I made lima bean soup out of left over lima beans with celery,carrot,and onion and added some left over rice,cooked the vegetables in chicken stock first then added one half can of tomatoes and used the rest of the chocolate cake cut up in small pieces layered up with cool whip and white chocolate pudding to make a trifle.

I made snapper last night, but I may need to find a better recipe, it was kind of bland and possibly overcooked. (I normally cook salmon for me and orange roughy for my wife, because she doesn't like salmon and I think orange roughy is boring.)

Lol Mike I can see the way I wrote that out can be confusing 🙂

Last night, I braised pork chops and made French fries as a side.

Many East coast pizza fanatics say it is 90% about the crust and 10% about the toppings. I tend to disagree, but I lived in Chicago for a number of years, and Chicago pizza is really about the toppings. (I think that's why Peter Reinhart didn't really understand the Chicago pizza scene when doing the research for his book American Pie.)

If there's enough olive oil in a crust to be able to taste it, IMHO that's way too much! But I seldom cook with olive oil, because a friend is allergic to it and we're not really all that fond of the flavor.

Hmmm. The East Coast trend to think about crust is relatively new. People used to look at me like I was crazy for making a slow rise crust. The other thing about East Coast - whether it's New York, New Haven, or Boston (which tends to be Greek-style) is that not only do they put olive oil in the crust, they douse their pizzas with olive oil after it bakes. They are usually way too greasy. My town probably has one pizza place per person, especially if you count the grocery stores that make their own pizza on the premises. None of them are worth going to. The latest one in town sent their exec chef to San Antonio to learn to make pizza. They have fancy toppings. And a big bar.

I'll get around to trying it at some point.

I always thought Chicago was about the whole pizza and I like it because it has more diversity than any place else I've ever been.

Growing up in Chicago I have learned how fortunate I was as far as pizza was concerned. The further I would be from Chicagoland the worse the pizza got. Now I understand why mediocre franchised pizza can be so successful. The thing that amuses me is when you hear people talk about Chicago style pizza they automatically think about the deep dish pie. I believe most Chicagoans eat thin crust. Of course I do like a properly made deep dish pie too. My first experience with deep dish was My Pi on Sheridan Rd across the street from Loyola University.

5 styles of Chicago pizza? I can think of thin (varying degrees of thinness), stuffed and deep dish. There is thick crust sometimes called pan pizza, something I have never cared for, so that makes 4. What else am I missing?

To me the thing about pizza is, regardless of style, the crust, sauce and toppings all have to be good, if any one of those lets you down then the pizza is a failure. I strongly agree with the slow rise method for pizza dough. I have been using the America's Test Kitchen recommendation, which is to use very cold water, a bare minimum amount of yeast, ferment in the fridge and do it all at least 24 hours in advance.