Tamales

I made some delicious tamales. look.

I got Masa mix from Wegman's and found a recipe online. I've always wanted to make these and they turned out awesome. I slow roasted some left over pork shoulder and some dark meat chicken and did two different kinds. Slow cooking the meat took about 3 hours, and steaming the tamales took about 2, so it was a long process. When you consider how many i ended up with though, and how i've been eating them for a week and barely made a dent in the supply, it was worth it.


The pork ones were the best.

Grasshoppers

For the superbowl i decided to make the Morgan family's traditional grasshopper pie but do it in individual little cupcake things. So they're like mini pies. Its just heavy whipping cream, cream cheese, sugar, creme de menthe in an oreo crust with some homemade whipped cream on top.

success.

Chicago in January

I apologize already for not making this post as good as it probably deserves, but if we can remember all the way back to the middle of January, Drew came to visit me. Despite the weather being downright balmy with the windchill into the negatives, we did venture out a few times:

The Bourgeois Pig Cafe
738 W. Fullerton Pkwy.

Down the street from campus is the place where the who's who in pretentious faculty, staff, students, and Lincoln Park moms without Jamaican nannies to take care of their kids get together to enjoy oversized lattes, organic vegan brownies, and (this is why I go there) just really tasty sandwiches. And OF COURSE the sandwiches have to be named with literary themes.

I had the Walden, and thank goodness I remember the name because otherwise I wouldn't be able to refer back to the menu on their website to see what was in it: honey walnut curry chicken salad, tomatoes, romaine, alfalfa sprouts, and red onion on focaccia.



Sadly, I was superbly disappointed in my choice. Normally I get a vegetarian sandwich, and those feature their homemade hummus or pesto usually, but I felt like something different, and the walnut curry chicken sounded good to me. It was a pretty one-note taste, though, and it needed something else like cheese or a dressing to give it another flavor. The bread was pretty dry on this occasion also, which was a real shame. Drew's sandwich, on the other hand, was good, and I'm used to him making better choices in ordering. Unfortunately though, we can't remember the name or what was on it besides "bacon and turkey maybe." The best part was that it was hot, and all you get is a picture:



Boston Blackie's
1962 N. Halsted

So this was also a place I had been before with my parents and I thought it was delicious. It was actually after I ate here with them that I got the idea that Drew and I should do a burger blog, which immediately transformed into a food blog. We went here on a Saturday afternoon with my roommate Abby and her boyfriend Adam, and, as you can see, we ate a lot:



And again, this was a place that was just better when I went before. Drew got some burger that had chili on it. He said the burger meat itself wasn't good. I completely forget what I got (and now you can understand why I already knew before I started writing that this would be a bad post). Let's move on.

Tank Noodle
4953 N. Broadway St.



Let's look past how scary I look. Viet House is BY FAR better. Better broth, better ingredients, better service. But Tank has good bubble tea. We didn't get any this time, but the plum smoothie is delicious, and if you're a fan of tapioca, they give an ample supply.

Tiztal Cafe
4631 N. Clark St.

This was a spur of the moment decision, and the day was sunny and nice enough for us to walk there, which is always a plus to me. We have no pictures, and while the original plan was to only blog with pictures, I just need to at least mention this place. I had eggs florentine, which has completely changed my opinion of poached eggs. The garlic rosemary potatoes were good, and Drew had a chorizo scramble that he wasn't a giant fan of. Or maybe he just thought it wasn't worth the wait? We were waiting a kind of long time, which was a shame, but we did get a little extra oatmeal milkshake for compensation, which was really good and tasty.

Bar on Buena
910 W. Buena Ave.

I also just want to quickly mention this. This bar is down the block from my building, and they had a giant beer list and a very helpful waitress

So I guess that trip was kind of a culinary failure. Nothing really stood out, and the best places were the places we kind of just felt like going to randomly. I guess that's a good lesson for next time though. I don't know how to end this. THE END.

Wakamono

Location: 3317 N. Broadway, Chicago

I'd been looking forward all week to what I hoped would end up being a lonely--oh, I mean, lovely--Saturday night of fancy sushi and wine. I really love fancy sushi, and what I mean by that is sushi that is not from a refrigerated case in Dominick's or from Todai, but rather a more refined establishment that requires a paper transaction of what you mean to order.

I had been to Wakamono one time before with my roommates Abby and Meghan, and good Lord, people. It was delicious. Expensive, yes, but definitely worth it.

Now, keep in mind I ordered take out, and in hindsight I should have at least put it on a plate for photogenic reasons, but that's why it's called hindsight.



On the left is the yo la mango roll with mango wrapped spicy salmon, grilled asparagus, tamago, cucumber, tempura crumbs, and shichimi pepper flakes. That sounded good to me, but it ultimately was just a bit too sweet. The mango also gave it a bit of a slimy quality, and since the asparagus is grilled, there was no crunch or bite factor in the roll, which made it just a bit too soft and, in the end, monotone for my taste. Also, I'm assuming that yellow goo on top is tamago, and let's add that to the list of things I think don't belong on/in sushi rolls along with cream cheese.



That lovely roll on the right is the classic maki roll I ordered, white tuna jalapeno maki. It was good, but I also think it'd be pretty hard to go wrong with just tuna and diced jalapeno. On a sidenote, I wanted it spicier, so I added a giant gob of wasabi. I'm pretty sure everyone has a wasabi story, so I won't bore anyone with details, but I really thought my nose was going to explode for about 45 seconds.

Since my carry out experience with Wakamono didn't exactly live up to what I was expecting, I at least want to mention what I thought were absolutely stellar rolls from when Abby, Meg, and I went before. I had the fire dragon roll: spicy tuna wrapped with freshwater eel, avocado, topped with red tobiko, and unagi sauce. I wish I had thought of this blog (yes, it was ME) three months ago because a picture is warranted for that roll. It looked awesome. Like a real dragon, you guys! Meg had the maki mexicano, which is yellowtail, cilantro, jalapeno, spicy sauce, avocado, and lime. It was good and I thought it was really unique, but I have no idea how that girl ate the whole plate because that spicy sauce was just slightly bearable for me. Abby had what I wish I had gotten this past time because I consider it the best roll I've tried there: kani chung roll. That's king crab, tempura crumbs over spicy albacore tuna, asparagus, unagi sauce, and toasted sesame. Maybe I just really like tempura crumbs, because that and the red pepper flakes were the highlights of the mango roll for me.

I did think it noteworthy to mention the adorable mini soy sauce bottle I got too. I love things in novelty size!



Also noteworthy (possibly only funny to Drew and me): I didn't want to go through the hassle of spelling my first or last name to the person over the phone, so I placed the order under "Morgan." Then the host didn't want to give me my food because (shock of shocks) my name's not Morgan! That was remedied though when I said, "umm, that's my boyfriend's name." Does it really make a difference? Tell me, Wakamono host, who also sarcastically told me not to break the wine bottles the time before, does it matter what name the order is under?

That reminds me, though, the place is BYOB with only a $5 corking fee per bottle, which I think is awesome. It's definitely a place I would consider only going to sit-down in the future, not only because I guess fancy sushi belongs in a fancy setting and not my living room while I'm watching House Hunters International and trying to place a roommate ad on craigslist, but also because just the way they present the food on the plate when you're actually there is great in and of itself.


FIN

Quinoa

I'm always interested in eating foods that are good for you. Whether or not that relates to my diet as a whole is up for debate, but a few months ago I heard about quinoa (I had been saying it "key-no-ah" up until about six seconds ago when I found this site (http://www.quinoa.net/) that informed me it's actually pronounced "keen-wa") and I knew I wanted to try it. I'm obsessed with grains like rice and pasta as it is, but quinoa supposedly is better because it has more protein than any other grain as well as other vitamins and amino acids. So I found some at Whole Foods (even then there was only one brand that they carried, so I'm pretty sure a normal grocery store wouldn't have it) and made some tonight.



It only takes about 15 minutes to cook, which was very surprising. You really just need to let the water boil, cover, and let it sit like rice or couscous, and it turns out kind of looking like little segments of rubber bands almost. Too bad my camera is crappy, or otherwise I'd be able to prove it.



Meanwhile, I wilted some spinach and then sauteed some garlic, which I subsequently burned because I was too busy taking pictures of the quinoa. I salted that and then coarsely chopped some almonds and added that to the pan for a little toss.




After I added the spinach, garlic, and almonds to the quinoa I salted it a little more and squeezed in some fresh lemon juice, then topped it with sliced tomato.



All in all: delicious. I was thinking about adding in asparagus, but that would require walking to Jewel today and it was way too cold. I would also like any suggestions for what else to do with it. It really is so light and fluffy I would think twice about adding any type of sauce, as that might just make it too heavy. I might want to stuff it in bell peppers...I think that might be tasty too.

Sweet Potato Bison Burgers

Made these burgers the other night and thought to myself "I should photograph this and put it on that food blog i just started two days ago!" because I'm a genius. Anyway, the star of this dish was this sauce that i got back in birmingham during the holidays at the new Bass Pro Shop. Yeah that's right, I'm cooking with Bass Pro Shop ingredients, wanna fight about it?

So i cooked some bison patties with a little oil, onions, garlic (garlic powder, chili powder also) and this sauce, which is Mango Ginger Habanero if you can't see it on the label. After they were cooked i allow the onions to caramelize on their own in this sauce and it really made them taste good.

I also microved a couple sweet potatoes at this point, which i ended up throwing in the pan later to crisp up.

When it was all done the burgers consisted of the bison patty, slice of cooper cheese, a medallion of sweet potato, some chopped onions from the pan, and lettuce all on toasted whole wheat english muffins. Turned out pretty tasty. And yes i ate them both. The sweet potato idea was nothing short of culinary brilliance. Did i mention i came up with that? I'm a bastard.

The End.

Tomato and Spinach Sandwich

Now, I'm not going to go and say that what I've just made here is up to the caliber of anything Drew has made, or ever will make, for that matter. However, I will say that I have discovered what could be a pleasant little summer lunch in the middle of January.

I used stuff I had lying around the kitchen. I always hate when people post recipes that they claim can be made with ingredients every household already should have, and then they pull out things like fresh dill and arborio rice. I wouldn't necessarily have these things on a normal basis, but since I did and I'm using them for a purpose I didn't originally intend, let's just go ahead and say you (yes, you!) really CAN just throw this together. (I'm probably setting myself up way too much. Sorry).

Anyway, I had a hothouse tomato, some spinach, and a whole wheat english muffin.



After I toasted the muffin and sliced the tomato, I spread some chipotle hummus on the muffin (I recommend this brand I just got at Whole Foods--Earl's. It's delicious). On the tomato I also drizzled some olive oil and seasoned with a little salt a pepper.



I won't call this delicious--it wasn't. But it was really good, and it definitely hit the spot. The chipotle hummus definitely was the magic sauce that sealed the deal: this sammy would just be bland and plain without it, but with it, it was spicy and gave the cool tomato a good kick in the pants.

And now you too can stack tomato and spinach on bread.