Good Yucks

I received this little graphic on my email the other day and thought you would enjoy it. We've been on the road this weekend up in Door Country Wisconsin, for some sledding and cross-country skiing. It's been cold - Saturday's high was something like 3 degrees - but a lot of fun. We had a chance to visit some land we have here, and while we can't afford to build a vacation home, it is fun to come up and look at our trees.

On the way home we stopped at Il Retrovo in Sheboygan Wisconsin for some excellent Italian pizzas. This is one of our favorite places and is the companion joint to Trattoria Stephano which I've written about before. Today we started with two Antipastis; PD2 & I split a Mozzarella Pizzaioloa which is fresh mozzarella, sauteed with tomato oregano and olives, served with crusty toasts. Mrs. P and PD1 split Fonduta al Forno, which is smoked mozzarella, oregano and San Marzano tomatoes, topped with prosciutto and baked in a wood fired oven. It is served with toasts and a salad. Both were excellent.

Mrs. P and I then each had a bowl of soup. I chose the lentil, which was quite good with vegetables and potato, while Mrs. P had a mushroom soup, that was made with a chicken stock base and included pureed white button mushrooms and reconstituted porcini's. Black truffle toasts floated on top.

We each finished with a wood fired pizza. I had Quatro Stagione; a pizza with tomato, mushrooms, ham, mozzarella and artichoke, with PD1 had the Bianca; a combination of rosemary, black truffle cheese smoked mozzarella and pancetta. Mrs. P had the Lombardo....sorry I can't remember the details there and PD2 had the Salsiccia; a pizza of tomato, mozzarella and sausage. Folks, these pizzas are just like you get in Rome. They're thin crust, light on the ingredients, packed with flavor and cooked in a wood burning oven....a real wood burning oven, not the gas assisted kind. Stephano truly understands his craft. Every time I go there I think I should talk to him about opening a place by me.

So, that was my weekend and it's back to work tomorrow with an 8a.m. breakfast meeting. Yikes!