That Thing You Do! Night Flights ...

CONSTANCE: Our plan "A" for the week was Patty's Pizza per a reader's suggestion, but we just couldn't find a coupon this week for Patty's anywhere, even online - no luck! So, being the thrifty little bloggers that we are, put Patty's on hold and visited the phone book for money-saving options.

That's how we discovered Night Flights. Did you know that the Tom Hanks' movie "That Thing You Do!" was set there? "The pizza parlor by the airport" where The Oneders got their "start". Villapiano's!!!!

(Mathias: Best line from the movie? "But we're from Erie!!" The guitarist (Steve Zahn) said it to some Vegas types towards the end of the movie.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That_Thing_You_Do!



There was a killer coupon - $15.99 for a 1-topping large pizza and 25 wings. The deal of the day I think. We couldn't reach them by phone to order, (M: I was online courtesy of Netzero!!) so we drove out, placed our order and then had a nice albeit quick drive to the Peninsula on such a beautiful, sunny day. Everyone else had the same idea - it was packed with runners, cyclists, dogs, fishermen ... gotta love the Peninsula! (M: But we're not sharing the pizza and wings-it's every one for themselves).

Night Flights was packed on a Friday for happy hour, complete with a pool table and 30-somethings. There were some biker boys at the bar when we placed our order (M: they were really old men with tattered Harley Davidson T-shirts; maybe Hell's Angels pensioners??). We ordered "Ragun" wings which were Cajun and Ranch. The one biker boy joked that that was the worst flavor and proceeded to show me his order of Rajun wings. I joked back that he had better share his with me and let me try them to be sure. He laughed but I didn't get a wing - what's up with that?? (M: Constance is fibbing-she grabbed a handful of wings and told "Snake" he was now her b*tch; never knew she had the cajones?!?!)

For the pizza topping, we asked for banana onion ... oops on that! Apparently the phone book coupon had a typo. Here we thought we were being all adventurous by trying a new topping, and we got our "usual" banana peppers. (M: ever hear of a Jackalope?)

Our order was ready when promised and still hot by the time we got home. They threw in celery and carrots plus ranch dressing with the wings - no up-charge or anything! (M: So I threw the bartender a three dollar tip-got to spread the karma; besides he was being pulled in several directions at once and still kept his cool). The photos show what we got - a lot! And boy was everything delicious! I had the last piece of za for breakfast (inspiration as I wrote this blog) and Mathias is going to have 15 wings for lunch today (oink!!). Just kidding Mathias! (M: "za"?? Someone is getting too liguistically adventurous for her britches)

The crust was good, cheese authentic ... I'd have to say an 8 out of 8 slice rating again this week! (M: I'm only going with 6 out of 8-not enough sauce for my liking). This one is going to be hard to beat - the coupon was killer and you can see the high quality and value and the excellent service we received made this such a delicious experience. (M: the crust WAS tasty and crunchy almost like an almost stale soft pretzel but why be stingy on the sauce? The sauce is the quarterback of the pizza (not 'za) team!!)

The only thing that might have made this better would have been to watch That Thing You Do! while we ate ... (M: and more sauce-got to hammer that point!)

The 411:
Night Flights
4707 W Lake Rd
Erie, PA 16505
(814) 838-7118
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/nightflights11

Mathias' Easter Tradition is Resurrected

CONSTANCE: BC ... Before Constance, Mathias had a Good Friday tradition of ordering Pizza Hut pizza and watching The Ten Commandments. So we decided for Easter week blogging, we'd resurrect this tradition (pardon the pun!) (M: wrong religious event. Constance is actually a convert to Amishness from Rastafarianism so I'll let the mistake slide). My how things have changed with Pizza Hut - we did the whole transaction online. PizzaHut.com was a really cool experience (M: no it wasn't-the DMV website is more user-friendly). And did you know they're now called "The Hut!". Now you do!



We ordered the PANormous, "the biggest pan pizza Pizza Hut has ever created — over 40% bigger than their large pan pizza! (M: it's Friday night-why bring any fractions into the equation??? Friday's the time for shutting down the brain). And now you can get 1 topping per side for just $10!" Done deal! We each got to pick our topping - I picked banana peppers and Mathias picked tomatoes. It was a lot of pizza for $10 and with the packets of cheese and hot pepper flakes ... mmm tasty! (M: Constance doesn't seem to remember the Abbot & Costello routine that ensued when her banana peppers weren't on the right side of the box. Who knew that simply turning the box 180 degrees would make her so happy??)



For wings, we selected Spicy Asian, (M: "spasian??") boneless. Our total order was about $19, so for 10 wings, we paid about $8-ish I guess. So the PANormous $10 deal is definitely a marketing ploy - they got us! The flavor of the wings was really different, and they were boneless so convenient, but I missed nibbling around the bones. (M: Truth be told, when Constance gets gnawing on the wings, it's like watching a wood chipper turned to 11-there are pieces flying everywhere!!!)

For a busy Friday night, our order only took about 15 minutes and we were home on the couch watching The Ten Commandments. Now I understand where the saying "a Cecil B. DeMille" originated. What a fantastic movie and star studded cast - even Lilly Muster was in it! It's a long one though and we're still watching a little bit every night. (M: I like the movie because the Yul Brynner character has all the best lines; besides, he's the only guy that can wear a skirt and then kick your behind while spouting out memorable lines like "Moses, Moses, Moses...do ya feel lucky? Well, do ya punk? That's from the movie, right?)

The overall "Hut" experience was an 8 out of 8 slice rating! But I missed the wing bones and human element in the ordering process ... but, we had so much leftover za (M: stop the 'za!!) for Saturday a.m., no bones about it (pardon that pun too!). (M: Constance, Constance, Constance....do you feel hungry? Well, do ya?)

The 411:
PizzaHut.com

That's it!

Memorial Pizza and Wings ... Dad Would Be Proud!

CONSTANCE: In honor of my Father who passed away nine years ago on March 31, Mathias and I wanted to have a retro pizza and wing night. After all, my Father is the one who taught me to cook. His chef's special? Homemade pizza! So we took a shortcut and bought Chef Boyardee pizza in a box. Mathias was in charge of that.

Earlier in the day, we researched recipes online for marinades for the chicken wings. Mathias came across one for Cajun Spice Chicken Wings. The marinade had cayenne pepper, brown sugar, garlic powder, thyme, hot pepper sauce ... it smelled fantastic! If anyone would like the recipe, let us know and we can post that too.

Mathias was the pizza chef, and I spearheaded the wing project. After marinading for several hours, I drained the wings in a colander and then tossed about 4 at a time in a large bag with two cups flour. The wings cooked in an electric skillet with a cup of canola oil. The time? Four minutes on each side. We made about 15-20 I guess. After frying, I tossed about half of them in a plastic container with Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce for a wet version. The remainder were served dry.

The biggest taste difference? They were not as crispy as those from a "real" wing joint; however, they were very fresh and tasted clean ... not like the fryer and everything else cooked in it.

While my adventure was going on in the south side of the kitchen, Mathias was feverishly at work on the north side. Everything needed for the pizza was right in the box! The crust took about 20 minutes, and rather than two round pies, we made one large rectangle one. Add sauce, cheese in the box ... supplement with Kraft pizza cheese and then bake 10 minutes; rotate and bake for 20 more.

Daddy's little girl used to be the mozzarella cheese grater, so using shredded cheese out of a bag was a modern luxury!

Hope you can see by the photos just how delicious this tribute meal turned out. And in "economic times like these" we spent under $20 and have 3/4 of a bag of frozen wings remaining to experiment on another recipe another time.

But that's not the point ... I wanted Mathias to "meet" my Dad, and do something to keep his memory alive ...

Our rating? 8 out of 8 slices of course :-)

See you next week!

A $4 pizza ... the stuff urban legands are made of!

CONSTANCE: This week is another unique week and we'll be doing two blogs. Last night was a plan "B" night because it got so late and we were starving; so we'll do plan "A" tonight.

Our plan "B" last night was Quality Markets at 38th & Liberty Streets and their Buffalo chicken wing pizza. Ironic because Quality was our plan "A" a few weeks back! So we called in our order to the deli, which I'd highly recommend. We were told 20 minutes on a busy Friday night ... acceptable. We actually had an errand to do in advance of the pick up and I think we were running a bit behind.

The cashier-chef, Candy, is a regular at the deli and she's the best maker of the Buffalo chicken wing pizzas, so if you can, ask for her. She recognized me and then tentatively explained there was a delay with making our pizza and we'd need to wait about 20 more minutes. As a trade off and good customer service, she said we could have the pizza at the regular pizza special price of $5.99 for Friday or Saturday nights. Done deal! We had some shopping to do anyways, so not a big deal.

We got our Easter Smith's ham. Incidentally, I've learned that although Smith's ham is a higher cost per pound, it's all meat!! The other "value priced" hams are mostly water. Thought I'd pass that along. We got our Easter eggs for dying too.

While shopping, we ran into a friend who had been in a horrible truck-pedestrian accident (yep, he was the pedestrian). The accident was New Year's Eve, and he's doing remarkably better. My son works at Quality too, but he was already gone for the day. I love shopping there because as a neighborhood store, you get a chance to see so many friends and neighbors there.

Twenty minutes had easily passed. We checked out with $81 of much needed groceries and went back to the deli to pick up our za. It still wasn't ready. I waited in the car and played with Pandora on my Blackberry and texted my sister-in-law about a recipe of mine she wants, while Mathias went back into the deli.

Candy went home at 8 and we were left in the care of Josh ... who proceeded to rip our pizza when taking it out of the fireplace-oven. As you'll see in the picture, it looks like an amoeba and the toppings all shifted during the rip. He told Mathias that it was his bad and we could have the za for only $3.99. Or wait for a new one ...

When can you ever get a specialty pizza for $4, even though it was slightly damaged. It's going down in the pizza and wing blog as "the time we got the $4 pizza!!".

The Buffalo chicken wing pizza at Quality is an 8 out of 8 slice delicious masterpiece. It's by far the best concoction of it's kind. There are some challenges with the ordering and delivery time, so as long as you're flexible and understanding to expect the unexpected, you might end up with a $4 too!

Tonight, we're making our own pizza and Cajun chicken wings in honor of my Father, who passed away on March 31, 2000. He's the one who taught me to cook pizza from scratch and to cook in general, not my Mother. He never got to meet Mathias. So it'll be a special way for him and Mathias and me to connect. We'll take some pics and post another blog tomorrow. I hope we'll have some leftovers for breakfast too!

Oh, I should mention how delicious the Quality Buffalo chicken wing pizza was for breakfast today! And I probably should e-mail my sister-in-law that recipe now too before I forget ...