(I have to insert my recipe for theraspberry sauce I swirled in)

Basically, I just downsized my 10 inch cheesecake, and I used an 8 inch pan, and I loved that it made a tall cheesecake. It was heavenly. When Hannah (10 years old) started eating it, she said, “This makes me happy.” I loved that!

For Hannah’s 11th birthday, she requested I make this, so I baked it on March 25, 2026 and I brought it over for the Thursday night dinner. Oh my god, it’s incredible. It’s like the best cheesecake I’ve ever eaten in my entire life!!! Each kid had 2 pieces, Randi even had 2 pieces, Marcia and I had one apiece, but I did bring home a nice sized piece for myself. And tonight, after I heated up 4 squares of frozen Ledo’s pizza (Kenny brought it for me when he came for Thanksgiving), the heavenly cheesecake was my dessert!. I even made a cup of Dunkin decaf with light cream, and brought everything upstairs to my bedroom, where I used my flashlight on my phone to illuminate the glorious piece of cheesecake. It’s light, but creamy, slightly lemony, and you taste the raspberry swirl only a drop.

Filling:

Filling: 3 packages of 8 oz. each Philadelphia Cream Cheese (not light) at room temp. overnight or for at least 3 hours (not reduced fat)

1 1/2 cups of Daisy sour cream- out of the fridge is ok. I used a scale this time, put it on, and then took out sour cream till it was 4 oz. lighter (which is equivalent to 4 oz. taken away from the 16 oz. of sour cream).

1 cup sugar

4 mid sized eggs from the carton of Whole Foods pasture raised eggs, separated

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1/4 tsp. vanilla

1 teaspoon flour

1 pinch kosher salt

raspberry sauce: 2 of the small containers of raspberries, 2 T. granulated sugar, 1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch.

1. Mash raspberries out of the fridge with potato masher. Then put through a fine sieve to push through all the juice and leave behind all the seeds! Pour the juices into smallest saucepan and mix in 1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch with a whisk.
2. Add the 2 T. sugar to pan. Place over medium heat and heat up till it bubbles. It will change to a ruby red. Boil for 30 to 60 seconds till it’s thick enough to coat the back of a spoon heavily. It might take a minute more to get it to do that.
3. Cool completely in the fridge and pour into your “ink bottle” .

---

Crust: I used 2 full packs of Nabisco graham crackers plus 1/2 of another sleeve in food processor till pretty fine to make about

2 T. sugar

6 salted butter melted

Grease bottom and sides of 8 inch or 9 inch springform pan. If you use the 8 inch, you will not be able to use all the batter. If you use a 9 inch, you will. Bake at 300 degrees for 10 min. and set on the counter to cool completely.

Raise temp to 325 degrees (when you bake the cheesecake you will lower the temp. to 300 degrees after 20 min.)

Put a 9 by 13 inch pan in oven and fill it 3/4 to the top with water. Put that on bottom rack.

In mixer, place all 3 blocks of cream cheese and mix with paddle attachment till creamy and NOT lumpy.

Add in the sugar, and mix till fully blended. Add in the flour. Add in all 4 egg yolks, and mix till well blended. Add in the lemon juice, pinch of salt, and the vanilla. The batter should be perfectly smooth.

On low speed, add in the sour cream and mix only until just blended.

Set aside the bowl with the batter while you whip up the egg whites till just stiff but NOT dry.

Mix the egg whites into the batter with a rubber. spatula until fully blended. Pour into prepared crust. It’s ok if you deflate them a bit as you mix because you want to use as much batter as possible in the 8 inch pan.

Pour about 1/3 of batter in and dot with raspberry sauce. Then pour in another third and dot with raspberry sauce. Then pour in remaining batter till about 1/4 inch from the top of the pan. Dot the raspberry sauce over top generously and use a toothpick to swirl.

Put on middle rack. Bake at 325 degrees for about 15 or 20 min. Lower the temp to 300 degrees and bake for 1 hr. 10-20 min. until the cheesecake has just a slight wiggle to it. (not as much as jello). Turn oven off, and open oven about 2 inches and let sit in oven for 1 hour. Take out and put on rack and cool for about 4 hours till TOTALLY COOL! Then take sides off and place on plate, and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

This must be finished and refrigerated at least 24 hours before serving. It’s fine if it’s refrigerated 48 hours before serving, as I believe the texture is optimal at the 48 hour refrigeration point.

August 2021: Greek Chicken Kebobs

I adapted this recipe from unicornsinthekitchen.com to make these delicious Greek style barbecued chicken kabobs https://www.unicornsinthekitchen.com/easy-greek-chicken-souvlaki-recipe/, and I skewered them with big chunks of red onion, red pepper, zucchini, and cherry tomatoes. I reserved half of the marinade to marinate the veggies. I used about 1 ½ lbs of chicken cutlets – thin style but not super thin from McCaffreys. Randi loved it, and it was delicious!

marinade for 1 ½ lb chicken breast boneless and skinless and for the veggies 

¼ cup olive oil extra virgin

juice of 2 lemons  

 1 tsp kosher salt

2 tsp dried oregano

 8 cloves garlic minced

I’ve made this a bunch of times, and it’s a standard Thursday night option for Ezra that he really likes. I made it yesterday, and I thought it was the best eggplant parmesan I’ve ever made or eaten!!! Dan Greenhouse apparently loved it as he ate either 3 or 4 very large portions of it. My only issue is I wish I didn’t have to peel the eggplant, but Ezra doesn’t like the peel. I watched the video on Not Another Cooking Show for eggplant parm, and I used most of the techniques.

Sauce: (you will have about 1/2 quart leftover for another use)

2 28 oz. cans Cento Organic Italian Peeled Tomatoes

fresh basil leaves on a stem- about 4 large leaves on 1 stem

kosher salt

about 6 large garlic cloves thinly sliced

about 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon sugar to cut acidity of tomatoes

extra virgin olive oil

2 medium firm eggplants

1 lb. whole milk mozzarella, hand grated

lots of freshly grated parmesan

about 7 oz. fresh whole milk mozzarella

oregano

fresh basil

Progresso Italian bread crumbs or Trader Joe’s organic plain breadcrumbs mixed with parmesan, black pepper, and oregano

In saucepan, put about 1/3. cup olive oil. Put in the crushed red pepper flakes, the sliced garlic. Turn the heat on low, and cook till garlic is translucent. Add in only the tomatoes from the can. Use an immersion blender to puree (do not liquify). Then add all the puree in the cans and about 1 cup of water.

Add in the basil leaf and salt and sugar. Simmer about 45 min.- top off to thicken the sauce. Taste for more salt. Take out basil leaf and throw away. Set aside.

Peel 2 medium eggplants and slice about 1/4 inch thick into rounds, salt them, lay them out on paper towels.

Dry eggplant slices well. In a ziplock bag, add about 1 cup flour with some kosher salt and black pepper.

On a large plate have Progresso Italian Bread Crumbs. If you don’t have them, use plain Trader Joe’s organic breadcrumbs and add a handful of parmesan and black pepper and oregano.

Get a bowl and mix 3 eggs with a teaspoon or 2 of water.

Put about 4 slices of eggplant in the baggie, shake to coat. Then one at a time, put in the breadcrumb mixture, patting down the breadcrumbs on both sides.

Put sunflower oil about 1/4 inch high in large Farberware skillet. Heat up. Add the eggplant in, and use tongs to turn to brown nicely on both sides. Drain on paper towels. Keep going till you have used up all your eggplant slices adding more eggs to your egg wash bowl as necessary.

Assemble:

Ladle totally cooled sauce on bottom of 9 by 13 pyrex dish to cover. Sprinkle your sauce with julienned fresh basil.

Place fried eggplant all over totally covering the bottom of the pan.

Sprinkle hand grated whole milk mozzarella over the eggplant.

Dollop sauce over all (you don’t need to spread it)

Sprinkle hand grated parmesan over the sauce and some crushed red pepper flakes, too, and more julienned basil.

Cover with eggplant slices. Sprinkle with mozzarella. Dollop sauce over. Sprinkle sauce with parmesan. Sprinkle a few crushed red pepper flakes and julienned basil.

Last layer: Lay remaining eggplant over the top. Next is sauce- be generous, then lots of fresh grated parm, basil, crushed red pepper flakes, and then take about 7 oz. of FRESH whole milk mozzarella and tear it into little chunks or thinly slice it and put it in between the eggplant slices on your top layer. Then take the remaining grated mozzarella and sprinkle it over the top. Sprinkle whole top with oregano lightly.

Final step. With a soup spoon, drizzle extra marinara sauce at the edges so it seeps down the sides all around the edges!!!

I covered it with parchment, then with heavy duty aluminum foil. I baked it at 375 degrees convection bake for about 30 minutes. I uncovered it and put it on convection at 425 degrees and baked it another 30 min. It need to get hot in the center. If it’s not, and it’s already really browned on top, cover it and put it back for another 15 minutes.

Serve with crushed red pepper flakes on the side. You can also serve it with a bowl of any leftover sauce on the side as well. On Not another Cooking Show, the chef put a bit of sauce on his plate, and then he places his big piece of eggplant parmesan on top of the sauce!

March 26: chicken fricassee with meatballs, white rice or breaded fried chicken cutlets with mushrooms and melted cheddar, vegetable fried rice with tofu or eggplant rollatini

March 19: chicken with the crumbs, Brenta, cut up organic red peppers and cucumbers, Ina Garten’s Irish soda bread, spanakopita, roast chicken wings with all the Jewish spices

March 5, 2026:

Chicken Parm meatballs, eggplant parmesan, garlic bread, salad, blueberry muffins

Feb.26,2026:

homemade challah with poppy seeds

Chinese steak (flank steak- very tender!) with broccoli, mushrooms, carrots

Chinese tofu with mushrooms, broccoli, carrots, and onions

white rice

noodle kugel

baked stuffed potatoes

very bad chocolate chip banana bread

Dinner February 19, 2026:

Homemade Eggplant Parmesan with homemade marinara sauce

Chicken with the Crumbs

Salad

Cut up cucumbers and red peppers

Brenta

Homemade Minestrone

Homemade Challah

Homemade chocolate chip muffins

Feb. 25, 2026

noodle kugel

Chinese tofu stir fry with broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, and onions

chinese beef (flank steak) with broccoli, carrots, mushrooms

white rice

challah

banana chocolate chip walnut bread

Of course, I have my standard recipe for my mother’s meat sauce for spaghetti, but this week, I happened to have enough chopped meat in the house and all the other ingredients to make a smaller than normal batch of my meat sauce. The quantities of the ingredients are slightly different, and I did not make meatballs, but it came out tasting basically the same as my other recipe. Benji loved it, and so did I.

2 lbs. good Angus ground beef

2 28 oz. cans

2 6 oz. cans Contadina tomato paste

2 8oz. cans Contadina tomato sauce

about 8 garlic cloves, crushed

red pepper flakes

kosher salt

black pepper

2 tsp. sugar

In large Dutch oven, put about 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil.

Saute 1 large chopped finely onion in the olive oil until translucent with about 1 tsp. red pepper flakes.

Add in the crushed garlic and sauté for 2 minutes.

Add in all the meat, and use a potato masher to mash the meat as it browns. After it’s just browned, push a spoon in to extract all the fat that’s accumulated. You will be able to remove a lot of fat!

Dump in 2 cans of crushed tomatoes, the 2 cans of tomato paste, and the 2 cans of tomato sauce.

Use about 1/2 cup water in each can of crushed tomatoes to get the tomato residue out. So you’ll be adding 1 cup water altogether.

Mix well (you can still use the potato masher to incorporate the meat with all the sauces).

Add about 1 tbsp. kosher salt, and about 1 tsp. ground black pepper, and 2 tsp. sugar.

Cover and simmer for about 4 hours over lowest heat, adding salt and fresh cracked pepper, and more crushed red pepper flakes as needed.

I basically used Ina Garten’s Beatty’s Chocolate Cake recipe, but I halved it. I had recently ordered two 6 inch cake layer pans and I just wanted to make a mini layer cake. It actually was enough for 12 decent size slices. The cake is so rich, you can’t really eat a huge slice, anyway. If I wanted to make an 8 or 9 inch layer cake, I’d use the normal quantities. If you want to make a full size layer cake or a 9 by 13 inch sheet cake, just double the ingredients or go here: https://theviewfromgreatisland.com/ina-gartens-chocolate-cake-recipe/

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and spray the sides and bottom of baking pans (The bottoms of my cute little 6 inch pans separate from the sides, which makes it so easy to take the layers out).

ingredients for two 6 inch layer cake:

Put the dry ingredients in a large glass mixing bowl and whisk to combine:

3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons Hecker’s unbleached flour(or 1/2 cup flour plus 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp.)

1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons Vahlrona cocoa or other good cocoa like Ghiradelli’s unsweetened cocoa- measured first and then sifted

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon regular (not kosher) salt

Wet ingredients:

In another smaller mixing bowl, whisk together:

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 extra large egg

1/4 cup sunflower oil

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

*********more wet ingredients after you mix!

Pour the whisked wet mixture into the dry mixture. Use a rubber spatula to incorporate them together.

*********Then, add 1/2 cup very hot decaf coffee (or regular if this isn’t going to be for kids). Mix with rubber spatula till well blended. (This imparts zero coffee flavor to the cake! But if you insist, you can certainly substitute hot water)

Divide batter (pour into pans) equally between the 2 pans.

Place in middle of oven. Bake for about 20-25 min. till toothpick comes out clean and you can see the cake has separated from the edges of the pans.

Cool on wire rack for about 30 min. Then take cakes out of pans. Fully cool before frosting.

Here’s the frosting I adapted which is an adaption of Beatty’s chocolate cake icing because it uses 1/4 cup of sour cream instead of an egg yolk, and it also doesn’t use any coffee. It’s from the view from great island.com https://theviewfromgreatisland.com/ina-gartens-chocolate-cake-recipe/

3 1/2 oz. Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate (from a bar)

1 stick room temp. salted Land O’Lakes butter (I’m going to reduce the butter to 6 Tbsp. next time, and just add an extra 1 or 2 Tbsp. heavy cream)

1 1/2 cups first measured, then sifted confectioners sugar

pinch regular salt

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 cup room temp. (use dry measuring cup) Daisy full fat sour cream

Directions:

In medium Kitchen aid bowl with paddle attachment, beat room temperature butter till creamy.

Add the vanilla and confectioners sugar and mix. It will not start to get fluffy, so after a few minutes of mixing, add 1-2 tablespoons of whole milk, and cream till fluffy.

Melt chocolate in bowl on power level 2 till melted. Let cool for 5 min. and add the sour cream. Mix with a spatula, and transfer into Kitchen Aid bowl with the butter, sugar, vanilla, milk already fluffy mixture. Beat for less than 1 min. till chocolate and sour cream mixture are fully incorporated. If you need to at this point, add 1-2 T. heavy cream and whip till everything is fluffy and ready to use to frost your cake.

Hints for frosting: I didn’t use enough frosting on top of first layer, because I didn’t think I’d have enough frosting. But next time, put more frosting on the first layer, then consider putting similar amount on top, and then not icing the sides, or putting a thinner layer on top, and a thin layer all around.

2 lbs. good chopped meat

1 large onion, diced small, not tiny

5 garlic cloves, crushed

2 teaspoons kosher salt

lots of fresh cracked black pepper

3 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 cup at least of good Chili powder

two 28 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes (Cento all purpose)

two 6 oz. cans Contadina tomato paste

1 quart chicken broth (Swanson’s organic or 50% reduced sodium or Kitchen Basics Organic Free Range chicken stock)

3 can organic red kidney beans, well rinsed (Trader Joes’ organic)

Instructions:

Hand chop the onion- dice.

Put 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil in pot. Then sauté onion with the chili flakes. When starting to become translucent, add 5 crushed garlic cloves, and sauté till soft. Add the 2 lbs. chopped meat. Use potato masher to mash the meat. Brown over lowest flame.

Once the meat is no longer pink, press a spoon down on the meat in the pot to remove all excess fat.

Add kosher salt, lots of freshly cracked black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon paprika and 1/2 teaspoon oregano, and almost 1/4 cup of good chili powder. Mix with wooden spoon.

Add two 28 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes (Cento is good)

Add 2 small cans of Contadina tomato paste.

Add 1 quart chicken stock or broth (Swansons Organic or 1/2 sodium chicken broth or Kitchen Basics free range organic chicken stock)

Cover and simmer covered over smallest heat about 3 hours, mixing every 20 minutes or so. Add a little more chili powder or black pepper and a sprinkling more of kosher salt to taste.

Rinse well three 16 oz. cans of organic red kidney beans. Dump in the pot, and simmer uncovered for the final 30 minutes over lowest flame. If you can spoon any fat off around the edge of the pot, do so.

Serve with grated Tillamook medium cheddar (you grate it) and saltine crackers.

Benji has been requesting me to buy him cans of Campbell’s Italian Wedding Soup, so it occurred to me to make it homemade! It was very successful! Benji loved it! I used this recipe from The NY Times for the base of the soup: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1024492-italian-wedding-soup

I used my recipe for the meatballs from my chicken parmesan meatballs:

1 lb. Bell and Evans ground chicken

1 extra large egg

1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

2 garlic cloves, grated with microplane

1/2 cup minced Italian parsley

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1/8 to 1/4 cup water

Mix all the ingredients with your hands, and form tiny meatballs.

I sautéed these in extra virgin olive oil and set aside in a bowl.

In 6 quart dutch oven, in 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, sauté 4 chopped carrots, 2-3 chopped stalks celery, 1 large onion chopped finely, 2 very large garlic cloves sliced thinly, 2 teaspoons kosher salt, a ton of fresh cracked black pepper till veggies are soft.

Add 2 quarts of chicken broth or stock. Slowly bring to a simmer. Once liquid is at a simmer, add 1/2 cup of pasta (I used acini Pepe). (If I were using ditalini, I’d use 3/4 cup). Cook till al dente. Then add 1 box of organic baby kale (rinse) and 1 box of organic baby spinach (rinse).

Add about 1/2 cup of freshly grated parmesan to the soup. Add additional salt or black pepper.

Just made this amazing deep-dish/Sicilian/Detroit pizza this week and baked it at Randi’s. When Ezra saw it out of the oven, he said, “Oh my gosh- that is my favorite food- deep dish pizza. He ate 3-4 pieces and even asked for more. Randi said no more, although she had at least 5. I didn’t eat any, as I wanted them to eat it. When I texted Benji a picture of it and said I wasn’t bringing any home for him, he responded, “I’m crushed you didn’t bring me some.” So yesterday, I asked Benji if he wanted me to make one of these pizzas for him. As he is on a diet, he initially said no, but later in the day and texted me that he did want me to make the pizza. I actually started to make the dough at 7:30 p.m. and I put the pizza in the oven at 9:00. Benji loved it! I had one little piece and he ate the rest and loved it!

On Dec. 24, 2025,  I made this. Benji loved it! The crust was incredible- he said “Just like Pizza Hut but without the greasy bottom!” 

For the tomato sauce:

For the Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 medium cloves garlic, minced
• Dash red pepper flakes (½ teaspoon)
• 1 (28-ounce; 800 g) can high-quality crushed tomatoes (Cento Organic Whole Tomatoes)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 ½ to 2 teaspoons sugar
• Saute chopped garlic and the crushed red pepper flakes in the oil in medium saucepan till garlic is soft.
• Directions: Dump entire contents of 28 oz. of tomatoes into pot.  Use potato masher to mash the tomatoes or put whole can of tomatoes in food processor and pulse till NOT Totally pureed or use immersion blender in the pot. Put about ½ cup of water in the can to get all the leftover tomato stuff from the can, and pour it into the pot. Simmer for 30 min. Covered. Then uncover the pot and cook for about 15 more minutes to thicken the sauce. Taste of more salt or sugar. You will have about 12 oz. of sauce you won’t use.

Dough:

Put 1 packet active dry yeast in large bowl of Kitchen Aid mixer. Add warm water (1 cup) and 1 teaspoon sugar . Stir and let sit a few minutes.  Make sure yeast gets activated. It should get a little bubbly or frothy pretty quickly. If it doesn’t it may indicate yeast that went bad or is inactive and you will need to toss the mixture and start over. After the yeast mixture gets frothy add 1 teaspoon olive oil (or sunflower). Dump the flour- 2  1/2 cups Hecker’s unbleached flour into the bowl with the water and yeast- with 1 teaspoon kosher salt,  Mix with dough hook till dough pulls away from sides and bottom and starts to become smooth and elastic.  If dough is way too sticky, add up to ¼ cup more flour. (Last time, I didn’t need any extra flour, but this time I needed the entire ¼ cup)  When I was done, dough was still sticking to sides a drop. Dough is smooth and slightly tacky. Form dough into a ball (use a little flour in your hands if dough is sticky) and Then put in a greased bowl, turn in the bowl to fully moisten ball and cover and put in warm place for about 1 hour and 15 min to 1 hour 30 min . (I usually turn the oven on for only 20 seconds. Turn the oven off, and now you can put the bowl with the dough into the warm oven). After dough has doubled, which will take about 1 hour, pour out the ball of dough into your pizza pan that has been greased with about 1 ½ teaspoon oil. (Grease sides of pan with butter)Then with your fingertips, dot down dough with your fingers till spread out in the pan. Cover and put in warm place at least 30 minutes to allow dough to rest and rise a bit.

Alternately, if you are making this hours before you want to bake the pizza, place it in fridge covered till you use later in the day. If it hasn’t risen at all when you take it out of the fridge, you may need to put it back in the oven to rise, covered, for 30 min. This is what I did. Dough will have now reached all the sides of the pan.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

On top of dough with about one 6 oz. sliced package of Borden whole milk mozzarella cheese. Shingle the slices a little. I did need to open up a second package of the cheese and I used about 3 slices.(or alternately, sprinkle the dough with about 6 oz. of freshly grated whole milk mozzarella cheese.  Then spread a really nice layer of your sauce right over the cheese. Use the back of the spoon to spread the sauce. Then sprinkle oregano nicely over the sauce. Then sprinkle freshly grated parmesan cheese – about 2 oz. over the  sauce. Place on the lowest level of the oven. After about 10 min. Take out and sprinkle about 4 -5 oz. of grated whole milk mozz. from a block over the whole top. It’s sort of a light sprinkling. Put back in oven and cook about another 15 min. Then put under the broiler for another 4 min. till cheese is perfectly browned. Let cool about 10 min. before sliding out onto cutting board to cut into pieces. 

NOTE: After you bake pizza for about 15 min. at 500 degrees, if you think oven is too hot, lower to 475  degrees (This is what I did!) Bake until cheese is browning- about another 10-15 minutes until cheese starts to brown. I then put the broil setting on high for about 5 min. Let sit for just a minute. Then use a nonstick spatula to slide pizza out onto a cutting board. Cut into pieces.)

Dec. 26, 2025, I made a few alterations. Benji hated the rao’s pizza sauce, so I made sauce. It was extremely easy.  Homemade sauce recipe above.

Only negative today, was that the bottom of the crust wasn’t as crunchy as last one. I think it’s because instead of using all regular flour, I used about ½ cup of bread flour,plus the extra ¼ cup I needed to add was also bread flour. So next time, I’ll keep the pan on the lowest place in the oven and only open oven once to take pizza out and add the grated mozzarella for the top. Cook about 25 to 30 min. Plus another 4 min. under the broiler.  

Sprinkle dough with about 1 6 oz. sliced package of Borden whole milk mozzarella. Shingle the slices a little. I did need to open up a second package of the cheese and I used about 3 slices.  Then spread a really nice layer of your sauce right over the cheese. Use the back of the spoon to spread the sauce. Then sprinkle oregano nicely over the sauce. Then sprinkle freshly grated parmesan cheese – about 2 oz. over the  sauce. Place on the lowest level of the oven. After about 10 min. Take out and sprinkle about 4 -5 oz. of grated whole milk mozz. from a block over the whole top. It’s sort of a light sprinkling. Put back in oven and cook about another 15 min. Then put under the broiler for another 4 min. Till cheese is perfectly browned. Let cool about 10 min. Before sliding out onto cutting board to cut into pieces. 

(Bake for about 15 min. If you think oven is too hot, lower to 475  degrees. Bake until cheese is browning about another 10-15 minutes until cheese starts to brown. Let sit for just a minute. Then use a nonstick spatula to slide pizza out onto a cutting board. Cut into pieces.)

Dec. 26, 2025, I made a few alterations. Benji hated the rao’s pizza sauce, so I made sauce. It was extremely easy.  Homemade sauce recipe above.

Only negative today, was that the bottom of the crust wasn’t as crunchy as last one. I think it’s because instead of using all regular flour, I used about ½ cup of bread flour,plus the extra ¼ cup I needed to add was also bread flour. So next time, keep the pan on the lowest place in the oven and only open oven once to take pizza out and add the grated mozzarella for the top. Cook about 25 to 30 min. Plus another 4 min. under the broiler.  

Old Favorite Revisited: Chicken Piccata ( or adapt for Flounder Picatta)

I’ve always loved this dish; I don’t know why I haven’t made it in over 35 years! I watched a clip of Ina Garten make hers, and it looked  perfect. I think  I loved it even more than Benji did- he ate 3 whole cutlets! (I wasn’t far behind with 2). This chicken is better than anything you could get out in NYC!

Measure ingredients for   sauce- ⅓ cup lemon juice (2 lemons about), ½ cup dry white wine- I  used Relax Riesling, and I’d use that again as sauce was perfection

1 lb. thin cutlets from  Mccaffreys (or 1 lb. flounder fillets- 3 large ones)

Bowl with 1 extra  lg egg mixed with 1- 2 t. Water.

Pan with whole foods seasoned bread crumbs (I used unseasoned for the flounder to which I added kosher salt and  pepper

Each cutlet both sides in egg, bread crumbs. Sprinkle breaded cutlets with more black pepper. Let sit for 15 min.

Big farberware frying pan for the chicken, or large nonstick pan for the flounder or the chicken- oil to coat bottom- half extra virgin olive oil, and half safflower oil.

I used all safflower oil for the chicken. I heated up the pan first, then added the oil.

Oil hot- fry chicken 3 cutlets or 2 large pieces of flounder at a time, nicely browned on both sides. No draining needed. While making 2nd batch , put 3 cutlets in 300 degree oven to keep hot. 

Pour oil out,  and clean pan with paper towel as best you can and put in 1 tablespoon unsalted butter in pan, melt, add the ½ cup wine (⅓ cup wine is fine if you don’t have enough wine) and the lemon juice (⅓ cup),  about ½ t. Kosher salt, and 10 cracks of black pepper,  boil for about 2  min. Till starts to reduce and darken in color a little. Take off heat,  and add 1 ½  T. unsalted butter, and use wooden spoon to swirl into sauce.

Pour sauce over chicken or flounder on pretty platter.

My preference for the flounder is to use none of the sauce- I just sprinkle loads of lemon juice over it and eat it with tartar or remoulade sauce.

Serve with Near East original rice pilaf or baked potato and peas or roasted asparagus spears.

Variation for the flounder coating to try: Season flounder with kosher salt and pepper, dip in flour and then dip in 1 egg mixed with 1 teaspoon water mixture. Then coat on both sides with mixture of 2/3 cup panko crumbs and 1/3 cup parmesan cheese.