Thursday at Tazzaria

So today is Thursday and my shift at Tazzaria starts at 4 pm so today I grabbed my pig tails that I smoked over the weekend and blasted to work early and as soon as lunch was done being served I set up a small work area.

I tossed the pig tails in cornstarch and dropped them in the fryer basket. I let them cook for a few minutes and they got just a little crisp on them. I tossed them in sweet chili sauce. Before heading to work I was trying to find some pickeled daicon to finish the tails off.

So I grabbed a bowl and LJ and I took them down stairs to my boss. We talked about what I should do differently but he had never had pigs tail. The awesome thing is that he liked them!! The truth is everyone who ate any of them liked how they came out.

This was an awesome feeling to do something cool and different and people liked it. I look forward to doing it again!

So it is almost 4 pm which means it is time to officially clock on and I already had my prep list for the night and on todays list....Gnocchi.

This is something I have only done one other times with the owner showing me how to do it. So today I made a batch x4 to make sure we have enough to get through the weekend. So I get on all my "mise en place" (look I used a fancy word).


Get the dough made and rolled out and Ryan takes enough for an order and then comes back into the kitchen with a bowl of gnocchi in a sage cream sauce and "here is your finished product". I will be honest......It was good, not dense and a nice texture.

Ryan even had LJ taste it....Even he said I did a good job. It even got back to James that I did a really good job on the gnocchi.

I think the rest of this work week I need to pay attention to Mike & Ryans  line so I can start breaking it down for them and learn where it all belongs......It was a good day at work.

Pizza Night At The House

Today was one of those days that all of a sudden we looked at the clock and it was 4:30 so we are trying to figure out what to do for dinner (this is a common occurrence on Sundays). I suggest I run over to Pappa Murphys or I can run to the market and get stuff for us to make out own pizza.What do we do? Head to the store!!

Our store of choice is Fresh and Easy in Reedley because we have found that compared to buying groceries in Dinuba,CA (where we live) we get better quality products. Before leaving the house first thing I did was throw a pizza stone into the over and turn it on to 450 degrees (yeah I own a pizza stone).

Some meat, chees and veggies

So here is what we picked up from the store...basil, heirloom tomatoes, uncured pepperoni and Daisy picked out a Sopressata salami. The cheese we used was a whole fresh mozzarella

We were trying to decide if we were going to make our own pizza dough and when I looked at the clock I knew there was not going to be enough time so the store has a pre-made pizza dough that turned out to be really good. Please know that I would always at least try to make your own dough. It is worth it!!

So I get the dough rolled out and the first pie get olive oil, fresh basil, mozzarella and both the pepperoni and salami.I also put slices of green heirloom tomato slices. Got it on the pizza stone and let it cook for about 20-25 minutes. Pulled it out and the crust was down and the cheese was nice and melted all over and you can smell the basil. Totally happy with the way it came out!! 

The second pie we did had a tomato and garlic topping instead of pizza sauce (imagine something you would put on a crustini). The wife put the peperoni, salami cheese and tomatoes on it. this was a little heavier of a pizza but I think I ate 3 slices of it.

This is the kind of dinner that can get the whole family involved where it is in prepping and rolling out the dough or just putting the ingredients together. Yay pizza!!!