February, 2009
February 26th, 2009
Fennelicious Cured Salmon
It took two days to make, but my cured salmon turned out to be one fennelicious annistastic piece of excellence. All praise goes to Michael Ruhman, the genius behind Charcuterie. Recipe was simple – take salmon, add Ouzo, sugar, brown sugar, salt, sliced fennel, and toasted fennel seed and peppercorn mixture; wrap in foil, cover with 8 pounds, let sit in fridge for 2 days.
February 26th, 2009
I Am Top Chef
While last night’s episode of Top Chef was far less than awesome, the cooking competition at my Top Chef Viewing Pot Luck was a stellar success.
9 people, 11 dishes. At the end of the day, we all voted, assigning each person a score of 1 (best) through 7 (worst). The lowest total won. Despite some shenanigans in the voting where two people artificially deflated their ranking of me, I still came out on top with my trio of desserts. Perhaps I should go give Hosea a lesson. Or else kick him in the face. Next time I visit my older sister in Denver, we are going to go to Hosea’s restaurant and I am going to keep sending things back.
I’m missing a couple of pictures that I’m hoping Kelly took and can send me. Until that happens, there will be no shots of Pablo and Vanessa’s pickles or their empanadas, my completed banana pudding, or Ryan’s eggplant parmesan. Here’s what I have for now. [Update: Kelly got a pickle and a bowl of pudding but no empanada or parmesan. She also took a much better picture of the garnitas.]
February 23rd, 2009
How Did I Miss This?
The Biggest Loser held auditions in Chicago on Friday. It is my destiny to be on this show.
February 22nd, 2009
Snow Day
It snowed all day on Saturday. That morning, Phred and I took a stroll over to Winnemac Park where he explored, played with some lesser dogs, and played a hard core game of fetch.
February 21st, 2009
Jim’s + Roller Derby = Awesome Night
As most readers of this blog know, I am willing to attend virtually any sporting event. But even if I weren’t so undiscerning, I would have jumped at the chance to go see roller derby. Last week, I gchatted a friend and asked what he was doing Friday. When he responded that he was thinking about going to roller derby, my destiny was clear and plans were made to go watch the Windy City Rollers at the UIC Pavillion.
It was even better than expected. There were two games (called bouts) that were played in alternating quarters (the first quarter of the first bout was followed by the first quarter of the second bout). The first bout was a blowout, but the second one was a neck-and-neck battle that featured an incredible come from behind win thanks to the speed of Peg Legs, who was playing with a not-yet-healed broken collarbone. Truly gripping stuff.
I’m not often in the Tri-Taylor area, so I decided ahead of time that I would make my long-awaited return to Jim’s Original. I used to go to Jim’s fairly regularly in high school and when I’d come home from college. Somehow, I abandoned it in recent years. It was every bit as good as I remembered. I couldn’t decide between the polish sausage and the pork chop sandwich (which comes with the bone in it) so I got both. Since I’m watching what I eat, I only ate one of my bags of fries (free fries with and sandwich.
