©2008 Harry Kenney

Crostini. A sort of cousin to bruschetta, they mean in Italian “little toasts”. Funny though, the pronunciation sounds much to the English speaking person’s ear as “crust teeny” which would describe them equally well. Now I know I said I was getting away from the Italian food a bit, and I am, but, fact of the matter Italian food is such an integral part of the American food tapestry, I will always end up doing an Italian recipe now and then.

That said, the rest of this is certainly not in any way Italian. I topped it with Muenster cheese, an American cheese with an orange rind, and light texture and taste that is a great melting cheese. And to that I added a sliver of red apple. Supposedly one doesn’t don’t add herbs or spices on it. Hah, silly rabbit! I add a touch of garlic powder — not so much as to make it in any way a garlic bread however. And some dried oregano and basil. Where as for bruschetta I use the thicker wider Italian bread, for this I use the long and skinnier one. A French baguette would have worked just as well. Besides an obviously wonderful appetizer, I find, as I do with many appetizers, they also make great little “sides” accompanying a salad or soup.

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I love this town. I love it for so many reasons, too many, I won’t even get into cause I might not be able to stop. But one of the reasons is food, baby. Philly is hometown to so many foods, it’s just crazy. Probably first that comes up on everyone’s list is the Philly Cheesesteak. If not that, it’s the Hoagie. Whats a hoagie? Ever have something called a “sub” or submarine? Ever have something called a “hero” or hero sandwhich? Well, if so, they are just pale, lack-luster imitations of a hoagie.

What else? There’s the Philly pretzel. Much superior to those things they burn in NYC and call pretzels. There’s scrapple, a mysterious and wonderful substance — sorta like haggis, not in taste, in mystery — that is a wonderful alternative to bacon, ham and sausage as a breakfast meat to go along with your eggs. And then, to my surprise, there’s the stromboli.

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At last, some true “play time” with food. I let my inner child run amok and came up with a grown-up fantasy come true. This is, as the title suggests, what I consider to be my ultimate twice baked potato.

Well, almost. I couldn’t believe when I shopping the day before the party I could not find a good, large baking potato! Must be a Murphy’s Law thing. If I didn’t care, they would have been there at the store the size of watermelons. But no, the day I want to get a big bag of really large ones, every single bag of russets — and not an Idadho in the place — contained pm;u three inch and unders.

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Some things I put off trying (for a while) having convinced myself that the item, the recipe, the dish is too intimidating. Oddly pizza was one of them. I know, silly — such a simple thing too! I think I know what it is. Failing something complicated seems fine, but failing something simple seems wrong. Thing is often the simplest things are the most difficult. No shame there. Plus, some of my best successes began as failures the first time out. Long story short, at long last I’ve gotten to make homemade pizza. And you know what? Don’t you put it off like I did. You’re missing out on some fun and some good stuff here!

I’ve tried a few homemade chinese dishes, all worked out. Already have my steak quesadilla recipe up as well. And now pizza. Am I going to stop doing take-out now? Heck no. Am I going to stop buying DiGiorno’s? Nope, there’s still that occasional late-night pizza urge that hits me after the store has closed and when I just don’t want to do much work. Besides, I don’t know about you, but I like to be treated or pampered once in a while, and having someone else do the cooking for me is just grreat. And the second best is sticking pre-made in the oven. Especially the delcious self-rising frozen pizzas of today!

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I guess if I had to choose what was my so-called signature dish this would be the one.

This recipe wasn’t inspired by anything I saw elsewhere, just the ingredients at hand. I had a lot of left over ricotta and didn’t want to make another desert with it; in other words, I’d already done sweet, now I wanted to do something savory. There was chicken on hand, and frozen spinach too. Aha, florentine. The incredible sauce came about as an after thought initially when I had made way too much stuffing. And then the sauce was so wonderful it just had to be put on something, and thus came the idea for egg noodles as I was tired of putting things atop the usual pasta or rice, and the noodles seemed to lend itself better to it. (That said, you could substitute fettucini I’m betting, but still, how often do you have an egg noodle dish? So I’d still go with the noodles as my number one choice.) It’s my very own version of a classic and so rich and tasty, I tend to even over-eat this meal at times.

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Here’s a bit of a departure. This recipe uses pretty much all off-the-shelf ingredients to make a nice quick meal and a trip for the tongue to another country’s cuisine.

Yes, I like fresh. But I also like fast. So what happens when they conflict? Which one wins out? Pretty much the same answer as everyone else: When the difference in the end taste is comparitvely small and the difference in the time to make it is relatively great, then go with the quick one. (And conversely, if a little bit of increased time produces a much more tastier dish, then go with the fresh.)

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