White Pizza

Nothing makes a hard, long week better than having some of your besties over and chowing down on some white pizza.

I also like to serve it with a side of garlic infused broccolini (thank you for the inspiration Zu's!) which provides a fresh counterbalance to all of the chewy cheesiness.

The pizza is pretty simple and you can adjust according to your own tastes. This time I used pizza dough from Whole Foods, which was good but VERY chewy as it was whole wheat. Sometimes I make my own, last nite I didn't feel like being a hero, I was just trying to feed people ;)

So, I use:

Garlic Oil (make by frying up about 8 roughly chopped cloves until golden in 1 c. olive oil, strain)
Italian Fontina
Parm Reg
Mozzarella
Whole Milk Ricotta
Fresh Herbs, chopped fine- Savory and Oregano from my porch

I hit the dough with oil, pile on as much cheese as you want, sprinkle on some herbs, hit w/some more oil and bake. When it comes screaming hot out of the oven, I hit it w/a few more herbs and pass around the Parm Reg so every one can cheese it up to their own tastes.

A winner, every time!

Fizz No. 1 - Love at first sip....

Last nite, the hubs surprised me with an evening out at Acacia.
I can't believe it's taken us this long to try their new location, but fortunately that's been remedied.

Walking into the restaurant was like coming home to me. Everything I love about a good restaurant experience rushed up to enthusiastically greet me with the bustling, friendly service staff and the clatter/chatter of content diners in this clean, spare, low-lit, house music infused spot. The space is a perfect rectangle of grey, organized by soft barriers of low walls dividing seating sections, a bar area and a curtained area which I'm sure closes itself off to catered events.

We were seated in the banquette section along the far wall. Not usually a fan of such seating (think of the movie Valentine's Day- if you haven't seen it, you should, just for the banquette scene). The tables were far enough apart that you could have decent conversation with no one else's talking intruding.

Hubs got the steak w/roast potatoes, I ordered the sea bass over a parmesan and sweet pea risotto. I was quickly informed they were out and were substituting a rockfish (which I like better any way). The hubs thoroughly enjoyed the steak which had some sort of soy and beef broth sauce. The roast potatoes (fingerling white and purple) were a different story. Hard and undercooked, this is an unforgiveable sin in my book. Esp. when you're paying $5 per micro-potato. My rockfish, however, was pan seared to perfection and my only complaint about the risotto is that there wasn't enough. But, I do appreciate the reasonable portion sizes Acacia puts out so that you may enjoy many courses without overstuffing yourself.

All that aside, the piece de resistance for the evening was their Fizz No.1- a twist on the Pimm's Cup. Hendrick's Vodka, Pimm's No. 1 and Ginger Beer top the list of ingredients. It's brought out in an old-fashioned wide mouthed champagne glass (my personal fav as wel) with a small carafe containing an extra portion of this lovely elixir on the side. The first sip infused my mouth with cucumbery (my word, deal with it) herbal delight. I immediately and greedily wished for a pitcher of this sitting on my table. Marvelous summer cocktail- get thee to Acacia and try it tout suite!

Overall experience was enjoyable (potatoes notwithstanding) and we will be back soon! Keep doing what you're doing Acacia- Richmond needs more like you!