I freakin' love Seitan

The end.

Pizza and Beer Night

Never mind the 6-pack and extra large pie from the local pizza parlor. This was a make-it-yourself night. My local Whole Foods is also home to a great little pub. If you know Pennsylvania, you know the odd beer-purchasing laws of the state (i.e. beer purchases are mostly restricted to buying entire cases from beer distributors), which is partly why I love WF so much. In the pub, you can buy large, individual bottles of some of the delicious microbrews or seasonal 6-packs from the walk-in fridge room; fill up a growler to go or enjoy a pint inside the pub. It's a small spot, and every time I've been there it's been full of people.

At the local bar, I enjoyed a delicious Belgian dubble, so I was excited to see one inside the fridge room. Ashley's been on a hunt for a random beer I had leftover after my neighborhood Halloween party - Three Philosophers. It's a cherry Belgian tripel. Whole Foods had it!

We were planning to make our own pizzas for dinner, originally on pitas, but then Ashley spotted the garlic naan. Best idea ever. The garlic flavor of the "pizza crust" added a little extra something to the pizzas. We bought a package of four and ended up using all of them (Ashley ate both for dinner; I saved one of mine to have the next day).

To start, we rubbed a little olive oil on top of the naan (the secret to all great pizzas!), and then the sauce. I used Muir Glen's organic pizza sauce, which already had Italian spices in it, so we didn't need to add our own. And finally, mozzarella cheese and we each chose our own toppings (he likes pepperoni and I like olives). Into the oven they went at 400 for about 15 minutes...perfect and tasty!

Chik Patties Parmesan

Confession: I am a wanna-be vegetarian. I seem to have commitment issues with my food relationship though. While I still enjoy a little bit of meat from time-to-time (except beef), I often opt for vegetarian choices when possible.

I love to make chicken parmesan, but this time I wanted a vegetarian option, and a shortcut (I know...seriously asking a lot, right?). Not exactly. I was able to get both with Morningstar Farms Chik Patties and the resulting meal was great!

Prepared as normal, I poured a little sauce on the bottom of a glass baking dish, then placed the Chik Patties on top, covered in more sauce and mozzarella cheese. In the oven it went at 350

for about 20 minutes. I have a gas oven and my broiler drawer under the oven is really shallow, so I was able to put the small dish in the toaster oven under the broiler for just a couple of minutes to completely melt the cheese. The meal was great! Overall, these aren't bad "chicken" patties and I will definitely try them in a few more recipes. The box comes with four patties.

Dear Blogger,

I 98% hate you and your 987385970235897243589724 screw-ups per day. Now I remember why I stopped posting.

Ashley's Man Sandwich

My man has his own man...man sandwich, that is.

Sure, he has the cupcake-making side:

But he loves some "dude food." His usual kitchen activity involves watching me cook, and then

being awesome and cleaning up the dishes, but he makes some tasty scrambled eggs.

The scrambled eggs in his man sandwich had mozzarella cheese and some Italian spices. The

potato roll was toasted to burnt perfection. His reasoning? Hot eggs have steam...steam makes bread soggy...bread needs to be extra toasted to avoid getting soggy. He also loves his Zing sauce...it's a sauce from NC my mom always used in her awesome bean dip. It adds a little kick to the food. Mmmm.