Flash in the Pan

A PR person for DiGiorno pizzas - which is a brand of Kraft - send a press release about the new Ultimate line of pizzas, comparing it as superior to chocolate and hugs. I won't get into the hugs debate, but better than chocolate? I wanted to try it, so they sent a DiGiorno Ultimate Supreme (pizza with sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, red onion, and green and red pepper). The advance instructions said put it into the freezer when it arrived - and when it did, it had defrosted. By the time it eventually came out of the freezer, it had a hard curve in it.

But out it came for a family dinner, and I picked up a DiGiorno Ultimate Four Cheese (mozzarella, fontina, Reggiano Parmesan, and mild brick, whatever the latter is), as one pie didn't seem like it was going to be enough for five people.

After tasting both, I can safely say that chocolate - and hugs - are safe. The pizzas were adequate, but neither reached the level of pizzeria pie, let alone what you can do with homemade. At the market I went to, the cheese pizza was something like $7. I don't have the box, but am pretty sure that the pizza was maybe 12 inches across. Even though I wrote the Complete Idiot's Guide to Pizza and Panini, I don't consider myself a pizza snob and have often eaten frozen pies. But if you've got access to a good pizzeria, or don't mind rolling your sleeves up at home, I'd say give the DiGiorno Ultimate a pass unless you want to keep an emergency pie in the freezer.

Labels: DiGiorno, frozen, Kraft, pizza, ultimate

My wife came back from the grocery store with two packages of frozen Angy's tortellini: one meat filled, and the other containing cheese and coming in three different colors. The food seemed fine enough - cooked up in five minutes and the meat filling was a bit spicy, which was a nice change from many of the frozen tortellini out there. I'm not sure of the price, as the packages weren't marked. The suggested servings seem overly optimistic: 3.5 servings from 12 ounces of pasta, or not even 3.5 ounces a person. It's not totally out of reality, but it does seem a bit tight.

Also, I tried going to the company's web site using a fairly secure system i have and my anti-virus kicked in on two attempts, each time saying that the site was trying to load some known virus on my computer. So if you decide to go to the web for more informaiton, be careful.

Labels: Angy's, frozen, pasta, tortellini

After having frozen coffee drinks from Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, and a local place called Shelburne Coffee Roasters, I decided to try my hand. Here are the results:

• 1 1/2 ounces freshly brewed espresso


• 6 ounces milk


• 3 TBS. sugar


• 1/8 tsp. vanilla


• 1 cup ice

Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.

Labels: coffee, espresso, frozen, recipe, vanilla