Restaurant Find: Zona78

I've never posted a restaurant find for any restaurants in Tucson, but in case any of you ever come here, and I'm not around to entertain you, I want you to know about one of my favorite Tucson spots. I am going to introduce you to what I believe to be the best tomato-basil soup in the city, though my other half of Two Friends Cook might disagree.

Zona78 is a restaurant that first opened in 2003, and they offer gourmet pizzas, some Italian dishes, and a great selection of starters and salads. They also offer this Roasted Tomato-Basil soup, made with local tomatoes and topped with their fresh toasted croutons. The soup is made with what I'm sure is a fair amount of cream, and I just find it amazing. When I think of going out to eat soup, all I think about is Zona78's tomato-basil soup. No joke. At lunch, you can get a grilled cheese and soup. Oh my goodness.


I also recommend this salad. For a long time, I always ate pizza from Zona78, but one day I tried their Chop-Chop salad. It's a delicious mix of contrasting flavors that work really well together. It's crunchy, a little sweet, and a little salty. Salami, pears, pecans, a fresh pear vinaigrette, amazing. Also, I'm thinking this fulfills my Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Pear, right? I ate pears, at least.


And, finally, this is Zona78's Tuscany pizza, and what their menu touts as their bestseller. It's a loaded pizza for sure, with Italian sausage, portabello mushrooms, fennel, roasted garlic, Zona's homemade mozzarella, and kalamata olives. I hope I didn't miss anything. It's a good pizza, though I didn't care for the fennel, and Aaron didn't care for the sausage. Still, pretty delicious. You can also opt for a whole wheat crust.

Sarah: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Grapefruit

First off- I am sorry for falling so so behind on these challenges. I am working very hard to catch up, but life is really crazy at the moment. I'll be caught up soon, promise.

Second off- I'm calling defeat. This was an EPIC fail. I am not going to even give you the recipe.

I made this iceberg lettuce, ruby red grapefruit, pasta, shrimp concoction for family dinner last week. I can only play that they let me cook again.

Becky: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Grapefruit

BBQ Pork Salad with Summer Fruits and Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette
Ingredients:
4 cooked pork chops, sliced
8 cups mixed greens
2 nectarines, cut into 12-wedges each
1 grapefruit, segmented
2 avocados, cut into wedges
16 cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon salad oil
2 tablespoons slivered, toasted almonds
salt and black pepper

Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette:
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3/8 cup salad oil

1. For the vinaigrette: In a blender, combine all ingredients except oil. Blend at medium speed for one minute. Next, with blender at medium speed, pour oil very slowly into blender. Add salt and pepper.
2. For each serving, toss 2 cups greens with 2 tablespoons dressing, top with 4 cherry tomatoes, 1 sliced pork chop, 1/2 avocado, sliced in wedges, 1/2 nectarine sliced in wedges, 1/4 grapefruit segments. Drizzle with more dressing and sprinkle with toasted almonds. Serve immediately.

At first I wasn't sure what kind of recipes I could find with grapefruit. I looked through my cookbooks but none of the recipes really sparked my interest all that much. Then I googled "grapefruit recipes" and discovered this recipe on Allrecipes.com. Even though this recipes probably wasn't the best choice for this time of year (for one thing, nectarines are not in season), I still chose it because it had a lot of ingredients that I love, like grapefruit and avocado. The fact that it has pork in it also made it a good main course dinner.

I was presented with some challenges. As I said, nectarines are not in season so I ended up using canned peaches. I wasn't sure what kind of salad to use for the mixed greens, but I finally settled on a mixed fresh herb mix.

All in all, I really enjoyed this salad. My husband wouldn't try it because he doesn't like grapefruit, avocado, pork or tomatoes. My husband is definitely a lot pickier than me when it comes to food lol. I wish I could've used fresh nectarines, but canned peaches were a good alternative. The dressing was fantastic. My husband even tried a little of the dressing and he agreed with me.

Wednesday Night Dinner: Salad and Rosemary-Garlic Chicken Sandwiches

This week I decided I really wanted to make salad for dinner, but also needed something to go along with the salad. So I spent most of my Tuesday thinking about what kind of entree would go along with the salad. I finally settled on making this rosemary-garlic chicken, but in sandwich form. This chicken is pretty much the tastiest chicken ever. We put it on rolls with fresh spinach and havarti cheese and it was delightful. I served a field greens with pomegranates salad on the side that was also pretty outstanding.

Field Greens with Pomegranate Salad
field greens
pomegranates
artichoke quarters
tomatoes
carrots
red onion
cucumber
goat cheese
sliced almonds (sunflower seeds would be a good sub)

Toss and serve with balsamic dressing.

Wednesday Night Dinner Goes Greek

For Wednesday night dinner, I went Greek and made chicken souvlaki, tzatziki sauce, and a Greek salad. It was delicious and Vanessa and I both agreed it was one of our favorite dinners yet. I used a simple Rachael Ray recipe to make the souvlaki as well as her recipe for tzatziki, threw together a Greek salad, and Vanessa used her mom's recipe for breaded eggplant chips. It was a great team dinner this week too as I prepared the souvlaki, Alaina made the tzatziki, and Vanessa made the eggplant chips.


Chicken Souvlaki Sticks by Rachael Ray
* 16 bamboo skewers
* 3 lemons
* 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh oregano leaves [I used dried oregano]
* 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
* 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
* 4 cloves garlic, minced
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 16 chicken tenders, about 1 1/2 pounds
* 2 cups Greek style yogurt
* 1/2 seedless cucumber, peeled and grated
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Directions

Soak skewers in water for about 30 minutes.

Preheat grill or grill pan to medium-high heat.

Combine the zest and juice of 2 lemons, oregano, red pepper flakes and olive oil in a dish. Paste the garlic by mashing it with coarse salt then add 3/4 of it to the marinade, reserving some for dipping sauce. Add chicken tenders to the marinade and season with salt and pepper, turn in marinade to coat, let stand 10 minutes. Thread tenders on damp skewers and cook 7 to 8 minutes, turning once, until firm and juices run clear.

While skewers cook, combine yogurt with juice of remaining lemon, remaining clove of garlic, grated cucumber, cumin and salt, to taste. Divide the dip among 4 ramekins.

Serve 5 skewers per person with dipping sauce alongside.

A couple differences to the dipping sauce recipe. We added some feta cheese and only used half a lemon.

Greek salad
romaine
tomatoes
carrots
red onion
kalamata olives
cucumbers
feta cheese

Wednesday Night Dinner: Southwest Salad and Baked Flautas

Despite its lack of prettiness, it was a pretty delicious and easy dinner. I picked up some fresh tortillas at the farmer's market so it guided my decision to go with a Mexican dinner. I love Southwest salads and then I found a recipe for Black Bean and Green Chile Baked Flautas from For the love of cooking. We also made homemade guacamole.

Here's my Southwest salad recipe and you can find the baked flautas recipe at the link above. The flautas are a great vegetarian recipe too.

Southwest Salad
romaine
spinach
tomatoes
red onions
avocados
corn kernels
black beans
grilled chicken

Toss together and serve with a spicy ranch dressing.