Hi Dave,


 RH> Radio gathering was at a pizza place down in Cary. Steve and I had
 RH> afterward--bland. Sauce didn't seem to have any spicing in it, no red

 DD> One of my favourite pizza places has been sold and is currently being
 DD> renovated for re-opening. Bill Pope, the guy who bought Charlie
 DD> Parker's Diner (featured on Crazy Fieri's Diners, Dives etc.) and
 DD> listed as one of to best diners in the US .... bought Gabatoni's from
 DD> its original owner.

Hopefully he will be able to get it back on its feet and do well.

 DD> Gabby's quit all but drive-thru during the covid crisis and never went
 DD> back to inside service. They used to have the best thin-crust pizza in
 DD> the area. But, they changed the recipe and their unbroken string of
 DD> "Best Of" awards stopped when they did so. Bill tells me e has the old
 DD> recipe for their sauce and has hired one of the guys who ran the
 DD> kitchen during the hey-day to supervise and train staff. Hopefully the
 DD> quality
 DD> of the pizza will return and a coupl of my groups which met monthly at
 DD> Gabby's can come back and enjoy life again.

Sounds like he's got a good game plan. This radio group had met at
another pizza place, south of Raleigh. Pizza there had a thin, not quite
cracker, crust, better seasoning but we prefer a thicker crust. Steve
and I usually split a 10" with traditional toppings there.


 DD>      88

 RH> We were in our Wegman's yesterday--produce section had a tasting
 RH> station featuring a piece of Christmas pear and a piece of Scottish
 RH> Ceddar. Nice combo. Sam's Club had a tasting station of Cabot Seriously
 RH> Sharp (one of our favorites) and another Cheddar; we got a taster of
 RH> the Seriously Sharp.

 DD> I had to pull a gun on myself to keep from loading up on new tastes. I
 DD> did nore a couple that would wrk well in cheeseburgers or make some
 DD> specatcular toasted cheese sammiches. Later, maybe. I left with just
 DD> what I had come for and was feeling pretty chuffed with myself. Then
 DD> it dawned on my Ihad forgotten to pick up som fresh basil for the
 DD> stuffing.

Sam's Club was just setting up their tasting stations when we were
there. Guess they were aiming to hit people coming in on "lunch time",
saw probably 8-10 stations being prepped. Cheese one didn't have much
prep work so they were handing out samples early on.


 RH> Pre Covid, the Cabot outlet in Waterbury, VT (where we went on mission
 RH> trips) had a big table set up with about 16 different kinds of cheese
 RH> cut into taster bits, in cups with toothpicks. You could go around the
 RH> table picking all or just what tickled your fancy of the samples. Now,
 RH> since Covid, they have a stand set up with a person passing out samples
 RH> of just a couple of their cheeses.

 DD> Fortunately my local Sav-A-Lot maintains a pretty decent produce
 DD> section and was on my way home.   Bv)=

 RH> Handy; we have both Wegman's and Lidl "around the corner" from us, plus
 RH> fresh basil in the raised bed outside. (G)

 DD> I got the evergreens out from the front of the house. But the raised
 DD> beds (three 4' X 8' X 30" tall) aren't in - and won't be until
 DD> (probably) next February.

We put them in a couple of years ago, concentrating on herbs but last
spring did sugar snap peas also.

 DD> I foresee a bounty of tomatoes, chilies, bell peppers and icicle
 DD> radishes (which I never see in stores).

We got some in a mixed bag of radishes at the local farmer's market a
few times.

 DD> I'll likely never make this as written - but I may look into
 cutting DD> it down to use just one rack of lamb. And find a substitute
 for the DD> wine. DD> I'm not against wine in cooking. But I don't
 stock, nor drink it. So DD> ...

We buy small boxes for cooking only, usually a red and a white. Don't
use a lot at a time, just enough for a background note.


 DD>       Title: Roasted Rack of Lamb w/Icicle Radishes
 DD>  Categories: Lamb/mutton, Vegetable, Herbs, Wine, Citrus
 DD>       Yield: 11 servomgs



---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... It isn't hard to meet expenses...they're everywhere!

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