Book Review: 150 Best Desserts in a Jar

Until recently, I was unfamiliar with the concept of dessert in a jar, but apparently it's a trend. And as trends go, it's not a bad one.
There's nothing new, I guess, about layered desserts, like parfaits, served in glass containers. So this is just an offshoot of that. The nice thing about it is that they present well, are fairly easy to make, and lend themselves to individual servings, so they're good when you have guests. There's also something less intimidating about making several individual desserts than trying to tackle one large dessert, where one mistake can doom the entire thing.
As a guide to this culinary species, 150 Best Desserts in a Jar is probably as good a guide as you're likely to find. Author Andrea Jordan, a food writer and cookbook author with 25-plus years of experience, takes the reader through "warm and comforting" desserts - think puddings, custards and cakes - through chilled treats like trifles, panna cotta, and, yes, parfaits. You'll find "adult" desserts like the inelegantly named but intriguing "strawberry, basil and vodka whiz," kid-friendly desserts like a peanut butter and chocolate cup, and one of my all-time favorites, tiramisu. There are also plenty of fruit-based desserts, which are perfect for our upcoming fresh-produce season.
As I've found with other Robert Rose publications, this book is well organized and illustrated, and the recipes are easy to follow. The bulk of its pages are devoted to recipes - not a lot of filler here - but the sidebars are given over to helpful tips and brief comments by the author. If you're tired of the same old chocolate cakes and apple pies, or would like to find some new use for all those Mason jars in your basement, 150 Best Desserts in a Jar is a fine source of ideas.
150 Best Desserts in a Jar
Andrea Jourdan, author
224 pages
© 2013, Robert Rose

Sal's Pizzeria, Ithaca

Ithaca is a bit far afield for a Rochester-based pizza blog, but my travels take me there on occasion, and I suspect that a lot of Rochesterians get down that way from time to time as well. The Ithaca area has a lot to offer, from natural features ("Ithaca Is Gorges," as the bumper sticker says) to its colleges and all that goes along with that - restaurants, nightlife, shopping, and so on.
And pizza. Where there are colleges, there is pizza.
And Ithaca is a college town. There's Ithaca College, as well as Ithaca's most famous institutional resident, Cornell University. I imagine that Cornell in particular attracts a fair number of students from downstate, who grew up on New York style pizza, so it's not surprising to find that style well represented in and around Ithaca.
I've also found that you don't have to go that far in the direction of New York City before you start finding a lot of New York style pizza places. Get down to the Southern Tier, around Elmira and points east and south, and NY style pizzerias seem to become far more commonplace than they are around Rochester. At least, that's my impression. (That may not hold true in Binghamton, which I guess has its own style of pizza, that I've yet to investigate.)
So anytime I'm in the Ithaca area, I'm curious to check out its pizzerias. Following a recent hike in the Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area, I stopped by Sal's Pizzeria, in southwest Ithaca. By way of background, I quote from Sal's website:
"Salvatore Melice came to Ithaca from Canicaitti Sicily in December of 1974. One year later he began working in the restaurant business. In 1979, he became a partner in Roma Pizzeria. After 10 years as a partner Sal decided that it was time to go out on his own and Sal's Pizzeria opened in 1989.
"Joe Tilton became Sal's partner in 1999. He brought with him 28 years of restaurant experience. Together Sal and Joe have over 50 years of experience combined."
That experience manifests itself in some pretty good pizza. My cheese slices (which were reheated prior to serving) were very thin, with some light charring underneath. The crust was crisp and a little crackly, and despite their thinness they had some breadiness inside, and an almost sweet flavor.
The slices were topped with a bright red, tomatoey sauce and stretchy mozzarella. The cheese seemed to have migrated a bit toward the center of the pie, but not too much, and as a whole the cheese was applied in good proportion to the thin crust.
Sal's offers 20 pizza toppings (including salami, which I often use when baking pizza at home), but otherwise keeps it simple, with just two pie sizes (12" and 16") and just four specialty pizzas, including the mysteriously named "Sal's Special." They also serve wings, pasta, subs, grilled sandwiches, a few dinners, and sides. There's free delivery after 4 p.m.
This was good pizza. It was close to New York style, but not quite like classic NY pizza - the cheese in particular was a little more unevenly distributed and, in some spots, thicker than I would expect from a NY style slice. The toppings weren't bad, and I enjoyed them well enough, but somehow they seemed not quite to match up to the crust, which I liked very much. So I can't give this an A, but it certainly rates an above-average grade, for a B.
Sal's Pizzeria, 220 S. Fulton St., Ithaca
(607) 277-SALS (7257)
Mon. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 10:30 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

McQuaid Jesuit

Yes, you read that title right. I'm reviewing school cafeteria pizza.
But not just any high school, or any school cafeteria. Let's cut to the chase - McQuaid Jesuit, a Catholic, male-only school, is not only a fine educational institution, it also has some of the best pizza around.
I discovered this through one of my readers, whose husband David DelGaudio runs the food program at McQuaid. I was skeptical, but figured, OK, why not?
It took a couple of phone calls to make arrangements - I didn't want to just show up one day and start wandering through the hallways, given our sadly necessary concerns these days about security - but I made it without too much trouble, and met both Dave and Director of Communications Sean Mullen, who guided me to the cafeteria.
I got there just before the lunchtime crush, and was very impressed by the wide variety of slices available. There were several thin-crust pies, from plain cheese to pepperoni and more, as well as a Sicilian pizza and something I hadn't run across before, panuozzo. This is basically a folded-over pizza dough with fillings inside.
But let me start with the thin slice. I went with a basic cheese slice, which was thin but not paper thin, nicely charred underneath, and supple, with just a bit of bite on the exterior of the crust. The crust was very good, but I think it was one of those that would be even better with reheating, to really crisp up the bottom.
There was some oil on the top side, from the cheese, but nothing excessive. The mozzarella was added in proportion to the thinness of the crust, and was melt-in-your-mouth creamy. A thin layer of basic, tomatoey sauce rounded things out.
Thin crust remains my go-to pizza, but the Sicilian here was a standout, with a bottom crust marked by a bubbly pattern that revealed its pan-baked character, but with no more than a slight feel of oil on the surface. The interior was chewy and breadlike, and the slice was topped with a generous helping of sauce and blistered dollops of fresh mozzarella.
Next up was the panuozzo. This cousin of a calzone is regularly offered here, but the fillings vary from day to day. On this occasion, the fillings were a basic pepperoni, sauce and cheese. The entire thing was baked as one giant loaf, and then sliced. The crust was nicely browned on top and bottom, and enclosed a steaming-hot interior, with smooth, stretchy cheese oozing out along the sides.
Dave informed me that all three of these offerings were prepared using the same dough and sauce, which made for a fascinating study of how the same ingredients can yield very different results, depending on how they're prepared and baked. And all three were baked in a large commercial pizza oven, with a gas flame in back providing some radiant heat.
My one regret is that I didn't speak to any of the students to get their take on the pizza. I got my slices at just about the time that the students swarmed into the cafeteria, locust-like, but minutes before I finished eating, they vanished just as quickly to go back to class.
But if any McQuaid students are reading this - you've got it good, at least as far as the food is concerned. I hope you know that. Not to sound like an old timer ("Why, when I was a lad ..."), but in my day, school pizza was pretty awful, although I suppose we still looked forward to it, given the alternatives. And I suspect that even today, few schools offer pizza that's even close to this good. If I were a McQuaid student, I might try to keep my grades down, in the hopes of repeating a year, just for the pizza. Something tells me it wouldn't work, but I'd consider it, anyway.
I could pick a nit here and there about this pizza. The thin-crust slice was a little pale along the edge (which also had a large bubble in it), and as I mentioned, it was a bit oily on top. But all in all, this was excellent pizza, well made, with quality ingredients, and it rates an A from me.
If you'd like to try McQuaid's pizza, it can be done. The cafeteria is generally not open to the public, but on school days you can order a 20-inch pizza to go; visit their website for details. A 20-inch pie is a lot of pizza, but I don't think you'll end up with many leftovers.
McQuaid Jesuit, South Clinton Ave. at Elmwood Avenue.
Pizza catering available on school days between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Merchants Grill

While my explorations have taken me to nearly all of Rochester's pizzerias, I've still got some work to do on investigating the area's bars and restaurants that serve pizza. And I've been trying to whittle away at that list.
So it was that I recently stopped by Merchants Grill, on its namesake road in northeast Rochester. It's a popular bar/restaurant serving food all day, till the wee hours.
And in addition to the usual bar fare of wings and burgers, they do pizza. So that's what I tried, sharing a pie and some wings with a friend.
My pepperoni pie had a medium-thick crust, which was very dark brown to nearly black underneath, and crisscrossed by screen marks. It wasn't particularly oily to the touch, but its color and exterior crunch suggested the presence of oil in the dough, on the pan or cooking surface, or both. The edge was lighter in color but also crunchy on the surface, though the interior did have some breadlike chew.
The pie was topped with a basic tomato sauce, with a straightforward tomatoey flavor, and an even layer of nicely melted mozzarella, as well as a judicious sprinkling of cup and char pepperoni slices. They made for a tasty, well balanced combination.
The pizza was OK, but, perhaps not surprisingly, I liked the wings better. They were meaty and well coated, but not drenched, in a medium-hot, classic Buffalo sauce. I also appreciated the inclusion of celery sticks, although I would've preferred them from the wider, root end than these skinny strips from the top of the stalk.
It's nice to see pizza as an option at local eateries that aren't full-fledged pizzerias, provided that the pizza is decent. And this was decent. I wouldn't say that Merchants Grill is a pizza destination, but if you go, consider gettting a pizza - it's not bad. The crust wasn't the greatest, but it was OK, and to the extent possible, it was compensated for by the toppings, which were flavorful and well balanced. If you were having this as an accompaniment to a pitcher of beer with some friends, I think this would be a perfectly acceptable bar pizza.  I wouldn't call this average Rochester pizza, but on balance, it falls somewhere in the middle, so I'll give it a C. 
Merchants Grill, 881 Merchants Road
482-2010
Open daily from 11:30 a.m. - 2:00 a.m. (food available until 1:00 a.m.)

Book Review: Easy Indian Cooking

There are certain ethnic cuisines that I just have to go back to now and again, and Indian is one of them. When I think of Indian food, I think of intoxicating blends of spices and other ingredients that yield complex, yet complementary blends of flavors and aromas that are a delight to the senses.
Probably like most Americans, though, my experience of Indian cooking has mostly been limited to Indian restaurants; I rarely attempt to cook Indian food at home. So I gladly accepted a review copy of Easy Indian Cooking from publisher Robert Rose.
Author Suneeta Vaswani, a native and (after some years spent in Houston, Texas) resident of Mumbai, knows her stuff, as is evident from the many tips found in the sidebars to the recipes. The book covers a gamut of Indian cuisine, from street foods to breads, meat- and vegetable-based main dishes, chutneys and sweets.
For the most part, the recipes are kept fairly simple, and though the ingredient lists can be long, there's generally nothing in them that you couldn't pick up at Wegmans, or at one of Rochester's Indian groceries, like this one or this one or this one.
You'll find Indian-restaurant staples like tandoori and pork vindaloo, as well as less familiar and vegetarian dishes, such as mussels in cilantro broth, potatoes with fenugreek leaves, and creamy broccoli curry. Not surprisingly, there aren't a lot of beef dishes here. When beef does appear, it's usually as an alternative to lamb, which is what you're more likely to find in Indian cooking, but if you want to use beef, the lamb recipes are easily adaptable.
As a home baker, and a lover of the flatbreads that you can get at Indian restaurants, I was especially interested in those recipes. The chapter on "Rice, Cereal and Breads" contains recipes for various Indian breads, but they're mostly either griddle- or deep-fried breads. Oven-baked breads are not to be found here. But any good, general baking cookbook should have recipes for those, and their absence is more than compensated for by the wealth of other Indian dishes found within these pages. Contrary to some people's impressions, Indian food is not all spicy hot, but I'm a pepperhead, and I was pleased to see recipes like "Fiery Fish," which Vaswani cautions is "not for the faint-hearted." Don't worry, you'll be able to cool your palate with a mango lassi or cucumber raita.
With 150 recipes, Easy Indian Cooking offers plenty to keep lovers of Indian food busy in their kitchens for a long time. And if you're a novice in this area, it makes for a good, user-friendly introduction to one of the world's great cuisines. 
Easy Indian Cooking, by Suneeta Vaswani. Robert Rose (2d ed. 2013). Paperback, 240 pp.

Santino's Pizza, Oakfield

Ever since I was a kid, I've loved looking at maps, and wondering what all those places were on there, and what they were like. These days, of course, you can virtually go anywhere on Google Maps, but it's hardly a substitute for being there. I'm pretty sure that spending a week looking at the Street View of Hawaii would not give me the same pleasure as spending a week there, in person.
So I still like to drive around and check out places I've never been to before. I always think, if it's your first time in a place, you're a traveler there, even if it's only an hour's drive from your home.
Which took me recently to Oakfield in Genesee County. I had to be in that area, and took the opportunity to pay my first visit to this village a few miles northwest of Batavia. Funny how some things stick in your mind, but I remembered hearing of it in 2005, when an 11-year-old girl made headlines by striking out every player she faced while pitching a Little League game. (If you're interested, here's a "what ever happened to" update.)
Of course, I didn't just go there to see Oakfield, nice as it may be. I also knew that - like any self-respecting American town - Oakfield has a pizzeria, Santino's, which had gotten some positive online reviews.
Santino's is a fairly large, bustling place, at least on a weekday at lunchtime, when I stopped in to try their pizza. They offer counter service, with a large seating area. They have pizza slices available at the counter, and I got two pepperoni slices to go, which looked pretty fresh.
The thin to medium crust was dark brown underneath, with a faint oily sheen and no screen marks. It was a good-looking crust, although on biting into it I found that it was not as crisp as I'd expected from its appearance. Firm, but not crisp.
The slices were topped with a thin layer of a simple, middle-of-the-road tomato sauce. The cheese, which seemed to be straight mozzarella, was quite thick, almost like double cheese. It had, unfortunately, congealed since coming out of the oven, which is one of the downsides of getting slices rather than a fresh pie.

A sprinkling of dried herbs was visible on top, adding a hint of oregano flavor and aroma. The thin slices of pepperoni were OK.
I could swear that I picked up a menu while I was at Santino's, but I can't seem to locate it. I'm not the most organized person around, so that doesn't surprise me. If I find it I'll edit this post to add more about their menu, but for now suffice it to say that Santino's offers a solid range of pizzas, wings and subs. 
As for this pizza, hey, it wasn't bad. The flavor was pretty good, and the crust had some breadlike aroma, even if it wasn't as crisp as I like. The cheese was generous, even if congealed and chewy. And with two slices plus a fountain drink for just $4, it was a good deal. All in all, this was decent, basic pizza, average small-town pizza (and I don't mean that in a pejorative way), and I'll give it a C.
Santino's Pizza, 2 Main St, Oakfield
Phone:  (585) 948-5266
Hours unknown, but it is open for lunch on weekdays

Tackles on the Bay, Hilton

With warmer weather here at last, many of us will be spending more time on and near the water, whether it's one of the Finger Lakes, the canal, Lake Ontario, or your backyard pool.
Or perhaps Braddock Bay, in northwest Monroe County. The bay (presumably named after British general Edward Braddock, who was killed in the French and Indian War) has had some issues in recent years over low water levels, but maybe that'll change this year, and it's still a pleasant place to get on the water without the noise and crowds of places like Charlotte.
On a short, thinly populated stretch of Manitou Road in Hilton, on what's either an inlet of the bay or a creek feeding into the bay, lie three bar/restaurants, within less than half a mile of each other:  The Willow Inn, Docksiders, and Tackles on the Bay. Bring a designated driver or boat captain and you've got a mini pub crawl made to order.
But that's not what found me at Tackles the other day. No, I was drawn here for the food, because, as far as I know, Tackles is the only one of these establishments to offer pizza.
Pizzas at TOTB come in 10- and 16-inch sizes, for $4.99 and $7.99 respectively, including two free toppings. I didn't need a 16" pizza, but with over two and a half times more surface area at only 1.6 times the cost it seemed by far the better buy (I didn't do all that math at the time, but I mentally did a rough approximation; what can I say? I'm a geek, or a cheapskate, or both). So I got a large pizza, with green peppers and onions.
The medium thick crust was a fairly uniform golden brown underneath, and was faintly oily to the touch. It had some crispness, as dough will when it's been baked on an oiled pan. Think of the sides and bottom of a loaf of bread that's been baked in a bread pan and you'll have a pretty good idea of what this was like.
The crust did have some decent fresh-bread flavor, though not much "chew." The minute air bubbles inside didn't indicate a lot of gluten development, so while the flavor was pleasant enough, the texture didn't wow me. Frankly this could've been made using a premade crust, which wouldn't surprise me, as this isn't really a pizzeria as such, and it seems unlikely that they'd be making their own dough from scratch every day.  (Also, when you see just two sizes of pizza on a menu, I think that's some indication that they're probably using premade crusts.)
The crust had also very visibly been "docked," meaning perforated with tiny holes to keep it from puffing up in the oven. Again, I don't know if Tackles uses fresh dough or premade "shells," so I don't know if this was done here or if they came that way from the supplier.
The crust was topped with a very smooth tomato sauce. Its consistency reminded me of Ragu® sauce from a jar. I don't like my pizza sauce to be particularly chunky, but this was a little too pureed and canned-like for my taste. It had a slightly sweet flavor that was not bad.
The mozzarella was well melted and very stringy/stretchy. There was also a distinct aroma and flavor of what I think was Parmesan cheese. It was very noticeable, though not overpowering.
Atop the cheese were a few sprinkles of what appeared to be parsley flakes, which is something I've never seen on a pizza. I suppose it could've been oregano or dried basil, but it had the bright green color of parsley, and regardless of what it was, no flavor to speak of. The peppers and onions were thin sliced and sauteed to a pleasant softness, which I prefer to veggies that were added raw prior to baking. Fresh vegetables are fine and all, but peppers and onions develop what I consider to be better flavor and texture when they've been sauteed.
I also noticed that the toppings didn't adhere well to the crust. When I lifted up the cheese to examine the top of the crust, it came off quite easily, and the sauce was also very easy to swipe off. Again, that indicated to me that this was likely a parbaked crust to which toppings had been added just before the pizza was put in the oven. If a pizza's made with fresh dough, generally the sauce will soak into the crust a little (which is why you need to get it in the oven fairly quickly after applying the sauce, lest the crust get soggy or start to stick to the pizza peel), but not here. So I'm thinking the dough had already developed a bit of a skin or crust on top when the toppings were applied.
Tackles offers a full menu of bar food (burgers, wings, plates, etc.) and more substantial options, with a heavy emphasis on steaks, seafood, and Italian specialties. It's a very pleasant setting, right on the water, with an interior accented by light-colored wood throughout.
The pizza? Well, I've pointed out some flaws, but none were that serious. The biggest issue for me was that, like a lot of bar or restaurant pizzas, it seemed to have been made on a prebaked crust (if it was made from fresh dough, I apologize, but it didn't seem to be), and it had the shortcomings of such pizzas - not a great texture, and toppings that easily slid off the crust. But the flavor was good, it was somewhat crisp, and the cheese and peppers & onions were good too. This wasn't bad, but it wasn't better than average, so it rates a C.
Tackles on the Bay, 372 Manitou Rd., Hilton
392-3370
Mon. - Fri. 11 a.m. - 2 a.m., Sat. & Sun. noon - 2 a.m.

Mama Lor's Gourmet Pizza Corner, Webster

Way back in July 2009, I gave Union Hill Country Grill in Webster what was then only my third "Grade A" rating.Since then, UHCG closed, much to my dismay, but the site is now home to Mama Lor's Café, which includes the Gourmet Pizza Corner, which is open Wednesday through Saturday. I recently picked up a pizza.
I got a medium, with green peppers and onions. I wanted some toppings, but I wasn't in a meat-eating mood. And peppers and onions make a natural combination.
Sometimes when a new name goes up, the only thing new is the name. But this was definitely different from the pizza I'd gotten at Union Hill. The crust was thinner, and the underside was much lighter in color, from very pale to a light golden brown. The texture was noticeably different as well - not as chewy, and more biscuitlike, with some surface cracks visible underneath.
The pie was topped with an even layer of smooth, melted mozzarella, sprinkled with diced fresh green pepper and onions. Sandwiched between that and the crust was a thickish sauce, marked by some herbal notes.
Mama Lor's pizzas come in three sizes, and they offer 20 toppings and seven specialty pizzas. The café itself serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a full menu that leans toward traditional comfort food. The dining area is attractive and comfortable, and while this may not be the oldest pizzeria around, it may be the pizzeria in the oldest building - the structure, which originally housed a post office and then a general store, dates back to 1865.
To be frank, I was a little disappointed by this pizza, but only because the pizza I remembered from the Country Grill was so good. But in fairness, this wasn't bad. It was missing the toasty breadiness of its predecessor, but the overall flavor and balance were pretty good. All in all, it was about an average pizza, so I'll give it a C.
Mama Lor’s Café, 1891 Ridge Road, Webster
Sun. - Tue.: 6 a.m. - 2 p.m., Wed. & Thu. 6 a.m. - 8 p.m., Fri. 6 a.m. - 9 p.m., Sat. 6 a.m. - 8 p.m.
(Pizza Corner open Wed. - Sat. 11 a.m. - close)
phone: 545-4895
email: info@mamalorscafe.com

Mama Mittsy's, Frontier Field

Certain things in life just go together, and baseball goes with hot dogs. I can't say I eat a lot of hot dogs, but when I go to a ball game, I almost always have a hot dog (brown mustard and sauerkraut, in case you were wondering).
But in the interests of thoroughness, I've wanted for some time to try the pizza at Frontier Field. Like a lot of ballparks these days, Frontier Field has boosted its food offerings. There's nothing particularly exotic or upscale--you won't find sushi or dry-aged steaks here--but you can get BBQ, roast beef sandwiches, and subs, in addition to more traditional fare like soft pretzels and nachos.
And there's pizza. I've held off trying it, for a couple of reasons. Number one, as I said, I generally go for hot dogs and maybe a bag of peanuts at a ball game. Number two, I figured it would suck. I assumed it would be convenience store-type pizza on a squishy, or crunchy/oily, premade crust.
But then I read that the dough comes from Di Paolo, one of Rochester's venerable Italian bakeries, and, anyway, I just figured it was time to suck it up and have pizza instead of a hot dog, in the interests of making this blog as thorough as possible. So when I attended a Red Wings game the other day, I got a slice.
On the whole, I was pleasantly surprised. And yet I have to give this slice a D. How can that be?
Let's start with the crust. The underside was heavily floured, and scored with screen marks. It was also quite pale, and soft. In terms of thickness, I'd call it thin to medium.
But I could tell that it was made from good dough. If you can imagine somebody being given very good bread or pizza dough and then cooking it at too low a temperature for too short a time, you'll have an idea of what this was like. It tasted good, and had a good, chewy texture, but it had been a disservice in the preparation and baking.
In contrast to the underdone bottom, the cheese was browned. I can see why the pizzamaker took this out of the oven when he did, given the brownness of the cheese. I could theorize, or speculate, about why the top would cook so much faster than the bottom, but for whatever reason, the top was fully cooked while the bottom still had a ways to go.
The flavor was pretty good. The cheese seemed to be all mozzarella, and though it was a little more brown than I would've liked, it wasn't hard or dried out.
The cheese also covered only a small portion of the slice; there was a large gap between the cheese and the outer edge. Either it hadn't been applied close to the edge, or it migrated during the baking process.
The sauce had good flavor, and was well balanced between tomatoey sweetness and tanginess. It did reach the border of the cornicione, but was dried out where it wasn't covered with cheese.
Finally, there's the price. I don't usually figure the price into my ratings, but $3.50 for this slice was too high to go unmentioned. I know everything at a sports venue (hot dogs included) is overpriced, but if I'm going to compare this slice to other pizza in our area, I think that deserves a mention.
So, this had the fundamental makings of good pizza, but it was poorly executed. I'm not blaming the person who made it - I'm sure he was following the instructions he'd been given, and was subject to the constraints of when to show up for work, turn on the oven, etc. But all in all, this was below average for local pizza, so I'm giving it--with some regret at what could have been--a D. For my next Red Wings game, I'm back to hot dogs.
Mama Mittsy's, Frontier Field
Open during Red Wings games