I was ready to for a sit-down dinner after driving across the Continental Divide. I was very pleased to find Ristorante Pantuso in Grand Junction. This is a classic Italian-American restaurant and a mainstay of the Grand Junction restaurant landscape. Service was wonderful and the food excellent, reminding me of New Jersey.
My dinner started, of course, with comforting Italian bread.
My salad featured a creamy Italian dressing and excellent croutons.
My eggplant parmesan was hearty. The tomato sauce was cooked for a long time, giving that rich flavor that I associate with homey Italian restaurants.
I couldn't resist a cannoli but I took it with me for breakfast. It was delicious. Thank you to Pantuso's for a wonderful meal! This will be a regular on my occasional visits to the Western slope.
I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b...
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