Good Pizza

One of the things that I've been tempted to do is go to all of the pizza restaurants in the Twin Cities area and review them all.

One of the better pizza restaurants I've been to in the Twin Cities is Sammy's Pizza & Restaurant in Coon Rapids. It's one of the best pizza crusts that I've ever had, nice and crispy. And they've had good, unique kinds -- I've had Taco pizzas before, but they also had an excellent Gyro pizza.

Very very tasty.

Pizza is one of those things that has a lot of the delivery chains that have become really common -- and some of those chains are even pretty decent -- but the best pizza isn't the big chains, but the unique ones.

Mongos Grill

I had dinner at Mongos Grill tonight up in Maple Grove -- and I'm exceptionally happy with it. It's a Mongolian BBQ with a great variety of flavors and ingredients -- I went for multiple bowls, and each time it had a very different flavor and style; with some a spicy bbq mix, to a wrap, to a breakfast-style ham, cheese, and egg mix. We went with a rather large group, and they handled us with efficiency.

I'll certainly be back -- and I'd be thrilled if they added a location in the Bloomington-to-Eden Prairie area, as I'm not up in Maple Grove all that often -- but I'll make a trek for it, and I certainly hope they are around for a while.

Pizza Pizzaz

There've been a couple of blog entries about pizza makers like this one for Pizzaz recently, and I had to stand up for it. A couple of years ago I picked up one as that has been one of the main things that I use an oven. And for your basic frozen pizzas, I've generally been very happy with it, and it definitely doesn't heat up the room in the way that this article describes.

But for the price of the device -- and at Amazon it runs you about $35, I'm quite happy with it given the number of frozen pizzas that I'm likely to go through.

The Joys of an Ice Cream Maker

One of the things we picked up this holiday season was a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker, and I'm an immediate fan. My childhood memories of ice cream makers were the old manual hand-cranked kind; and while they're fond memories, it took FOREVER to make ice cream. And it was a lot of work, and messy as it was turning a crank, with ice and salt everywhere. I suppose that meant you earned the calories that would be in any result, but not something that you could really do with any regularity.

But this machine is astonishingly fast -- it's quick enough that you can start the machine running after dinner, and it'll be ready in a half hour or so -- just long enough so you've digested your main meal, and are ready for a dessert. And it is portable enough that you can bring it to a party, and it's not terribly expensive -- especially when you consider the price of your higher-quality ice cream.