Gluten Free "pizza"

Okay, so this isn't legit NY style pizza. Or really even pizza per se, but for what it was, it was tasty, especially if you like cauliflower. And you can feed it to your celiac friends without worrying that you're going to internally maim them. I haven't really been feeling gluten-y carbs lately, so I based my recipe loosely off of this recipe I found from Sleep Love Eat.

Gluten-Free Cauliflower Pizza Ingredients:
Half a head of cauliflower, blanched/lightly boiled and then mashed/pureed

salt, pepper,

oregano

garlic powder, onion powder

romano/parmesan cheese
veggies, toppings as you see fit.

So, cook your cauliflower in some boiling water and mash/puree. If you like it chunkier, just mash it. If you like it smoother then puree it.

Add some seasonings to it. Whatever makes you think "pizza". I liked oregano and garlic/onion powder with some salt and pepper. You can toss in some egg if you feel like it to bind, but it's up to you.

Put some parchment paper over a baking/cookie sheet and smooth the cauliflower puree over it. Bake at 400F for 30 minutes until it starts sticking together and looking like a solid substance for pizza toppings. Then add some more toppings and bake for 20 more minutes. Or until it looks good to you. Whatever.

Here's what the underside of the "pizza" should look like if you've cooked it long enough. I wanted to cook it long enough to get a good amount of char on the bottom so I could eat it like an actual pizza and not just "stuff on top of baked cauliflower paste"
Okay, so you might be like "Albany Jane, how can you call yourself a New Yorker and say this is pizza?!" and I'll be all like "Whatever, it's tasty. Call it a reeeaaallllyyyyy thin cauliflower gratin with toppings if you don't like the 'pizza' moniker."

If you want to lower the water content of the pizza, bake your tomato slices and whatever other veg has some water in it so it's just a wee bit roasted, then slap it on the surface of your tasty cauliflower pizza type substance.

Project Baconage

So. You might know that I am a spurious individual given to the occasional impulse purchase. In this case it was about 10 pounds of primo Kurobuta pork belly from Adventure in Food. Given that my significantly better half is from Western Mass, it's pretty much local to me.

Also, quite a nice purchase at around $7.99 per pound. This bacon was cooked two ways. One with my stovetop hot smoker, and cold smoking with the help of one Chef Christopher Tanner.

I'll get the math out of the way. The hot smoked bacon lost about 25% of its weight while smoking. So it was closer to $10.50 per pound for hot smoked bacon. I didn't weigh the cold smoked bacon, but I don't think it lost very much weight. Cold smoked and all. Next time I'll try to be a bit better with my measurements so I can nerd out and create a graph on weight variances.

The hot smoked bacon is delicious and 100% cooked. 180-200F with maple wood chips until the bacon registers around 160 F and the meat looks pinky and good. Kind of like super delicious fatty ham. Just use Ruhlman's cure and you're set. A few weeks, 6 weeks.... it's all good.

I enlisted The Profussor in this cholesterol laden drive. Parce que je suis égoïste et je voulais une autre personne à essayer ce lard.

Any way. Step 9723 of Project Bacon is to petition your chef friends to cold smoke your bacon out of the kindness of their hearts 'coz they have cold smokers and you don't. Pull out all the stops - compliments, pouty faces, promises of first born children. This is science, damnit! COLD SMOKED BACON THAT YOU CURED, HULLOO!

Your chef friend may explicitly tell you "You NEED to cook this. DON'T eat this raw. Whatever you do, don't eat this raw. COOK IT." Clearly, my reputation for putting things in my mouth precedes me. Okay, cause I might have just tried a wee slice of raw bacon. But I didn't cause Tanner was all concerned about me eating raw pork. Sheesh.

So I just cooked the bacon. SO GOOD. Best part of making your own bacon is slicing pieces to your own desired thickness. THICK BACON!!
Here is what the bacon looked like raw. Huuuuge props to Chef Tanner for vacuum sealing it for me too!
Bacon lurve! So making your own bacon isn't exactly easy, but oh man is it worthwhile. SO FREAKING GOOD.

But the down side is that it is so yummy you will want to eat tons of delicious bacon slices whenever you open the fridge and the bacon is just sitting there. Sitting there in the bag. Un eaten. Poor bacon, come to my belly.

YehYeh's 80th Birthday

I didn't do the best job of photo-documenting the food of my Yeh-Yeh's 80th birthday weekend. But let me tell you, I'd never have it any other way, 'cause I focused tons of the people with me. Namely that goofy-eyed little hellion above. Well, the smaller one more than the bigger one.

Bro, Margarita, and Baby Dubs (bro & BD above) flew up from Mississippi to celebrate. Baby Dubs was a little fussy around Chinese food (must've inherited that from my side of the family. My sibs & I were cheeseburger kids...). Here he is eating vanilla ice cream at the Flushing Mall food court.

We went to this place near my YehYeh's place for dinner the night before. I think it was called Jin Cheng on Roosevelt Ave. Now I know why he walks to his beloved Mellie's so much. This place wasn't bad... but compared to Mellie's it wasn't great either.

The food was fine. The service was bad. Even for a Chinese restaurant (more on that in a second). Slow, slow, SLOW to have the food come out, and there weren't even that many people in the dining room. Like, 20-30 minutes for the chicken to come out. And it was a little greasy.

Above are some plates of Mapo Dofu, lamb & veggie, and I think duck tongues on the right (deep fried). Albany John & Bro loved the duck tonguies. Bleh, no thanks for me!

Some sweet and sour pork, so-so fried rice. Dishes were okay, but a lot were on the American side of things.
Here's the chicken that took forever to come out. Just okay. Nothing I'd go back for again when there are so many better places in Flushing to eat at.
And soon enough it was Yeh-Yeh's birthday celebration! Here's my very beautiful sister dancing with the birthday boy. He was rocking out all night!

The dinner party was held at Grand Restaurant (3rd Floor of the New World Mall on Main Street). Their Yelp reviews aren't that great, but trust me, it was an awesome time. We had a small banquet rooms with 4 tables all to ourselves, and the food came out piping hot. And TONS of it. Lots of seafood. Seafood everywhere.

Abalone & Sea Cucumber for one course. Walnut shrimp was another (best walnut shrimp I've ever had, and I usually really don't like this dish coz of all the mayo - but this was lightly creamy in a good way, and the walnuts were perfectly candied, and the shrimp perfectly fried and SO huge). Naturally, we had some lobster. And chicken. And whole fish. And fried rice. And mango pudding dessert (I ate like three cups of them - never had that before and I want to eat it all the time now! SO GOOD and refreshing).

Mama and Papa Amherst joined us for the festivities, and after the app courses were done, they were like "Wait, how much more is there?". TONS MOAR!

Wine, and drunk karaoke (by my uncle and dad's buddies), some dancing, and a very touching speech by my dad. Connecting with cousins I hadn't seen in a while. Cake. YehYeh's German friend spilling wine on the cake. Noming cake. Bro finding a suit jacket on the side of the road and wearing it in (dude, I refuse to believe you paid for that thing).

At some point we also went to some beer place in Rego Park with my siblings-in-law, Maka & CVS.
They had these fried coins of freshly sliced jalapenos and other spicy pepper things. Kind of a russian roulette of "am I going to need to chug my drink?"
Fried pierogies were okay, but gummy on the inside.
Not a big fan of the way they pour drinks - refilling with the same glass and letting the beer go over the tap = breeding ground for germ cross contamination.

The morning after the party... or maybe the next day... we went back to Grand Restaurant for dim sum. I guess that they cost a lot more (almost 2x as much) as Mellie's, but oh man...

Any way, I loved how big and full of shrimp the har gow were here. They might be pricey, but they were worth it.
Spare ribs and black bean sauce in the center & left bowls. Pig intestine in the right bowl. Not a big fan of the pig intestine - it's kind of... pungent, lol.
NOM, CHOW FUN! Margarita and I could eat a plate of these ourselves, so great is our love of this dish.
Got a plate of 3 dan tats on da house 'cause they remembered my dad from the night before. Mmm, hot & flaky.

This was a great trip for everyone. First time YehYeh got to meet his great grand son in person. Family, food, good times.

Jarritos Cola

This post brought to you by Jarritos & Albany John. Partially 'cause it was taking me forever and a day to actually get around to opening the promo bottle of Jarritos' new Mexican Cola, but also because the man loves his sodas.

There is nothing quite like a nice cold soda on a hot day in august.
That being said, the allure of a soda is lost on one albany jane.

Albany Jane is not one who has "guest posters" on her blog. That being
said she knows I embrace beverages with a vigor most men reserve for
sports teams, poker, dogs, or old cars.

Jarritos. This is what a sody pop is supposed to be. There was one
Jarritos mexican cola sitting in the back of the fridge. Beverages are
meant to be drank but apparently this soda belonged to the internets,
and could not be consumed without an accompanying blow by blow
account of its faults and glories.

Some soda is too carbonated for me. I have been accused in the past of
leaving bottles of carbonated beverages uncapped slightly in the
fridge. This particular soda still has enough fizz in it to make the
satisfying "pssshhht" when the cap is opened, but not enough to induce
belches.

The flavor is somewhat less like a coke or pepsi cola, more like what
you'd imagine an old time soda from a soda jerk would be. Think like
a sarsaparilla or a cream soda without the sarsaparilla or cream soda
flavor. The bottle advertises 100% natural sugar. I like sugar.
Nothing wrong with that. I'm not going to get into the whole "whether
hfcs is bad for you" issue, I'm on the side that you should eat what
you like if you can deal with the politics. I like sugar. I wish maple
sugar tasted good in soda, but unfortunately I've never seen a
beverage containing it to test the theory. I also think that sodas
feel different when you drink them if they have sugar rather than
hfcs, less syrupy/less viscous.

If you grew up on coke or pepsi, and that's what you think a cola
should taste like then you might not be a big fan of Jarritos. I mean
expectations of nostalgia rank up there pretty high when it comes to
food or drinks. I was raised in a household of hydrox cookies and rc
cola, so I'm not really bound to a nostalgia for a particular kind of
soda. We made our own root beer and sarsaparilla as a kid. My
brother's favorite flavor was birch beer.

Sincerely,

Albany John

Albany Jane here: I thought it was okay, but a little heavy on the warmer flavors. Then again, I'm a Coke Zero kind of gal. Also, how can anything top Jarrito's guava soda??

Tour de Fish Fry

The Profussor is a man of many ideas. Tours are one of them. This weekend he took quite a lot of us on an eating event of five local fish fry favorites. His write up is significantly more well written than this post could ever hope to be, so check there for specifics, attendees, and facts.

First up was Gene's in Rensselaer. Albany John and I teamed up with Rochelle and decided to have a fish fry three-way for the tour. I love fried food, but for some reason fish fry itself always seems kind of boring to me in comparison to other things available (like fried clams), so I didn't want to stuff myself with something I wasn't 100% in love with to begin with. (were it a lobster eating tour I would have doubled up on the orders)

Ordering at Gene's. Their fish fry was $5.13 after tax.
Confusing condiments and a lone fish fry. They weren't clearly labeled. Which made finding condiments hard.
Part of the Fussy Little Tour was sampling aspects of the fish fry, plus cocktail sauce, tartar sauce, and chili sauce. I couldn't tell if they had horseradish at Gene's so I might have handicapped the lot of us because I didn't get it. Never been much of a fan of chili sauce.

If you're new to the region, chili sauce served with fish fry isn't at all hot. It's actually sweet and ketchupy. So confusing. Any way, this was a pretty decent fish fry. Tied for second place with me.

We went across the street to Offshore Pier Market. Literally, right across the street.

Here's the thing with fish fry. It usually looks like a sit-down restaurant, but you order at a counter and there's very minimal table service. It's more like fancified fast food, if that makes any sense.
DIY condiment bar.

GENE'S WAS MY FAVE FISH FRY! Made me think "Woah, I really like fish fry." Why? Because it was deliciously salty & buttery. Yet not very greasy for something that was deep fried. Also, the breading was a crispy cornmeal variety. The combination was so, so good. This was $4.75 out the door.


The third stop was Bob & Ron's, the Albany mainstay. Now, Albany is in my name, but... I've just never been all that keen on Bob & Ron's food. Albany John took me here when we first started dating because he knew my unending love of the combination of fried + seafood, but for some reason Bob & Ron have just never really clicked with my taste buds.

Here's a fish fry. Thinner in width, but pretty long. I think this was $4.25. I really didn't like wasn't a big fan of the fish fry here. It just wasn't very good to me... the breading tasted like unseasoned flour that wasn't fried long enough. The inside was mushy and watery. Daniel B. said an issue others had was with the cusk fish meat being overcooked and tough, but our fish fry was just... blah. No flavor, no texture.

So sad, you know? Just for the fish to die and taste so... blandly. Such a waste. The bun had a sour back note that really lingered, too. Didn't really help the whole sum of the sandwich. R & I didn't even try to finish this one. WE DIDN'T TRY TO FINISH FRIED FISH! WHUT?!

The fourth stop was Ted's in Watervliet (or Waterford? I always confuse the two). Ted's has multiple locations. I usually hit up a Ted's for fried clam strips. Mmm.


I broke the fish on the way to the table. Oopsie. Ted's was my "average"/3rd place fish fry ranking. Not in a bad way, just something that captured the idea/flavors of what a fish fry is. Any improvements are just a bonus. This fish was incredibly thin, but very long.


Matt's in Cohoes was our last stop. This is my go-to fish source for the area. It's limited, and their hours are frustratingly short, but the stock they have is so fresh! Order at the counter, then walk in the dining room for them to bring it out for you.

Chunky, moist, perfectly fried fish. Cornmeal breading. Hearty big ole piece of firm fish. So good. Matt's knows their stuff. I'd tie this with Gene's for 2nd.

Seeing as how I'd only had less than two fish frys over the course of the afternoon, I also decided that a clam belly roll (~$6.25) was also necessary. So good.
LOOK AT THOSE BELLIES! They were a little on the oily side, but not overcooked. Tasty stuff. Matt's = Clams in my book.
We finished up the tour with some Snowman ice cream. I got coffee frozen yogurt. Just tasted like really good ice cream, not "diet" tasting or anything. Tasted like lots of yummy brown sugar was involved.

Check out our cute mascot in the background, too. I think somepup will come in handy for the cider donut tour.

Giveaway: 2 Tickets to the NYS Fair

Have you ever been to the New York State Fair? It's held August 25th - September 5th in Syracuse, NY. The NYS Fair wants you to come, and they're giving away two tickets that you can win!

This weekend I was talking with someone who was well familiar with the NYS fair, having grown up going to it just about every year. Though I grew up in NY, I've never been to the State Fair. I imagine my mom's side of the family would enjoy going, since there are livestock shows. We hail from dairy folk, and there's even a Dairy Day (August 29th, if you're so inclined).

There are bunch of free acts to see, ranging from that Buddy dude from Cake Boss to Gym Class Heroes, and even the Pointer Sisters. Plus, you know, rides, and food, and awesomeness and such.

Kids 12 and under are free, so if you're a family with some wee ones, this could mean free entry. Not too shabby.

If you wanna win two tickets and a parking pass:
Comment to win. If you tweet this link &/or put up a blog post, add the links as extra comments/entries. So you can technically enter 3 times.
Please comment with a valid email address.
You will be asked for your address. If I get this out in time, you'll have tickets mailed to you, if not, you'll get will call tickets to pick up when you get there.
This is open to anyone who wants to go there. Live in Buffalo? Awesome, enter. If you live in Western Mass and feel an urge to go NYS Fair-ing, type away!

Comments will be closed and giveaway over tomorrow night, whenever I go to bed. Or reeeallly early on Friday morning. At the very least you've got a solid 24 hours.


CLOSED: Congrats to L!

Shake Shack @ Saratoga

All hail the great Meyer Empire! I went to the Saratoga Race Track with Cute~Ella, Sue, GenWar, and the rest of the Cute~Ella crew. Oh, plus I dragged R & M. My mind was on burgers made of cow meat.

I think last year was the first time I was ever at the track, not being much of a horse-racing fan in general. However, I am a fan of hyped-up burgers from NYC. Well, it's easier to get there than Shake Shack in Central Park.

I don't mind a "day at the track". It's $3 per person to enter, free parking, and you can bring in your own coolers and seats. You don't even have to go look a the horse track. It's basically like going picnic-ing with tons of people to gawk at. And you can dress up. Win-win in my book.

Also a win-win - two double Shack Burgers ($9 each) and a Track Shake ($5.75). The shake looks small, but it's very custard-y and rich. It's a lot to suck down.

The burgers were so good. Glad I got doubles instead of singles. Albany John thought his was fine, and even I had trouble finishing mine off. They're deliciously salty and beefy flavored. A bit pinky rare in the center, yet firm of exterior.

THEY ARE SO MEATY AND GOOD. SO MEATY! SO MUCH MEATY BEEFY FLAVOR!

Heads up - they show up on your credit card as "UnionStreetSportsandENT" and not something easier to recognize.

Albany John liked it, but his stomach felt a little funky later on. I guess he's going to have to be on the Jack Sprat diet. I'll troop through it for him somehow.

Cute hat I made a Cute~Ella's the night before tracking. She so fancy!

Oh, and heads up - if you go, it'll probably be elbows to asses people. Don't really expect any personal space, but otherwise you're good. As long as everyone's friendly you'll be fine. Also, their bathrooms are really quick and clean.

Garden Bistro 24 for Family Dinner

Bro, Margarita, and Baby Dubs came up from Mississippi for a bit recently. It was so good to see them! Hard it believe it's been almost a year since I last saw them!

I wanted to do something special while they were up here, and booked a dinner at Garden Bistro 24 for them, my mom, my sister, plus Albany John and me. Oh, and a toddler.

I emailed ahead of time to partially arrange a special meal for my sister, who'd said she'd eat cooked food. So I requested something vegan and gluten-free. Much to my surprise, John Grizzaffi himself responded! Who ever expects the chef and OWNER of a restaurant to answer your emails? (He's a peach, btw).

They have old fashioneds!So yummy! So potent!

Albany John got a hangar steak. Yum! Cooked med rare. My mom got a steak too, but no sauce. Not sure if she really liked it, she said it was kind of tough. Ah well. I guess I should have considered the cuts a little more. My mom's more of a prime rib gal. I was hoping she'd like GB24 because they do simple meals, but I guess I didn't consider the cuts she usually likes.

I got a duck confit special. Came in an amaretto sauce (but not too sweet). Two legs! Woah man - so much food! Really tasty - can't get enough of their mustard, either.

My sis-in-law Margarita got a Garden Bistro 24 salad with Chicken. She really liked this.

My brother got mussels with the coconut sauce on them. He was like "These are fucking DELICIOUS!" (only add more cursing and it's all said in caps). If I hadn't seen the duck special I would have deffo ordered up some mussels!

Here is the special dish John made for my sister. I don't think she actually ate any of it, since she ordered a salad instead. I guess she decided to switch back to raw food 'cause she got a salad. It was beautiful, though, and full of ingredients I don't normally see on BG24's menu. Freshly grilled seasonal veggies, kalamata olives, and organic polenta. The rest of us picked at it - so flavorful. I don't know, I just wanted to have something she could/would eat with the rest of us aside from her usual greens, but I guess I screwed that one up along the way. I ordered it any way, since I made such a big deal about special ordering it. At least she was nice enough to take it home in a doggy bag, tossing it, I'm guessing, out of my view.

John - thank you very much for the effort you put in this dish (and vegans, put a rezzie here!).
A pic of Albany John's steak, the special vegan dish, the salad my sis got instead, and a pic of my mom's frites, 'cause evidently I didn't snap a pic of her steak.

Service was great (as usual) - really friendly service, and guess what? Kids are always welcome here!
All done!

I always like going here. I was hoping I'd pick a place everyone would like because I like it so much. You can enjoy the food yourself, but you can't necessarily force others to like what you do too. Or hope really hard. But you can enjoy the company and let them distract you from bluer thoughts 'cause you're so happy to be with the crazy family you have.

Hunh, and here I thought I just went here for a meal. Instead I come out with some kind of life lesson.