Federichi's

I'm not a picky eater, right? I really don't think I am. I like everything. Well, everything except for mushrooms, olives or pork. Three foods out of like a bazillion is pretty good in my eyes.

Except of course when you're invited out for pizza.

"Hey Erin, what kind of toppings do you like?"

"Oh, anything...well, anything except for mushrooms or olives"

*awkward silence denoting that everyone else at the table's favorite toppings are mushrooms and olives

"That's okay, how about sausage"

"Suuuuure, sausage sounds good"

*trying desperately not to sound picky, even though dammit I should have said sausage first

Which is how I ended up with my own pizza.

"How about an appetizer, the stuffed mushrooms look good"

*headdesk

Spinach and Cheese Unstuffed Shells

Did you know there are different sized pasta shells?


I did not.


So of course I purchased the oddly inconvenient middle sized shells.


I decided to go more of a baked ziti route, and layered the boiled shells with sauce, cheese, and garlicky sauteed spinach.


I popped it into the oven and they actually stuffed themselves!

Harold's New York Deli

Predictably, I'm pretty addicted to food shows. They make me irrationally confident in things I clearly have no experience with. Sure I can use a liquid nitrogen tank to make ice cream without freezing my face off.

One of my favorites is Man vs. Food because of course I believe I would be able to hold my own against Adam. Eighteen pounds of sushi? Bring it on. 300 Ghost Chilies? Give me a challenge.

But I digress...While staying in a hotel, Dan ran out one morning to get us breakfast from a nearby deli, this nearby deli.

Featured in Man vs. Food



Yeah. Not knowing this ahead of time, Dan orders us two breakfast sandwiches.

The Jersey staple, Taylor Ham and Egg on a Hard Roll. (This is my flog, so it is Taylor Ham. It will never be pork roll. Ham is classy, Taylor Ham, Taylor Ham, Taylor Ham.)

I couldn't really capture how big the thing was, but trust me, it was a bowling ball, a delicious, greasy, bowling ball. If a sandwich usually comes with one slice of meat, this had eight, most of which I had to pluck off to be able to eat it because, you know, I'm healthy like that.

Spinach Lasagna

I may be alone in considering Lasagna to be a quick weeknight dinner, but since I have never learned to make it the old-fashioned way, my no-recipe, slap-dash way is easy as all get out!

This may have been my tastiest lasagna yet, unfortunately, it's a little sad looking, because I scrimped on the layers.



No Recipe Spinach Lasagna

1. Spread jarred tomato sauce in the bottom of your baking pan.

2. Mix together ricotta and cottage cheese (about 1 cup of each), one package of thawed spinach, a good sprinkle of Parm. cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg and garlic powder.

3. Layer no boil lasagna noodles on the sauce-covered pan, then top with a layer of the cheese mixture, noodles, sauce, and keep going until you run out. Top the the whole thing off with more sauce, and mozzarella cheese.

4. Bake until hot and bubbly.

Just a little thin, it's still good.