Entries from April 2008 ↓

On Monday Rick and I took the train West to the Chicago suburb of St. Charles to visit Rick’s parents. We visited and looked at boxes of pictures from Rick’s childhood. My favorite was a picture of Rick during his potty training days, sitting stark naked on the potty, grinning and covering his privates with an empty Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket on his head as a hat! Rick’s mom and dad kindly gave it to me to keep for blackmail. We all went out for a fabulous king crab dinner that night. I’ve never seen crab legs that big! So yummy.

On Tuesday, we caught a Cubs game with Rick’s dad. The scene outside Wrigley Field was like a huge party and sitting in the bleachers was even better. The weather was great and the Cubs kicked butt. Wrigley Field is amazing. Afterwards, Rick’s dad took us out for some ribs at Carson’s in downtown. The restaurant was very cool and old-school and the ribs were delicious. Wednesday, we headed back out to the suburbs to hang out with Rick’s childhood friend, his wife and son. We barbecued and shot some hoops and talked Warcraft.

On Thursday, we went to the Sears tower and had lunch with Rick’s Uncle Bill at a very cool restaurant in the lobby of a building downtown, one block South of the Sears tower. The lobby had a glass ceiling and a gorgeous fountain. It felt like an atrium. That night was a taping of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, one of my favorite NPR programs. They had a new panelist, Drew Carey, who was very funny. Moby was their special guest and, unlike most previous guests, showed up in person instead of calling in! Unfortunately none of my pictures turned out - the theater was too dark

On Friday we checked out the Art Institute which was AMAZING. They had a special exhibition of Edward Hopper and Winslow Homer that blew my mind. I wasn’t familiar with Hopper’s work beyond his iconic Nighthawks painting and the rest of his work really moved me. The style reminded me of Magritte’s work - although there were no surrealist elements, the style and composition made me feel that they were surrealist nonetheless. I especially loved one of his last paintings, Sun in an Empty Room. That night, Rick’s Uncle Bill took us out for ribs at Twin Anchors and they were the best ribs I’ve ever had in my life. The meat was so tender that it was difficult to eat - it just slipped off the bone!

Saturday was our day of departure and we had breakfast at Wishbone, a southern-style eatery near Oprah’s taping studio. Their salmon cakes with hollandaise blew my mind and the decor was very fun and cheerful. Afterwards, we went to O’Hare to check in where (surprise, surprise) my bag was way overweight. We had to wait half an hour to check-in with an agent because their check-in machines weren’t working for us and in the end, our flight was delayed by half an hour. I was worried we wouldn’t make our connecting flight because we landed with 10 minutes to get to the next gate. Luckily, we caught a ride on one of those electric cart things and made our flight.

In the end, I had tons of fun. Chicago is a great town (when the weather’s good) and I definitely want to go back to check out the museums we missed. However, I’m not too happy with the extra 10 pounds I brought back with me. Time to get back to my running program, eating veggies and working.

More pictures here

We left San Luis Obispo airport at 7:52am (Pacific) and got in to our vacation rental at 6:30pm (Central). The flights were uneventful and our luggage wasn’t lost, thank goodness. The condo looks just as good as the photos but smells a little funky. Turns out, it’s also super noisy in the morning if you keep the windows open. Oh well, it’s STILL better than Motel 6.

After we got in we unpacked and headed out in search of dinner. We were starving and ended up eating deep fried veggies and buffalo wings at a local bar. Pretty good. We went back to the condo to relax and make phone calls and then Rick found a cool-sounding Irish bar we could go to - The Emerald Loop. We rode the red line for a bit to get there and that was pretty exciting to a Chicago-newb like me

The Emerald Loop is a gorgeous old place in downtown. They have very pretty stained glass fixtures all over along with some very beautiful paintings. There’s one massive painting in the dining room that I couldn’t tear my eyes off of. The bar looks huge and old and gleaming. And the service was great. Our waiter, Mark, was very friendly and funny and we chatted basketball. Unfortunately we were too full to try the food (which they seem to serve as late as you like) but their Guinness draft is the best I’ve ever had - poured smooth and ice cold, like chocolate milk with a memory-foam head.

We ended the night with an Irish Car Bomb and haiiled a cab (!) to get home. That was fun.

Leaving on a jet plane. Don’t know when I’ll be back again…

Pictures and blogs to come

Since I had never been to Chicago, I thought it would be a good idea to mark all the sights Rick and I wanted to see on one Google Map.

We started by locating our vacation rental and saving it to a Google “My Map” called Chicago Trip, marking it with a red marker and naming it Homebase. Then we listed all the sights we wanted to see: Field Museum, Planetarium, Art Institute, Sears Tower, etc. We googled each place, looked up its address on Google Maps, and then saved each location to our Chicago Trip map with blue markers. We also saved other types of locations like family to visit and places to eat, marking those with their own icons. Finally, we could look at the map and group sights to see by location.

Google allows you to share your maps with other people and set permissions as to whether they can edit or not. You can view our Chicago Trip Google Map here.

A friend from j2 gave me this recipe about a year ago and I finally got around to trying it out. (Thanks Brent!) The prep was very easy and it tasted great. Easily my best cooking experiment so far.

Meatballs

• 2 slices white sandwich bread (crusts discarded), torn into small cubes
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 3/4 pound ground beef chuck
• 1/4 pound ground pork (to be mixed with ground chuck)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 3/4 teaspoon table salt
• Ground black pepper
• Vegetable oil for pan-frying

Simple Tomato Sauce

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh basil leaves
• Table salt and ground black pepper
• 1 pound spaghetti
• grated Parmesan cheese

1. For the meatballs: Combine bread and buttermilk in small bowl, mashing occasionally with fork, until smooth paste forms, about 10 minutes.
2. Mix all meatball ingredients, including bread mixture and pepper to taste in medium bowl. Lightly form 3 tablespoons of mixture into 1 1/2-inch round meatballs; repeat with remaining mixture to form approximately 14 meatballs. (Compacting them can make the meatballs dense and hard. Can be placed on large plate, covered loosely with plastic wrap, and refrigerated for several hours.)
3. Bring 4 quarts of water to boil in large pot for cooking pasta.
4. Meanwhile, heat 1/4-inch vegetable oil over medium-high heat in 10- or 11-inch saute pan. When edge of meatball dipped in oil sizzles, add meatballs in single layer. Fry, turning several times, until nicely browned on all sides, about 10 minutes, regulating heat as needed to keep oil sizzling but not smoking. Transfer browned meatballs to paper-towel-lined plate; set aside. Repeat, if necessary, with remaining meatballs.
5. For the sauce, discard oil in pan, leaving behind any browned bits. Add olive oil along with garlic; saute, scraping up any browned bits, just until garlic is golden, about 30 seconds. Add tomatoes, bring to boil, and simmer gently until sauce thickens, about 10 minutes. Stir in basil; add salt and pepper to taste. Add meatballs and simmer, turning them occasionally, until heated through, about 5 minutes. Keep warm over low flame.
6. Meanwhile, add 1 tablespoon salt and pasta to boiling water. Cook until al dente, drain, and return to pot. Ladle several large spoonfuls of tomato sauce (without meatballs) over spaghetti and toss until noodles are well coated. Divide pasta among individual bowls and top each with a little more tomato sauce and 2 to 3 meatballs. Serve immediately with grated cheese passed separately.