Opera: Hansel und Gretel

The last few weeks have been filled with opera and a whirlwind trip to Chicago. I've also been trying some new recipes, none of them terribly original though.

CIM's opera production, Hansel und Gretel, was a huge success. After a long rehearsal last Friday, I drove through the wet snow with a few friends to spend 36 hours in Chicago with Jacob. It was a short trip and a tiring drive, but it was definitely worth it. We had a belated Valentine's dinner at m henrietta, a cozy place with unpretentious, but definitely delicious, food. It was a refreshing change to my usual unrealistic food requests when I visit. Usually it's "let's drive an hour and a half to the heart of the city to try this really expensive restaurant!" This place was on the north side, so the drive was much shorter, and we even found parking right in front of the restaurant.

We ordered a pancetta-wrapped shrimp appetizer which was surprisingly light and served on a bed of fresh avocado, grape tomato, and shaved cucumber with some slices of lemon and lime. This dish awakened my hibernating avocado-eater (something I never ate as a child, btw. I always picked it out of my california roll). I've been recreating this salad for lunch: avocado chunks, grape tomatoes, cucumber chunks, dressed with lime juice, salt, and pepper. You can't get any fresher than that.

Jacob's mom sent me some food magazines for Valentine's day. Some Bon Appetit and Food & Wine. I tried this recipe for sweet potatoes with mirin and honey, which basically turned into candy. I kinda wanted more asian-y flavor, maybe some rice vinegar instead of white vinegar and a dash of shoyu.

I also tried this pasta recipe from Tasting Table's winter collection, which you can download here. If you don't subscribe to Tasting Table, you should. It's less applicable to me now that I live in Cleveland, but they send me daily restaurant emails about Chicago (and other big cities). The linguine with cod, given the fancy name "Bavette in Guazzetto," was delicious and authentic. The instructions were kinda unclear on how small to cut the cod, and I probably cut it too small, because it all flaked, instead of staying in chunks. It still tasted delicious though, reminiscent of a spicy linguine with clams.

Maybe it was the subtle conditioning of the story of Hansel and Gretel, but something has activated my sweet tooth, and I can't get enough chocolate. Especially the toffee and almond variety. Yum.