How I Remember Fireworks

Fourth of July #2, Independence, Missouri by Mike Sinclair

A Taste of The Taste

The sister and I went to the Taste of Chicago armed with an organized itinerary of what places we wanted to hit and with what dishes we wanted to try. Overall it was a good day to go with the temperature being cool and the crowds not nearly as crazy as it’s going to be on the 3rd with the big fireworks show. We didn’t quite make it through what we planned (no samosas or cornbread w/ honey chili butter) but we made it through a good portion of the list. See below. We did manage to fit in lemon italian ice and a rainbow ice cream sample somewhere in there too. As full as we were, we’re most likely going tomorrow too. Gotta go back to finish off the list and for The Annual Funnel Cake!

Sister dearest

Gazpacho with Avocado and Chives from the Grill on the Alley

Fried Cheese Ravioli from Tutto Italiano

Marinated Skirt Steak w/ Sweet Plantains from Las Tablas Colombian Steakhouse

Pot Stickers from Star of Siam

Tis I. Sorta. If You Look Real Close.

Beignets from from Lagniappe-Creole Cajun Joynt. Fried dough covered in a mountain of powdered sugar. This is a problem. A very delicious problem.

My Go-To Dressing Recipe of the Moment

After spending a number of years coming up with dressings for restaurants, I had found that my own personal salad dressing preferences had changed and now leaned toward more simple and clean flavors. Case in point, I’ve always been a vinaigrette type of gal when it came to my salads, but after fiddling around with endless vinaigrette flavor combinations at work with different types of vinegars, oils, herbs or emulsions, I found that my salads at home now got a really simple treatment of only four ingredients: a light pour of either red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar, oil, and a dash of salt and pepper. And that’s it. Sounds bare, but I felt that I could actually taste the vegetables now instead of masking them with my usual store-bought concoctions.

Now with summer rolling around again, I thought let’s change it up with this season’s home salads. I so loved the dressing used at another work establishment and decided to try to make it at home. It’s super easy, using only four ingredients again: whole grain mustard (I must insist on whole grain), honey, red wine vinegar, and a smidgen of oil. When it comes to savory food I tend to eyeball my proportions so apologies for the in-exactness of the amounts. Feel free to change things up to your suit your tastes. For the above serving I used about

2-3 Tbsp whole grain mustard
2-3 tsp honey
1 dash each of red wine vinegar and oil

Mix well to combine, toss in some crunchy lettuce (I used romaine in this case) and you’re good to go. You get a nice balance of tang and light sweetness along with added texture and mini flavor explosions from the mustard seeds with the bonus of just a little fat added. And the thick-ish consistency coats the lettuce well and gets in all those lettuce crevices. Fast, simple and tasty.

My Oven Is Broken

…so I used that as an excuse to check out Molly’s Cupcakes. I’ve been wanting to pay this place a visit for awhile since everyone says it’s sooo good and after having the fancy schmancy desserts sometimes all you need is a a good ‘ole cupcake to satisfy your sweet tooth.

I intended to the trip to be a quick one, thinking Molly’s was a quick jump on the highway away so I would just get one red velvet and go. But after fighting traffic and circling around for parking multiple times you better believe I was going to get more than one to make this trip worthwhile. I decided to get two of the more popular choices. First one – the aforementioned red velvet:

And it was good. Not great, but I would get it again. I only ate half (so I could eat half of the other cupcake w/o feeling that guilty). I think I would have preferred less cake for the amount of frosting but the frosting was cream-cheesy enough for me.
Next is the Ron Bennington – a chocolate cupcake filled with peanut butter, frosted with chocolate ganache and crushed butterscotch. Yowzers this was rich. I could hardly eat half w/o feeling the ickiness that comes with too much sugar in a short amount of time. It was good though, and if you like the chocolate-peanut butter flavor combo you’ll definitely want to try this one. I suggest eating it slowly…and chase it with a frosty glass of milk.

So would I go back again? A definite yes, but…. only if I was in the area. Molly’s is a bit out of the way for me, but I might make an exception to try another filled cupcake.

On Repeat

Been watching MJ videos the past hour. It’s been a sad day. All of my faves are oldies from the 80’s with this one topping the list…

Do Not Lick Your Screen

Friday I was lucky enough to go to another FPS graduation. As usual, a lot of good stuff was there but now I got to enjoy it since I wasn’t the one graduating this time around. When it was my turn to graduate 6 months ago, my reception was mostly filled with good-byes, hugs, and pictures so not too much eating was done. I can safely say Friday’s face-stuffing more than made up for the lack of eating done earlier. I tried to embed a nice, convenient flickr slideshow because there were oh-so-many yummy treats but unfortunately wordpress doesn’t support the code, so here’s a small handful of what was offered. You just had to be there…

(you have to know alissia to know why this so perfectly embodies her personality )

Oh Hey!

Got a couple copies of a children’s book that uses one of my pictures for the cover.
Original here. The day is better already.

Arizona in a 33 Second Nutshell

A quick clip made for the fam of our trip to Arizona. I would love to go back…

Does Anyone Remember “The Snorks”?

I don’t miss too many things from the 80’s. Not the hair (ewww teased ‘rainbow’ bangs), not the clothes (I admit I did wear biker shorts under my skirts), and most definitely not the hair bands. However, I do miss my cartoons. After watching Wolverine , I went YouTubing to find some old X-Men cartoon episodes and I thought of some old favorites…

I know Michelle and Samantha know this one. Although if you watch the first episode, you’ll notice there’s a different version of the theme song. Rio Pacheco was such a mack.

Next is Bionic Six, a culturally diverse adopted family with bionic abilities that fight the evil Dr. Scarab.

And before 90210 was 90210, we have Beverly Hills Teens. The biggest thing I remember from this show was the saying “Gag me with a silver spoon!”.

Ok so the above choices are a little girly with their fashion and family centered premises. I did watch some guy classics…
He-Man. Like another commenter on the YouTube page, I also thought Man at Arms looked like Dabney Coleman with that ’stache haha. Twin Sister, She-Ra’s theme here. Side note: the “three people that shared She-Ra’s secret” were kinda lame compared to the “three people that share He-Man’s secret”.

And this post would not be complete w/o Thundercats. Cheetara was my absolute favorite and that rodent looking animal sidekick annoyed the crap out of me. Say it with me now, “Thunder…thunder…thunder….THUNDERCATS…HOOOOOO!!!’. This show always got me excited to go home after school.

Good times… I know I’m leaving out a lot. Can’t forget the Real American Heroes – GI Joe, or theTransformers, Dungeons and Dragons, and yes, even The Snorks. Well, the Snorks weren’t all that good really but still, I feel like a kid again watching the intro. Oh and Muppet Babies!

To close out, let’s count with the Sesame Street pinball machine and the Pointer Sisters!

Ideal Morning

An easy way to start the day yesterday. French toast with freshly whipped cream and sweetened strawberries. Not too complicated just an egg, brown sugar, cinnamon, cream and vanilla but the combo hit the spot.

Making food has been a big part of my professional day for the past 7 years whether it was for R&D or for culinary school, so when I have a long break or vacation away from a kitchen I get a huge urge to go back in and spend the day making anything or play around with ingredients.

So with my break coming to an end soon and the internship beginning, I was in the mood for something simple to make to ease back into things. I had a craving for Greek chicken and potatoes and decided to give it a go. All you need is chicken, potatoes, butter, olive oil, lemon and oregano and you have an easy dinner. The chicken just fell off the bone…

Dessert plans got all messed up. I was going to try to do something with pineapple then changed my mind b/c I thought maybe Greek walnut cookies would be a better match to the chicken. In the end I ran out of time and ended up making chocolate espresso snowcap cookies instead. Not a bad substitute :p.