Another Zachary's Run

We just got into Berkeley last night and headed straight to Zachary's to pick up two pizzas for dinner. Too bad (or maybe it's actually a good thing for my waistline) we don't have a Zachary's closer to home. It's basically crust, cheese and toppings, more crust, and finally tomato sauce and pesto.

Andrew ordered a pepperoni pizza with pesto, and I had my regular spinach, mushroom, pesto on a whole wheat crust. Each one of our large pizzas weight at lease 5-7 pounds, and I've estimated one slice to be almost 500 calories. Totally worth it!

Since we both ordered pesto (which is swirled on top), they look similar from the outside. This ones all mine!

Had to get a picture of the inside.

Got to go! Breakfast is ready... a slice of leftover pizza, of course. We're definitely taking a half baked with us when we leave. This is too good not to share with friends and family at home.

Best Sticky Buns in Toluca Lake

I think I can say that. Toluca Lake is fairly small, so the chance of finding someone with better sticky buns is probably very slim... unless they happen to be using Susan's recipe, too!

Our friends Dan and Micheal had never been to Palm Thai nor had they ever tasted my sticky buns. All that changed last night.

Assembled, covered, and refrigerated buns before heading out to dinner.

Baked them after we came back from dinner. Longest 15 minutes ever!

The dough proofs faster when not refrigerated but yields a gooier texture.

That's not necessarily a bad thing!

I've altered altered the recipe slightly by including brown sugar in addition to the regular sugar, doubling the cinnamon, and drizzling the top with butter before baking. Enjoy!

Susan's Sticky Buns Recipe...
http://www.ineedamom.com/stickybuns.html

Eat Your Green

Burning 1,000 calories or so on a 6.4 mile hike made me pretty hungry, so I treated myself to a half grilled cheese sandwich on cranberry walnut bread and half a Greek salad from The Oaks Gourmet Market in Hollywood. The cranberries added color and unique flavor. The vibrant veggies in the salad were dressed with olive oil and a touch of Greek honey.

After a somewhat decadent lunch, we decided to do a simple dinner. We paired some pesto Andrew made a few days ago with Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Gnocchi. The vegetable side was broccoli that had been in the refrigerator since Wednesday and needed to be eaten.

It wasn't until I started assembling that I realized it was green on green!

Hoping the avocados we got today will be ripe soon. A chopped salad with lots of colorful vegetables and homemade croutons can be so satisfyingly delicious.