Archive for March, 2009

I’m back from Springfield and it was a good trip.  There’s a surprising amount of things to do and see there.  The downtown area is very small, completely walkable and filled with random Lincoln trivia.

Our first stop was Charlie Parker’s to try the Giant Pancake!  We got there shortly before 1pm and ordered our food.  Just after I said the words “I want the Giant Pancake” the waitress said, “oh, I think they just stopped making them for the day.”   “Nooo!!!”  I said, “Please! we drove all the way here from Chicago just for the pancake!!”  She said, “Let me check.”  She came back in a few minutes and said they would make it.  Thank goodness!! This would have started our trip on the wrong foot, for sure!

Here I am with our pancake:

This was shortly after we started eating (there were two of us)

….and we’re done.

The pancake was very good.  The dough was not very sweet and extremely light.  We weren’t stuffed after eating it and there was no heavy feeling you sometimes get in your stomach after eating pancakes.  Well worth it.

After we checked into the hotel, we went to visit Lincoln’s Tomb and the surrounding cemetery, which is the largest in Illinois.

If you’re wondering why Lincoln’s nose looks so strange, it’s because people rub it for good luck.

Lincoln’s casket used to be stored in a sarcophagus above ground.   After a few attempts to steal his body, Lincoln’s son got tired of people opening the casket to make sure he was still there.  So he had him placed ten feet down, covered in steel and buried under 10 feet of concrete.  (note the edge of the window just behind the marble tomb marker)

This is the window that you can barely see in the above picture.  This is how people used to have to view Lincoln’s tomb.  Once they moved him underground, the window was replaced wtih stained glass and a protective gate.

This a a lovely dogwood tree.

These pictures are of a stone bench outside the temporary tomb that housed Lincoln and one of his sons while the permanent tomb was being built.

We went for a walk around the cemetery looking for the oldest, most interesting headstones.  (side note:  I just read Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book  [Newbery Winner 2009] which is about a boy living in a cemetery who has been raised by ghosts.  Every time you meet a character, they are named and then their epitaph is given.  It made me curious about seeing some really old epitaphs.)

These are the creepy, scary steep stairs that we climbed to get to the cemetery proper.  They were crumbling as we walked up them.  I wouldn’t be in a hurry to do this at night!

The first grave I saw was this gigantic thing that had it’s own stone pew.  This guy was “as friendly as a wayside well”  whatever that means.  Is that the 1800s equivlent of  “friendly and nice”?

Very classic looking, old headstones.  These are right at the entrance near the top of those scary stairs.  They look very regal and beautiful, but they are losing the important part of the inscriptions…the dates.

Oh no! Someone little has escaped.  Watch out for zombies loose in the cemetery.

What exactly is this?  And, do I really want to know?  More zombie evidence?

This is the most creative headstone I’ve ever seen.  That’s saying a lot, you know, since I spend so much time in cemetaries and all.

It’s Log! It’s Log! Is it wrong to reference Ren and Stimpy in a post about cemeteries?

This outside tomb belongs to a governor of Illinois.  Not sure why he gets to have this huge thing.

It’s also a little creepy.

Ok, that’s enough for tonight.  I have some more pictures to post, but I’ll do that tomorrow or Sunday.  I must enjoy my last weekend of Spring Break, even though I hear we’re supposed to get 6 inches of SNOW!! this weekend.  Darn Chicago weather!!

I’m going to Springfield this week with a friend.  We have all sorts of fun things planned. Like visiting the yummy popcorn shop. And having awesome lasagna at Saputo’s. Going to the chocolate shop, too.  (sorry, I can’t remember the name offhand).  BUT the most exciting thing we’re going to do is go to Charlie Parker’s Diner and have the world famous “horseshoe” , which is a signature Springfield dish with many variations.  It’s something like this:  a layer of bread, eggs, meat, hash browns and a cheese sauce.  It looks like a mess, but sounds delish!

They are best known for the GIANT PANCAKE!  If you watch Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network, you’ve probable seen this.  The pancakes are served on  18 inch PIZZA pans!  I ♥ pancakes.  I’m soo looking forward to eating one of these giant pancakes.  I hear their biscuits and gravy is superb too.  We’ll be there two mornings.  We may have to eat there twice.

Check out this funny clip.

ok, I’m off to dream about pancakes, so stay tuned next week for updates on fine dining in Springfield, IL.

Oh, yeah, we’re going to see some Lincoln stuff too.  The new museum is awesome.

Chris

Tonight, while I was making chicken enchiladas, I was eating some grapes that had been in the fridge.  Well, first I took them out of the fridge because I had to let them come to room temperature. I can’t eat cold fruit.  It hurts my teeth.  Anyway, I was eating grapes while making mole and a cheesy sauce to layer with the enchiladas and I picked a grape out of the bowl.  As I was putting it in my mouth, I realized the grape felt…weird.  So I stopped what I was doing and looked at it.

This is what I saw:

I have no means of even explaining this grape phenomonon.  What IS it?  A triplet grape?  I don’t know, but as soon as I took these photos (using the macro setting on my canon digital elph SD1000) I threw it in the garbage.  Ok, after I taunted Jose with it.  He doesn’t really care for fruit when it looks normal, let alone in a “freak of nature” state.

Since I’m talking about enchiladas I might as well bring up my enchilada problem.  They aren’t my favorite food.  I don’t particularly care for mole, any kind.  It always tastes bitter to me, no matter HOW I make it, but it’s one of Jose’s favorites and my brother really likes it too.  So usually when I make it for dinner, I make sure Jason comes over in order to take leftovers home.  Today my master plan backfired since he was already busy and didn’t come for dinner.

On to my Enchilada Problem: I can get over the bitter mole part, I mean, I only make them twice a year-ish. My bigger issue is that I can’t roll an enchilada without the corn tortilla breaking.  I’ve tried heating oil and dipping the tortilla in hot oil to make it pliable, but I can’t bring myself to do it.  I’ve tried dipping the tortilla in the hot mole, to accomplish the same effect, but it doesn’t work…besides burning my fingers…the tortilla still breaks. Inevitably, my enchiladas fall apart when I take them out of the dish and end up looking like mush on the plate.  They taste just fine, but the presentation stinks.  Neither Jason nor Jose care about the look, it’s just me it bothers.  I’ve made enchilada casserole a lot too.  I just layer the tortillas, filling and mole ala lasagna.  That works just fine, but I’m determined to win the battle of rolled enchiladas.  Any suggestions?  (please, it’s ok to comment on this blog!)  I’ve tried using flour tortillas, which is perfect, except it’s not traditional.

I used a rotisserie chicken from Sam’s and pulled all the meat off it.  I mixed in a can of black beans (rinsed well) and a small can of medium heat diced chilies.  Next time, I’ll use two cans because we couldn’t taste the chilies that well.  The mixture made enough for 2.5 batches of dinner sized portions, which means 2 enchiladas each for dinner and 2 for a lunch (not mine).  Not bad. I froze the rest of the mixture for another evening.  The mole only made enough for tonight’s batch (we like a lot of sauce).  I also made a cheesy sauce consisting of a roux, half and half, salt, pepper and two handfuls of Mexican blend cheese.  I thought by mixing the mole and the cheese sauce, it wouldn’t be so bitter and I’d like it more.  It worked out pretty well.

On another note, this weekend we went to a BBQ place that we saw on Check Please! I was pretty excited about this since I love BBQ.  We went with Jason and had a ton of food (brisket, pulled pork, ribs).

We started with amazing BBQ chicken and pulled pork nachos.  They were really  crispy fried tortilla chips covered with the chicken and pork and then BBQ sauce and coated with  chichuahua and monterey jack cheeses.  Then it was topped with guacamole, sour cream and some pico de gallo.

Here’s a photo, complete with bad lighting.

And finally, this is the first photo of my new (old) hair color.

Watch out! Shark attack!

After a pleasant year of being on the blond spectrum (look at my profile picture…that’s from November 2008), I’m back to my natural color…just about a shade darker.  I’m loving it, but it’s hard to get used to seeing it so dark after the lightness of the blond.  I enjoyed my year as a blond and if it were better for my hair (lots of bleaching and destroying of the hair integrity), I would have kept it.

What a myriad of topics tonight…mutant grapes, bitter mole, awesome BBQ nachos and my hair color.  Can’t say I don’t keep you entertained. 

Chris
p.s. I ♥ Ray Allen!

See. This is a much more realistic picture of my desk. This was today. Fortunately, I managed to clean it up a bit before this photo was taken. Unfortunately after that, a huge pile of papers fell off the bookshelf behind my chair as I was leaving. I threw them all on my desk and ran.

I was a genius in the kitchen last night, thanks in part to my favorite TV chef, Tyler Florence. I made tagliatelle Bolognese which was incredible! I also made the pear/cranberry cobbler, dicing the pears instead of using halved ones and dried cranberries instead of fresh.

It was a huge hit. The sauce was labor intensive, and I reconstituted dried porcini mushrooms for the first time, but it was well worth it. It tasted JUST like the Bolognese I had in Italy last year. You know, the one I’ve dreamed about for a year.

ok, that’s my quick update. In case you’ve been worrying…I am feeling much better. The jury is still out on whether it’s a Crohn’s relapse or weird-flu. Sorry for all the technical stuff in my last post.  My mom told me it was “a bit medical.”

Tagliatelle Bolognese

Pear cobbler with cranberry streusel

If you can catch the episode of Tyler’s Ultimate (Winter Comfort Food), I’d suggest watching it.  You’ll learn a few tips and tricks and there were some slight differences from the written recipe.  It helped to see what the sauce should look like.

Ciao!