When I'm Hungry, I Get Cranky

This is my "feed me or I'll rip your head off" face. It's lunch time somewhere.

Fresh Pasta with Blistered Tomatoes and Arugula

Fresh. Fresh. Fresh. Those were my thoughts, when I decided to make fresh pasta again. If you put the work into making fresh pasta, you want to be able to see and taste the noodles, not slather them in sauce. I got a pasta maker for Christmas! Which means that I didn't have to put quite as much elbow grease into rolling out the dough. Making the dough is pretty easy. It's the process of rolling and cutting the noodles that gets a little messy.

I'm all for eating "seasonally" and all that, but sometimes in the winter you just get cravings for not-squash and not-pot roast and not-chili. For me (and since we live in the 21st Century), that can only be remedied with grape tomatoes which can hint at summer flavor year-round. And so, a dish was born! A very photogenic one, at that.

Ingredients:
1 batch of Stephanie Izard's fresh pasta
2 Tbsp salt
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes (I used multicolored)
1 cup arugula
fresh cracked pepper
parmesan shavings

Directions:
Follow Stephanie's directions for perfect pasta. Cut into 1/2 inch ribbons. Add salt and noodles to pot of boiling water. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile, in a small saute pan, heat the olive oil. When hot, add the garlic and tomatoes (whole). Saute until garlic is light brown and the tomatoes have blistered or split their skins, about 5-7 minutes.

Toss the noodles and the sauce together. Serve topped with a pile of arugula, cracked pepper, and shaved parmesan.

Pretty simple. Timing is key though, because you don't want your drained noodles to sit around and clump together.

By the way, as I'm typing this, Cleveland is winning the competition with Chicago for most spastic weather. Sunny, rainy, and 60 degrees. The snow didn't stand a chance.

Happy Dog

What better way to transition from Chicago to Cleveland than with a big hot dog heaped with toppings?

Happy Dog in Cleveland (or as I like to call it, Chicago jr.) offers house made dogs with a daunting list of toppings, a community dive bar ambiance, and live music.

I went to support a friend playing with the organization Classical Music Revolution, which puts on chamber concerts in spots around Cleveland, including several bars. They aim to bring classical music to the people, making it more accessible, and enjoyable for audiences who wouldn't normally be exposed to it. Not to mention you feel like a rock star when you play for a raucous crowd.

I tried a peanut butter coffee porter, which actually tasted and smelled like carbonated coffee grounds.

Diners can embrace their inner chef by selecting as many toppings as can fit on their hot dog for only $5. I approached the task from my Chicago-style roots, using the famously topped dog as a template. My favorite parts remained - dill pickle spear and sliced tomato - with bacon-balsamic marmalade instead of mustard, grilled Spanish onions instead of raw onion, and blue cheese cole slaw on top for a little crunch.

My mouth was very happy, indeed.

New Year's Resolutions

"So now I am older,
Than my mother and father,
When they had their daughter,
Now what does that say about me.

Oh how could I dream of,
Such a selfless and true love,
Could I wash my hands of
Just lookin' out for me?

Oh man what I used to be
Oh man oh my oh me."

I can't hear that Fleet Foxes song without tearing up a bit. It gets me every time. And I'm finding it a perfect jumping off point for thinking about what 2012 will bring. Undoubtedly, 2012 won't bring about any big changes, but I'll be 23...that sort of middle place, halfway between "childhood" and "adulthood." Of course, I'm not really a child, but when I think about what my parents were probably doing at my age, I feel a little stagnant. But regardless of what they were doing, I'm sure some part of them felt like kids too.

Anyway, I know it's a bit late for New Year's stuff, but I've been spending the first moments of the year being a glutton, and it's time to stop! Not completely though.

#1: I'll only order a fancy Starbucks drink if I've practiced at least an hour that day already. This is my old reliable resolution. I can usually make it last for most of the year.

#2: Work out at least once a month (yes, that's a big improvement for me).

#3: Start volunteering again.

#4: Keep trying new things to cook.

#5: Keep exercising the old mind muscle (by blogging?).

#6: Stop watching TV on my laptop before going to bed. (READ INSTEAD)

#7: Read more.

#8: Be "selfless and true."

As the great Dwight Schrute once said, "There is nothing on my horizon except everything. Everything is on my horizon." I hope he's right.

Longman & Eagle (and Gilt Bar)

Unfortunately, Jacob and I didn't take any pictures of our dinner at Gilt Bar on New Year's Eve. I'll just tell you what we ate: gnocchi with pancetta and butternut squash, brussels sprouts with pork belly and maple syrup, and kielbasa sausage with sauerkraut and potatoes. For dessert we had an indulgent mocha coconut cream pie. A very rich and porky meal. If you study their drink menu you'll see $2 PBRs and $4 Table Wine options hidden in the filigree. They're not just there for decoration; when I asked the server about the wine she told me they have a chardonnay and a cabernet, both from California. I ordered the red and it tasted reeeeeaaaaally good. Maybe it tasted better knowing it was $4, but that's not usually how wine works. Ya know.

I didn't know this, but gilt is what farmers call a female pig that hasn't had babies. That's probably why our meal was so porky.

Since he only had a week to spoil me, Jacob took me out to Longman & Eagle later in the week. L&E is a a whiskey bar/inn/tavern in Logan Square. The food was elegant but, to me, under-seasoned. We shared everything which left me kinda hungry at the end of the meal. We had porchetta stuffed ravioli with a spiced applesauce (top), venison sausage with a pierogi (not pictured), "steak and eggs" (above), and for dessert, a bourbon and spiced pecan cake, steamed in a mason jar (below).

I was especially impressed with the sausage and the "steak," which was really boneless beef short-rib, magically grilled into a juicy tender steak-like cut. The ravioli was stuffed with an egg yolk and creamed spinach.

All in all, not worth the money in my opinion (go to Gilt Bar instead!), but at least we got to see a beautiful sunset on the drive down. A perk for L&E, if you need somewhere nice and affordable to stay in the city, you can get a room upstairs for as little as $75 a night. Chump change for a Chicago hotel.

The Slurping Turtle

In Cleveland I was craaaaving a big steamy bowl of noodle soup. And I don't mean a 10 cent pack of ramen. Since Cleveland's Japanese population seems to be surprisingly small (as far as I know), I made plans to get some in Chicago. The Slurping Turtle came to my rescue. It just opened a month or so ago, and the moment I saw the menu I knew that I wanted it and that it was going to be good.

The menu may look daunting, but the flavors are very traditional. We had shumai and gyoza that had little slices of pickled Japanese cucumber to garnish, which tasted just like the cucumbers with rice vinegar my mom makes in the summer. I had shoyu ramen (pictured below), and although I've never been to Japan and probably have never had real ramen, the moment I tasted it I knew it was exactly right. It was true comfort food and I can't wait to go back!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

You can't live in the Chicago area and not like Chicago-style hot dogs. I spent most of my adolescence abhorring hot dogs and all the weird things that go into them. But then I came to Chicago and saw the light. For those who don't know, a Chicago dog consists of:

all-beef (Vienna or Redhot) dog - mustard - dill pickle spear - pickle relish - chopped onion - sliced tomato - celery salt - sport peppers - poppy seed bun

...and most importantly, NO KETCHUP.

Any sandwich with a 2:1 pickle to hot dog ratio is alright by me.