Where did October go?

Oh no!  An entire month slipped by, and I didn't write anything in my blog.  It was quite a crazy month.  We were out of town for at least one weekend.  When we were home, we had so many visitors that I was doing laundry for the guest rooms regularly.  (OK, so not hard to put sheets and towels into the washer and dryer).

I did eat out.  On the road, we had our usual lunch/dinner stop at Sheetz gas station.  Yes, I like their food.  I usually go with a Made To Order (aka MTO) chicken sub: 6 inch toasted white roll with chicken, provolone cheese, mayo, bacon, oregano, and black olives.  I've also started to get a cup of fries.  I really like their fries. 

In Buffalo, Darryl and I went to dinner with our great friend Katie.  We decided on Ilio DiPaolos in Hamburg.  Great food!  I ordered the tortellini with the house sauce and a side of Italian sausage.  In place of my salad, I had a great cup of french onion soup.  We all split some cheese covered garlic bread.  I figured I would order the tortellini because we were going to a wedding with a buffet and you never find tortellini in a buffet line.  OOPs...  Ok, so never say never.  We did have tortellini at the wedding, but this one was prepared with a white cream sauce and had specks of bacon in it.

We did enjoy the usual fast food stuff... Pizza at King's Dominion amusement park, Panda Express, pizza at Wegmans, Asian at Wegmans...

I also ate at Capital Ale House... three times in less than a week.  YIKES!  But I did have three different meals, a lamb burger, a cheese burger (on $2 burger night), and a cheese dip on steal the glass night.  I would have had more that last night, but I already had dinner on the table when we decided to go steal the Heavy Seas glasses that were on special. 

Best of all.... I got to enjoy another meal at King's Arms Tavern with two of my best friends from Buffalo.  After dragging Katie and Michelle all over Colonial Williamsburg, we had a wonderful meal at the tavern.  I did have something different than my meal from the summer... I went with the prime rib.  It was out of this world!!! 

Out side of my restaurant experiences, I spent many hours really focusing on school.  I really didn't try to make anything special for dinner.  I definitely did not try to copy any of the meals I had out at the restaurants. 

November is a new month.  I still have a lot going on at school, and there is Thanksgiving to celebrate, so my cooking time will still be limited.  However... I will be creating my famous Canadian Thanksgiving Meal (which normally is celebrated during Columbus Day weekend, but we had guests in town and a crazy month).  This year I'll be cooking for 40 or so people again and I'll be experimenting with some new recipes that I have found.  I think I will blog about that experience this month, and then jump back into restaurants again in December.

Wegmans, Part II

I made my pizza tonight.  It was different than the one I had at Wegmans, but it was still pizza inspired from my trip and lunch at Wegmans.

I used the Wegmans pizza dough, shredded mozzarella cheese, pizza sauce and pepperoni (not shown in the picture).  Then I added some cherry tomatoes and jalapenos from my garden along with a green pepper (also from Wegmans-straight from the farms) and some smoked fresh mozzarella.  It turned out really good.  Next time I should probably use a little bit less cheese, but I really love cheese. 

When I make my pizza, I spread out the dough and then put it in the oven at 375 for about 15 minutes.  Then I take it out and put on all the toppings.  I have found it is best to put all the veggie things under the cheese.  This is where I have to admit, I am not a fan of veggies, so the peppers go on only half the pizza for my husband.  I did put tomatoes on the entire pizza... so I did get at least some veggies.  I bet mom will be proud!  Once everything is on, the pizza goes back into the oven at the same temperature for around 15 more minutes.  I wait until the cheese is all bubbly and starting to get just a hint of a brownish color in some spots.  Take the pizza out and let it sit, just so that when it's cut, the cheese doesn't all ooze off. 

The final product:

Wegmans, Part I

Ok, so Wegmans is really not a restaurant, it's more of an experience!  Today I had lunch at my local Wegmans here in Fredericksburg before doing some grocery shopping.  I had pizza.  Just plain old cheese and pepperoni pizza... oh wait, it had sausage on it too.  It was good.  It hit the spot.  I was hungry after volunteering at a local clinic and needed something before I did my grocery shopping.  It did make me think... hum, how about pizza for dinner tonight.  I really enjoy making pizza at home.  I picked up some fresh smoked mozzerela cheese, pepperoni and the Wegmans premade pizza dough.  I'll comment later to let everyone know how it turned out.

:) Rachel