Hot Doug's

"There are no two finer words in the English language than "encased meats" my friend."

- Hot Doug's, Chicago

My mind was, quite

literally, blown yesterday for lunch. Several of my coworkers invited me to go along with them to Hot Doug's - a sausage emporium in Chicago. If you are ever in Chicago GO THERE. I cannot put it more simply. However, GO THERE EARLY AND BE PREPARED TO WAIT (see photo of line).

Don't get me wrong, I hate lines. I refuse to stand in at bars and rarely pay cover (totally unnecessary in Chicago). This was worth it. Actually I was spoiled because we had friends who weren't working and got in line early for us so we only waited about half an hour, a couple of them that had gone before waited over 2 hours. Also keep in mind that if you get there too late they will close the door in your face at 4pm - regardless of how long you've waited.

It's still worth it. Quite possibly the best sausage I've ever had - the Game of the Week which was Antelope with some sort of pepper sauce and a reallllllly good chevre. And the side? Duck fat fries. I'm drooling just thinking about it. Anyway, here's the gang including a special shot of the youngest member of our party (no sausage for her).

Dad

I'm a day late on this one - yesterday was Father's Day.

I've frequently said (and been told) that I'm ruined for men because my dad is such a wonderful person. He works hard, cooks, cleans, is handy, and randomly brings home flowers for no reason. All in all, he's pretty much amazing. When I think about why he's so important to me, however, it's not any of those things - it's the fact that he laughs so hard he cries at some of the stupidest humour out there (anyone remember the cartoon Duckman??), it's the fact that I can talk to him about anything and he'll always have my back, it's the fact that we can say absolutely nothing and I know he has my back.

I don't say it enough - I love you, Dad. You're the best.

P.S. I got him the meat grinding and sausage making attachments for his Kitchenaid mixer for Father's Day - sausage making extravaganza here we come!

Cubs - Sox Game and Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

Friends at the Cubs-Sox Game (plus two unhappy looking blonds - typical of the crowd that day)
John Butler Trio from Friday night (see previous post)

I'm a thin crust kind of girl. There's nothing shameful in that, but here in Chicago it's a bit of a rarity. Without fail, when someone comes to visit they want Chicago-style deep dish pizza - the stuff that you can eat maybe one slice. If you're lucky.

So since my friends from home were down we decided to go to Giordano's for deep dish pizza post the Cubs-Sox Crosstown Classic Game (more on that in a minute). It took us about 35 minutes to order (with several tense moments), but everyone got what they wanted in the end. I split the spinach stuffed pizza and you know what? I may be converted. I've had Pizzeria Uno's, I've had several we've ordered through work, but this plain, spinach stuffed pizza really hit home for me. Or maybe it was just the excessive amount of beer and mai-tais and the really good friends I had around me.

To be honest, we kind of needed the pick me up following what might possibly have been the most boring baseball game I've ever been to - and I like baseball! I read a couple articles following the game and even reporters seemed to agree - the crowd wasn't into it. I don't know if it was the unseasonably cold weather, the poor playing/standings of both teams, or the hangover from the Stanley Cup parade the day before, but I have to say, I was disapointed.

It didn't matter in the end - like I said, surrounded by friends we would've had a blast anywhere.

John Butler Trio - the Riviera, June 11, 2010

I really wanted to love this show. Really, really wanted to.

This weekend I have a group of friends down from Canada - friends who drove 8-15 hours to be here to see John Butler Trio last night (and go to the Cubs-White Sox game today). We've been planning this for months and I was so excited to see the show last night - John Butler is a great guitarist, I love the old style of the Riv as a venue, these people are some of my favourite concert go-ers, and it's just a nice break from how crazy work has been. In fact, two of us saw him and his former back up band at Lolla two years ago and it remains in my top 5 for Lolla shows I've seen.

So we got to the show around 8:30pm after eating at Smoke Daddy's for some bbq dinner (it was great). The opener was State Radio and, to be honest, if I'd known that they were playing I'd probably have pushed to come earlier and see them, but no harm there. The dance floor was busy and we weren't feeling it so we went upstairs... to sit... because there are seats. Apparently sitting in seats at a concert is a strange concept to the three girls in front of us. They stood up and danced the entire show. Don't get me wrong, I love when a crowd really gets in to the music (and these girls were) and if you want to get up and dance for some of the fasters numbers that's great, but there's a dance floor and there's the seating area. So basically, when I say I saw John Butler Trio play a show at the Riv, I actually just heard them - all I saw was three girls who frankly aren't very good dancers. I get that I'm really there for the music, but John Butler is exciting to watch and it was a real bummer to see maybe a quarter of the show (I gave in and stood for a bit).

I'm sad to say, it kind of ruined the show for me. The music was pretty good, his former back-up band was better, I was with good friends, we had beer. It had all the makings for what could've been a very good show... and three inconsiderate girls took a lot of the fun out of it.

GO HAWKS GO! (Hartford)

For the past few weeks I've been traveling back and forth to Hartford, CT for work. One of the great things about the case I'm currently on is the team's insistence on 3 meals per day - sometimes work gets so crazy that we skip meals. Even better is that we usually hit a pretty nice restaurant for dinner.

I admit it, I love dive restaurants, those hole-in-the-wall places that have regulars who know the menu really well, but when I'm traveling I really like being able to go to some nicer places and not worry about the bill (even in Hartford, CT). With that in mind, if you are ever in the area, I have to recommend The Pond House Cafe in Elizabeth Park. The food was easily the best I've had there and the atmosphere is unparalled for incredibly reasonable prices. I suggest the scallops - perfectly cooked.

Short entry today - it's the Stanley Cups playoffs and I'm watching the Hawks go for the Cup in Game 6! GO HAWKS GO!!!

Women in Music

So yesterday I was sitting on the bus listening to one of my favourite female artists - Susan Tedeschi. She's soulful and passionate and incredibly musical... and totally not what I think the majority of my friends are listening to. It got me thinking about the role women play in music. You see super-acts out there like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Christina Aguilera, etc. and, while I agree they're talented in a way, they don't hold a candle (IMHO) to some of the historical women in popular music. What do you think Janis Joplin would say to Ke$ha (or however the hell she spells her name) today?

Don't get me wrong- I love that women embrace their sexuality in music, but does it have to be so overt? The song that got me thinking was "Soul of a Man" by Susan Tedeschi. It's moving and sensual - but in a way that infinitely more sexy than "Maneater" by Nelly Furtado or "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry. I'd love to see some of the top 40 female artists start to perform in a way that owns their sensuality without making it so obvious that they have to dance around in bikinis gyrating... maybe I am getting old.

Update - So last night I was discussing this with my friend D. and he called me out - basically saying that women have been sexualizing themselves in music for a long time. He gave a couple of examples and... is right?? (Yes, D., you read that correctly.) I'm going to rephrase - people often say that "sex sells", and while I think there's a definite market for sex, I would say that "stories sell." My example was pulling from experience at the automotive company I worked at. I tried to convince our ad agency rep that we weren't marketing a car, we were marketing the lifestyle associated with the car. It's the story, not the product that's interesting.

For D., I think the point would go home a little more for green energy (his line of work). There is a very compelling financial reason to invest in green energy - especially in Ontario given the current rates and regulations - but, and it's a very big but, I doubt that the financial (read: rational) aspect of the decision is the reason why people buy solar panels/Green Frog Power/wind mills. They invest because they want to be green, the want their lifestyle to reflect their values.

As to how that relates to the sexualizing of women in music... I'm not sure. I just think that story is more important than product.

Bread Pudding and Broken Bells

Monday I saw a fantastic show - Danger Mouse (of Gnarls Barkley fame) and James Mercer (lead singer of The Shins) have a collaboration called Broken Bells (http://www.brokenbells.com/). I picked up a free download at Starbucks awhile ago and then bought the album. They came to Chicago to play at the Vic - an old theatre that I also saw Ben Harper at a year or so ago. I went with a good friend, M., and we ran into the chef/owner of the dinner club we go to so we joined her and one of her employees. We're getting old, so we sat up in the seats at the top but the show really blew me away. They've only released one album so far (10 songs), but played an original, unreleased song as well as a couple of covers. The entire show probably lasted an hour and a half and we were home by 10:15... which actually worked out perfectly because I had to get to work early the next day and was travelling all week. While I love, love, love their original stuff, one of the highlights for me was their cover of "Crimson and Clover" by Tommy James and Shondells. It's a total summer-up-north song for me and reminds me of late nights around a campfire.

That covers the music part... now onto food. I woke up this morning and realized that the bananas that I bought last weekend were well past their prime and demanding to be made into some sort of baked good. I chatted with my roommate, O., about it over brunch and ran over to the grocery store to pick up some eggs for whatever we decided to make with it. At home, I picked up the Williams Sonoma Baking cookbook my (other) roommate S. got me for my birthday a couple of weeks ago and came across the recipe for Chocolate-Banana Bread Pudding.

I have a confession to make... I am a sucker for bread pudding. I don't know what it is, but without fail, if bread pudding is on the menu at a restaurant, I will order it. Friends look at me funny, tell me that it's old fashioned and weird, but I don't care. Having said that, I had never made one. O. stopped at the grocery store on her way home from some errands to pick up some bread and chocolate and we were good to go. This is pretty much the simplest recipe I have ever made... and one of the tastiest products.

Chocolate-Banana Bread Pudding

2 large eggs

1/4 c. melted butter

1/2 c. packed dark brown sugar

2.5 c. whole milk - I'm a bad chef and used lactose free skim

2 tbls. dark rum

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

4 ripe bananas - worked out perfectly for me

6 oz. semi sweet chocolate, roughly chopped into uneven sizes is the way I go

4 c. day old bread - unfortunately, the bakery didn't have day old bread so O. just grabbed a loaf and it turned out alright if a little soggy - in the future this would be very good good with slightly stale challah bread

1 c. heavy whipping cream - for topping (optional in my case)

Basically, you just whisk the first 7 ingredients together in a large bowl, mash in one of the bananas, and add the other 3 chopped bananas and the chocolate. Gently stir in the bread and throw the whole thing into a greased baking dish. Bake at 325 degrees for 50-60 minutes - until it's golden brown, set when you jiggle it, and bubbling around the edges.

Delicious!!

Food blogging for idiots

"Long time reader, first time poster" - I've always wanted to post that on one of the many blogs I read every day. My minimal comments on those blogs (I have posted, just never that quote) have given me the urge to start something up... but what?

I read it all - PostSecret, Mommy Blogs, Tech Blogs, everything... but, far and away, my favourite are food blogs. I love the photos, the recipes, the ideas, the community. I've played around with the idea of doing a blog solely about cookies or pies or fast cooking or slow cooking or some specific aspect, but my favourite part about the blogs I read are the lives and stories that are attached to the recipes, products, and events that are posted. So this is it... my blog about food.

Also, music - because I love it and the two seem so intermingled to me. Drinking Bud reminds me of listening to Lou Reed at Lollapalooza last year (I rarely drink Bud, but options were limited). Eating a good meal should be combined with good music in the background. Cooking a good meal requires it.

Hi - I'm Sarah. I'm 25, single, and currently living with two fantastic roommates in Chicago (which I am, sadly, leaving in a couple months to return home to the great white north... Toronto). I work long hours, travel, and when I get home I like to eat good food. Welcome, I hope you stay awhile.