Grilled Steak Sandwich a la Elizabeth

Yep, two Please Note recipes in one day! Not only do Lorne and I love to cook when we can but we also love a good bargain, which we got on the price of the tri tip. What I like about this recipe for grilled steak sandwiches is that it's so easy and it gave Lorne a chance to demonstrate his meat cooking skills. He seasoned the tri tip with a salt, pepper, garlic, and paprika rub and broiled it in the oven. Check out:

I think the rosemary herb bread from Elizabeth's recipe would have been a better choice but we had french bread left over from the french toast this morning. Like I said, we like a bargain.

-Jessica

Cream Cheese and Raspberry Stuffed French Toast

I've been dying to try a new recipe from my friend Elizabeth's blog Please Note and I finally had a free Sunday morning with Lorne to try one out. Her recipe is for goat cheese and raspberry stuffed French toast but I was afraid that Lorne wouldn't like the goat cheese so I substituted cream cheese instead. Her recipe also calls for orange zest, but I used lemon zest with orange juice instead. (Again, I was sure Lorne wouldn't like the orange zest). It was actually pretty easy and tasted really good! Beware though, it's super rich. I think I'll skip lunch today! Take a look at the process and finished product:

Lemon zest orange juice butter.

My egg mixture has some lemon zest instead of orange zest, which I'm sure would be great too!

Lorne opted for some powdered sugar on his.

Lorne: "You ate all of yours?!?!" Me: "Yeah, of course."

-Jessica

Lazy Pizza Friday

Well, I'm finally back to the Pizza Friday offices and ready to work. Lorne was out with the boys tonight, so I took advantage of the most glorious night to myself and enjoyed a $1 frozen pizza, a beer, and Roseanne. This is what dreams are made of people. I promise that next week will be more elaborate and that Pizza Friday Today will be lavished with attention from here on out every Friday. But tonight, I'm just going to enjoy these three simple pleasures.

P.S. The Conners win the Illinois lottery in this episode.

-Jessica

Haus of Pizza Friday

You know you're in Southern California when a restaurant called Haus of Pizza is really just an Italian restaurant run by an old Vietnamese man. I guess it was wishful thinking to expect brautwurst pizza with sauerkraut on the menu. But after weeks of enthusiasm for this place from my very foodie friend Fatima, we decided to drive out to Garden Grove to check it out.

It was a real treat this particular Pizza Friday because Lorne's parents were in town visiting us for spring break and celebrating their 37th anniversary. As a side note, I feel incredibly lucky to be marrying into such a pizza-loving family. Lorne's dad once told me the story of how he knew Lorne's mom was "the one" when they were on a date at a pizza place and she snaked the last slice, but not before dipping it into and soaking up the last of the grease on the pizza pan. If that's not love, I don't know what is. ("It's gross is what it is," says Lorne).

We ordered the Haus Special pizza with canadian bacon, pepperoni, mushrooms, black olives, bell peppers, onion, and extra cheese. We all thought it was good, especially the extra cheese.

We had such a great time that it's hard for me to judge if the pizza was really that good, or if it was just the company of good people that made it seem that way.

The Haus Special.

It was love at first slice.

This is the messy result of the really stretchy cheese.

This was the weird pancake spatula they gave us to serve the pizza with.

-Jess

Buono's Pizza Friday!

There's not going to be much to say about our experience at Buono's Pizza and the least of those things are very good. First of all, we didn't get there until around 8:30 and we were starving and cranky. This place is in the middle of nowhere (if you ask me) and has the worst layout and the biggest waste of square footage of any commercial space i've ever seen. This shouldn't have anything to do with pizza, but it bothers me and that's all there is to it.

We sat down at our booth and they brought us a bruschetta appetizer, which Lorne immediately converted to wet toast by dumping all of the "gross" tomatoes off of the top. Lorne didn't like it, but I thought it was really good, so I ate all of it (as usual). We then ordered the PizzAndrea from their gourmet pizza selection. It included mozzarella with marinated chicken breast strips sauteed with garlic, onions, mushrooms, and white wine. Topped with olives and feta cheese.

It took forever for the pizza and I don't think it was because we were so hungry. The pizza was actually pretty good. It was really different from anything we usually order and like. The service however, not as gourmet as the pizza. They didn't bring us any napkins or silverware and we never saw our server again. Literally. We had to flag a busser down for napkins and a to-go box, and he only met us half way by bringing us the napkins. Lorne had to go to the register for the box and pay for the check, which I can only assume did not include a tip.

So, that's it. As it turns out, bad customer service can ruin a good pizza.

-Jess

Ferraro's Pizza Friday!

This was a Pizza Friday to celebrate my 27th birthday, so we decided to dine-in at an Italian restaurant called Ferraro's. For those of you that don't know, my first job when I moved to Long Beach in 2005 was at Ferraro's, but at a different location. The location I worked at has since closed down, mysteriously soon after I quit.

This was our first time to the other location and I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a former co-worker of mine from the other location. His name is Mike (the big guy) and he's one of the funniest people I've ever met, so I was really excited to see him again.

We ordered a medium half cheese, half pepperoni pizza, our signature default toppings. Mike also served us a bowl of pasta fagioli soup, an italian salad, warm bread, Lorne a Coke, and me a glass of white wine. The food was all really good, especially the pizza, and we had a really fun, romantic dinner. Lorne told Mike it was my birthday and he brought us a custard filled tart with fresh berries and cocoa on top. When Lorne picked up the bill, a look of pure joy that can only come from a true cheap-ass like Lorne indicated to me that Mike had indeed, to his word, hooked us up really good.

Needless to say, we'll be going back again when Mike is working.

I forgot my phone at home, so this is the only photo we got of the evening.

-Jess

BJ's Cheeseburger Pizza Friday!

What perfect timing to order a cheeseburger pizza! Only days after our cheeseburger foodie experience noted in the previous entry. Believe me, we've had cheeseburger pizzas in the past, but none of them have been worth mentioning. I was skeptical when Lorne suggested we order it, because of other less notable pizzas of its kind.

Let me just say this about our Pizza Friday experience at BJ's: we LOVE BJ's! We went to the location in our neck of the woods on 2nd Street in Belmont Shore. This location is actually kind of strange because it's so small and doesn't have a bar, but that's okay because they always seat us right away. On a side note, it was extremely loud and filled with what looked like high school aged kids, which made Lorne and I seem like an old angry couple (again).

I was a little disappointed at first because I went for my ol' faithful and ordered the Berry Burst Cider, but apparently they were out of it, so I pouted and ordered the Jeremiah Red Irish Style Ale instead. We then ordered a medium BJ's Bacon Cheeseburger deep dish pizza, which according to the menu is, "For the classic burger lover!" It came with ground Angus beef, red onions, Applewood smoked bacon, cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes and chopped dill pickles. We made sure to 86 the drizzled signature burger sauce. We don't do sauce, unless it's Frank's Red Hot Sauce, but that's a different pizza and a different Friday to come (their buffalo chicken pizza is really good too).

OMG, the cheeseburger pizza was so good! It was a perfect harmony between two separately amazing foods: a cheeseburger and a pizza! And I actually really liked my beer too. But, I pretty much started to like everything once I got down to the bottom of my glass, but that's okay. The crust was so soft and buttery, the toppings were flavorful, distinct, and unique; in particular the dill pickles, which really made the pizza for me.

Bottom line, it sounds too weird to be good, but don't be afraid to try this one.

-Jess