adoxograph

I grew up in CT, my grandmother had a summer house in Cooperstown, and my dad lives there full time now. I'm only a recent midwestern transplant. But I do like the pizza

No quotes here for we have arrived in Sunny Taylorville, county seat for Christian County, population 11,500! Biggest town around. We've already had a lemon cone at the Tastee Treet but I just found out that we'll have what I believe to be a foodblog first - tonight we're going to the Demolition Derby! Rock! We've traded two cats for a dog, cable internet for dialup (so no pictures until later tonight) and of course, he bought whoppers in Dwight (pop 4400) rather than eat my sandwiches. One thing I will say about side of the highway Burger Kings in Dwight Illinois, the food's relatively fresh. At least the fries were. I refrained from having a partially gelatinated dairy-based beverage to wait for the Tastee Treet. totally worth it. ruthcooks, you wouldn't be in New England or Cooperstown, NY now, would you? If you are, you've managed to track through the towns of my life quite well. :) The Country Kitchen is still here, although it wasn't much to speak of when we went there last time. I didn't get the special potato though. Have to try it again, since I imagine I'll continue to visit these parts. We're having Sunday dinner out tomorrow at a place that had terrific catfish last time I was there - complete with all the requisite "caught in the pond out back" jokes. I hope it's still good, even if they did catch it there.

And as usual, I'll have to take an IOU.... Snuck in half a tuna sandwich with the leftover tuna from Tuesday, with the addition of pickles. The Fat Cat ignored it, but it got the attention of the skinny one. I guess that shows where we stand on the pickles in tuna controversy in this house. I managed to fend her off before her nose actually hit the food. Looks like we're ready to leave the cable fast world of Chicago and head for downstate dial-up. Next time we meet, I'll show you the best best best lemon soft serve ice cream on the planet. I promise.

Hooray for little sandwiches. I mixed some dried tomatoes and basil into the goat cheese and used this stuff for most of the sandwiches. For variety I also did a few with cheddar cheese and mustard. As an added bonus, the lovely board that I'm working on here was made for me by Sarcasmo's dad, who also made our kitchen table and my computer desk. Nice, eh? I went for salty/sweet with the walnuts - brown sugar, butter and a bit of salt. Throw in some rice crackers wrapped in nori, fried chickens, dry white toast and those frozen reese's and I'm ready to go. And completely starving.

Vindication! There was one in Australia! OK, a road trip with Sarcasmo and Adoxograph, step 1 - planning. Putting the two of us in a car for an extended period actually requires careful food planning. First, you must deal with superstitions, regular issues, and questions of texture. Somehow, I have convinced myself that ever road trip needs some variety of cranberry juice, and reese's peanut butter cups. The candy is the perfect blend of sugar and protien to sustain energy, the juice a tart complement and more hydrating than soda. If you freeze the candy in advance, so much the better - no melty chocolate fingers! That takes care of me. Sarcasmo needs bubbles but too much = many many many stops. He also requires caffeine, so a bottle of Dr. Pepper it is. Why am I even bothering with food? We both end up eating in the car, preferably crunchy, spicy or starchy, with occasional sweet. If I left it up to him, we would end up with 40 dollars worth of complete crap. That's what happened the last time he went to the store. I'm still trying to rid the house of those Twisted Hot Wings Cheeze-Its. So I'm going to toast up some walnuts and season them. I'll bag up the rest of the cheeze-its and hope he eats them all. Crunchy veggie goat cheese mini sandwiches. The peanut butter cups are in the freezer. And yes, we always still have food when we get there. But in Taylorville, that may be ok.

Oh, was that an Abita Amber bottle there with my food? I didn't notice. :)

Since I've been talking about masala chai all week, I figured I should show you how I make it at least once.. I start with a mix of cardamon, star anise, peppercorns and cloves in the mortar. I crush them, not too finely, leaving in the pods of cardamon, since all of this is going in a garni bag. This is enough for a couple glasses for me. Addition of a cat at this point is optional. I've been using powdered ginger because a well meaning friend gave me a ton of it, so after crushing I add the ginger, some broken bits of cinnamon stick and a couple spoonfuls of tea. Stir and bag. A pot of water is brought to a boil, bag is dropped in it while boiling and left to steep until the color looks right, for me a deep brunette with auburn highlights. Sorry, TV's on. Bag comes out, sugar and milk or cream go in. It's Saturday, so it must be cream. At home, I drink the tea in glasses, mostly because Sarcasmo has these "mexican tea glasses" (I have no idea how he came to believe that) that I love, and it gives me an excuse to use them. You know what? I really wish I had a balcony... But now, I must begin the preparations for our road trip to Taylorville. First order of business is burning a music CD. Why you ask? Because my darling sweetie is currently obsessed with, "swedish progressive death metal that consists solely of songs in the ten to twenty minute range". Yeah. It's a four to five hour trip.

wasn't there one in Australia? Or am I in a state of early morning hallucination? Maybe it's just that I haven't had any tea yet. I should go brush my teeth.

So, I told him he should take a picture before giving me my dinner. Sarcasmo's reply? "No, it's ugly, and the camera is dead." Ok, the top roll was a little burned, but it looked great to me. Tasted damn good, too. Funny, I'm much more concerned with the food I give to others than what I eat myself, when it comes down to it. I'm sure that will ring in some sympathetic ears. Now, a bath and a bit of port, a book and some sleep before the roadtrip to Nowhere.

Home from seeing Dementors 8 stories high, and man, those things are creepy. Lunch, a burger day substitute. Yeah, as you can see, I really had to force myself to enjoy this. :) The IMAX theater is over on Navy Pier. And what's the best way to get there from the museums, free for museum staff? The Water Taxi of course! It was a bit windy so, notice the smoothness of the water before we left the harbor wall. I kept the camera covered for the rest of our adventure. And what's the best thing to do when you get back on shore? When did it become the big thing to smother perfectly good goat cheese in tomato sauce? I've seen it so many places that it is past mere coincidence. Of course, that doesn't stop me from eating it. We only had time for apps before the movie, and most of our conversation revolved around trying to remember which movie is being referenced by Ronnie's sig. I swear it's been driving me crazy all day. We couldn't remember. Still don't know.... Now, I'm home and hungry again, and Sarcasmo is making me...... da da da... a Veggie burger! I can't wait. Apparently he's toasting the bun and everything. I'm so lucky.

Nope, it's about pizza. za za za za I can make a good guess what I'll want for dinner when we get back from Taylorville.

Yay! My copy of American Pie as recommended here has arrive on interlibrary loan and will be held at the desk for three days! Now I'll have something to read in Taylorville. Too bad I can't read in the car.

Hey, I totally agree with bleu's sig - I would say that this has definitely been good for me, if for no other reason it's been an interesting observation of myself. I don't usually keep much track of what I eat from day to day, and now there is documented proof, at least for this week of my life, that I ate something. Astro Burgers and Galactic Burgers are the veggie and meat burger specials they have on Fridays in Galileo's. It's an interesting phenomenon actually - staff who may not eat anything upstairs, who eat lunch at their desks, what have you, it doesn't matter. All the education staff tend to gravitate upstairs, pull tables together and enjoy Burger Day. Working for a non-profit in this economy, I think this may be one of the most subconcious acts of morale boosting, it's the day where we have lunch together, in the sunlight, and talk about our week, or not. Petty squabbles with other departments, funding frustrations, all the issues that working with the public can bring who cares... it's Burger Day. It's not that the burgers are anything so special foodwise. It's the atmosphere in which we enjoy them. The burgers, however, do play their part. When, for whatever reason, they aren't available, it's just not the same. One week, there was an event and we weren't able to have Burger Day. The staff in Galileo's warned us in advance, and then added a Burger Day the following weekt. We were all so grateful. I think they understand how important it is for us. So you can understand why I was miffed when there were no burgers.

Ok, actually I think mongo has a point, so for the record : lunch Monday on Adler, dinner included grocery trip, $11 (fish was free). Tuesday, cinnamon rolls, tunafish- all pantry supplies. Dinner out for 2, $25. Wednesday - $5 lunch in the cafe, $4.50 for shrimps with heads. Thursday - lunch from the cupboard, pint and fries, $10. Today's lunch $5 because there were no astroburgers, stupid free week. So far spent - about $60, including at least two full meals for two. Not all of my groceries were depleted by cooking, so there is still (much) food to be had for free. This is slightly more than I would normally spend, but it's not actually blog related, more sleep deprivation/special occurance related. I don't often go out for drinks, and usually limit myself to one meal upstairs per week. But mostly now I'm just annoyed that there were no astroburgers because it is free week. Instead, I was subjected to a veggie sandwich on foccacia with fresh mozzarella, fritos on the side, and a cranberry juice. It was very trying. I may even be forced to eat one another time. Oh and by the way, those bread products that you put your hamburgers and hot dogs on are rolls, not buns, so tell these people to stop correcting me. And if anyone in the Chicago area knows where I can find proper hot dog rolls, you know, split on top, I'll, uh, make you a lobster or crab roll. Lunch today was too early, way too many hours until Harry Potter.

If you're looking for fresh veggies, consider the "greens" - kale, chard, dandelion, etc, because you can usually find them at a decent price (in the cents per pound range), even at the big grocery stores. Check out what you might be able to find wild in your area. Don't forget your day-old options - bread soup is one of my cheap favorites. The big question is this simply for one week, or is this going to have to be a long term plan? that can make the difference between going whole-carb or exploring your local options.

hehehehehehehehehehehe somewhere in there should be the option "Museum Free Week"

A foodblog moment of silence for Ray Charles.... Thank you. We now return to your regularly scheduled soapbox moment.

To be honest, given the prominence of the garlic flavor, even if it was parsley, it should have been garlic shoots. I had a dream last night that people kept coming up to me and complaining about someone else's bad breath, and I was then forced to confess it was me. There was a lot of garlic on those fries. Yum. Back to Masala Chai this morning - I figure if the toothpaste didn't cut through, the amount of cloves I put in the tea should. And if that still doesn't work, well, like the rest of the staff here who work on the floor, I have about 3 tins of assorted mints in my desk. My favorites, btw, are the green tea MYNTZ with ginseng. I think, considering how quickly they disappear from my desk, they are a favorite of my co-workers as well. It's Friday which means Astro and Galactic Burger Day! With tater tots! And later - Harry Potter at the Imax.

balmagowry, were those other historicals by Robinson? If so, weird, he's known for being completely anal about details like that - or maybe he's better with the speculation research than the historical. :) I just don't see how all references to food can be completely ignored over a timespan of that length. As for being distracted by food in something, I can see your... hey! Zoidberg's like lobster! Nothing fancy for lunch today... ...and dinner was just parmesan garlic fries and a small beer - which is to say a pint glass of small beer, as opposed to a normal beer in a small size - because I wasn't much interested in food. However, the menu at Goose Island Brew Pub seemed to have some decent bar food options. The small beer was very nice, smooth, not too anything really, just a nice pint. Sometimes, a pint and fries is all you need. A good portion of my day today was spent at the French Pastry School. I was there to get a tour of the school and to observe the afternoon class. The class was doing their last day of building a combination sugar/chocolate showpiece, no real teaching (hah!) and there was some question as to how much I was actually going to be able to see. No worries there, and the rain was sort of my friend as it turns out. Because of the humidity, many people were having trouble with their sugar work. One student's sugar work was completely melted. I had been wandering around talking to the other students, and so I said to him, "I'm not going to bother you, I know you have a lot to do." The student, Rene, turned to me and said, "Actually, I could use your help, if you don't mind." Mind? Let me wash my hands... I ended up helping make a sugar pyramid, putting a sphere together, playing with ribbon candy, and everyone, everyone, kept offering me chocolate to eat. It was like I was suddely everyone's favorite pet/assistant. I had one decidedly small world moment, when we determined that Rene and I were born on the exact same day. We decided it was destiny that I would be helping him. Or maybe it was that I caught the Fifth Element reference in his showpiece. There was another woman, not anyone I know, who did the tour with me. She left after about an hour, and the only people she really talked to were the woman in charge of the office, and me. To me she queried, "You're not a student? You're so active." Not sure how to respond to that one. If you were given somewhat free reign to particpate in a class like this (and Chef Sebastien was definitely including all of us when demonstrating or making a particular point) would you sit on the sidelines? Well, I stayed for almost 5 hours, whatever that says about me. :) Now you may be wondering why I was at the School in the first place. No reason. Really. Hey look, transit of.... damn. Nighttime.

Thank you for the link, Rachel! And definitely get the book if you like alternate history, or liked Kim Stanley Robinson's other books (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars, among other titles) Lunch at my desk - salad, bits of bread and gorgonzola, cherries. I'll be leaving in half an hour, and then it will be pretty busy for a while - no updates until later, I suspect. But hey, later, there will be festivities!

I really, really lamented Lenny's retirement in the season finale. Heck, I have even heard Jerry Orbach's Broadway hits CD... And now, a literary interlude. I'm currently reading The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson, which, alas, has very little to do with rice or salt. It's an alternate history tale where Europeans in the 14th century are actually completely wiped out by the Black Plague, rather than simply a quarter of them. The story then follows the Asian Expansion across the world. As is par for the course, the author's science is fantastic (I love how Newton's Laws of Motion come about). The structure of the story is very interesting. However, my main argument - and the reason why I feel I can stand on a soapbox here - is that the author completely discounts the influence of food on history. You'd think, with that title, they might explore the spice trade, sugar trade, SALT trade in the course of the 1400 or so years the book covers. Nope. Why is it that food becomes the invisible history? I would make the claim that one's perception of a culture is often strongly influenced by the cuisine. Here, we discuss concepts of authenticity in food, consider crossing food boundaries, explore where food comes from. Are we as a group of aficianados so distinct a population from the norm that we can't see history without its food? Or is the rest of the world just missing out because all they see is sustance? That latter option would explain most fast food.... Oh yeah, but I'm liking the book.

Oh, and this afternoon I'll be taking a tour at the French Pastry School and will be joining some co-workers tonight at the Goose Island Brew Pub, just so your curiosity is piqued. I just got an email from my sister - she gave my biscuits passing marks. Yay!

In a home with two human occupants and four active computers (as well as numerous unassembled parts, cords, and artificial intelligences) one can expect that there will be dinners not at the table - we're both cool with that. However, I knew EXACTLY what would happen when he took that bowl of shrimp out of the kitchen. In fact, on my one 24 hour trip to New Orleans (long, long story - but it does involve a hero with a white Mustang) my friend Wayne and I ate ate Mr. B's Bistro. He had the BBQ shrimp, and, thanks to a number of hurricanes, managed to get the sauce everywhere, including on his ear, without getting a single drop on his bib. The waiters kept swinging past our table to watch. I'm actually really impressed that no sauce ended up imbedded in any keyboard in our house last night. But yes, I knew there would be shrimp brains galore. mwahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah. I haven't done so yet, but I'd like to say thank you to everyone for such wonderful compilments about the foodlog so far - this has been great fun! (that having been said, if anyone is feeling inspired for next week, PM me, or I'll just pick someone m'self). This morning the heat has broken because it is raining, so the hot mint tea was pleasant. Traffic, on the other hand, was decidedly not, so I will sustain myself with a cup of decaf from upstairs. Is there anyone left on the planet who recognizes that a coffee with cream and sugar is a coffee regular, or is it just me and Detective Lenny Briscoe?

I confessed to the cheetos earlier. Now, dinner! In honor of the succession of Tennessee, there were biscuits, which started, as all good biscuits should, with this which with the addition of some buttermilk,leavening, a blend of butter and crisco, and additional flour because it's so ridiculously humid, became this I don't work the dough much before getting it on the baking sheet. It's lined with foil to help keep the bottoms from burning And the end result? But really, what are biscuits without something to sop up? Inspired by the BBQ Shrimp thread, and the fact that shrimps with heads were $4/lb at Valli, we ended up having something like this... And that's when things got entertaining. First, he asked how to eat them. After explaining, he took the bowl, AND NO NAPKINS, into our computer room to play Everquest. Conversational highlights included "I got brains all over me." "There's no way to do this with one hand, is there?" "You know how I have that bones, skin, and gristle thing? How did you manage to work all of them into one meal?" "This is the most horrific meal ever. It doesn't matter if it tastes awesome". Dinner ended with him coming into the room where I was and politely requesting that next time, I peel stuff for him. I promptly did, with one of the last of mine, only getting the tips of my fingers dirty. He only looked slightly disgusted when I handed it to him. To make it better, I made dessert. I broiled apricot halves with a bit of butter and brown sugar, toasting some walnuts in the same stuff on the other side of the pan. I warmed some dulce de leche for the plate, and put the broiled apricots and walnuts on top. I think he's better now. I told you I was evil. :)

For those doing research, all the pics on my foodblog have been taken with an Olympus C-3000. Nice camera. If only it was actually mine.