Food In The Fort

Would you know your fusilli from your orecchiette? How about the difference between linguine and fetucine? Maybe not, but I’d be willing to bet that you’d know pasta is delicious no matter what the shape. Still, if you’d like to impress your friends and family with your command of all pasta, great and small, then this fun and informative quiz is just what you need to shore up your shaky knowledge of pasta shapes. Alas, I only scored 71% but you can probably do better. Let us know in comments. Hat tip goes to Slashfood for this enjoyable time waster.

Photo credit: Rachel Been, AOL.

This is a great recipe which my mom made a lot when I was growing up. Besides combining spinach and tons of olive oil - two things of which I very much approve - this recipe is almost foolproof (and I should know) and has the added bonus of being quick. Anyone with kids can appreciate this combination. Anyone with kids who eat spinach, that is. Alas, I do not belong to that happy group. But I still make this recipe and the little buggers can have their spaghetti with butter. Read the rest of this entry »

As we mentioned in our review of Casa D’Angelo, the Casa family of restaurants’ salad is rather famous in the Fort Wayne area. So famous that at least three people have found Food In The Fort by searching for a recipe for Casa salad. Unfortunately, Casa’s salad dressing recipe is a family secret that the Casaburos are unlikely to share with these two bloggers any time soon so we can’t help you out. On the other hand, we were pleased to find that the Journal Gazette has been publishing this reasonable facsimile of the recipe that might, just might, be locked away in the deep, dark wine cellars on Fairfield Ave. Thanks to the magic of Google and Vicky for this recipe. Makes just about a quart (of dressing, not salad). Read the rest of this entry »

This past January Leo and I were in Chicago for a conference and had lunch at the Parthenon. That’s not a very creative name for a Greek restaurant, but the food wasn’t as cliched. In fact, it rocked. Or actually, it flamed in the case of the saganaki - opa! While we don’t want to go into a detailed review here, the Parthenon is excellent and should be on your itinerary the next time you’re in Chicago. The pastitsio there, Greek for “macaroni and cheese,” made such an impression on us that we wanted to try and duplicate the experience at home. We failed. But it was a glorious, cheesy failure which kept the dog in pots to lick for close to an hour. It also made an excellent breakfast. So here’s the recipe with some caveats: add salt, add hot sauce or red pepper and, by all means, add garlic!

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The Casa family of restaurants has been a Fort Wayne fixture for over 30 years. The Casaburos opened their first restaurant on Coldwater Road in October of 1977, but just a few years later it was claimed by fire. Adversity couldn’t keep down the Casaburo family, who purchased a property on Fairfield Ave shortly after and now they operate five restaurants in the Fort Wayne area. We decided to stop in to Casa D’Angelo on Fairfield this past Saturday for some authentic (and not to mention tasty!) Italian cuisine. Read the rest of this entry »

Just testing out our five garlic bulbs rating system…

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You know how sometimes you plan ahead and think you’ve got all your ducks in a row and all that but things still go south, way south? It was an experience like that for me on a Friday evening a couple of weeks ago. My daughter was having friends over (well, it turned out to be “friends;” it was advertised as just “friend,” but that’s another rant entirely). I was going to make this Thai chicken thing that sounded wonderful - peanut-crusted chicken with dipping sauce - and thought I was going to be so clever by chopping everything up for the breading the night before. Big mistake. Nightmarishly big mistake. Read the rest of this entry »

I loathe bus stations - terrible places, full of lost luggage and lost souls.

— The Doctor

I’ve always loved that quote from Doctor Who. Having traveled by bus a fair bit it certainly rings true for me. The thing is though, it could apply equally well to supermarkets. Well, not literally but the spirit of the quote applies I think. You see, I enjoy food and I adore the time I spend with Catherine cooking but I really detest supermarkets. It’s a bit of a running joke in our relationship how much I hate going shopping. Read the rest of this entry »

The Mexican Marshmallow Mire

A little bit of backstory is necessary here: I live in a dumpy apartment with a pathetic kitchen and insufficient cooking implements. How bad, you ask? Let me see: I don’t have a wooden spoon, I have this thing that looks like a paint stirrer, and my stove has two temperatures: “boiling over” and “is that on?” You get the picture. This set-up leads to a lot of improvisation on the occasions when I do attempt to cook there and, more often than not, culinary disasters of an amusing, if inedible nature. Read the rest of this entry »

I remember looking around a couple of years ago for a garlic mashed potatoes recipe and coming across a website called Eat Dangerously which was promoting a cookbook of the same name. I loved the site and eventually ended up buying the cookbook for myself and for my parents and a couple of friends. I have since lost my copy (a bunch of books went missing when we moved - if you find my copy of this book or Caesar’s Forms and Syntax, please let me know). You should definitely check the site out: it’s humorously written and full of delicious recipes which live up to the site’s “blow health out your ass” philosophy. They use heavy cream, they aren’t afraid of butter, and they know that seasoning food robustly is not a crime. All this having been said, this isn’t their recipe for garlic mashed potatoes, but I think they might approve. Read the rest of this entry »