Comfort Foods and Indulgences

Pizza is local. A guy from Cincinnati traveling in Italy will thumb his nose at the pizza because it’s not what he used to eat in Ohio when he was going through puberty. Italians are no different. I know Romans who make rude gestures when they talk about the pizza from Naples.

“The crust is too thick — and then it falls apart in the middle. It is without structure.”

I’ve eaten a lot of pizza in Naples; I’ve downed an obscene number of pies at Baffetto in Rome; I’ve had Sicilian pizza in Sicily, Pugliese pizza in Puglia and Ligurian pizza in Liguria (excellent, by the way) and pizza, at its best, is totally local, which means to say it reflects the personality and the groceries of its neighborhood.

Obviously I’m not referring here to pizza chains, which produce cookie-cutter pies of no interest. Nor am I referring to take-out pizza, which is an abomination. Take-out pizza absorbs the taste and smell of the cardboard it travels in. By the time it arrives you may as well just eat the box. No, I’m talking about real pizza.

I like to wake up early, while the house is really, really quiet and have a little “me” time.  Generally, I make myself a cup of tea, read the NY Times and the LA Times food and life style section (on line), read my emails and check out my favorite blogs.  I love that 1 hour in the a.m. right before all the turmoil and chatter begins.

Yesterday, I was reading Sprinkle Bites and she had posted a recipe for French Toast Muffins.  Before I had finished reading the post, I was on my way into the kitchen to make these for the family for breakfast.  I love, love, love one bowl recipes.  To not have to drag out my mixer and all its parts is truly a wonderful thing.  This is one of those recipes.  Easy, quick, pantry ingredients and scrumptious.

A couple years back i reported about a prize-winning, record-setting burger that weighed in at over 210 pounds. Well, apparently that record has been obliterated, shattered, knuckle-dropped, air-popped, heel-stomped and other synonyms for royally busted. A burger in Minnesota weighed in at just north of one ton. (It’s 2014 pounds.) Not just your basic lazy cook’s plain burger, this one featured 60 pounds of bacon, 40 pounds each of pickles and cheese and 50 pounds of lettuce.

I, or one, would never make such a burger. First of all, they needed a crane to flip it, and my kitchen will not accommodate a vehicle larger than a bicycle. Also, I would be much to irritable to fry all that bacon. And as much as I would love to eat this monster, I’m not sure there is enough Pepto-Bismol in the world to calm the post-prandial abdominal pushback. I will therefore stick to cooking that burger’s diminutive cousin, the slider.

This little guy weighs in at only a few ounces, but I’m guessing that, flavor-wise, it is David to the Ton One’s Goliath. Only a couple of inches in diameter (vs. gonzo-burger’s ten feet), it packs a killer punch with it’s dab of chipotle mayonnaise.

I can't remember exactly where I had my first taste of beef short ribs. A restaurant? Someone's house? I do know they were served over cheesy polenta and together they did this little dance in my mouth (I think it was a rumba). Anyway, the meat was so tender and overall was a very good food memory.

Fast-forward in time, I now love making short ribs at home. The process is so easy and your reward is a very flavorful dinner everyone loves. However, I never cook short ribs and serve them right away. I usually make them in the morning or put them away until the next day. I like to let the fat settle at the top and remove it before serving. This type of dish always tastes better after the flavors meld.

If you've never heard of beef short ribs, the best cuts come from the lower (ventral) section, between the 6th and 10th rib, often called the short plate. The short plate is what gives them their name (not the fact that they are short). The meat itself is on top of the bone, about 1-2" in height. Make sure to select a package with meaty hunks as lots of times they are packaged with more hidden fatty pieces inside.