Kitchen Quick Tips - Storing Tomatoes

Always store fresh tomatoes at room temperature away from direct sunlight to maintain peak flavour and texture.  Storing in the refrigerator will reduce the flavour while causing the flesh to turn mealy.

Leonardo's Italian Grille in Romulus, Michigan

One of our great pleasures when traveling is discovering new restaurants that offer homestyle cooking in a cozy atmosphere.  While we find some of these gems through word of mouth, quite often we discover a good eatery by shear luck.  Sometimes it is the name of the restaurant, other times the  look of the exterior and others still a combination of both.  So it was during a recent road trip when we discovered a small, cozy Italian restaurant.

Leonardo's Italian Grille is located at 7575 Merriman Rd in Romulus, Michigan about a mile away from Detroit MetroAirport.  The restaurant is owned by brothers Vito and Joe Liparoto who emigrated from Sicily to America in 1969 with their family.  Years later the brothers opened their first pizzeria, now operating as Leonardo's Italian Grille.  They have captured the essence of authentic Sicilian cuisine with the inspiration of Chef David Neal. They offer a variety of Italian specialties as well as dishes from the grill.

The exterior of Leonardo's is modern architecture  with Italian overtones of red and green.  There is a large outdoor dining patio to the left of the entrance.  The interior is cozy and welcoming with shades of taupes and greens, lots of wood, and an Italian themed mural.  There is an impressive bar with comfortable sitting in the lounge area as well as tables and booths.  The atmosphere is cozy, casual with friendly waitstaff.

The waitress brought us a basket of fresh bake twisted Italian bread stick with butter to accompany our meal.  These soft chewy bread sticks were delightfully delicious!   The texture was quite similar to a crusty roll yet a slightly different.  A little twist opened the warm bread stick forming a small pocket perfect for the butter.  This is one recipe I will be looking for to make at home!

Entrées were served with soup or salad.  We both ordered salads with our entreé.  The side salad was a simple salad greens with shredded red cabbage, shredded carrots, red onion slices, cherry tomatoes, croutons and Italian dressing. 

Leonardo's serves Provimi veal, a superior milk-fed pale coloured, fork-tender veal, the finest available.  My husband ordered the veal parmesan ($19.95).  The generous portion of tender veal was coated with Italian breadcrumbs, sautéed in olive oil then topped with marinara sauce and baked with mozzarella cheese.  It was served with spaghetti in marinara sauce.  The dish was garnished with finely chopped red onion and carrot, something a bit different from the over . used sprinkling of dried parsley. 

My husband really enjoyed the veal parmesan.  It was tender with a nice richly flavoured mainara sauce and gooey melted mozzarella cheese.  This entreé was a sure winner!

I ordered the Sicilian pasta ($15.45) with a side salad.  This entrée consisted of sautéed tender peas tossed with homemade meat sauce and fresh ricotta served over bowtie pasta.  The fine textured meat sauce had a bit of a zip bordering on heat to it so I think the meat was hot Italian sausage rather than ground beef.  The Sicilian pasta was a delicious entreé!

Leonardo's is ranked #2 of 33 restaurants in Romulus on Trip Advisor and for good reason.   The waitstaff are friendly and provide fast service.  The unpretentious food is simply good, homestyle basic Italian nicely presented in a cozy, inviting family-style atmosphere.  The portion size for the entreés is substantial. It is child-friendly for those traveling with little ones but can also accommodate larger groups.  If you are in the vicinity of the Detroit Metro Airport, this is a great restaurant for lunch or dinner.

Frugal Kitchens 101 - Eating Healthy By Not Dieting

It seems like everyone is on some type of diet these days.  Many of these diets are fad diets meaning they are in vogue for only a short time.  Most fad diets greatly restrict or eliminate a particular food group entirely (eg. Palo diet, low carb diet).  There are several problems with these types of diets.  Any diet of this type is destined for failure especially those that don't allow certain foods because folks tend to go back to eating what they are used to.  One of the biggest problems is, if followed for any length of time there is a risk of becoming deficient in one or more essential nutrients that in turn can cause health problems.  In some cases, the damage done may not be reversible.  The biggest problem with a lot of these diets is the focus is on the food rather than a lifestyle change.  As a result the diet really is only effective for a very short time before the person dieting gets bored or doesn't get the results they want so they move onto another fad diet or give up on dieting.  Finally, a lot of fat diets are expensive.  Many encourage you to buy special foods as a substitute for your regular snacks (eg. Atkins products) or meals (eg. Weight Watchers entrées).  Essentially what they are doing is diverting you away from regular processed foods to their higher priced processed foods.  The bottom line is a diet based on processed foods is not only expensive, it is not good for you.

A few days ago, one of my friends on Facebook shared a graphic that said "No I'm not dieting, I'm eating healthy.".  Obviously this was a result of someone commenting on her food choice and having been on that side of the coin on many occasions, I can so relate.  Why anyone feels the need to comment on my food choice is beyond me.  Seriously, I get so many comments when eating out over always ordering a salad of some kind yet the folks making the comments don't realize that my choice for including a salad with my meal has nothing to do with dieting.  I'm not and never have been a dieter nor am I a calorie counter but I am aware of the nutritional value of the foods I enjoy.  I eat what I want and that tends to be healthier foods.  Eating healthy does not have to break the budget and in most cases it is less expensive than not eating healthy or following a fad diet.  Here are some of our healthy food choices that are inexpensive while helping maintain a healthy weight:

• beverages - By far many beverages (eg. sodas) are filled with empty calories, HFCS, and additives (eg. artificial colours, flavours, preservatives) and they are expensive.  What many don't realize is that any beverage sold in a can has a low level of mold that can cause allergic reactions and asthma flares.  An average 355 ml (12 oz) can of soda has 120 calories and costs 75¢ or more.  My drink of choice is filtered water (0 calories, 0 cost) in reusable water bottles, not purchased bottled water.  I often add fresh squeezed lemon juice which adds flavor while adding Vitamin C and helping the body detoxify.  The juice of half a lemon costs about 10¢.  If I want a fizzy drink it is either club soda or Perrier neither of which have the problems of soda although the cost is about the same. Infused water using fresh herbs and fruits is another way to get flavour and vitamins at a lower cost than soda.  Tea, coffee and herbal teas are all 0 calorie unless a sweetener or cream is added.  I substitute milkshakes that are high in calories, sugars, fat and in my case lactose that my body doesn't like with homemade fruit smoothies.  There are a number of energy drinks on the market.  I use the juicer to make homemade energy drinks using fresh fruits and vegetables at a fraction of the cost of store bought.  We seldom drink milk as it is not a healthy choice for either of us, which is a considerable savings.
• snacks - Mass produced snacks can really add up in terms of calories, sugar, salt and fat even those snacks marketed as diet snacks.  The biggest problem with snacks is they are often consumed even though you aren't really hungry.  I'm not much of a snack person.  My healthy snack choices include: nuts, carrots, cucumber, broccoli, cheese, fruit and organic dark chocolate.  My husband likes saltier snacks so instead of store bought potato chips, I make kale chips, popcorn, and baked potato chips.  He also enjoys sunflower seeds and nuts. 
• produce - We choose locally grown, in season, usually organic produce wherever possible and directly from the grower.  We also grow whatever we can seasonally and year round.  This is less expensive than store bought, fresher and healthier because they are pesticide-free.  Herbs take no more time or effort to grow on a windowsill than a non-edible houseplant.  Sprouts, if you can find them in the store will cost about $2 for a small container.  I sprout beans and seeds at home.  The amount that will fill a 500 ml container when ready to use cost about 2¢ a considerable savings over store bought. 
• miscellaneous - We choose to cook mainly from scratch and do extensive home food preservation to avoid food additives, excess salts, excess sugar, HFCS and preservatives, all of which can cause health problems.  This lifestyle choice saves us a considerable amount of money.  We use unbleached flour, whole grain flours, ancient grain flours (eg. spelt, kamut), sea salt (additive free), organic sugar, local honey, and etc., all of which are the same price or slightly higher as well as being healthier than their regular counterparts.  Homemade versions of mass produced snacks, convenience foods, boxed foods, and baked goods are healthier and less expensive.  Our meats for the most part are organic, free range, grass fed and hormone free yet are less expensive per kilogram than farm factory raised meats.   We use portion control for meats, especially red meat which reduces the cost plus less is healthier.  We eat at least one meat free dinner a week which is also healthier and saves money. 

Kitchen Quick Tips - Cutting Delicate Herbs

Quickly prepare delicate fresh herbs (eg. parsley, chives) by snipping across the herb with scissors rather than a knife.