Recently in food Category

1. I forgot about the house party after Eric's show at Drew's place. There was a house party after Eric's show at Drew's place. Tabitha and Chelsa and I went. Oh and we got burritos first. Here is a pic I stole from Fawna:

2. It all started when I looked up Cornie in my work's database to see when he had tickets to Elixir of Love. Is that illegal? Should I admit that? Whatever.
So I told him we should go on the same night and so me and him and Joe and Alina and Anna met up beforehand at Trattoria No 10, because they were doing restaurant week special. We shared some wine and I got grilled calamari and waygu steak and chocolate cake. Yum.
And ELixir was fun too. It had a horsey. ANd was a good opera.

3. Chelsa and I went to Detroit's Famous Leo's Coney Island. That name is confusing. She had a hot dog, I had chicken fingers.

4. A few weeks ago I hosted our weekly 24 night for the first time. So everyone came over and I made pulled chicken and coleslaw and potato salad. The episode was really boring. Really boring. Except for the most epic five minute stabbing scene ever in the middle.

1. Dallas is winning the race against Charlottesville for places to visit. They have several muffler men and the World's Largest Patio Chair. Although the Patio Chair comes nowhere close to the World's Largest Rocking Chair...I base all of my travel decisions on who has the largest what.

2. Last Wednesday Chelsa and I went for some Turkish food at Cafe Orchid. I had the Uskudar which tasted kind of like eggplant parmesan if you substituted lamb for the mozzarella. Delicious!

3. Friday night we had a ticketing department field trip to see Eric's moustache in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. His moustache was so awesome in the play! It played a very pivotal role.

It was also Matt's last day at work. I was sad :(

We were all sad to see him go and happy for Eric's moustache!

4. Saturday night I had to dress up all purdy and head off to a gala at work. Basically I had to follow around a photographer for two hours and take people's names. Fun stuff, eh? I got to stay for the cabaret though, which was awesome. I mean, how often do you get to see Mark Delavan singing Johnny Cash and playing his guitar?

(I had to memorialize my boxed dinner)

Afterwards I headed over to The Southern. Two weeks ago The Southern was Chaise Lounge. But then they closed and reopened. I was supposed to go on Thursday for their friends and family soft opening because Mat is a waiter there but then he told me they had too many people and I couldn't go. Lame.

So I went on Saturday and it was more bar-y than restaurant-y now. But they had delicious peach martinis. I had three of them while I waited for Mat to get off work. Then some amaretto. :-)

5. So, Valentines Day is Sunday. Sigh :(
All my secret admirers out there should feel free to send pink flowers to my Roscoe Village address...or to my work on Friday ;-)

one.
Thursday at around 3pm the new Superdawg location in Wheeling announced that it was now open. SO of course I went for dinner. Because, really, how often do you get to say you went to Superdawg on its opening day? About every 60 years, that is how often! I got myself a Superdawg and Superveggies and a chocolate shake. And I totally managed to dump ranch dressing all over my car!

More of a write-up at Silly America.
More photos here.




two.
I determined last night, standing over the stove, eating raw on the inside, burnt on the outside Swedish pancakes straight from the pan, that I will never have my favorite pancakes again because my dad was the only one who could make them right.




three.
Yesterday we gathered at Glen and Jen's to watch 24. They made jambalaya.

Here are some of my thoughts on the current season of 24:
- If you are infiltrating the Russian mafia, don't you think you should be talking with a Russian accent?
- How can I turn my Blackberry into a bomb? Is there an ap for that?
- Do they not have phones in a presidential motorcade? Is calling and saying "you might want to pull over" really harder than speeding around people and blowing yourself up?
- You are already on plot #2...I wonder when we will find out what this season is really about.
- Really, CTU, you might want to start doing better on your background checks. Walmart has a better system that you.
- Speaking of which, it is apparently really easy for anyone to find the Counter Terrorism Unit. Shouldn't they do better to hide themselves?




four.
Bison mini-burgers on toasted pretzel bread.





five.
Scallops with asparagus.





six.
In November Chelsa and I went to the Fifth for dinner. I never told you that. It was one of their first weeks opening and they were offering 50% off food if you followed them on Twitter. We had free savory doughnuts, and a cheese plate, and I got chicken and Chelsa got a burger. It was good but nothing I would go out of my way to go to again.

seven.
Last Friday my boss took some of us out to Greektown for dinner right after work. I got home drunk at 11. My boss is a bad influence.




eight.
Last Friday Chelsa and I went to the French Market for lunch. We split an order of curry chicken and an order of fries with mayonnaise and peanut sauce. Delicious fries.




nine.
Last Thursday Mat came over and we went to the moon for dinner. I had meatloaf. Then we played Guitar Hero because after 9 months of it sitting around I finally set up the Wii. After 4 weeks of it sitting in the freezing cold of my car I also finally brought up my new TV.

As part of our new years resolutions Chelsa and I have started to make a list of restaurants in Chicago that we really want to try. On Friday we kicked off our eating out efforts with a trip to the new DMK Burger Bar.

The place was small but nice and had some weird thing on the TV that looked like what plays on Windows Media Player when you play a song. As I don't like beer and didn't feel like spending $10+ on a mixed drink I decided to go for their house-made cherry soda. Which was basically an Italian soda and was really sweet at first and then more dull taste later but was still pretty good.

I got the #1, which had bbq sauce, bacon, balsamic red onions and cheddar. It was delicious but, as with most things with bbq sauce that kind of overpowered everything else. Chelsa had a lamb burger that she really liked but she found a few little bones in it.

We shared a small order of sweet potato fries with lemon aioli dipping sauce. Those were delicious and honestly I kind of want to go back just to try some of the fries. I basically love anything made from a potato. Maybe I will just make my own flight of fries! (The small fries were only about $2-3 per a decent-sized serving, and I really would want to try the parmesan fries with truffle sauce!) Also the guy next to me got the ac and cheese, which looked yummy too. I love me some mac and cheese.

After eating we went to Bobtail to get some ice cream. Why Chelsa wanted ice cream in 0 degree weather I don't know...but I got an espresso with mint chocolate chip ice cream (I decided to deny myself my $3 savings that day). And we played Sorry but the game was missing most of its pieces and we didn't really play how we were supposed to. Oh well. I somehow managed to win both times.

Chelsa had to call it an earlyish night since she had to work the next day so I went back home. Heather was getting ready to go out to Martyrs with Alyssa. OK, she wasn't getting ready, but that seemed like a decent segue. So when Alyssa came I joined them in going to the bar. We watched some of three bands. The first one was the best and had a guy on keyboards who was also playing something from a tube in his mouth. And I had a couple of vodka and cranberries. Because Mat bought me one the other night and before that I didn't think I liked them. But now I have found out that I do and therefore have a new drink. And ALyssa and I danced, which still kind of hurt but made me feel good because it didn't hurt that much. Yay my back is getting better!

1. I would be one of those people at my corner Starbucks who they'd know my order as soon as I came in if I ever ordered the same drink twice in a row. I bounce between mochas and carmel macchiato, and pumpkin spice lattes, and white mochas, and espresso truffles (when I am having a really depressed morning) and other froufrou seasonal drinks. This morning I ordered, for the first time ever, a peppermint mocha. I always argued against it because I am not a fan of the taste of mint. But despite that I do like chocolate mints so I thought I would give it ago. And it was tasty but I don't think it was anything I would crave to have again.

2. I am a very rational person if you give me five minutes.

3. Yesterday I texted Mat to ask him if he wanted to do something. We decided we'd watch a movie and get food. We were debating between going out or me cooking. I wasn't really feeling like cooking anything in particular so I asked him if he was craving anything. He replied tacos. I said I could make tacos. But then, of course, my mind started churning and I thought of the recipe for green chili chicken enchiladas I had come across that looked tasty. And it was the same principle as tacos. So I stopped by the Whole Foods after work to pick up the fresh green salsa and chicken and onions and tortillas. I used chicken breasts instead of thighs, omitted the cilantro (I couldn't find any), used the fresh Whole Foods salsa verde instead of the "chili verde starter" and used goat cheese on top (again, couldn't find queso añejo). And I totally wung the proportions because I just bought packages in whatever size they came in and only had a small pan and didn't need to feed 12.

I could have just made tacos. I could have cooked some meat in packaged spice mix and called in a night. Instead I boiled chicken and oiled tortillas and stacked them and topped them and baked them twice.
When Mat came over as I was pulling the chicken I said I was making enchiladas and he looked at me as if I had broken his heart. "You said you were making tacos." Of course, he was just kidding and of course I spent the rest of the night apologizing for not making tacos (also kidding, of course). But he said he loved them.

We watched Audition. It's a Japanese horror film and I thought since he liked anime he might like it. Of course, I remembered why I thought it was like anime: it makes no sense. And I forgot why I hadn't watched it in forever: it has some of the most disturbing scenes in horror films ever.
We then watched Heather's Galaxy Quest and, she was right, it is hilarious because you don't expect it to be funny at all.

1.
Happy Sweet Goodness Day!

2.
To kick off the pre-sweet goodness celebrating I met with Brian and others at Clarke's for a dinner at midnight on Friday.

3.
I ate Swedish pancakes.

4.
I mangled my pancakes.

I am starting to think I should start my own cooking blog of what not to do in the kitchen. Don't get me wrong. I love to cook. But sometimes I think cooking doesn't love me. And really I have none of the qualities that it takes to do either. Let us examine three of the meals I cooked this week for what NOT to do...

1. Potatoes a la Val
I could write a cookbook on how to make meals out of new potatoes. I always keep a bag on hand because if nothing else they make an easy meal that usually goes well tossed with whatever else you have leftover in your fridge. This week I sliced them thin and baked them with leftover garlic, parmesan cheese, and rosemary...
Of course I didn't cut the garlic small enough to do anything.
And I totally forgot to add any salt and pepper.
And then I totally got really hungry and, therefore, impatient, and, therefore, took them out of the oven way earlier than I should have so they were still slightly raw.

2. Chicken with tarragon cream sauce.
I seasoned this up just right. The chicken turned a perfect brown, crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside. I took it out of the oven after 40 minutes on 350 and 5 on 400...and then I turned the handle to not stick out...and burned the hell out of my hand.
I spent the entire night in horrific pain. We didn't have ice at all so I kept getting Cokes from the fridge and held them until they went warm because it was the only thing that could stop the pain and if I wasn't holding something cold it only took moments for my body to start shaking and for it to feel as if I would pass out completely. Heather gave me some Tylenol PM which did nothing for the pain but did help me fall asleep before 9pm so I could at least ignore the pain a bit...My hand is fine today, just very blitery.
The chicken did turn out lovely though. And yes, yes even in writhing pain I still take a moment to take a photo of my food.

3. Chicken and dumplings.
I had some chicken left so I decided to make soup...Because soup does not go in the oven and therefore I figured my hands would be safe. What I was not prepared for was, when cutting into the chicken after it had boiled for a bit, to hear a pop and have a ton of blood splatter up. WTF? Undeterred, I cut around the bloody parts.
I also think I forgot to salt the dumplings. But whatever. It tasted yummy. And I have enough to feel about a million people.

And that was my week in cooking. In conclusion, I am still alive and Heather is still alive. So I guess I am doing something right.

Sunday night we were planning on going to Ravinia to watch David Hyde Pierce sing Cole Porter. Halfway through the day JoeJoe asked me if I had checked the weather and so I looked it up and saw that it was supposed to rain. We thought about it and discussed and decided that maybe going to Ravinia wouldn't be the best idea...

At the same time MK said hey and it seemed like he wanted to do something but he didn't want to leave his house...so I took it upon myself to invite Joe and Alina over there and told MK we were having a party!

I brought over the pasta salad I had made the night before and Joe and Alina brought some wine and a delicious dessert that was not a cheesecake and not made with amaretto but had chocolate, cheesecake, amaretto, and strawberry all in the title and was just made with mashing a bunch of stuff together. It was delicious.

MK bought some pork and fired up the grill (because, of course it wasn't raining then).

It was a delicious meal.

I throw good parties :-)

More photos here.

Don't you love the internet? Not only can you put your whole life out there for all to see if you want (like I do...) but you find a voice in any topic you desire...and catch up with people you haven't seen in a very long time!

A few months back a friend from grad school, Shannalee, who I haven't seen since we had a class together at DePaul a couple of years ago found my twitter account and added me. She kept an awesome blog called Food Loves Writing which combines a literary narrative with cooking.

This past weekend she threw a party for her blog! For me it was a mini-reunion of sorts because it meant getting together with a few great people I haven't seen in a long while!

The party was out at a park in Downers Grove and had tons of great good! There were meatballs and barbecue chicken and salad and banana bread and delicious cakes from Sugar Magnolia Pastries.

There weresome giveaways and I won a cookbook, which I can't wait to delve into!

And Vicki won a gift pack from Country Bob's.

It was great catching up with Maxine and Shannalee and Vicki. We all were in the writing program at DePaul together and I haven't seen any of them since!

It was such a fun party and I hope there is another one soon! Or at least that it's not another two years until I see everyone again!

More Food Loves Writing photos here!

1. Things Heather has never seen/heard before the last few weeks:
- "In the direction of travel, doors open on the left..."
- An Extenze infomercial.

2. Yesterday I got rice with shrimp for lunch. I've gotten it before and it was fine and tasty. Yesterday I got it and after eating one I looked down and saw that none of the shrimp had been deveined. And I was totally grossed out and almost threw up and threw it out. I told Scott later and he said that deveined shrimp was perfectly fine to eat. I said I don't want to eat shrimp poop because it is icky. He did not buy "eating poop is icky" as a valid argument against it. I think that that statement does not need any more explanation.

3. Saturday afternoon I met my sisters downtown to go see Spring Awakening. I'd actually seen it before last year when I was in New York and absolutely loved it! Seeing it again was no dissapointment either. It is really a phenomenal show. Except now I have the soundtrack in my head. Yes, yes I am still the same theatre dork I was in high school. I think i only like musicals about sex and drugs though. I have now seen RENT, Spring Awakening, and Avenue Q twice each. I kind of want to see CATS though (cue jazz hands)...who doesn't like a musical about singing dancing cats???

4. Sunday afternoon Mat came over and we split a sausage pizza at Frasca. He then gave me my first guitar lesson.

5. Sunday night I met Chelsa to go see Dead Snow at Music Box. If you ask me to go see a movie about nazi zombies I will probably say yes. It was from Norway and was subtitled. And it was hilarious. At first I wasn't sure if it was just unintentionally hilarious or just funny in that way where people need to laugh to relieve tension. But it was actually pretty hilarious. I wasn't expecting that. I always come out of movies though with the stupidest of questions...like in this one they split up to try to find the car...and all I could think was how the hell many keys did they bring? Also, never sneak up on someone when they are killing a zombie. Just sayin.

6. I am very amused that the itap on my phone understands the word "comicon" but not the word "dork"...

7. These are the photos I turned in for the motion assignment for class...

Stopping motion:

Showing Motion:

Another Stopping Motion (because the people at lab lied):

What I would have turned in for panning if the people at lab didn't lie:

8. What's the perfect dinner when it is 90 degrees and your air conditioning is broke? This delicious peach caprese salad! I'm not always a fan of tomatoes and I am always a huge fan of peaches so this just seemed like a winning combo...and it was!

9. I know I should be very thankful that I have a job and make money...but I am kind of jealous that Heather and Alyssa get to sleep in and hang out all day and stay up late while I am working :(