eG Foodblog: ronnie_suburban - A high volume week

[Toliver]

i vote for toliver.

don't know if he's from chi-town, but i'd prefer more geographic diversity in our foodbloggers.

At the moment, I would have to decline. I am about to leave on my Christmas vacation and will be away from computers for a couple weeks (hard to imagine, isn't it?). Unless eGullet has a WiFi laptop they can loan me.

I would like to, eventually, but will have to pass for now.

edited to add: No Chicagoan here...I'm in Bakersfield , California, originally from San Diego.

Edited December 16, 2003 by Toliver (log)

[ronnie_suburban]

Should I just keep blogging?

=R=

[pariah_kerry]

I vote for you to keep blogging. It could be the holiday season blog- you could hand over the reigns after the first of the year.

[maggiethecat]

Should I just keep blogging?

=R=

Blog on, Ronnie! Let's hear about a "normal" week at the suburbans.

[ronnie_suburban]

Should I just keep blogging?

=R=

Blog on, Ronnie! Let's hear about a "normal" week at the suburbans.

Ok then...until someone wrestles this microphone...err, keyboard from my hands, I shall continue.

Monday:

Started out with a breakfast of the guatemalan coffee (a la plunge pot) and some 1/2 & 1/2, then followed that up with an iced venti (no water) americano when I got to my office.

For lunch, I'd brought in the remainder of the deli tray that was leftover from the party. It was from Kuhn's International Deli in Deerfield, IL--a great place to go for real food in the northern burbs. However, by Monday at lunch time, the tray kind of reminded me of the giant sandwich that Homer once had on the Simpsons. All that meat at the very end of its usability and me being so unwilling to say goodbye to it...I'd also bought a ciabatta roll from Foodstuffs in Glencoe, IL and intended to make a few mini sammiches for lunch but I kind of got worried when I thought about how many hours that meat had already sat out of refrigeration and opted for a slice of ultra-thin crust cheese pizza from Mama Louisa's Little Red Hen in Glencoe. Very nice, a good ratio of crust to cheese to sauce. I tend to like a little more sauce or tomato on my pizza than most people do and Mama's fits that bill.

Monday dinner I 'requited' my unrequited lunchtime desire for sandwiches via further party leftovers. I had a mini sesame bagel with chive cheese and lox (open face) and some of the Nueske smoked ham on a mini (sesame) challah roll with mayo and dusseldorf mustard. Also had another small slice of the leftover pate. Wife and son both snarfed down little ham sandwiches too. Wife and I had CFDC's (caffeine-free diet coke) and the boyo had some fluorescent gatorade--flavor unknown.

For dessert, the options were fantastic...so much leftover stuff from the party, it was nearly overwhelming but I toughed it out. I had some fudge (made and brought by our friends Sam and Roberta), some of the Callebaut stuff-- a few chocolates and couple of chocolate-covered pretzels too. Also had a small piece of the spice bread which was made and brought by Hobbes...Yum! After that I wanted to eat more because it all looked so good, but it was just not an option. Of course, later on during some tv time, I managed a few more of the chocolates too.

Tuesday:

Fell out of bed far too late to make any of the guatemalan coffee but the requisite iced venti (no water) americano was waiting for me at the office. I doctored it with the usual 1/2 & 1/2 and a packet of sweet and low. It was kind of a snacky morning around here. So many (food) gifts have arrived at the office this week that we actually have been eating some of them. I munched on a few Mama Zuma's green chile potato chips (of which we received a HUGE tin) and then cherry-picked my way through a 4 pound box of Godiva chocolates that a vendor sent to us. I'm not crazy about Godiva but it's hard to resist when it's just sitting there and you get to choose your faves out of the selection.

Lunch was from Seul's Tavern across the street. I'd intended on splitting a club sandwich and a reuben with my wife who stopped by but Seul's dropped the ball and forgot the reuben. We split the turkey club on whole wheat toast, ignored the under-cooked and cold french fries and sipped CFDC's our together I also had a cup of chili that a co-worker gave up because of the glitch. Another gift of cigars, Absolut and Canadian Club Barrel Blended Whiskey just showed up. It may be an interesting afternoon around here...

=R=

Edited December 16, 2003 by ronnie_suburban (log)

[ronnie_suburban]

Tuesday PM:

Ok, it took 8 days of blogging but finally we consumed some 'Chicago-Style' pizza last night--from Lou Malnati's. I go back and forth between Lou's and Pizzerias Uno & Due as my favorite but last night's Lou's was great. We ordered 2 pizzas, a small deep-dish with pepperoni, sausage & onion and a medium thin-crust 'za with sausage on the entire thing and spinach (which they sautee with garlic) on half.

Both pizzas were fantastic. The crust was flavorful (with olive oil), crispy and light. Lou's is very generous with the toppings which are first rate. Of all the sausage I've ever had on (non-home-made) pizza, I'd rate Lou Malnati's as my favorite. I neglected to take a picture of the food but the deep-dish pizza starts with crust (duh), on top of that goes the cheese, then the toppings and the very top layer is the 'sauce' which is actually chopped tomatoes which are lightly seasoned with salt, pepper, oregano and a few other minor components (dried basil possibly among them). With the pizzas, we also had a caesar salad. Here is a generic pic of a Lou's pizza from their web site:

Dessert was another hodge podge of party leftovers. I had some more of Sam & Roberta's outstanding fudge as well as a raspberry linzer cookie from 3 Tarts bakery in Northfield, IL. Also had a piece of rugelah from Once Upon a Bagel and an outstanding piece of the milk chocolate & macadamia biscotti which were made by my friend Derek Wildstar. After that, I wanted to keep going, but I started feeling really lousy (can't imagine why ) and decided to call it a night.

Wednesday:

Started out with the usual non-breakfast followed by some of the guatemalan coffee with 1/2 and 1/2. When I got to the office I had my usual IV(nw)A with 1/2 and 1/2 and one packet of sweet and low. When I'm not on Atkins, I prefer sugar but I'm too lazy to keep simple syrup around the office and granulated sugar doesn't dissolve in a cold drink, so I just use sweet and low. I'm not a huge fan of Starbucks coffees (although they are marketing geniuses) and I find that drinking their products cold masks a lot of their bitterness.

Grabbed a few handfuls of the Mama Zuma's chips and 2 interesting pieces from the Godiva box; one dark chocolate something or other filled with some dark chocolate fudgey stuff and a white 'chocolate' shell filled with a milk chocolate paste and tiny little pieces of hazelnut. It was pretty good.

Lunch is going to be from a local (and divey) pizza and burger joint called Barnaby's. I hope the suspense that builds before my next installment doesn't kill anyone...

=R=

[Cusina]

Sorry, asleep at the switch, I missed the assistant references. Guajolote gets the kudos for the bacon fat in the eggs then? Bravo! I also owe you Chi town boys thanks for introducing me to neuskes. Wow. It's excellent!

Lou Mal's *sigh*. Great stuff. It is second, in my mind, only to the original Pizza Uno downtown. The slight edge being mostly atmosphere and some something in the crust. We hypothesize that the secret is in the pans and the oven temp.

[Flocko]

Ronnie:

Thanks for the reports and pix of the "party". It looked outrageously fantastic!! Good job, buckaroo!! I was also interested to hear of your stepmom's party.........and the comparison of the "little weinies"

Happy to see you continuing to blog for a while. I wish I were there to sample some of "Heartland" fare with you.

Bill

[ronnie_suburban]

Lou Mal's *sigh*. Great stuff. It is second, in my mind, only to the original Pizza Uno downtown. The slight edge being mostly atmosphere and some something in the crust. We hypothesize that the secret is in the pans and the oven temp.

Yeah, dining at the original Pizzeria Uno is a singular experience (pun somewhat intended) whereas Malnati's, even though they are very well-managed and not very big, is a chain. We actually got delivery from their Highland Park location for last night's dinner.

I agree about the crust at Uno's. Generally speaking, I think it's slightly better than the crust at Malnati's but, as I posted above, Malnati's sausage is my very favorite. Either way, unless I am willing to take a 25 mile drive to pickup dinner, when we're at home, Malnati's always wins. When we decide to go out for pizza, a trip to Uno (or Due for that matter) is always under consideration.

=R=

[ronnie_suburban]

Ronnie:

Thanks for the reports and pix of the "party".  It looked outrageously fantastic!!  Good job, buckaroo!!   I was also interested to hear of your stepmom's party.........and the comparison of the "little weinies"

Happy to see you continuing to blog for a while.  I wish I were there to sample some of "Heartland" fare with you.

Bill

Thanks Flocko

Looks like the plan is for me to blog through Friday and hand the controls over to jackal who will begin his holiday blogging on Saturday.

Lunch today (from Barnaby's) was some standard issue fare. I settled for the 1/2 pound black angus burger with american cheese. I requested medium rare and actually received it that way I left the soggy pickles and dark & mysterious pasta salad alone but did opt for a slice (okay, 2 ) of my co-worker's pepperoni, sausage & onion pizza. Actually, Barnaby's pizza is pretty distinctive. Their crust is ultra-thin and dusted with corn meal. It's also one of those places that cuts the pizza into a grid instead of wedges. I'm not sure how I feel about that but I felt obligated to report it. It's one of those places which I could never enthusiastically recommend to anyone, but I've grown to enjoy it over the years.

Throughout high school and part of college I spent my summers working at Ravinia, an outdoor music theatre in Highland Park, IL. We'd usually finish work between 11 p.m. and midnight and Barnaby's was one of the few places near Ravinia that was actually open at that hour. Needless to say, I've eaten there hundreds of times over the years. It never really changes by anything but degrees.

For the next few weeks, while I am not low-carbing, I'll eat a lot of pizza--including my very favorite--home-made. In many respects, pizza is my favorite food. Wait, am I even allowed to say that here?

=R=

[guajolote]

the old barnabys on touhy is now a synagogue.

[ronnie_suburban]

the old barnabys on touhy is now a synagogue.

...so only cheese and veggie pizzas are served there now

I actually learned that it had changed over while driving to your Paella-Palooza back in July.

=R=

[Cusina]

Do you have the Ravinia cookbooks Ronnie? Noteworthy Two is one of my most used books of all time. They must put some serious effort into publishing those.

[ronnie_suburban]

Do you have the Ravinia cookbooks Ronnie?  Noteworthy Two is one of my most used books of all time.  They must put some serious effort into publishing those.

Really? How cool. Honestly, I didn't even know they existed before you posted that. Are the recipes 'picnic' oriented? Do tell, please.

BTW, it doesn't surprise me that their books are slick. Ravinia Festival is a powerful and very well-funded organization.

=R=

[guajolote]

why didn't you put sport peppers on your pizza ?

[ronnie_suburban]

why didn't you put sport peppers on your pizza ?

Sport peppers are Satan's suppositories

I actually love pepperoncinis on pizza though...sliced into rings, very nice.

=R=

[ronnie_suburban]

Wednesday Night:

'Twas a night of leftovers, yet again. We finished off the both the pizzas from Lou's, made a small salad (w/ Cardini brand Caesar dressing) and had the last few meatballs from the party. I'm not sure how good the meatballs still were because I'm not feeling so great this morning. How many times per week do I re-enact the Homer Simpson sandwich incident? Well this week...at least 2...so far. With the 'fine' leftover meal, also had a brand new CFDC.

Dessert was some more of the delicious fudge and a few pieces of the rugelah.

There actually was some late-night snacking to report too. I picked through the mountain of hostess gifts from the party, found a bag of honey-roasted almonds and snarfed down a couple handfulls while I frolicked in Dereth with my friend Niv. A couple of times a week, he and I meet on-line in a world called Dereth which is part of a massive, multi-player role-playing game (MMORPG) called Asheron's Call 2. For about the last 5 years, a few nights a week we've met on line to slay baddies and quest the dungeons of various mythical lands. It's really the perfect 'school night' activity for a couple of dads who both have to go to work in the mornings. Anyway, having the proper snacks in our 'packs' is a critical element of 'dungeoning.' While I prefer jerky or meat sticks, nuts are a close second choice. I probably drank 3 CFDC's while we were working on completing the quest for the Armor of the Ancient Lords.

Thursday:

Started out with my usual non-breakfast, and I did not have time to brew up any of the Guatemalan but the standard IV(nw)A was waiting for me at the office. I doctored it with a splash of 1/2 & 1/2 and a packet of sweet and low (is this blog beginning to feel like the film Groundhog Day?) More food gifts arrived today...sitting in the front office when I arrived were 3 very large insulated foam chests each filled with 2 whole, smoked turkeys (and dry ice) from an outfit I've never heard of, Sugardale's Private Collection (sounds porn-like, no?) in Canton, OH. I love smoked anything, but smoked turkey is one of my faves, so I am very excited to have received these birds--and there is one for each of us.

Even with the party behind us, I'm beginning to realize that this isn't a typical time of year for us food-wise. Between TG and Christmas, I basically have 3 major cooking events (TG, the party and Christmas), so I tend to coast on the off nights during this time of year. I don't want to spend time cooking when I would rather be hanging out with my family, etc. In fact, Tuesday night one of the reasons we ordered out was so we'd have time help my son do this...

...seemed like a much better use of our time than making dinner would have been. This was from a silly little kit which someone brought to our party, but it really made his night to put it together.

Anyway, I'm heading out for a business lunch at Greek Islands (my favorite Greek place here in Chicago). I'll report back ASAP.

Have a great day everyone

=R=

[ronnie_suburban]

As usual, Greek Islands was great.

Let me get the only negative element out of the way first...while we waited for our companions, the bartender hassled me a bit about the nearly-finished IV(nw)A that I had toted in with me. He told me it wasn't allowed in the bar, so I slurped the rest of it down and ordered a glass of water (since I was driving anyway).

Here's what I ate:

1 piece of bread (topped with sesame seeds) dipped in Greek olive oil.

For appetizers the 4 of us split orders of saganaki (flaming kasseri cheese--flamed in a very schmaltzy display, table-side amid cries of Opa!), spanikopita (spinach & feta pie in phyllo dough), keftadakia (lamb meatballs) fried zucchini (cut into chips) and an order of skordalia (cold paste of garlic and potato) for dipping. To drink, I ended up ordering a regular diet coke with a slice of lemon.

The four of us packed the apps away and the entrees arrived. I ended up with a 'choose two' combo of gyros (made on premises) and chicken riganati (leg quarter). At Greek Islands, the gyros meat, served in generous planks which are crispy on the outside and tender within, is served entree-style. So, with mine I also I ordered a side of tsatziki sauce and some pita bread. It was fabulous as was the chicken riganati which is comparable to (but not an exact match for) chicken vesuvio in flavor and presentation (minus the peas). The meat was fork tender and falling off the bone. The combo was served with a large piece of a salty and crispy roasted potato. The entire entree was delicious and satisfying.

Very full, we skipped dessert but opted for Greek coffees which were very nice. They do a mean baklava at Greek Islands but I could find no room for it.

I'm still pretty full now. Dinner report will no doubt be a late one.

=R=

[maggiethecat]

Two whole smoked turkeys!!!! Wow, that's what a call a business Christmas present! And yeah, with the marathon cooking and eating you've done recently, with more coming up, coasting a little on weeknight meals sounds like a sensible idea, especially if some father/son bonding over gingerbread is going on.

I was thinking last night that I hadn't had gyros for ages, and that I want some soon. I used to live within a few blocks of Greek Islands, and you managed to make me very jealous and very nostalgic.

Great blog, sir.

[ronnie_suburban]

Two whole smoked turkeys!!!! Wow, that's what a call a business Christmas present!  And yeah, with the marathon cooking and eating you've done recently, with more coming up, coasting a little on weeknight meals sounds like a sensible idea, especially if some father/son bonding over gingerbread is going on.

I was thinking last night that I hadn't had gyros for ages, and that I want some soon.  I used to live within a few blocks of Greek Islands, and you managed to make me very jealous and very nostalgic.

Great blog, sir.

Actually each of the 3 boxes contained 2 turkeys for a total of 6!. There are only 5 of us at the office so the 6th one ended up in the sample freezer for use later on.

BTW, before I could leave the office another vendor came by with more meat -- 2 spiral-sliced hams. I brought one home (after the holidays, I will cook it and then use it to make split pea soup). I left my co-workers to bicker over the 2nd one.

=R=

[Fresser]

Ronnie,

Did you and the G-Man whip up my green beans?

[Tmnoland]

Holy mackerel Ronnie! Everything looks awesome!

I’m so glad you posted a report here.

I reeeeally love to cook, but the sheer volume and

complexity of your menu leaves me stunned and in awe.

Congrats on another year well done!

-t

[ronnie_suburban]

Ronnie,

Did you and the G-Man whip up my green beans?

No damn it all! I totally forgot about them. But, I just had Julie check the fridge and they're still totally firm and green. I'll be making them either tonight or tomorrow...and I will report back.

=R=

[ronnie_suburban]

Holy mackerel Ronnie! Everything looks awesome!

I’m so glad you posted a report here.

I reeeeally love to cook, but the sheer volume and

complexity of your menu leaves me stunned and in awe.

Congrats on another year well done!

-t

Thanks T...very nice of you to say.

Now, back to the blogging...

Thursday Night:

I previously reported that we had finished off the pizzas from Lou's but that wasn't accurate. So...last night for dinner, I ended up actually finishing the last piece and a half of the sausage, pepperoni and onion pizza. Along with it, we again had salad and some steamed broccoli with melted butter and a squeeze of lemon. My son had what he terms a 'red dinner' (based on the packaging) of fish sticks and mac & cheese. I'm not a bad father, I swear. He likes these over-marketed dinners and we indulge him by occasionally hooking him up with one. With our dinners, wife and I had the standard CFDC's and el boyo had some sort of red (to match the dinner?) gatorade.

For dessert, I finished off the biscotti and later, while I was finally crafting my set of the Armor of the Ancient Lords (woo hoo!), I had several pieces of the rugelah. It is finally gone

Friday:

For non-breakfast , I managed a mug of the guatemalan with 1/2 & 1/2 before flying out to work, late, as usual. Once here, the daily dose of Starbucks, my IV(nw)A was waiting. Hey! I just realized the funny coincidence that I've been abbreviating Iced Venti with i.v. all week. Somehow, that seems appropriate Taking it in i.v. form would certainly mitigate the bitterness factor.

For lunch, we're ordering carry-out from Tiffin, one of our favorite Indian restaurants here in Chicago. It's located on Devon Avenue which is a really interesting area in that it's populated by a hodge-podge of people of varying ethnicities...Indian, Pakistani, Orthodox Jews, Georgians, etc. I have a few pics of the restaurant and the surrounding environs on my home computer. I'll try to post a couple later on.

=R=

[herbacidal]

Georgians, etc.

former USSR Georgians?