At Oysterfest this year there was a booth set up selling all different Mexican wrestling masks. Some of these masks were NFL themed, which was kind of odd. I stopped to take this photo of the Green Bay Packers Mexican wrestling mask when Jill rushed over to stop me. She thought I was buying it!
Tags:Chicago·football·mexican wrestling mask·packers·roscoe village·wrestling
If anyone out there has a household where they cook for 1 or 2 or even 3 people, you should buy this book immediately: Cook’s Illustrated Cooking for Two 2009. I bought it on a whim in the whole foods checkout several months ago. Since then Dallas and I have made several recipes from the book and every one has turned out fabulous. As the name of the book implies, ever recipe is chopped down to serve two people. At first Dallas wanted to double every recipe so he could have seconds or leftovers, but we soon found out that if we make the recipes with the ingredient amounts as called for, it’s plenty for two people with him having seconds and even having leftovers sometimes.
The book includes chapters on soups, meat, poultry, fish and seafood, pasta and noodles, eggs and cheese, side dishes and desserts. For each recipe there are very detailled instructions. Dallas doesn’t care about this because he’s more of a natural cook, but I like that it tells me exactly what to do. Each recipe has a photo and includes a lot of notes about how the people at Cook’s Illustrated experimented and came up with the recipe. I like reading this background information before making the recipe.
Here are some of the things we’ve made so far:
Glazed Pork Chops With Sweet Potatoes
Chicken With Israeli Couscous, Spinach, & Feta (Twice!)
Seafood Risotto
Lasagna
Lighter Pasta With Garden Vegetable Sauce
Tags:americas test kitchen·Chicago·cooking for two·cooks illustrated·dallas·logan square
Back in 2003 I got a new cell phone and was really excited because I could view rachelleb.com ON MY PHONE. Holy Jetsons! This was the future! Here’s what it looked like:
Obviously I did not access the web very often from my cell phone. I didn’t even text back then. In the years since then, I’ve upgraded my phone a little, but it was always very much the same. Same button interface, for the most part. But ohhhhhh… the screen was in color. I texted a ton but never accessed the internet.
Fast forward to 2009. I got an iPhone for my birthday. The thing I do with it the least? Make phone calls. I got my first bill and it says I made 127 phone calls, a number I think is highly inflated because I know there were bunch of times I fake called people to see what the photo I assigned to them would look like. By fake call, I mean I hung up so quickly that the call never went through, but it stayed in my logs. Days and days go by without me making or receiving a phone call on my phone. On the otherhand, I had 600+ real incoming and outgoing text messages. And I can’t tell you how much time I’ve spent online or playing games on the iPhone.
Oh, and here’s what rachelleb.com looks like these days on my cell phone:
What a difference.
Tags:cell phone·Chicago·iphone·Web/Tech
One night Dallas made Pasta with Tuna and Capers in White Wine Sauce for dinner. We used whole wheat pasta and even though the recipe said to use tuna in olive oil, we used tuna in water and added more olive oil. It’s what we had on hand. I don’t know if Dallas was a big fan of the dish, but I liked it.
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Tuna Pasta with Capers in White Wine Sauce Recipe
You can easily dress up this recipe with a few more ingredients – chopped garlic added at the end of the onion cooking, chopped tomatoes and/or olives in with the tuna, lemon zest to serve, etc.
Salt
4 ounces bow tie (farfalle), linguini, or spaghetti pasta
2 Tbsp olive oil (plus more)
1/2 medium onion, chopped
Pinch chili pepper flakes
1 (6-ounce) can tuna packed in olive oil, drained
1 Tbsp capers
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 Tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
Freshly ground black pepper
Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add salt (1 teaspoon for every quart of water), return to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package directions until cooked through, but still firm (al dente).
While the water is coming to a boil and the pasta is cooking, prepare the rest of the recipe. In a large, wide sauté pan, heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat. Add the chopped onion and chili pepper flakes and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes or so. Mix in the canned tuna, the capers, and the salt. Add the wine, bring to a simmer then lower the heat to low. Cook for 10 minutes or longer, while the pasta is cooking. If the mixture begins to dry out, add a little more wine.
When the pasta is ready, drain it and add it in to the pan with the tuna. Toss to mix. Drizzle on a bit more olive oil over it all, then add the chopped parsley and a few grinds of black pepper to taste.
Serves 2.
Tags:Chicago·cooking and baking·logan square·pasta·simply recipes
Revolution Brewing is new brewery coming to Chicago and Dallas and I are over-the-top excited about it. Why? It’s a block from our house. We’re pumped to have some good microbrews in a nice setting with hopefully some great food, and within stumbling distance of our house. We have high, high hopes. Do not let us down Rev Brew!