The Best Pizza in Chicago

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I love deep dish pizza, as all good Chicagoans do.  However, if you were to ask a few where to find the best you would likely receive a multitude of answers.  My favorite can be found in Hyde Park at Caffe Florian

This small business nestled in between used bookstores looks quite unremarkable at first pass.  However the oddly colored walls and bored staff will quickly melt into a blissful glow around you when you try their deep-dish pizza.

The crust is unbelievably delicious. Golden, buttery and flaky.  Order the white rather than the wheat, there is no need to pretend this is healthy.  I have sampled a handful of ingredient combinations and I keep coming back to the 'Florian Spinach'. 

While in Poland a few months ago John's mother smuggled us an entire pizza.  Needless to say we were beside ourselves with joy.

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If you are from Chicago I would love to encourage you to venture south of the Loop one day to try this pizza.  If you are not from Chicago I would love to encourage you to avoid the tourist trap of Pizzeria Uno's when you visit.  Let me know what you think.  I'd also love to hear what you find to be the best Chicago-style in the city.

Miso Soup and Miso Coleslaw Salad

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After eating miso soup from small dehydrated packages for the last month or two I decided it was time to make my own.  Rather than go through my method I would like to defer you to Maki's beautiful site and her thorough miso soup lesson.

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I paired the soup with a miso coleslaw salad.  This is a very simple side to make if you have miso on hand and the texture compliments the soup nicely.

Miso Coleslaw Salad

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 Tbl canola oil mayonnaise
1/2 Tbl rice wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbl yellow miso
1 tsp fresh ginger - grated
salt & pepper
2 C shredded vegetables

Mix all but the last two ingredients together, season to taste with salt and pepper, and toss with the vegetables.  I prefer a thinner dressing, so you may want adjust some ingredients to achieve your desired consistency.

May St. Café

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My dearest friend Eileen recently returned from studying in Mexico.  We met for lunch at the May St. Café, a place I have been wanting to try for a year or two now.  I love Pilsen and this just added one more reason as to why.  The brightly colored exterior is impossible to miss if you are traveling down Cermak.  We found the interior to be equally as inviting, but with more low-key hues.  While a high-priced decorator could improve the feel, the home-grown look of the establishment is far more inviting in a day where most restaurants would never attempt to open without every nook and corner clinically crafted.

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I ordered the fried plantain sandwich with potato salad.  When the dish was presented to me I was pleased to see that the plantains were not inside the sandwich, they were in fact the "bread" sandwiching roasted red bell pepper, romaine leaves, tomato, grilled carrot and grilled eggplant. The vegetables were liberally dusted with fresh cracked black pepper and the plantains were fried to a perfect golden yellow.  A modest application of seasoned mayonnaise pulled it all together.  The accompanying potato salad was decent, but paled in comparison to the sandwich itself.

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Eileen ordered the double cream brie and pear quesadillas served with sour cream and adobo sauce.  Many of us have likely encountered a brie and pear crépe along the way, but this dish created a lovely spin on this common combination. 

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The crisp and mellow tortillas pulled the sweet flavors of the brie and pear together, while the adobo sauce offered an unexpected and exciting flavor that complimented the other smooth flavors wonderfully.  The cilantro seasoning also provided a great contrast.

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Overall our experience at the May St. Café was excellent.  I hope to return soon to peruse more of their menu.  For those of you unfamiliar with Pilsen I would love to suggest combining an early dinner at the May St. Café with the second Friday Pilsen Art Walks.  There are many excellent independent galleries in the neighborhood and it would make for a unique and inexpensive evening.

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Eileen and I spent the rest of the day together wandering around.  She convinced me to buy expensive jeans and cute shoes which I cannot afford but am now pleased to own.  She is my favorite lady (and has been since 8th grade!) and it is great to have her back.  I am sure she will run off to Central or South America again soon, so I hope to see as much of her as I can while she is around. 

Baked and Fried Stale Breads (IMBB #25)

IMBB#25 is hosted this month by An Obsession With Food.  Head over to the Is My Blog Burning? website to learn more about this and other food events.  Derrick chose the excellent theme of stale bread.  As a home bread baker and a bread addict, I tend to have a fair amount of the stuff around.  Once in a while a baguette, or more rarely some delectable levain, will end up fairly stale.  Panzanella, pain perdu, croutons, and bread pudding are all excellent and frequent uses, but for this IMBB I chose to mimic a cooking technique that I recently saw a friend in Moscow use. 

I tried both a fried and baked version.

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Fried Stale Bread with Pseudo-Coddled Eggs

The moistened bread, coddled eggs, and butter created a lovely creamy texture and taste.

Serves 2

Ingredients

4 slices of stale French or Italian style bread (I used D'Amato's Home Style Filone)
1 C hot water
1 tsp salt
4 Tbl butter
4 eggs
1 Tbl shredded cheese (I used mozzarella)
1 Tbl grated Parmesan
1 tsp dried rosemary
2 Tbl greens or julienned vegetables
salt and pepper to taste.

Cut the bread into 1 inch slices.  Make a small depression in the center of each with your thumb.  Mix the hot water and salt in a bowl and dip each side of the bread slices into the water -- do not soak.  Place on a paper towel to get rid of the excess moisture.

Butter the sides without the depressions liberally and place into a frying pan over medium heat.  Break an egg into the depression of each slice.  The egg will spill over the sides.  Sprinkle on the rosemary. Cover and let cook for about 5 minutes.  In the last minute add a bit of each type of cheese to the tops.  The eggs are ready when the whites are opaque.  (You may cook them longer if you prefer more solid whites, though it is best to leave the yolks runny.)  Season to taste, top with greens or vegetables and serve warm.

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Stale Bread Baked with Eggs and Tomato Chutney

Serves 2

Ingredients

4 slices of stale French or Italian style bread (I used D'Amato's Home Style Filone)
2 eggs
4 Tbl butter
2 Tbl shredded Cheddar
4 Tbl homemade tomato sauce or tomato chutney.
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat over to 350F

Slice the bread into 1 inch sections.  Remove the very center from two of the slices.  Liberally butter one side of the intact slices.  Place buttered side down on a baking sheet, top each with one of the remaining slices, and break an egg into the holes in the top slices.

Bake for about 10 minutes, watching carefully.  When the whites are just set add the cheese and chutney to the tops of each.  Bake a further 3 or 4 minutes until toppings are warmed.  Season to taste.

Potato Chips and Neiman Marcus

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Saturday was John's birthday as well as the night he and Erik unveiled the newest murder/mystery game: Church of Our Lady of Interplanetary Ascendence.  In keeping with the "church evening becomes dangerous cult bloodbath" vibe I decided to make some cookies to share.

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First I made a batch of potato chip cookies.  I used to make potato chip cookies when I was younger and they even when to the state fair when I was about 13.  I don't recall the recipe I used at that time, but I will be making a point of locating it over the next few weeks when I visit my parents.  For this batch I used this recipe. The cookies turned out fine and the guests seemed to enjoy them (every cookie was consumed by the end of the night), but I think the temperature called for is much too high.  They quickly became deflated, a bit oily, and prone to burning around the edges. 

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For the second batch I made Neiman Marcus cookies with some small variations.  First, I used 1 tablespoon of very finely ground regular coffee beans instead of the 1 and a half teaspoons of instant espresso coffee powder.  Secondly, instead of the 1 and a half cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips I used some of the delicious chocolate candy that my mother sent me home with on Easter.  Using a plastic bag and a hammer I crushed one chocolate bar and a few handfuls of pastel M&Ms (some of them contained peanut butter). 

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These cookies turned out lovely. 

The evening was fun and the game expertly written.  Sadly, John did not have a chance to eat any of the cookies that I made for his birthday because he was busy acting like a creepy church elder, but I will be taking him out for modern art, fancy cheeses, and wine next week so perhaps that will make up for it.

 

Potato and Cheddar Biscuits

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Yesterday I woke up early and walked to the bakery where I was trained these last few weeks.  It appears that I will be starting to work on the sales side of the operation tomorrow, with the likely possibility of being able to fill in for people in the bakery proper when need be.  I suppose that is better than nothing and at least I will be able to somewhat replenish my quickly dwindling financial funds.

I returned home and decided to bask in the buttery sunlight of the kitchen while making potato and cheddar biscuits.

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Potato and Cheddar Biscuits

1 1/4 C baking potato
2 C unbleached flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tbl baking powder
5 Tbl butter
1/4 C milk
1 Tbl poppy seeds (or other seeds such as caraway or fennel)
3 Tbl cheddar cheese (shredded)
1 egg
2 Tbl water

Preheat oven to 450F

Chop the potatoes into cubes and add to salted boiling water (you can peel the potatoes if you so desire).  Boil for about 10 minutes or until they are tender when pierced with a fork.

Drain and transfer to a small bowl.  Mash the potatoes and allow to cool.

In a separate and larger bowl combine the flour, salt, and baking powder.  Cut the butter into small pieces and rub into the flour mixture until it resembles a coarse meal.  Add the potatoes and the milk.  Combine until a sticky dough is formed.

Grease or line a baking sheet.

Using your hands form the dough into 10 rounds about 1/2 an inch in thickness and place on the baking sheet.

Whisk the egg with the water in a small bowl.  Brush the biscuits with the egg wash.  Add the poppy seeds to the tops of each.

Bake for about 10 minutes and then add the cheddar cheese to the tops of each.

Bake for another 10 minutes or until risen and golden brown.  Serve warm.

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These biscuits are moist and filling.  They have a silky texture and the cheddar cheese brightens the mellow flavor.  Wrapped in foil they will keep for a day or two, though they won't look as pretty.

The Chicago Urban Devils Golf Enthusiasts' League

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Do you live in Chicago? If so you should consider signing up to play Urban golf. In the spirit of the wildly entertaining Chiditarod, which I posted about recently, we are planning to play urban golf.

Urban golf, as we envision it at least, is all about getting together with a bunch of people you've never met and making a fool of yourself. We know, we know, you already do this every weekend at the bar. But at the bar you get looked at funny for wearing argyle hotpants.

We see a group of 50-plus people barhopping with metal clubs, ugly clothes and a passion for the sporting life.

Sign-up is now open!

For more details go to our website.

Anheuser-Busch Brewery

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I traveled to St. Louis, Missouri with my mother recently to attend a family wedding.  We were lucky to have beautiful weather and ten of us decided to spend part of our Sunday at the Budweiser brewery.  I can't claim to be a fan of any Anheuser-Busch product, except perhaps King Cobra, though it was interesting to visit such a large scale brewery. 

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I have visited several smaller scale breweries and either helped or been in the vicinity of many home-brewing adventures.  This tour, however, was on a completely different scale.  Groups of 40-60 people left with a pair of guides every 10 minutes to follow a well-worn path of quaint stables, plexi-glass shielded mashers, control rooms, and no-photo zones. 

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At the beginning of the tour we were treated to some pretty spectacular views of the factory pipe-work.  Here you can see beer being pumped through the sky in giant tubes.  (It seems more likely that they actually hold water or mash at this point, but the guides said it was beer.)

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The round stables are still intact and filled with Clydesdales and their lovely little boots.  We even had the chance to see a very young Clydesdale colt. The horses were used for transportation before motor-vehicles and their image originally symbolized the speedy and reliable delivery of fresh Budweiser beer at a time when few other breweries could make such a claim.

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These pretty hop vine chandeliers which now grace the vaulted ceilings of the brew-house debuted at one of the World's Fairs in the early part of last century.

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After the walking portion of the tour we were taken a few hundred meters by bus to the sampling room.  We were invited to try up to 2 beverages while snacking on pretzels in a garish, color-blocked room.  The bar had the expected offerings as well as a decent seasonal witte beer and a new product not-yet on the market called Spikes.  These little 4 ounce bottles come in four flavors; mango, lime, another fruit that I cannot recall, and chocolate.  The Spikes contain 12% ABV and are intended to be added to beers.  My mother was thrilled, as she is not a very big beer fan. I on the other hand found that they actually made the already dubious quality of the beers worse.  It is an interesting idea however.

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The tour and subsequent bar stop before noon was a lovely way to spend some quality time with a portion of my extended family that I haven't seen in years.  The tour was free and I would recommend it if you are ever in St. Louis and looking for something to do.

Split-Peas on a Sleepy Day

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I started my Monday at 3 am and showed up to a local bakery for training at 4 am.  I happily shaped loaves of ciabatta, foccacia, baguettes, rolls, bagels, and pretzels until 10 am when I sleepily rode my boyfriend's bike home.  I have an odd situation, I am being trained for a job that will never employ me.  After a few weeks I will have to be looking for something else.  In the meantime I hope to be an eager student.

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In a sunny afternoon haze I came past a bag of dried split-peas that I had recently purchased at the Co-op.  I decided I must make split-pea soup.  Here is the hodge-podge recipe that I concocted.  It worked well.

Sleepy Day Split-Pea Soup

Makes 6-8 servings

1 C celery stalks - chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 C carrots -peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 medium onion - chopped
3 Tbl butter
3 large garlic cloves - chopped
3 C dried split-peas
1/2 Tbl dried rosemary
1 bay leaf
8 C water or vegetable stock (plus more if soup becomes too thick for your taste)
1/2 C of sliced radishes
1/2 C of dried porcini mushrooms
4 small potatoes - diced
salt and pepper to taste

Croutons

1 C of stale bread - chopped
1 Tbl olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

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In a large stock-pot melt the butter and add the celery, carrots, onion, and garlic.  Sauté until tender, about 7 minutes.

Thoroughly rinse the split-peas and pick through for any inedibles.

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Add all of the other ingredients except the radishes, potatoes, salt, and pepper (and the ingredients for the croutons).

Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer (medium-low heat).

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Cover and let simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

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Add radishes and potatoes.  Cover and simmer for 30 minutes more, still stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 250F.  Cut up chunks of stale bread and place on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Bake for about 10 minutes, though watch closely so they don't burn.  Remove when croutons are golden brown and allow to cool.

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Uncover, salt and pepper the soup to taste

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Serve warm with croutons.  This soup keeps well refrigerated for a day or two.

Ready for Spring

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I spent the day with my friends and fellow gardeners in our community garden.  We have 2 and a half plots this year which we have prepared for planting over the last few weeks.  Chicago has had a few perfect Spring days in the last 2 weeks, though every Chicagoan knows it could well snow tomorrow and that we shouldn't get our hopes up just yet.

We adjourned for coffee and sorted through our seeds while mapping out where each would go. It is going to be a delicious year.

John and I returned home and started some herbs on our windowsills: lemon basil, dill, sage, watercress, and cilantro.  He just left to watch the White Sox opener and I am about to take a sleeping pill to get to bed so I am somewhat energetic when I wake up at 3 am to have my first day of training at a local bread bakery. Life is nice right now.

Fry me up!

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Mindy and I decided to pull out her deep fryer and spend a night turning healthy things into greasy delicacies.

We started off with your standard tortilla chips.  We used both corn and flour tortillas. Simply cut a tortilla into your desired triangular sizes and add to the hot oil.  We used safflower oil for everything.  It is a bit more expensive in the states, but it has a more neutral flavor and won't stink your house up as badly as other oils.

I wish I could convey more of a method, but honestly the best way to check for doneness is to watch the color carefully and remove one to test when you think they are getting close to done.

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Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a sheet pan lined with paper towels to soak up any excess oil.  One of our favorites, as we knew it would be, were our fried plantains.  Plantains become both crisp and light and reveal a sweet nuttiness when fried.  Delicious.

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I also prepared two dips.  The first was a standard guacamole but the second was based on a recipe from Claudia McQuillan's book Chips and Dips.

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I was drawn to Campanile's Fresh Fava Bean Dip, though I had no access to favas. I decided to try substituting lima beans, as she suggests in the book.  The recipe was a fairly straight-forward take on a hummus, simply using a different base.  The beans were heated over a low heat until bright green and then mashed with olive oil, garlic, onion, lemon juice, salt and pepper.   The photograph isn't very appealing, however this was a very nice dip and I will be making it again.  The flavors were subtle and it complimented the salted, warm tortilla chips well.

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We also fried parsnips, Japanese eggplant, taro root, carrots, rutabagas, cheddar cheese, sweet potatoes, and turnips.

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The rutabagas turned out absolutely gorgeous.  When fried they developed a carmel color with flecks of deep brown in the centers and a stripe around the edges.  They tasted fabulous too.

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Lastly, we wanted to make some sort of dessert/alcoholic item.  We concocted an idea to combine the two.  First we injected vodka into strawberries with a syringe and then let them soak in the vodka for about an hour.  Next we dredged the strawberries in a mixture of bread crumbs and sugar, rolled in beaten eggs, and then back in the bread crumbs.  We fried them until golden brown and ate them warm.

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These were astoundingly good.  Mindy and I were both skeptical at first, but we were pleasantly surprised with our success.

Upcoming Chicago Area Food Event

I was recently informed about these delicious events:

Caveny Wine Dinners with Caveny Farms and Candid Wines.

"a celebration of sustainable food and wine featuring two of Chicago's best chefs - Paul Virant of Vie and Michael Lachowitz of Michael.

    Vie - March 30th, 2006 - 7pm Western Springs, IL.  Call 708/246-2082 to reserve.

    Michael - April 6th, 2006 - 7pm Winnetka, IL.  Call 847/441-3100 to reserve.

    $125 per person, tax and gratuity included."

    You can also reserve at this website.

These events are quite outside of my price range, but perhaps some of you employed Chicagoans have a refined hunger and the billfold to back it this month.  Let me know how it is if you go!

For more information and menus please view the file below.

Download event.rtf

South Side St. Patrick's Parade

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Last weekend we went down to the South Side Irish Parade.  Beginning at 101st and Western, this is the parade to be at in Chicago.  I can't say I have necessarily watched the parade in years, but the general mayhem of Beverly and the surrounding area is always a great way to spend a Sunday.

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John has been a member of a south side home-brewing club for a few years now.  Each year we are invited to a small gathering of home-brewers to celebrate the day.  The members bring various home-brewed beers, wines, meads, and spirits to be consumed whilst eating an array of delicious food.

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In addition, during the festivities the club brews gallons upon gallons of a beer for the party the following year, generally some kind of complex stout aged in bourbon barrels. (You can see a bit of their set up for brewing on the right side of the photo above.)

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Here malt is being incorporated into the process.

My parents made it out to meet us after an arduous hike up Western from my cousin Jason's house and enjoyed a drink or two with some of us later in the evening.  One of the last things we tasted was a lovely almond champagne with a perfect mellow sweetness.  Amazing.

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I hope you all had a lovely St. Patrick's Day.  Cheers!

Pistachio Browned Butter Crisps

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Last night while making Cauliflower and Broccoli Flan with Spinach Béchamel for dinner, I accidentally added twice the amount of flour to the melted butter in the first stage of the béchamel sauce.  I certainly didn't want to waste nearly a stick of butter so I quickly transferred it to a container before starting the sauce over.  Incidentally, the flan turned out lovely and I highly recommend this rich dish if you find yourself with an excess of cauliflower and broccoli in the future.

This morning I still wasn't sure what would become of the clotted, buttery mess in the refrigerator.  Cookies seemed like a desirable option and I set out to find a recipe.  Thanks to the Domestic Goddess and Il Forno, food bloggers now have an extensive resource for finding the perfect cookie to bake up. Each of the above links will lead you to a portion of the SHF/IMBB Holiday Cookie Swap write-ups.

While perusing the list I noticed the Baking Beast's Browned Butter Crisps.  This simple and flavorful recipe immediately drew me in.

I wasn't sure how my flour and butter mess was going to fare, but I gently heated it in a saucepan until it began to brown and to my surprise, it incorporated into the other ingredients quite well.  I pushed a pistachio into the tops of each cookie before baking to make them a bit more attractive. 

These cookies turned out excellent and filled the house with the luscious smell of cinnamon and cardamom.  I dropped a few cardamom seeds into my tea and enjoyed a freshly baked sample.  Delicious.  Thank you for the recipe Emily!

Gazpacho Andaluz

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I'm attending a dinner party this evening and was asked to bring a soup.  While looking at the Saveur website recently, as I often do, I came across this recipe for Gazpacho Andaluz.  After wandering around in the sun in search of sherry vinegar and the perfect country-style bread to thicken the soup I came home and set to it.

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The soup turned out quite well.  I am curious if there is any good way to seed a tomato that one of you might know of?  I felt like I was wasting nearly half of each with my method.  Is this just how it is?  In the future I might simply chop the tomatoes and add them, seeds and all, to the food processor and remove them by way of the straining process later in the recipe.  Also, I might add a hint of garlic (ooh, or roasted garlic would be even better if you are serving this in cool months like me) and a small bit of onion to the mixture before processing.  Overall, I am pleased with this recipe and I am greatly anticipating dinner in a few hours!

Sushi Night

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My friend Emily invited over some Hyde Park ladies for a male-free evening of kirs and sushi prepared by the host herself (with a little help from the early arrivals, that is Mindy above.)

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Emily knows where to find some of the best fish in the city. My favorite rolls from the evening had eggplant with a soy sauce reduction that was superb.

The spread was impressive and the tastes even better. We all brought a bit to drink, ranging from bottles of wine to rum in a glass jar. We ate more than our fill of sushi to find that Colie had brought cupcake which we also did a number on.

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Stuffed to the gills and heady from the drinks we played board games and watched animated shorts. It was a great time, even after the boys came around 1am to finish the sushi.

Thank you Emily! It was fun and delicious.

Twice-Baked Potatoes with Vegetables

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I had extra buttermilk on hand that I wanted to use up and I came up with this recipe to do so. Regular milk, sour cream, or yogurt could be subsituted if you don't have buttermilk. I think any vegetables on hand would work well also.

For this recipe I used broccoli rabe, the kernals from an ear of fresh sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, and mushrooms.

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First, clean a regular baking potato and poke holes all over with a fork. Wrap in tin foil and bake for about an hour at 375F.

When the potato is nearly finished baking, heat 1/2 Tbl of olive oil and 1/4 Tbl of Balsamic vinegar over medium heat. Add all the vegetables and saute for about 5 minutes. Salt and Pepper to taste.

Slice the potato in half longways and gently remove all but a small amount of potato from the skins. Put the insides in a bowl and mix in 1/2 to 1 C of buttermilk (judge the desired texture before adding too much). Mix in 1 Tbl of fresh dill and add the vegetables. Mix well. Spoon heaping amounts of the mixture into the potato skins. Transfer the filled potato skins to a tin foil lined baking sheet. Top with Cheddar cheese and bake for 10 minutes more at 375F.

Head over to Veggie Venture to find more broccoli rabe recipes.

Chiditarod Race and Food Drive

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This past weekend my friends John, Jen, Ligaya, Ben, and I participated in the first Chiditarod, Chicago's very own urban Iditarod.  Teams of five sign up to wildly steer their souped up shopping carts around Chicago, stop in at check-points, and race to the finish line.

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Our team, Snakes on a Plane, came in 8th out of 22 teams--amazing!.  Ligaya and Jen did most of the work to convert our green Hyde Park Co-op shopping cart into HPK-Air, the most terrifying plane on the planet (with snakes!).

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The Chiditarod is a food drive and all together the teams collected nearly 1,000 lbs. of non-perishable food to donate to Vital Bridges.  Nice work everyone!

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Here is our lovely team post finish line (obviously): Ben, Ligaya, Jen, Gemma, and John (and our friend Paul on the right).

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Some of the carts and costumes were truly spectacular.  I am already thinking about what to plan for next year.  This was my favorite cart.  The cowboy costumed runners even tied her up at all the stops.  Awesome.

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Finish line party at the Hideout.

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The race began at the Pontiac Cafe with intermediate stops at Club Lucky and Phyllis' Musical Inn.

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There are other urban iditarods that take place in New York City, San Francisco, and Portland. 

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Doubledare

My second favorite, team Double Dare.  You can see 'Marc Summers' there to the left.  Brilliant.

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Way to go team Snakes on a Plane!

(And thanks to Colie and Paul for coming to cheer us on and take pictures.)