Eating With Phil and Michelle

We found this recipe in an oxygen magazine. Although the original recipe called for pita we used pizza dough instead. Deciding to cook this at around 10 at night probably wasn’t the best idea. While the smoke alarm blared I ran around my house like a maniac turning on every fan possible, opening every door and window and waving my towel over the smoke alarm. After about the 3rd time of it going off I decided to rip it from the ceiling and throw it across the room. (don’t worry I eventually put it back up) While in the midst of all of this chaos I heard a loud “eeeek!” from the kitchen. What was that? I thought to myself. I ran into the kitchen to find Michelle frantically pouring cold water on her hand. “What happened” I asked? “Well I was trying to wipe up the oil and ooowww! IT BURNS!!” So thinking on my feet I grabbed an ice pack and some duct tape and well… 

This is why I am not a medic. So what were we talking about? Oh yeah… Pizza! So we decided to take garlic,herbs, salt and mix them with some olive oil and brush it onto the crust. We then baked it into the crust at 450 degrees for 15 minutes and then when the crust was slightly golden. We covered it in pesto,marinated artichoke hearts, grape tomatoes and feta cheese with a little mozzarella and placed it back into the oven for 5 more minutes. The flavors all combined well in harmony and made a wonderful concerto on our palettes. I would highly recommend making this again. 

Taste: 6

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Skill: Very Easy

In my opinion when traveling to someplace new you always choose the dumpier place over the fancy pants  restaraunts. Why is this? Because the dumpier looking restaraunts usually know they have good food and would rather spend their money on fresh ingredients or better quailty food rather then a sign or decor. I have not been proven wrong by this yet….. Until I encountered the Sicilian Spaghetti House in Lake George NY. 

The service: ♦♦

The Food: ♦

The atmosphere: ♦

We began our meal with the complimentary bread, nothing to fancy here just a regular loaf of bread and some land o lakes butter. I have no issues with land o lakes butter or just plain old white bread but this in my opinion is your way of greeting your customers flavor palettes and preparing them for the entire meal experience and I really felt no effort was placed in this. 

  THE SERVICE:  The place was not all that busy looking and the waitress seemed to be rushing us through our meal, a few times I found myself piling up plates because I wasnt finished with the previous dish before she was shoving the next one all up in my face.

  
  The SALAD: Iceberg lettuce with one choice… balsamic vinegar. Do you guys have ranch? Nope how about olive oil? Nope

THE APPETIZER: It was a good old caprice, I was absolutely expecting them to wow me with fresh basil, fresh mozzarella and fresh tomatoes maybe even toss some olive oil with some garlic, herbs and spices on there but unfortunately that was not the case. The basil was clearly not very fresh and had little or no scent to it, the mozzarella was not all that fresh and the tomatoes appeared a little soft and perhaps older.

THE MAIN COURSE: I ordered a chicken scarpariello dish with a side of house spagetti and sauce. I figured if I am going to Sicilian Spaghetti House I might as well try their signature dish. To start the chicken did not taste fresh it was hastily prepared and the sauce was not even traditional scarpariello chicken. Expecting a flavorful array of spices and flavors in my mouth instead I was greeted by a somewhat bland almost gel like sauce. no peppers, no onions, no garlic, no white wine. I could not make out any of the signature ingredients at all in this dish and they all appeared to collide and congeal into a concoction of food and to me thats an absolute disappointment. Lets talk about the spaghetti sauce for the SPAGHETTI house. I was hoping this would be the saving grace from this otherwise uninspiring meal. The pasta was cooked al dente. The sauce that covered this spaghetti was offensive though. For a restaurant with the name Sicilian Spaghetti House I would really have expected better spaghetti. A pasta sauce to me is comparable to an orchestra. You have the percussion which is the tomatoes, the spices and herbs which would be the wind instruments and the garlic and onions as the strings etc and they all come together and support each other to create a melody … the song in which this spaghetti composed was dull, boring and referring to the previous metaphor was more like a 2 year old with a teddy ruxpin banging on his moms pots and pans, cute although not moving or touching.

 
MISCELLANEOUS: I also tried Gasoso soda which apparently was some type of Italian soda. Word of advice save your bread and get yourself a sprite at the corner store its the same thing only 2 bucks cheaper.