Buffalo Chicken Pizza

So if you live in Southern California, perhaps you've heard of Oggi's Pizza. If not, you're missing out on a great little pizza and brewery with a delicious menu. Since Abbey's been born we don't get out as much as we used to, but our cravings for our favorite goods hasn't really subsided, so I've gotten pretty decent at copycatting recipes that we can enjoy at home for less money and less calories! Enter Oggi's Slam Dunk Buffalo Chicken Pizza! My version is less like Oggi's and more Charlie friendly, but it's still a pretty amazing substitute. Feel free to add or subtract toppings as you wish, but please, give this a try sometime this summer. It goes great with blue cheese or ranch.

Pizza Gourmet Express

Gary lives just a block or so East of the adorable heart of University Heights in San Diego, which leads to us trying lots of pedestrian friendly restaurants and bars in the vicinity. One such place is our new favorite "neighborhood pizza joint", Pizza Gourmet Express which hails itself as just that.

I walked over to get a pizza last night, and as I snapped a few pictures I heard, "Oh! Another Yelper!" to which I explained that I wasn't a Yelper, and I had my own food blog, not that being a Yelper is a bad thing, I just already have too much on my plate, ya know?

Pizza Gourmet Express

4615 Park Boulevard
San Diego California 92116
(61...

PEG is kinda like the "Subway" of pizza restaurants, an assembly line of fresh ingredients made fresh to order right in front of your eyes and either taken home to cook yourself, or flash baked in their high speed pizza ovens. Gary and I met the owner, James, who is super nice, awesome and informative. He said he'd stop by and see what I had to say, so... HI JAMES!


We got our old standard, the Vegetarian Pizza, which comes with 4 veggie toppings of your choice. We opted for tomatoes, garlic, artichoke hearts and fresh asparagus, on their thin whole wheat crust, then topped with fresh basil and spices. A lot of times I'll forgo the "whole wheat" options, cuz I don't like eating cardboard, but PGE's 51% whole wheat crust is thin, nutty and still soft which makes it a great camouflaged "healthy" option for those of you trying to watch what you eat without giving up taste. Plus their dough is made and delivered fresh! DELISH!

I also love that they have glass bottled sodas, wines and beers, and even Virgil's Root Beer ON TAP!


Pizza Gourmet Express is also doing their part in the Green Movement and deliver their neighborhood pizzas on a cute red bike! I got mine delivered by a cute bearded man.


We got the pizza home and I immediately began snapping pictures of the deliciousness that was our dinner. A large vegetarian pizza has 8 slices and feeds 2 hungry people with enough left over, for well, left overs and runs you just under $16.



Gary got to eat the rest for dinner the next night.


The month of September has affectionately been dubbed, "Nostalgia Movie Month" so we accompanied our pizza with The Dark Crystal on DVD. GELFLING!?!?

(source.)

Feel free to join us by watching movies from at least 15 years ago that make you say things like, "OH yeahhh!! I forgot that part!"

Up next in our queue is; "The Never Ending Story"

A Taste of Italy

I started out this morning with an Acai Smoothie and a Bowl of Oatmeal. I changed the oatmeal up a bit by adding in some raw almonds while it cooks, gotta love those MUFAs.


Then later on, Kristi and I met up later at Starbucks for some Passion Iced Tea and we decided to try the place next door, A Taste of Italy. For what you get its pretty pricey, but the food is very good. This isn't just your average run of the mill Italian restaurant, they charge close to $16 for a Chicken Caesar Salad, which I think in economic times like this, is pretty ballsy. They do however have decent lunch deals and a GREAT takeout special for a large pizza with 2 toppings that will run you about $14, and it is DELICIOUS!!!


We opted for the Pepperoni and Garlic for our two toppings, but they have loads of really great choices like artichoke hearts, pineapple, basil, zucchini, sun-dried tomatoes and even breaded eggplant. The cheese was gooey and delicious, and the crust was soft, yet held up its end of the deal to not dump hot food in your lap. Honestly the next time I want pizza, I will probably go there, I just wish they sold it by the slice. Hey Taste of Italy, I hope you read my blog!

Sammy's Woodfired Pizza

So last week I met up with an old friend for lunch and catching up, and after hemming and hawing over where to go, one mention of Sammy's Woodfired Pizza and it was decided.

Becca and I enjoying our friendship.

Sammy's started in San Diego in 1989, but I wasn't privy to their delicious food until 2001 when I went to the downtown location with my friend Josh for dinner. I had forgotten about Sammy's until recently when my mom and I went to meet some old family friends there for lunch where I serendipitously found myself staring at their new revamped menu which included gourmet salads and an extensive tapas list.

Sammy's Woodfired Pizza
Various Locations in
Southern California and Las Vegas

Rebecca and I started off with some of those awesome tapas. We ordered the Lebni Mediterranean Cheese with grilled herbed flat bread, and an order of their Hummus, which came with the same bread.

Lebni Mediterranean Cheese with grilled herbed flat bread.

The cheese is sometimes a bit too much if you've never had it. It's almost like a cross between sour cream and cream cheese, as it's soft and a bit tangy. They have really good hummus, pretty smooth and not too garlicy.

Nomming on tasty cheese.

The best part of these, is that they are so big you will have more than enough for leftovers to take home for later. I had my left overs with my salad later that night with dinner. I just threw the flat bread into the toaster oven to warm and crisp up those edges again and it was perfect.

Hummus with grilled herbed flat bread.

I got a half order of their Chinese Chicken Salad. It's made with cabbage and bok choy and it's got lots of veggies and mandarin orange slices. Their dressing is light and flavorful and they order half and full sizes for sharing. The half salad is large enough for lunch or dinner, and I even had extra left over.

Chinese Chicken Salad.

Bec went with the Thai Chicken Pizza. It comes topped with Thai Chicken, Julienne veggies, peanuts, lime juice and a spicy Thai peanut sauce. I'm pretty much a purist with pizza, and I am not too keen on these fancy "gourmet pizzas", but I tried a slice of this and it wasn't too bad.

Thai Chicken Pizza.

Becca's friend is a waitress here and she gave us a free Messy Sundae since Becca told her I was going to blog and review the restaurant. It's not just a clever name.

Messy Sundae.

This big ol' Messy Sundae was pretty much the end all to be all of the meal and frankly we didn't think we could get through it until we dug in.

I can haz a messy sundae?

The monster is topped to the hilt with fudge, caramel , whipped cream and walnuts.

Bec and I dig in and indulge.

We ate a lot of whipped cream and toppings before we hit ice cream, but Bec is expecting and is due in May and the baby really enjoyed the sundae. You can create you own Origami Messy Sundae here.

Most Sammy's locations are in San Diego, with a few in the Los Angeles Area and a bunch in Las Vegas.

California Pizza Kitchen

California Pizza Kitchen, despite it's name is practically everywhere, you can even find frozen pizzas in most grocer's freezers. Brian and I decided to go to CPK simply for the fact that it was beside Trader Joe's and we were hungry after shopping. This is what we got...

For a pizza joint, CPK has very yummy hummus. It comes with soft warm pizza-pita triangles. Once we finished all our pizza bread, Brian ate the left overs with a spoon.

Tuscan Hummus; white beans puréed with sesame, garlic, lemon and spices.
Garnished with fresh Roma tomatoes, basil and garlic. Served with warm pizza-pita bread.

Then we shared a thin crust, Neapolitan Style Margherita Pizza. The Margherita Pizza is my favorite one, and thankfully Brian really likes it too.

Made with imported Italian tomatoes, Mozzarella and fresh
Mozzarella cheeses topped with fresh basil and Parmesan cheese.