Project Food Challenge: Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

Wow, just wow.  I've tried my hand at many different kinds of pizza, including New York style pizza.  Well, I figured, just to be fair, it's about time that I try my hand at the classic Chicago style deep dish pizza.  I must say, I was successful!  With a flaky, buttery, melt in your mouth crust, and topped with mozzarella, pepperoni, and sauce (in that order) it was simply incredible!  

Project Food Challenge: Shrimp Ravioli With Creamy Tomato Goat Cheese Sauce

What a treat this meal was!  Great to impress that special someone or to celebrate a special occasion.  Similar to going to a fancy Italian restaurant without having to deal with waitstaff, tips, reservations, or other diners.  This classic cheese ravioli dish has a slight twist when shrimp is added to the filling, then topped with a delicious and creamy tomato sauce that has been blended with parmesan, goat cheese, and herbs.  I'm not going to lie, this is a tedious meal, but the pay off is worth it.

Project Food Challenge: Margherita Pizza

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Off The Menu is very proud to present to you, our very finest culinary creation to date! The pizza pictured above is not any ordinary pizza, it's a very sastifying to the tenth degree Marghertia Pizza. Some of you may have adventured to try a Margherita Pizza and know that the texture and indgredients can surpass an ordinary pizza, no matter how good that pie may be. To be honest with you, we did not know if our special recipe would accomplish that but now it's safe to say, that it went above and beyond in doing that. It's definitely on our lunch or dinner menu for good and we feel like it will be on yours too. With that being said, we at Off The Menu would like to outline step by step and ingredient for ingredient, how you can make this exceptional Margherita pizza at home.

You Can Never Go Wrong With Cabbage Burgers

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Cabbage burgers bring me back to my childhood.  My mother used to make them all of the time.  Well, she'd make them every once in a while, but when she did make them, she'd make a ton of them, then she would put lots in the freezer.  We'd just pop them in the oven whenever we wanted to have cabbage burgers for dinner.  These delicious packets are quite time consuming, so that it why my mother would make a lot of them at one time.

Project Food Challenge: Shrimp Pad Thai

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I made this meal at the request of Chef Matt, he simply loves pad thai, and he wanted to see if I was able to replicate one of his favorites at home.  To my surprise, I got two thumbs up!  I was shocked that I was able to do as well as I did on my very first attempt at this noodly dish.  Previous to making this dish, I had never been crazy about pad thai; I just wasn't giving it enough of a chance.  I loved every single bite!     The wonderful pallet of flavors in the sauce, the crisp carrots, the delicious shrimp... it all made my taste buds so happy.  This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Project Food Challenge: Egg Rolls

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Egg rolls that aren't made from fresh ingredients (e.g. frozen egg rolls) taste that way: not fresh and manufactured.  I've never been a huge fan of egg rolls , and the reason is that I never really had one that was that fresh or made correctly.  This past weekend I tried my hand at making these fried rolls of goodness, and I must say, they were delicious.  They have been something that has always been on my culinary 'to-do' list for quite some time now.  I've always been somewhat intimidated by the huge list of ingredients and all the steps involved.  But as I completed this task, I learned that I don't really have any reason to fear this crispy side dish.  I will explain every step so that you too can make egg rolls that are savory and packed with so much flavor that you'll never settle for frozen again.

Project Food Challenge: New York Style Pizza

I know that there's nothing quite like a pizza in New York, but this hot and bubbly version of a New York style pizza that is topped with homemade sauce, cheese, and toppings of your choice (I'm a fan of just pepperoni) is sure to satisfy your taste buds.  This pizza takes quite a bit more effort than my quick and easy pizza night recipe, but the extra effort is well worth it!

On a side note, because this pizza is a real challenge and takes a bit more effort than regular pizza like I said above, I'm starting a new category of posts called Project Food Challenge where we showcase nothing less than the most challenging recipes to master. This New York Style Pizza would fit right in. So in other words if you're up to the challenge of making a difficult recipe, look for this category of posts...more coming soon.