That's One Sassy Pie

If I lived somewhere that had decent pizza, I probably wouldn't make it at home so much. Why bother when you can get awesome pizza delivered to your door? However, Maryland's pizza is pretty awful unless you get it at a fancypants restaurant that doesn't deliver.
I also wouldn't normally post about a pizza I made because they're really not anything special: shape your store-bought dough (I'm still a little too lazy for homemade dough), throw on your toppings, and toss in the oven on a pizza stone.
This pizza is an exception. Don and I both did something a little different than we normally do, and both halves came out great. Something you need to know is that because Don and I like different pizzas, we always each make our own half of the pie. Then we taunt the other half but almost always end up liking both in the end. Don likes a red sauce base, while I generally go for a fresh tomato-slice, fresh mozz style. For a list of toppings, read more!

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Nectar of the Soup Gods

Okay, maybe that's going a little overboard, but this asparagus and rice soup with pancetta was seriously amazing. And with so few ingredients! Comfort food at its best, it takes your average chicken and rice soup and transforms it into a creamy, complex dish perfect for a cold night. Heck, I might even make it in the summer. The asparagus is divided and added to the soup at different times during the cooking process to achieve multiple textures. I can't say I noticed more than a couple different textures but perhaps my palette isn't refined enough. We served it with homemade ciabatta bread, sprinkled with pecorino and toasted.

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Two Lil' Somethings to Brighten Your Day

These new endangered clouded leopard cubs (more pics here!) at the National Zoo are quite possibly the cutest things in the whole wide world. Just another reason to go to the zoo once it gets warmer out!!

For information on the campaign to build a new clouded leopard home, visit the National Zoo website here.

Cava Rockville

We've been trying to get to this Greek Mezze (small plate) restaurant for quite some time and finally made it out there on Saturday night. Before I go further, I will say that it certainly did not disappoint. I highly recommend this place, especially for larger groups as you can order even more dishes to share across the table. Everything we had was fabulous and cooked to perfection.

We've heard tales of how crowded Cava can be so we thought that we could get there at 6:30 and be okay. Who eats at 6:30 on Saturday night, anyway? Apparently, all of Rockville. There was a 40 minute wait when we got there around 10 after six but we managed to find a seat at the bar to have a glass of wine while we waited for our table.

The biggest downside of Cava is the ratio of restaurant size to the number of people who are obsessed with it. It's nestled in a strip mall off Shady Grove Road with a tiny entrance area, long bar with tables for two along the side, and a more open dining room in the back. Tables are squished together quite close in the dining room so that you have to squeeze sideways past diners to get to yours (and if you're me, you probably had your ass hovering over someone's souvlaki). The closeness ended up being not so bad, as we had a few laughs with the table next to us. Good booze and great food breeds jovial patrons.

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Lambs Are Cute, But They Taste Better

This meal combined two firsts for me: first time roasting lamb, and first time cooking French food besides the fry and toast variety*. Actually, I've never even made French toast...

*yes, I know those aren't actually French foods

I was pretty nervous to roast this delicate little lamb because I've heard that they are easy to screw up, but I found a recipe that claimed to be extra easy and gave it a go. I did end up overcooking it a bit, but it still came out delicious. The smell of my kitchen while it was roasting was to die for. The tomato really complimented each bite of lamb, and the potatoes (although a little less crispy than I would normally like), picked up the lamb juice flavors very well. Don thought it was very good, but not as good as I thought it was. He also says he doesn't like rosemary and thyme as the main seasonings of dish. To that I say pish-posh.

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Superbowl Snack Stadium

Stadium (note the two kitties lurking in the background)

For the second year in a row, Don created a superbowl stadium made entirely of snack food. This year was a little more evolved than last year's field of store-bought guac surrounded by cheesy poofs. We got the idea from some blog somewhere and scaled it back (these people went ALL out with deli meats, all sorts of sausages, and other items costing tons of $$).

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Indian Feast!

Knowing that we'd be pretty snowed in on Saturday, I got it in my head that I wanted to make an Indian feast. So, we invited Greg and Eileen over (the only people who live close enough and are brave enough to trek through the snow to our house and to eat my concoctions), and I got to work making several Indian dishes. Don quickly realized that I had bit off a little more than I could chew, and rushed to my side as my sous chef. He's a chopper extraordinaire!

Birdhouse, amazingly still holding up

On the menu was Chicken Tikka Masala, Chana Masala (chickpeas), Roasted Indian-Spiced Potatoes, Turmeric-Spiced Rice with Peas, and Homemade Naan. I know, I don't know what I was thinking either.

The hardest thing is certainly the timing, but with Don's chopping help and Greg/Eileen's naan skills, I managed to have everything ready at about the same time. First I made the Naan dough since it had to sit for 1.5 hours, then I broiled the chicken, then threw in the potatoes to roast. While those were roasting, I put the rice in the rice cooker, then made the chana masala and the rest of the chicken tikka masala. Finally, we threw the naan in the oven in several batches.

All the dishes had the same essential ingredients which is nice: jalepenos, garlic, ginger, onion, cumin, coriander, turmeric, and garam masala. For the delicious recipes, see below!

Some of the ingredients

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Branching Out, v1.0 - Jicama!

Note: I titled this post "Branching Out, v1.0" in the hopes that I will branch out more often - if not for me, then for my loyal blog-readers (all three of you)! If you have ideas for strange and delicious veggies/fruits/oddities, please leave them in the comments!

In the past, I'd had several jicama-flavored things but I'd never actually taken a bite out of one. It was hard enough for me to pronounce, let alone figure out how to serve. So, when they were on sale at Giant last week, I took the plunge! I was impressed that the computerized lady-voice in self-checkout pronounced it correctly! I found a recipe that looked delicious and healthy from Bon Appetit (via Serious Eats) so I rolled with it. I added some leftover roasted chicken and served in tortillas as chicken salad wraps. The jicama had a consistency much like an apple or a potato, and tasted a little sweet but overall pretty neutral. The satisfying crunchiness was what stood out the most in this salad.

Salad, pre-tortilla

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My Husband, The Photog

Welp, it's snowing again. It's really turning into a snowy winter here in Maryland! I know I've only been here for 3 years, but this is definitely reminiscent of New York winters. Brings me back! Tonight Don and I made a great dinner with pork loin that my parents accidentally left in our freezer after Christmas (darn!). I can't take any credit for finding the recipe, as it was sent to me with rave reviews from my friend and partner-in-cooking-crime, Candace. I'm passing it on, also with stellar reviews!

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