What's for Breakfast?

Leftover pizza and a over easy fried egg.
Obviously dad made breakfast today.

Naturally Risen

The video speaks for it's self.

NATURALLY RISEN from michael evans on Vimeo.

Chuck E. Cheese's

Not long ago I found myself in Chuck E. Cheese's... No Really, I was there to celebrate my daughters 6th birthday, not just for the pizza. But I will take my pizza whenever and wherever I can get it, so here it is.

Chuck E. Cheese's is not a family owned local pizzeria. The story of Chuck E. Cheese's started back in May of 1977 when Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari & Pong opened the first location in San Jose, California. Today Chuck E. Cheese's is a leader in entertaining young children and damaging the hearing of their parents. You can even buy stock in Chuck E. Cheese's if you feel so inclined, there symbol is (CEC), it's going for $26 as I write this.

Chuck E. Cheese's offers 4 sizes of pizza with your choice of the following toppings: pepperoni, bacon, jalapenos, chicken, tomatoes, mushrooms, sausage, pineapple, black olives, red onions, Canadian bacon, green peppers and beef. I should also let you know that Canadian locations use soya beef and ham in place of beef and Canadian bacon. No kidding check out the MENU! How messed up it that? If you live in Canada you can't get Canadian bacon on your pizza! I really feel sorry for the poor Canadian customers. Back to our regularly scheduled post. They also offer several combo's including: Super Combo, All-Meat Combo, BBQ Chicken and Vegetarian. If you can't bring your self to eat the pizza they have wings, mozzarella sticks, breadsticks, french fries and a salad bar. The online menu also shows several sandwiches, but I don't recall seeing them at the location I visited.

For our party we had cheese pizza and pepperoni pizza, the kids pretty much cleaned up the cheese pizza leaving the pepperoni for the adults to pick over. The first thing I noticed was what looked like a coating of butter on the crust and pooled in some of the pepperoni's. When you handle the pizza your hands will come away with a coating of the stuff. Even the bottom looks like it was fried. As far as taste goes I really don't recall much about the pizza, it was eatable for sure as I eat a couple of pieces and I'm still around a month later. If it wasn't for the photos I took I wouldn't have been able to give you this much information as all I can really recall from our visit was the noise, kids screaming, machines clanging and the big rat him self singing (and we had the first party of the day at 10am). I do know that all the kids had a great time at Chuck E. Cheese's and none of them complained about the pizza.

We visited the Chuck E. Cheese's at 15913 Manchester Rd. in Ellisville, Missouri 63011, but I suspect it would be pretty much the same no matter what Chuck E. Cheese's you visit.

Recommended BUT

• Only if you have young children.
• Only if you have ear plugs.
  
• Only if it's a child's birthday.
• Only if it's not your kid so you don't have to pay for it.
  

GAW

P.S. I'm serious wear hearing protection.

Frank and Helen's, second time.

I visited Frank and Helen's about 4 months ago as part of The Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge and did a full review at that time, so I will keep it short.

I got the call Sunday morning that the family was going to Frank and Helen's that evening to have Broasted Chicken, and did I want to go? Of course I wanted to go, but I wasn't going to have chicken. Out of the 11 family members only 3 of us didn't get chicken (it must be good to pass on pizza).

On This visit as before I started with the Casa (house salad) with the House Creamy Garlic dressing, and as before it was quite good. I did have them add some mozzarella cheese to the salad this time.

For Pizza I ordered a Medium Extra Thin crust (St. Louis Style) with the Signature Red sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, meat balls and red onions. Just like my last visit the pizza was excellent. The ingredients were all fresh and tasted very good. The quantity of each ingredient was just right. Although the St. Louis style crust is not my favorite it did a good job of conveying the pizza from plate to mouth and added a crispness to the package.

On my June visit I noticed that they served Crown Candy Ice Cream after I had already eaten to much and had no room for dessert, this time I saved just a little space to share a scoop. My wife and I had a scoop of coffee ice cream. It was well worth saving the space. Some day I will make the trip to Crown Candy Kitchen and have a malt, but that will be another story.

So if you are craving some great pizza, Broasted chicken and ice cream you can't beat Frank and Helen's.

Frank and Helen's is located at 8111 Olive Street Rd in University City, MO. You can reach them at (314) 997-0666 or check out their web-site by clicking the title link.

Highly Recommended.

GAW

Costco food court Pizza

**Updated 11/16/09 See New information below**

Costco Food Court is not family owned, but is a clever way for the wholesale club giant to get a few more of your hard earned dollars on the way out of the building. If you have ever done any shopping at Costco you know that the food court is a necessity. After pushing your over sized cart around the warehouse filling it with the bulk sized items of life, you will need to fuel up before taking on the parking lot.

The Menu at the Food Court includes Pizza by the slice or whole pie in one of 3 variety's cheese, pepperoni and combo (pepperoni, sausage, onion, green peppers and olives). They also have hot dogs, Polish sausages, chicken bake?, churro (deep fried stick coated in sugar), frozen yogurt, frozen coffee drink, frozen fruit smoothie and fountain sodas.

I got a slice of Pepperoni pizza and a coke, my wife had a slice of combo pizza, the bill for everything was around $5.00. The pizza's are cooked on screens(holey pan?) in a automatic oven, in one side and out the other. All of the slices are of uniform size, they use a rather large metal cutting guide to insure it. My slice of pepperoni had quite a bit of oil on the surface and when i flipped it upside down on the paper plate for a photo some of the oil was soaked up by the plate. I recommend you give it the flip even if you aren't taking a photo. After the grease was blotted I didn't have much to write about. The crust was OK, lots of cheese & pepperoni and some tomato sauce stuck between. My wife's combo slice actually looked better, except for those pesky green peppers, she didn't share so I have nothing to say about it (and my daughter erased the photo from the camera so no photo either).

If you think about the amount of love that goes into a pizza like this, it's really not bad. Just think the person making the pizza's is probably the lowest on the seniority list and can think of nothing else but becoming a checker... or at least the checker's helper.

My Slice came from the Costco at 4200 Rusty Road St. Louis, Missouri 63128, but I suspect it would be pretty much the same no matter what Costco you visit.

Recommended BUT

• Only if you are already there.
• Only if your significant other refuses to let you stop at a real pizza joint on the way home.
• Only if you are about to pass out from low blood sugar, because your giant cart is over-filled.

GAW

P.S. If you are in a twist thinking "I got'a go and get a Costco membership now", hold your horses, you don't need a membership to get the pizza, but you should re-read my recommendation.

**Update** As of 11/16/09 my local Costco requires you to have a membership to visit the food court. I don't know if this is a permanent change or just for the holidays. You have been forewarned. GAW

Racanelli's Cucina, so good I did it again.

I know, I was just at Racanelli's Cucina in June(click to see), but the opportunity presented it's self. How could I say no to pizza? On this visit I had a Peppercorn Ranch Salad, which includes mixed greens, tomatoes, bacon, red onion, parmesan and grilled Foccacia. I believe they forgot the Foccacia, but I had more than I could eat anyway. The salad is a meal in it's self. If you want something smaller you will have to share it or get a House salad, the only one to come in a small size. When served there is the offer of fresh ground pepper, but it has plenty of pepper already. The Peppercorn Ranch salad was a great way to start the meal, and I wouldn't hesitate to order it on future visits.

On my previous visit I had the Margherita pizza. It had been so good that I was tempted to get it again, but then I wouldn't have had any thing new to write about except the salad and this isn't the Saladfiles.com. So this time I ordered the Action Jackson (say that 3 times really fast...). It has pepperoni, sausage, red onions and mozzarella cheese. As with all the pizza's here it only comes in a 12 inch thin hand tossed crust. I have to say up front, I'm not a big fan of Sausage on my pizza's and only order it on rare occasions (Why, you ask? Well my experience with sausage has run the gamut from quasi meat pellets to so many herbs & spices that you can taste nothing else). The sausage on the Action Jackson was pleasantly flavorful with out overpowering the rest of the pizza. It was a very good combination and I would gladly order it again, as long as it was the second or third pie.

I didn't get around to trying the "Johnny's Famous Pound cake Sandwich" on this visit, so It looks like I will be returning in the future.

Racanelli's Cucina Original Pizzeria & Bar is located at 6655 Delmar Boulevard (the Loop) in University City, MO. You can reach them at (314) 727-8880, for more information check out their web-site(click on the title link).

Highly Recommended.

GAW

The Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge, a look back.

The Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge has been over for a couple of weeks now, and I've had some time to think about all 25 of those pies and the 17 pizza joints they came from. My plan was to hit 8 different pizza places in a 10 week period, but The Binge took on a life of it's own and I nearly doubled that goal.

I won't name all 17 pizza joints here, but will name a couple of the standouts.

Erio's Ristorante, some of the Best pizza I have ever had!

Frank and Helen's Pizzeria, making pizza since 1956. It was under my nose for years, but I just discovered it.

Napoli Pizza, one of my all time favorites was the first stop on the binge, but sadly closed it's doors for good a week later.

To see all of the pizza joints I visited follow this Link.

Will there be a 2010 Binge? If my wife and daughter go on a extended summer vacation and leave me at home you can count on it.

I need to thank all of the Pizza Eaters who helped me to eat and PAY for all of those pizza's.

GAW