Mugello and now Imola – and as we get to know him better we find out that this track is actually closest to where he now calls home…
This feature is from the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix race programme, which you can download for free.
Where were you born?
I was born in Martina Franca, which is a small town in the south of Italy, nearly 800km from Imola!
Where do you live?
Now I live in Monte Carlo, Monaco
The best thing about racing:
It’s quite a simple answer – just racing with the best drivers in the world, plus driving the best cars in the world!
The worst thing about the lifestyle:
I think being far away from family and friends. Especially in these unfortunate Covid times, it has meant a lot of time away from everyone this year. I am very close to my family, so that’s definitely one of the difficult sacrifices you make.
Giovinazzi's stay at Alfa Romeo was recently extended through 2021
On days off I like to…
Haha, with all the traveling that we do, for sure I would love to just have one day off on my sofa and in bed!
Have you got any best friends on the grid?
There’s many of them, and the good friends for me are the ones I raced with before Formula 1 in the junior categories. One of them for sure is Pierre Gasly who was my team-mate in Formula 2. But I would say I’m also good friends with Kimi Raikkonen who is my team mate now. I also raced with Charles Leclerc and some other guys, but these are my main friends.
If you cook, what is your signature dish?
I would go for pasta al forno, it’s a traditional pasta and one of the best dishes I ever cook. Without being boastful, I have to say that I’m really good at cooking it. At least, I’m good now because before I didn’t know how to cook. But during quarantine when I was by myself at home I started to cook and pasta al forno was one of my masters! It’s not a complicated plate but you have to measure the perfect time that the pasta is in the oven; you have to be careful and make sure it’s not too short or too long. I realised then I was quite good at cooking!
So, here’s my recipe… You need pasta, tomato sauce, some ham and then you need to cook the pasta for half of the time it says you need to – so if it says 10 minutes, you cook it for five! – and then put it all in the oven. Of course at the end when you cook everything you put a lot of mozzarella on top to make everything better! Then turn the oven up to 180 degrees (Celsius) for about 25 minutes. Perfect!
Quarantine got Antonio Giovinazzi cooking...
If not a racer what would you be?
I would like to be an athlete, maybe a cyclist. I like cycling so maybe that, or a tennis player. Can you see a theme?! It would definitely still be in sport!
Favourite lesson at school:
(Laughs) Next question!
Best place you have travelled to:
I would have to say Melbourne. I like it there, the flight is really long but in the end you get to a great place with great people. It’s such a different country and the track is really nice when we go there to race, plus the food is really good so I like most of it!
Where would you like to visit:
I travel a lot and I think I get to see a lot of the world but I would like to explore New Zealand one day. Just because it’s one of the places I’ve never been that is so far away! Plus I had a friend from Formula 3 who lives there – Tom Blomqvist, another racing driver! – and he always told me about how nice New Zealand was and all the different things you can do. So I’m just curious about it.
Giovinazzi's hero is none other than seven-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi
Favourite movie:
Harry Potter!
Favourite singer/band:
Vasco Rossi, the Italian singer-songwriter and poet.
Motor racing hero:
In Formula 1 I would say Michael Schumacher, but as an overall motorsport hero I would say another ‘Rossi’, Valentino Rossi!
Most treasured possession:
That’s a tough one. I have a bracelet that I always wear, and I’ve worn it since I was 10 years old. It was given to me by my great grandmother on my mum’s side, so I think I would have to choose that.
And when they mean BIG, it is not an understatement as anyone of their menu items is more than a meal for any one person. Menu prices have stayed very reasonable for the amount of food served.
“We worked hard during the COVID-19 period to develop new items and outstanding food products that exceeds customer expectations. According to owner Rohan Shetty, “with help of our friends and family, we have created some outstanding products that we have tested over the last several months to ensure perfection. “
The Big Steak:
It all starts with the new name of the Restaurant “King of Big Steaks.” They bring their own custom top of the line Beef and Pastrami roasts that are custom seasoned and thinly sliced. The Beef is served in Au Jus and created into the Big Steak sandwich of your choice.
Big Special: Peppers & Onions, Cheese
Chicago Style: Giardiniera, Peppers & Onions
Italian Cheese Style: American / Provolone
Italian Beef: Just the Beef with Au Jus
The Big Dogs:
Sabretti’s, that is already nationally known for their Hot Dogs, has increased the size of the dog by 2x in width. The dogs are all 100% beef with natural casing. They offer 17 different toppings allowing you to customize your own dog.
The Big Wings:
After a long search for the best and BIGGEST wing possible, they selected a Farm with the biggest wings, which are double the size of other wings. They are prepared in one-pound servings, more than enough for even the hardiest of appetites.
The Big Fries:
How better to complement a meal than to have a one-pound platter of Steak Fries that are available with 17 different toppings.
arome.indah.link The entrance of Cheezy D’s Deli and Dogs located on the corner of Marsh and Lake Lansing. Credit: Brea Crawford
Cheezy D’s Deli and Dogs in Haslett, Michigan was robbed just months after their grand opening on June 15, a few months later than originally planned. Owners Denny and Michelle Emmer tried to make the best out of the situation.
“I knew who did it, that’s why I didn’t press charges,” said Denny. “No matter what their issue was, they needed help. We tried to make a positive out of it. The window can be replaced, and no one was hurt.”
The robbery influenced Denny to take his business to the next level and help the community. He created the VIP program, which allows customers to donate money to a tab, to help other customers who can’t afford their meals.
“If someone comes in, all they have to say is ‘I’m a VIP,’” said Denny. “No questions asked, you place your order, get it, and go.”
Cheezy D’s has helped multiple families in Haslett since they’ve opened. With the VIP program, customers who are financially stricken can order any item on the menu free of charge. From ice cream to hot dogs, there are plenty of options for any type of eater.
“I’m happy we have the VIP program,” said Michelle. “There are so many people who struggle. We just want to help.”
“I think they do wonderful things for the community,” said employee Gwen Wall. “I love the VIP program — to actually see a family sit down and eat together — it makes a difference.
The menu at Cheezy D’s Deli and Dogs features 12 different subs and 20 hot dogs. Credit: Brea Crawford
New opportunities and events
To make up the losses from the robbery, the Emmers had to get creative. New sandwiches and hot dogs plan to be added to the menu. Cheezy D’s specializes in subs, hot dogs and ice cream.
“The menu here at Cheezy D’s is so vast,” said Wall. “There are a lot of choices on the menu.”
“We are trying to bring in 10 more sandwiches and more vegetarian options,” said Denny. “I get bored. I always want to bring something new in.”
Cheezy D’s adopted new technologies and policies for its business such as food delivery services such as Doordash and Grubhub. Due to social distancing, customers can choose a curbside option instead of going inside.
With Halloween around the corner, Cheezy D’s is hosting an event, hoping to bring in a crowd. Halloween at Cheezy D’s Deli and Dogs will take place on Halloween at 6 p.m. This gives Cheezy D’s the opportunity to bond with its customers and community members.
“My wife is a Halloween fanatic,” said Denny. “She dresses up as a witch every year and she loves to see the kids in costume. We plan on closing at 5 p.m. on Saturday so we can sit outside and pass out candy and hot chocolate to the kids and their parents.”
It all starts with the new name of the Restaurant “King of Big Steaks.” They bring their own custom top of the line Beef and Pastrami roasts that are custom seasoned and thinly sliced. The Beef is served in Au Jus and created into the Big Steak sandwich of your choice.
The Big Wings:
The Big Fries:
