Easy, Healthy, Tasty Homemade Pizza (Did I mention it tastes good?)

Growing up in Western New York, I was subjected to the beauty of really good pizza. After leaving Buffalo, I came to the realization that pizza just wasn't the same anywhere else in the world. This recipe that I am sharing is not going to come anywhere near the taste of a Buffalo, NY pizza, but it is still really good, cheap and healthy (if you choose it to be). One of the best attributes of this pizza is how quick it can be constructed. I love that the dough does not need to rise (although there is yeast in it) and is also very easy to work with. Here is the recipe for the dough:

3 1/4 cups flour (you can use all-purpose, whole-wheat, or any other type to suit your fancy)
1 package of yeast (the small .25 ounce packets that you can find in any grocery store)
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar (in case you didn't know, yeast eat sugar - so even if you are trying to save on calories, DO NOT omit the sugar)
2 tbsp good olive oil (if you have had your oil for awhile, make sure you smell it before you use it. If it smells like stale peanuts or just smells "off", it has gone rancid. In general, olive oil has a shelf life of anywhere between a couple of months to two years)
1 cup warm water (warm water is essential. Because yeast is a living organism, it needs warm water in order to "activate". Cold water will kill it)

That is all you need to make a decent pizza dough. First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Then you can start mixing! If you are lucky and have a stand-up mixer, then your job is very easy. Put on the Dough Hook attachment. Toss in all of the dry ingredients and give them a quick mix with a fork. Pour in all of the wet ingredients and start the mixer on a low speed. Keep going until everything is completely mixed and the dough resembles a smooth ball. Keep in mind that you may need to add more flour or oil in order to get the dough to a workable consistency. Weather wreaks havoc on dough!
If you do not have a stand-up mixer, buy one! but in the meantime, here is what you have to do. Get a large mixing bowl and toss in all of the dry ingredients. Then, take off your rings and bracelets (unless you want dough underneath your rings for all of eternity). Next, stir in all of the wet ingredients. Once the dough has come together, put some flour on your hands and start kneading it on a floured surface until it forms a smooth ball.

Once the dough is finished, spread it onto a well-oiled pizza pan (or cookie sheet if you don't have a pizza pan). Spread pizza sauce onto the dough. Here is a quick tip to save money: don't spend your hard-earned cash on expensive pizza sauce! You can easily make a great sauce at home for a fraction of the cost (unless you are a coupon hoarder and can get pizza sauce for cents on the dollar). All you need is a can of chopped or pureed tomatoes. Empty it into a bowl, whisk in some oregano, salt, basil, or any other spice, and voila! it will be as good as any off the rack pizza sauce! Next, put on whatever toppings you choose. Pop it in the oven for 20 minutes and there ya go (you remembered to preheat the oven, right?). Easy, tasty, and cheap pizza. Believe me, no homemade pizza can taste as good as if you were to order takeout, but this is a very good alternative. Try it out and let me know what you think!

Review of Restaurant De L'amandier (Libramont, Belgium)

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I decided to take a weekend trip with our dog to the Ardennes portion of Belgium. The Ardennes is famous for dense forests, beautiful scenery and tons of outdoor activities. Considering that we had our dog (who weighs around 100 pounds), we had to find a hotel that would accommodate him. Luckily we found one, The Best Western - L'amandier in Libramont, Belgium.The hotel is nicely situated and has plenty of parking. The rooms are clean and nice. But the real jewel of this hotel is the restaurant located inside of it.
We ate at the restaurant both nights of our stay. The first night we were offered the prix fixe menu (the only option available as there were no a la carte options) and a beautiful bottle of Sancerre. For my starter, I decided on an asparagus dish which featured a small round of asparagus jelée, diced tomatoes and steamed asparagus. Covering this was a small heap of finely sliced red cabbage. It was suberb - very light on the palate and refreshing. For his starter, my husband ordered the pan-seared salmon, which was served on a bed of puréed asparagus, a couple of cockels, a steamed crayfish and a small mound of caviar on top. His starter was large enough that it could have been the main dish. The salmon was cooked perfectly, and all elements of the dish really added up to a wonderful taste.

Asparagus Starter

Salmon Starter

For the main dish, I ordered the pasta with scallops and cockels. I have never tasted pasta as good as this. The pasta was prepared very simply - only with olive oil and a light cream sauce. Intermingled with the pasta were sea beans. I had never tried them before, but I think that I will make them a regular staple of our diet! It was such an amazing dish with tastes that I had never experienced before and the scallops were cooked perfectly. My husband ordered the steak with mushroom sauce (He is a self-proclaimed "meat-a-tarian"). His steak was served with a salad dressed in a balsamic vinaigrette and topped with shaved parmesan. Additionally, he was served french-fries.

Pasta with Scallops and Cockels

Steak with Mushroom Sauce

Dessert was the only sore spot of the dinner. I had ordered an interesting sounding "mojito sorbet". What I ended up with was a wine glass filled with rum and sorbet. It was not very good. My husband, on the other hand, ordered the "Dame Blanche", which is a very popular dessert item in Belgium. It consisted of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and a little pot of warm chocolate. His was delicious! But I should have known, as every time we go to dinner, more often than not, he orders better than I do.

Mojito Sorbet

Dame Blanche

The second night of our stay, we decided to eat at the same restaurant considering how wonderful the first night was. The restaurant's only option was to order the buffet. While there were some pretty neat items on the table, such as halved quail eggs laid on serrano ham, I would only rate it as mediocre. The food just didn't live up to the previous night's fare.

The one thing I really loved about the first night's dinner was the care that was brought to each plate. It was obvious that the chef had really thought out what he was going to serve. The use of seasonal ingredients was very apparent and the wine list went along very well with the offered items on the menu. I could not have asked for a better meal. Additionally, the prices were incredibly reasonable. For the prix fixe menu, which included an aperitif, starter, entrée, and dessert, the cost was only 24 Euros a person. The buffet was a bit more pricy, at 40 Euros a person, but it included alcohol.

I give this restaurant 5 out 5  stars for their Friday night service and 3 out of 5 stars for their Saturday night service.
Restaurant de L'amandier
Avenue de Bouillon 70
6800 Libramont, Belgium
0261225373
http://www.lamandier.be/index.php?id=30
Price: For 2 people eating the prix fixe menu and a good bottle of wine, expect to pay 80 Euros
Reservations: Necessary

Mykonos Garden Greek Restaurant Review

This past Friday, my husband and I decided to have dinner at a Greek restaurant that we had been meaning to try out. The restaurant, Mykonos Garden is located a few miles east of Brussels center. There is a nice patio and seating for around 50 people inside. Seeing as how it was raining heavily, we opted to eat inside (we had a reservation). I had visited the website earlier in the day and found that the prices for items were still listed in Belgian Francs....I hoped that the restaurant updated their food more than they updated their prices!
The decor is in the style of any kitschy Greek restaurant that can be found in any city in the world. There were the obligatory Grecian pillars and statues decorating the interior and exterior of the restaurant. While there is a lot of seating inside the restaurant, the tables are much too close together. When one person got up from a table, diners from other tables would have to move in order to let the person leave.

Mykonos Garden boasted a fairly long and well-priced wine list. However, the wine we ordered was not available, so we were brought a substitute which did not taste very good. My husband and I ordered from the prix fixe menu. For my starter, I ordered the Meze (a plate of different Greek foods), and my husband ordered the Calamari. When it arrived, my husband received 4 calamari rings and a bit of salad on the side. My Meze consisted of a meatball, stuffed grape leaf, a calamari ring, a suspicious-looking shrimp, and a couple other sides. There was way too much salt in all of the dips and the calamari - while cooked correctly and not chewy, had a very soggy beer batter-type breading to it.

Meze Platter

For our entrée, my husband and I both ordered souvlaki. When we received our dish, we were presented with a brochette of beef, orzo, and a side salad. The beef had not been marinated in any way, leading to it being extremely tough. I could only eat about 2 pieces of beef before I gave up and gave the rest to my husband. The only positive aspect about the beef was that it was cooked correctly to our requested wellness. Dessert was vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. Nothing remarkable about it.

Souvlaki

The service was bad - even for Belgian standards. We had no less than 3 servers during the meal. Our first server disappeared after serving us wine. After that, we had to order with a different server - whom we had to flag down in order to take our order. One nice aspect of the dining experience was the live Greek music played by two talented older gentlemen.

All in all, I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. I give this restaurant a 2 out of 5 stars.

Mykonos Garden Greek Restaurant
http://www2.resto.be/mykonos/
Tel. : 02.762.44.29
Fax : 02.779.23.86
Av.J.-F.De Becker 160
1200 BRUSSELS ( WOLUWE-SAINT-LAMBERT )
Prices: For 2 people with a mid-range bottle of wine, expect to pay around 70 Euros
Reservations: Needed for the weekend

Beer. (Need I Say More?)

I love wine. I have loved wine since I was old enough to drink legally. I also love mixed drinks (Bacardi and Diet Coke to be specific). Beer has always been around, floating on my peripheral. Beer would orbit around me in social gatherings or at quaint little pubs where there was little much else to drink. I would drink beer, and occasionally I would find a beer that would suit my tastes and I would actually enjoy it.
I moved to Canada, where beer is something that most Canadians absolutely love. I started to really "taste" beer while I was in Canada. Although, to me, Canadian beer is more like American beer times 10. In comparison to the rest of the world, America's standard beer (I am not talking micro-brewery) has a low alcohol content and also seems to all taste the same (at least to me) - which is why I never really got into it. In Canada, the beer is a lot stronger in both alcohol and taste. Then I moved to Belgium.

Moving to Belgium was an incredible eye opening experience to me in terms of beer. It seems as though there are more types of beer brewed here than there are people living here. There are a few websites where one can go to research and rate beer. My favorite beer website, Beer Advocate (www.beeradvocate.com) has a mantra: "Respect Beer". With the nine different styles of beer that are brewed in Belgium, it is hard not to. How can one not respect a country in which beer brewing has been around since the middle ages? It is serious business over here, and since arriving, I have tasted and learned more about beer than I ever knew about wine.

My favorite style of beer is the Trappist/Abbey beer. I love this style as much for the taste as for the history behind them. There are only seven Trappist beers in Belgium. They are: Achel, Chimay, Orval, La Trappe, Rochefort, Westmalle, and Wesvleteren. My favorite of the Trappists is Westvleteren, which has been brewing beer since 1838.

I love really dark beers. These beers have higher alcohol contents, but have amazing tastes as well. My favorite dark beer is the Westvleteren 12, which is also ranked as the best beer in the world. When you get a beer like the Westvleteren 12, it is not like drinking a Budweiser at the bar. It is something that should be savored. This beer should take a long time to drink, and one is enough. It should not be served cold - room temperature serving really helps bring out the different hints of flavors.

Westvleteren Beer

Considering how difficult it is in the U.S. to get Westvleteren (Last I checked on E-Bay, 3 bottles were going for around $130 USD), I am really encouraging all of my readers to head out to a local fine liquor store and buy a good Belgian beer. Good luck and let me know how it goes!