[Removed off-topic/overly personalized material better suited to PM]

🍕 As far as Pizza goes, I have gotten Pizza Hut and Papa John's lately as our local Domino's has been featured on Local 10's dirty dining report due to a rat, then a roach issue that had them shut down by the health department. Our local PH dropped the Detroit Style Pizza due to low sales, so I never got to try it as my wife prefers thin crust, not even hand tossed with the fast food pizzas. Our favorite is Steve's Pizza (NY style) in North Miami, but the medium (six slices) one topping pie is now $15.95 and they don't deliver to my house as it is too far. I had Door Dash deliver one to me a couple months ago and it cost me $27.00, so my wife said, if you can't pick it up, then we will go without. We used to eat there and get slices until Covid. Since she has been vaccinated, we actually ate there on the way home from one of her medical treatments after she had not eaten because she had been fasting for 12 hours before the procedure which took 3 hours.

Is there no local pizzeria that you can get pizza from rather than those nasty chains? Italian restaurant or deli or just a pizza place? I agree that Doordash, Grubhub etc have gotten very expensive with all the add ons. Can't you still get slices from your favorite place and just pick them up curbside or a whole pie and eat if for a few days?

May want to use slicelife.com or the Slice app for local pizza shops.

You can never go back
 

My first experience with frozen dumplings was 15 years ago or so at Trader Joe’s. It’s been years since I’ve gone, but my wife stopped by recently, so I had her pick up a bag of my former favorite, TJ’s pork dumplings.

I decided to try them head to head with the Mandu Bulgogi dumplings from Costco. Both were cooked frozen, straight from the freezer.

The TJ’s dumplings were ok. My wife steamed, then pan fried them. They tasted fine, but nothing out of the ordinary. The wrappers held up fine during cooking.

Next was the Mandu. Prepared the same way. The wrapper did start to come apart a little while pan frying. The taste was far superior than TJ’s. I’d easily pay twice as much for the Mandu. Since Costco often runs a sale on them, I’d guess they can be up to 50% cheaper, on a weight basis than TJ’s. Huge advantage for the Mandu.

continued eschewing of king crab legs so...
bagel with lox & cream cheese
leftover pizza or fish tacos
veggie tray
beef Teton sausage with or without red cabbage


agreed about the pizza - carryout ftw when delivery isn’t available IF you have a car. Courier fees aren’t cheap. Courier services are great for buying a lot like 4 pizzas or food intended for leftovers; mostly non-deep-fried Asian food. Of course just do what works best for your meal at that moment :-)

Any chance we love Mandu because the name feels short for Mandulorian? :-)
agreed that they taste great - maybe because it’s beef and not pork??
I still have 99 ranch dim sum that I must finish before I buy more - Costco is convenient and tis tricky to buy when freezer space is limited.

I used to like the Costco Ling Ling Pork dumplings quite a bit. My Costco switched to just the chicken version now, which I don’t like as much.

I go with how it tastes, primarily. I used to think TJ’s was the best. Mandu is just really good. Always looking for something better, of course.

When dining out at PF Changs, I’ve always enjoying their dumplings. Even when they only had one restaurant, and called them Peking Ravioli’s.

My child saw the Elbow macaroni and made a request so different supper than planned:
nyt southern Mac & cheese
teton beef polish sausage
raw vegetable tray
rotkohl

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/...cipe-iOS-share


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Bacon wrapped dates on lettuce with blue cheese
boneless half chicken with cheesy gnocchi and spinach
Honey glazed pork chops with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus
warm butter cake with whipped cream and ice cream

I've saved this, but never gotten around to making it. Is it as tasty as it looks?

leftover Mac & cheese casserole (350 degrees for 10-ish minutes)
veggie tray
leftover panic pizza - olive - with arugula
mixed green salad

I’ve had an epic day - I discovered that one of my new FB friends attended summer school with me ages ago. They were pretty impressed when I asked about it. Super ramotional, so...
dessert of toasted safeway blueberry bagel, half butter and half Wise Sons cream cheese

side note - just saw a picture of facebook’s marc Z outside Wise sons on a weekend brunch day.

so tasty that my family had leftovers today for it. My child eschewed the cheddar bagel I brought for snack because of anticipation for supper. During the drive home from play date, my child asked if we could eat the Mac & cheese by 6 because my child was very hungry while still eschewing the adjacent cheddar bagel. My child even carried the plated bagel into the house from the car.

I know all the local pizza shops besides the fast food ones in the area. I have tried their slices, but just haven't found anything that is like Steve's mainly because they do two things I like. First, their sauce is sweet made from fresh tomatoes and seasonings, not from a can like most other places. Second they use 100% real mozzarella, not a combo mixed with imitation. It makes for a little more greasy pizza, but that's how I like it.

When I was a young lad just out of high school, I started working for a mom and pop place as a delivery driver. I learned how to make a pizza during down time, as well as how to prep all the pasta dishes, and other things. They actually grinded their own cheeses using a 75/25 ratio on real to imitation mozzarella. I was allowed to make pizzas to take home, paying 50% as was my employee discount. After about 10 pies, they then let me make a few slice pies. Finally, I got to the point that they allowed me to make pies for customers. My first pies were like footballs, as they were more oval in shape than round, but I learned. After working there for about a year, they had enough trust in me, that I filled in when the pizza guy needed time off and the owner, who would normally fill in on is day off, was not available. Also, when we got busy, they had me help out being a second pizza guy so we can get them in on a timely basis.

Finally,

I apologize to whoever I made a personal comment to that it had to be removed. I don't remember what I posted and wish that cbslaid would PM me so I don't do it again. I made a mistake and as always, like to learn from it.

Eaten as a salad or a lettuce wrap??? Either way, bacon & blue cheese is still one of the best combos in the world.

Last night, a tuna sandwich. No name dropping. No extravagant extras. Just tuna . I loved it.

more like a baby wrap held with a long appetizer toothpick; the lettuce piece is SEPARATE from that bacon-wrapped date, and at bottom of the toothpick. Picture a date that’s wrapped with a flexible piece of bacon... stick in that appetizer toothpick. While the toothpick holds the date, drizzle the balsamic or other dressing.

we actually have both dates and Turkey bacon. And lettuce and some creamy cheeses; I should try making them. Use the toothpick to both maintain the wrap shape PLUS for easy consumption. Very clever.

Last night's dinner was a baked potato with pulled pork from a local bbq place.