Beet Marmalade

• 1 pound of red beets, peeled and diced
• 1 pound of organic naval oranges, washed, quartered and de-seeded
• 1/2 pound granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup lime juice
• Additional lime juice, salt and/or sugar to taste
• Prepare all the ingredients as listed above.

1. Pulse the beets in a food processor until they have a fine, uniform texture.
2. Then, do the same with the oranges (leave the rind on).
3. Combine all the ingredients in a pot and add 1 cup of filtered water.
4. Simmer the marmalade on low heat until the water is absorbed, the beets are tender and the zest of the orange has lost some of it’s bite (about 30-40 minutes).  If the beets and oranges aren’t fully cooked when the water evaporates, you can add a little extra water.
5. When your marmalade has reached a thick consistency, taste it and add lime juice, salt and/or sugar if needed.
6. Enjoy!  This marmalade is great on roast beef sandwiches, with lox and cream cheese, on top of deviled eggs, or with soft-ripened goat cheese….

Monday night, we made an excursion to the Wedding Salon expo in Manhattan, and suffice it to say, it was quite an event!  Excuse the less-than-quality photos, we were too busy getting hustled around the Metropolitan Pavilion!

Table setting from Latona Specialties. 

This was a little shocking, Butlers of the Big Apple, a naked butler service? Sounds like a good bachelorette party suggestion!

Great convertible dresses from Twobirds! 

Beautiful display by Mimosa Floral Design.  

Grilled cheese is always great from Morris Truck! 

The spoils of the day!  Our giftbag had awesome goodies from Liddabit Sweets, the Wedding Salon, Bloomingdale’s, and more…

Last weekend, we hopped in a car and drove to New Haven, CT, to consume massive amounts of apizza pie, a pilgrimage that has been already been well documented, but we thought we’d give it a shot.  We were eager to get out of the city for the day, and we hit four top pizza spots in 7 hours!

Our first stop was Modern Apizza, and this clam pie with bacon whet our appetites for more…

Better yet, the check was only $40 for the ten of us!  Welcome to New Haven!

Louis’ Lunch is on a quaint New Haven block just steps away from the Yale campus, and across the street from our next stop, BAR.  Louis’ has been open since 1895, and claims to have invented the hamburger in 1900.  They still serve it the way they did in the beginning, on sliced toast.

This is BAR’s ultra-thin crust pie, as Lance kindly demonstrates below!

BAR definitely has the most inventive pies, like the mashed potato version we forgot to photograph.  More importantly, there is this bizarre, mostly naked pic of a Patrick Dempsey look-alike in the ladies’ bathroom…

…anyway, it looks like him after a few pitchers.

Next up, Pepe’s, one of the two most famous New Haven-style pizza joints.  

Pepe’s opened in 1925 by Neapolitan Frank Pepe.  They have several locations and fancy ovens, like this one.  Some say the expansion has led to their demise, but their pie was nicely charred and pretty tasty.

The pizza rush had us tired, and the lines were already getting fierce, so we took a breather at the bar across the street, where Marlon greeted us…

Crazy, amazing espresso machine.

Our last stop, but not least - in fact, the BEST of the day - was Sally’s Apizza.  DELICIOUS.

Tomato pie.  The crust was perfectly charred, not too thick or too thin.  Best of all, the tomato sauce was excellent.  It was worth the wait.

Tomato & Pepperoni pie.

Conclusion:

ALL of the pies were good, but our group consensus rated our four stops thus:

1. Sally’s Apizza

2. Modern Apizza

3. Pepe Pizzeria

4. BAR

Added bonus - good beer, good friends, and New Haven is utterly charming.

Last weekend, we hopped in a car and drove to New Haven, CT, to consume massive amounts of apizza pie, a pilgrimage that has been already been well documented, but we thought we’d give it a shot.  We were eager to get out of the city for the day, and we hit four top pizza spots in 7 hours!

Our first stop was Modern Apizza, and this clam pie with bacon whet our appetites for more…

Better yet, the check was only $40 for the ten of us!  Welcome to New Haven!

Louis’ Lunch is on a quaint New Haven block just steps away from the Yale campus, and across the street from our next stop, BAR.  Louis’ has been open since 1895, and claims to have invented the hamburger in 1900.  They still serve it the way they did in the beginning, on sliced toast.

This is BAR’s ultra-thin crust pie, as Lance kindly demonstrates below!

BAR definitely has the most inventive pies, like the mashed potato version we forgot to photograph.  More importantly, there is this bizarre, mostly naked pic of a Patrick Dempsey look-alike in the ladies’ bathroom…

…anyway, it looks like him after a few pitchers.

Next up, Pepe’s, one of the two most famous New Haven-style pizza joints.  

Pepe’s opened in 1925 by Neapolitan Frank Pepe.  They have several locations and fancy ovens, like this one.  Some say the expansion has led to their demise, but their pie was nicely charred and pretty tasty.

The pizza rush had us tired, and the lines were already getting fierce, so we took a breather at the bar across the street, where Marlon greeted us…

Crazy, amazing espresso machine.

Our last stop, but not least - in fact, the BEST of the day - was Sally’s Apizza.  DELICIOUS.

Tomato pie.  The crust was perfectly charred, not too thick or too thin.  Best of all, the tomato sauce was excellent.  It was worth the wait.

Tomato & Pepperoni pie.

Conclusion:

ALL of the pies were good, but our group consensus rated our four stops thus:

1. Sally’s Apizza

2. Modern Apizza

3. Pepe Pizzeria

4. BAR

Added bonus - good beer, good friends, and New Haven is utterly charming.

Just purchased this book, by legendary author Pellegrino Artusi.

From the Penguin website: 

Pellegrino Artusi (1820-1911) was an Italian businessman and gastronome. His working life as a silk merchant allowed him to acquire considerable wealth, which was used to fund his passions: literature and food. He self-published the now-famous Italian cookbook La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiare bene(The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well) in 1891 and sold over 200,000 copies before his death. Writing only two decades after the unification of Italy, Artusi was the first to include recipes from all regions of Italy in a single cookbook and helped establish a national Italian identity.

Nothing better than a springtime reading, on food!