2023 Week 32/33 – Pizza Pizza!

What’s Going On:
I missed the weekly post again last weekend, so it’s another double post this time around. We’ve been very fortunate with the weather this summer, but that’s about to come to an end this week, with temps hitting 99 degrees on Wednesday and 102 on Thursday (ouch).


What I’m Eating:
I’m a big fan of J. Kenji López-Alt. To me, he’s like a modern-day Alton Brown. When I read that he successfully made pizzas with flour tortillas, I had my doubts, but given his track record, I decided to give it a try

Extra-Crispy Bar-Style Tortilla Pizza Supreme

I already had the tortillas and cheeses in the fridge, so I needed some pizza sauce and pepperoni to try this. 10 minutes later, I ate one of the best thin-crust pizzas I have ever had. You can’t get much thinner than a flour tortilla, and the way it crisped up was beyond belief. I give this a 10/10 and even made it again the following night. If you like thin and crispy pizza, this recipe is for you!


I ran some errands in the Carmel area last week and decided to swing by Greek Tony’s for lunch. It had been a while since my previous visit, and from the memorials on the wall, some of the original owners had passed away. The children of the original owners (now adults) are running the place, and it has not changed a bit. I ordered my usual, the Hot Italian Sub.

This sandwich is unlike any other sub I’ve ever tasted, and it’s retained that unique flavor for over the 25 years I’ve been ordering. I think it’s the combination of the capicola and creamy Italian dressing layered with melted pizza cheese in a freshly toasted hoagie roll. And it ALWAYS comes with 3 pickle chips. That little detail has always amazed me: just 3 pickles, every time.


Where I’ve Been:
Last week, I stopped by the Mash House at West Fork Whiskey for appetizers and a cocktail. It’s down the road from the Indianapolis Colts Training Camp at Grand Park in Westfield. I didn’t take any pictures of the Pork Rinds with Pimento Cheese and the Hush Puppies with Maple Butter, but given how much we enjoyed the place, there is no doubt we’ll be returning to try more of the menu.


What I’m Watching:


What I’m Reading:


And Finally…
Driving The New Fastest Car Ever Made!

2023 Week 21 – Sniff

Just in time for the holiday weekend, I somehow picked up a head cold. I started getting the throat tickle Thursday afternoon and had a full-on sore throat by bedtime. I thought it was going to turn into strep, but the throat felt better the next morning, although my sinuses were on fire. Friday night was one of those sleep/wake up/sleep recurring themes, but by Saturday morning, I at least had my appetite and taste mostly back. I credit the Tylenol and Alka Seltzer for helping to control the worst of the systems and helping me get back on my feet by Sunday morning.


We’ve become big fans of BJ’s Wholesale Club since it opened up the road. We love the shopping experience (it’s never been crowded), and the prices are very competitive with the other big box stores. We picked up a raised flower bed for a good price and turned it into an herb garden on the back porch. Finding the herbs proved to be a little bit of a challenge as the pop-up nursery we visit every year at Hamilton Town Center was left with scraps. We ventured over to Allisonville Nursery (now owned by Sullivan Hardware) and found everything we wanted at slightly higher prices than the pop-up) I’ve always wanted to try using a raised bed, so we’ll see how it goes this year.


I made a random stop at Trader Joe’s about a month ago (I never can seem to get that place in a regular rotation) & picked up a few new things, including the Trader Joe’s Organic Jumbo Cinnamon Rolls. These sat in the fridge for a few weeks before I broke them out of the pop-tube and baked them up on a Sunday morning. These things are GOOD! Not too sweet, nice and fluffy, with a great cinnamon swirl running throughout. I’d take these over the hassle of making homemade most of the time. These are worth keeping in the fridge for those cinnamon bun emergencies we all have from time to time.


The Night Agent on NetFlix was a fun watch. It’s about an F.B.I. agent who works late at the White House, taking emergency calls from field operatives. It moved quickly, and the ten 30-minute episodes went by quickly, leading to the exciting season finale. It’ll be interesting to see if they make another season.


The Best BBQ Chips: The United States of Barbecue Chips. This was a fun review to read from America’s Test Kitchen where they mail-ordered chips from all over the country to determine who had the best BBQ Chip.

BodyGuards just released their $79.99 Apex Screen Protector. I kid you not, $80 for a mobile phone screen protector! I’ll keep an eye on these & maybe pick one up when they go on clearance in a year or so…


And finally… I usually put a video in this segment but decided to use a picture this time around. The image below shows all the helicopter traffic in the area after the Indy 500. LOTS of people being shuttled to the regional airports (Westfield, Fishers, Mt. Comfort). The icon with the 3 props (under the Lawerence label) is a DHS hello out of the Chicago area that spent the weekend in Indy circling various areas doing who knows what.

2022 Week 48 – Gobble Gobble, Sniff Sniff

The holidays have officially started, with Thanksgiving being last Thursday. As is the annual tradition at IndyScan.com, we like to share the Ode to Thanksgiving from a 2004 post by Mr. John C. Dvorak, who claims Thanksgiving is an artificial holiday created by none other than President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. I was visiting family over the holiday, and one of the first-year college students had heard the same thing & helped me tell the tale. So what do you think? Do you believe what you were taught in school, or does the Lincoln story make more sense? Leave your comments below.


A friend at work turned me onto a new recipe site run by an Egyptian lady that’s all about Mediterranean Cooking. The Mediterranean Dish has a LOT of great recipes and some new twists on old classics, like Easy Homemade Chicken Shawarma using a sheet pan.

Image from lemonblossoms.com

I ended up coming down with ANOTHER head cold over the weekend. First time I remember being sick twice in such a short period of time. After picking up some additional medicine, I noticed something concerning…

I always buy Mucinex Sinus-Max for head colds. It works well for me. I went to take the Yellow pill I had been taking for the past few days and realized what I bought was the “NightShift” version, where the Yellow pill is for NIGHTTIME. The pill looks the same, with the three chevron marks and everything. What a poor design decision by Reckitt (the makers of Mucinex).


And finally… You have to tip your hat to the FBI, who conducted a sting operation called Special Operation Ironside that featured an “Anom” burner phone, targeted to criminals who snatched them up and fell right into the trap.

2022-Week 42 & 43 – Catching Up

I didn’t post last weekend because I was out of town for a wedding (and I forgot due to everything going on). So this week is a catch-up post covering a few things from the past 2 weeks.

The trees are looking quite colorful this week, and I was going to try & go camping this weekend, but most of Indiana is under a Red Flag Warning. This means no fires, and I’m sorry, but my idea of camping is building a nice fire to cook on and sit next to into the evening. I also don’t want to get into a situation where someone else starts a fire and get caught up in it. So because of the burn ban, I decided to stay home and catch up on a few things…


AppleTV

Last week Apple released some updated products, one of which is a new AppleTV. The AppleTV is the hub of our entertainment system (and has been for years), but it’s one fault is a really bad remote control. It’s so bad that I use a Harmony Ultimate remote to control the AppleTV. The last version of the AppleTV had a redesigned remote, but I held off because I had a solution in place. Well, the latest iteration, utilizing USB-C charging and a major processor chip, led me to order the upgrade. I should have a delivery waiting for me in Early November & I’m looking forward to trying out the new remote and increased performance of the AppleTV Hub.


If you love watching food travel shows, you’ll love these resources that help you locate a restaurant you’ve seen on TV. This is especially helpful when you travel, and you’re looking for something different


And finally… It’s a great time to try a new burger. The Jucy Lucy is a cheese stuffed burger that is amazing. I picked up the burger press and waxed paper sheets shown in the video below (I didn’t try them smoked yet) & they turned out PERFECT! I think this is going to be my go-to burger for the forseable future.

2022 Week 29 – You Chicken?

I’ve only used delivery services like GrubHub and Uber Eats a few times and was disappointed each time due to lukewarm food, ridiculous fees, and price markups. They are nothing like the excellent, albeit limited, service you get from ClusterTruck. I’m super fortunate to be able to order from ClusterTruck from home and the office downtown. Out of 50+ orders, I’ve only had one issue: they delivered my food to the wrong location. However, they re-did the order and credited my account as soon as I reached out. That’s great customer service!

Amazon Prime members can now get 12 months of GrubHub+ for free! GrubHub+ is usually $10 a month and gets you $0 delivery fees applicable on orders with a $12+ subtotal (before tax, tip, and fees). After signing up, I looked at the restaurants on the GrubHub app and found quite a few I didn’t recognize in the area. After a little Google Maps searching, I discovered all the “new” places were Ghost Kitchens inside existing restaurants. Evidently, this is quite common & Chuckie Cheese is even in on the action with their Pasqually’s Pizza listing. It’s worth doing a little research if you’re unsure of the pace you’re ordering from.


If you’re a subscriber to Apple News+ and a foodie, you might have noticed Cooks Illustrated (CI) is now available to read on the service. CI is one of those magazines I subscribed to for years. It always seemed pretty skinny with no ads, but it’s actually fat with content. It features articles from the Americas Test Kitchen and Cooks Country staff (shows you can find on PBS’s “Create” sub-channel), product reviews, and some fantastic seasonal recipes. So if you’re looking for an unpretentious cooking magazine, this is the one to check out! Apple news replaced the Texture App, and I was a little unsure about that at first, but it’d turned out to be a better platform with a LOT more content, all for $10 a month. I can’t tell you the last time I read a physical magazine (except for Consumers Reports which I get as a yearly subscription from my father).


And finally… You can’t escape it. The Chicken Sandwich is one of the top-selling items at America’s fast food restaurants. And with good reason, they’re delicious! CNBC had an interesting piece about How Chicken Became an American Obsession.

2022 Week 3 – Settling in for the Winter

It’s the NFL Wild Card weekend, and there have been some great games played these past two days. But, unfortunately, the Colts blew their chance to go to the playoffs last weekend with an embarrassing loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.


The only thing I like about the cold winter weather is the food we fix during that time. Comfort foods like casseroles, stews, and pot roasts seem to taste better when we’re stuck inside on a winter day. I just updated my Pot Roast recipe that’s been on the site for years to now include dried mushrooms (vs. fresh) and tomato paste. This adjustment resulted in a much more flavorful broth and some nice textures from the rehydrated fungi. If you end up trying the recipe, let me know what you think!


And finally, Marques Brownlee and his team took a Tesla, a Mustang Mach-E, and a gas car on a 1000 trip to see which car could make the trip the fastest. The results were interesting & show just much more infrastructure is needed to make (non-Tesla) electric cars viable.

2021 Week 14 – 72 Sat / 21 Thu

You have to love Indiana weather. We were enjoying 70-degree weather last Saturday & woke up to 21-degrees and flurries on April 1 (no joke!). At least we’re finally into April and spring sprung on March 20th. This next week is supposed to be back in the 70’s. I’ll take that!

A week after I get signed up for the Johnson & Johnson “One-and-Done” Covid-19 Shot news breaks that up to 15-million doses are being recalled because of formulation issues. I was able to get my vaccination at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last week and it was one of the most organized things I’ve done since the Eli Lilly drive-up COVID testing last May. Kudos to the IMS staff, Indiana National Guard, and IU Health for making that an amazing success.

Image from MSN.com

I love cooking shows and spend a lot of time watching my favorites on Youtube and Food Network (PBS too!). I discovered a new chef (new to me) last week that I didn’t realize I had been reading about for years.

J. Kenji López-Alt is a restaurant owner and Chief Culinary Consultant at the Serious Eats website. He also just published a book called “The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science“. I really like his Point-of-View (POV) video style and his more advanced cooking techniques like this one:

Finally, I have some camping trips coming up and will be reviewing some new gear I’ve picked up in the past year. Look for those in the coming weeks. Enjoy the amazing weather this week!

2021 Week 3 – Snow!

We’re 3-weeks in & it’s been an interesting start to the year. The political mess and COVID-19 continues to top the news. It’s been cold and cloudy in Indianapolis this past 2 weeks and we finally got some measurable snow! It’s either going to be another “mild” winter or we’re in for something big. Only time will tell. I just put some 3-Peak rated tires on the Subaru so I could go for a big snowstorm right about now.

Some really great football games on last weekend and the CFB national championship goes to Alabama! It was looking like it was going to be a good game at first but Ohio State just couldn’t keep up. Just a few more weekends and the NFL will be over too… BUT NASCAR starts on February 14th! (and we always have soccer).

Do you eat in your car often? I saw this device being used by a mobile food reviewer and had to have it (especially since it’s only $12!). – Laptop Steering Wheel Desk It works surprisingly well and helps the crumbs & sauces off your lap.

You need one of these!

Total Wine & More opened a new store in Nora mid-November (first one in the Indianapolis region) and if you haven’t checked it out you should! It’s one of the largest liquor stores I’ve ever been in and it’s designed very well. Crowds have been heavy but there’s plenty of room to move about and keep your distance from others. If you’re a wine or Bourbon fan you’re sure to find something you like there.

Total Wine & More in Nora

Tried a new recipe this week (Mushroom Bourguignon) and it was a huge hit. There is a lot of prep but the cooking goes pretty fast. Probably something to fix on a weekend and enjoy throughout the week. Looks like the recipe I used from NYT Cooking is behind a paywall but this one is pretty similar.

Remix of a 2020 YouTube hit. That cat cracks me up!

Most Popular Post (Ever)

Just an observation…  I’ve been blogging for a while and I’ve covered a lot of content. I find it interesting that the most viewed post on IndyScan (12,867 views since it was published in 2010) is my recipe for Marsala Sauce!  It doesn’t even show up on the top-5 pages in Google but people still seem to find it with regularity.