Food We Eat at Home

We made these dinners at home recently:

Almost-homemade pizzas: Ricotta, garlic, onion and spinach with olive oil on the left, and veggies (green pepper, tomato, zucchini and onion) with crumbled turkey sausage and mozzarella on the right

I was psyched about making the pizzas -- I'd been craving the ricotta one since I had it at Piece in Wicker Park a year ago -- but when I made it, it just didn't cut it. I'd never worked with ricotta before, and that might have been part of it; I used way too much, and I didn't invest in the good stuff. I really liked the deluxe pizza though, and the Italian-style turkey sausage was great! But for the time investment and the mediocre taste (my doing, but still ...), I can assure you I will not be making pizzas again soon.

 

Baked Amish chicken w/ paprika, thyme and salt n pepper; spinach with garlic and olive oil; and his own recipe mashed potatoes. Not pictured: corn chipotle chowder.

Brian made the above comfort dinner after I had a long, hard day. The Amish chicken was tasty, but nothing topped it off like his own-recipe mashed potatoes. He uses New potatoes and doesn't mash them entirely; he also leaves some skin on. Then he adds butter, a touch of cream and lots of garlic. Amazing.