Laughing it up in Chicago
Could there be a better place to be this weekend? I think not. The Cubbies clinched their division, the weather was summerish and delightful, and the food and comedy were superb…oh, and some shopping was done with you in mind.
Let’s begin with Friday evening. The moon over Lake Michigan was huge and irresistible. We all sat on the sofa and soaked in this view for quite awhile. Of course we were stuffed senseless with hotdogs and fries served up at our favorite joint, Portillos.
After a good sleep we headed out to a excellent brunch at Bistro Zinc. Their brioche french toast with vanilla mascarpone cheese might as well be called crack toast…it’s so damn addictive. Suffice to say all plates were practically polished when we finished and no, we did not lick the plates, but we wanted to.
We continued south to Sur La Table, my favorite cookware store in the midwest. I acquired a set of brioche molds, silcone cupcake cups, and a plastic knife that made GH happy (you may recall his fear of knives). So look forward to some tasty baking coming your way soon.
Next stop was MCA which is celebrating its 40th birthday with 40 days of free admission and cupcakes…I love free especially when accompanied by cupcakes. This morsel is a red velvet cupcake topped off with a dollop of cream cheese icing. It was created by Swirlz Cupcakes and it was spot on perfect. MCA has an absolutely killer exhibit on the art of rock and roll since 1967 and it was a blast to view it with the boys. The next stop was the Jazz Record Mart so GH could add to his collection. Then, with worn out feet, we cabbed back to the apartment for a nap.
By 5:00 we were well rested and finally hungry again. We headed for the Lakeview neighborhood to dine at La Tavernetta on Broadway at Wellington. All of our food was delicious but I think Dexter got the best dish, the gnocchi with sausage and broccoli. The food was good, Chicago Italian, like Aunty Sarah would make, and the service was great. There’s nothing trendy looking about it…but go,go, mangia!
We ate such an early dinner because we had tickets for Mark Birbiglia Comedy Central show at the Lakeshore Theater. It was a blast and we laughed for 2 hours…all the comedians were great but we especially loved Jeff Tate and Mark Birbiglia…check out his blog. We also stumbled on to this great music store called Reckless Records…so fabulous…Dex got some AC/DC and some Jimi, I got some new Iron and Wine, Matt Pond PA, Badly Drawn Boys, and some classic Allman Brothers, Alex got a Japanese Samurai movie. Loved it!
Now I’m back home, hoping you’ll understand that although I have some great chicken pot-pie photos from last week I haven’t written the recipe up yet, but I’ll post that on Tuesday. Until then eat some good food and laugh…it helps. Go Cubs.
My favorite breakfast
Homemade yogurt with maple pecan granola and peaches. This is seriously delicious.
Maple pecan granola
4 cups old fashion rolled oats
2 cups pecan pieces
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
Preheat oven to 150F.
Put everything in a large bowl, stir it up well. Turn out onto a heavy baking sheet lined with a silpat. Bake for 10 minutes, remove pan from oven, stir the granola. Put pan back into the oven for 10 minutes and repeat the bake, stir process 3 more time. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Store in a glass jar.
BBQ spare ribs and more
It’s that time again…time to clear the digital desktop of its clutter. These are all interesting dishes that I’ve made over the summer and for whatever reason I just never got around to giving them their own posts. Lucky you…think of it as an all you can eat buffet that’s actually worth eating…dig in!
Mmmmmm…..they were delicious. Spare ribs are one item that can be hard to source around here. My favorite pork producer sells their spare ribs to a Madison restaurant…and let’s face it, a pig only has two racks of ribs…but these came from my good friends at Jordandal Farm and they were perfect. My version may lack authenticity, smoky and otherwise, but they certainly do not lack flavor.
Instructions: Rub the ribs down with a mixture of minced onion, garlic, paprika, brown sugar, cayenne, and salt and pepper. Then before you stick them in the oven drizzle them with cider vinegar. Cover them with foil and bake at 300F for 2 hours. Then take them out, uncover them and baste them with your favorite BBQ sauce…we like Sweet Baby Ray’s Original, Then drop them onto a hot grill for a quick char on each side and you’re good to go. Now I told you they weren’t authentic, and I know it all seems wrong but they really were the best.
These were the season’s first new potatoes and I went with a technique gleaned from a Patricia Well’s cookbook (I can’t remember which one). They were soft and creamy in some places and crunchy and crisp in others…a textural delight from a simple spud.
Instructions: Gently boil a bunch of new potatoes. Let them cool down. Arrange the potatoes on a cookie sheet and using a meat tenderizer mallet smash each potato. Drizzle the whole mess with olive oil and salt and pepper and bake at 400F until golden and crunchy to your liking. I think the next time I make them I’ll cook them a little longer to get more crunch.
This is a chard gratin that I made from a recipe in Deborah Madison’s recipe book Local Flavors. It was okay but I won’t make it again. I’m showing it because it was an instance where I followed the recipe word for word (you know I never do that) and when I was done I had a mess of pots and pans and a “meah” dish. I didn’t read through the recipe until I was standing at the stove…I’d checked the ingredients and saw that I had everything and dove in. But the recipe was written step by step and instead of saying “you are now going to make a bechamel sauce” it just stepped you through the making of the sauce…so it was that I began making the roue when I realized what was up. It really was my fault but it still ticked me off and poor GH had to deal with the mountain of pans. But don’t get me wrong, I love Deborah Madison and when I first dined at Greens at Fort Mason in SF it was the moment I saw food differently. I just don’t want to eat bechamel in the middle of the summer.
This has to be the ugliest salad on earth. But take my word, and Sam’s…it is the bomb (is it OK to say that or is it really uncool now…whatever!). It’s a Mario Batali, Food TV recipe. Go there, print it, make it, and love it.
Ever since I got my pasta machine I’ve been experimenting. These are my first, sad attempt at ravioli. Do any of my local readers want to come over and teach me how to make ravioli? Is there a good book on the subject? I’m even stumped about what to fill them with. Come on readers, you’re going to have to pitch in and take pity on me.
David Lebovitz improves my life almost weekly…that’s how often I’ve been making ice cream this summer. The cream from Blue Marble Dairy lands on my front doorstep on Thursday afternoon and by Friday evening I’ve got a new batch to dish out for dessert. Strawberry has been our favorite flavor so far but this was a plain vanilla batch that I cradled with rhubarb goo…it was so good that I can still taste it…the sweet, cold, cream and the tart, tangy, goo. I want more please.
Lastly we have this delectable morsel. A cherry scone. Instructions: take one of my many scone recipes…frankly I can’t remember which one was the best or what one I used for this batch…their all good…and add cherries. Mmmmmmmm
