Thanksgiving Airport Boredom

So I find myself in the Columbus airport with a little time on my hands. My flight should have left about an hour ago and has pretty much no chance of leaving for at least another hour. I just finished reading Running With Scissors and should be taking advantage of all this empty time to grade student papers and the like. Thing is that I don't want to. I mean, I will, soon ... but not at this very second in time ... is all. Thanksgiving was successful. I feel like a fraud about not doing anything super fancy in terms of dinner items. A 15.97 pound organic turkey (with a little bacon between its skin and meat), stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry orange relish, gravy, brussels sprouts (that tasted like horseradish) and two types of pumpkin pies: the boyfriend kind and the me kind.
We have loads of leftovers.
Or we did before I left to go to Ohio with the 'rents. Two fun filled days of baby and older than toddler toddler type ... as well as many other nice faced relatives. Oh and we went to the track today and I lost.
I like pecan pie. My dad gave me a pretty nice fountain pen for my birthday (I'm older now). I wish that I could have a cigarette but that would involve going all the way back to arrivals and then going back through security. I think that I could make it time wise but it would be bad if I didn't. Google mail is not so much working right now so I can't even think about sidetracking myself for ten minutes with a heck of a lot of chicagoist emails. I may be back.

I like Devendra Banhart's Dogs Make Up The Dark.

Lunch at Turkish Cuisine

There's a little lag time with my meals to post time right now. That's mainly because I'm lazy and my parents being in my apartment seems like the perfect excuse to do nothing. Though I did finish a scarf yesterday ... and started a puzzle with the boyfriend the day before. But to the meal we had on, hmmm, Wednesday I believe. We went to Turkish Cuisine and Bakery. We started with the cold appetizer sampler plate. Which had the usuals like hummus, babaganoush and stuffed grape leaves as well as a few less well known treats.

I had the lunch combo #1, which included soup and salad and a half portion of one of their entrees ... all for about seven dollars (it is a super deal, I'm thinking about writing it up for Chicagoist). I had the shepard's salad, gave my soup to my father and the 1/2 portion of the lamb sis kebap. And all was tasty.
The only thing that was weird was our server. She was new and didn't speak Turkish. This led to her not knowing a lot about the food or how to communicate with the cooks. I am not doing a good job of explaining her weirdness. She was weird though.

Sushi c/o Hama Matsu!

The parents arrived on Monday and as much as the boyfriend and I suggested they eat borscht they were intent on, well, not having borscht. So, instead, we went to Hama Matsu and had some truly lovely sushi.
The father was a bit disappointed when our waitress politely pointed out to him that the sake he had brought (and wanted hot) was actually cold sake and thus, to her, it would be improper to heat it. The mother and I stuck to our Kirin beers which were properly cold and in need of no warming.
I ordered the usual: seaweed salad, ikura, wasabi tobikko. As well as a sushi mold featuring white tuna and wasabi tobikko. In addition to the aforementioned, I also ordered a piece of uni (sea urchin) and super white tuna. I'm not sure that uni is my thing. But I feel I need to give it a few more chances (that's really how it goes with developing a sushi palate ... and how I knew for sure that I do not like octopus).

Found

Hanlon wins the maybe prize!

Sushi Buffet

Sunday I met up with tonguethruster to talk about some things that needed talking about ... and to eat some sushi buffet sushi from House of Sushi and Noodles. There was a bit of a wait but we got our complimentary green bean tempura and stuffed ourselves good and proper.

Dim Sum c/o Furama Part 30

We've had a lot of dim sum in our time here in Chicago. And yet it's never enough.

We did not, however, eat the pigeons.

Where's The Bird?

Find the white-breasted nuthatch in this photograph and you will win a prize. Maybe.

Tidings

Mmmmmm. So on, erm, some time last week, I made this delicious lunch. A piece of the home made bread the boyfriend made with a bit of butter and three kinds of cheese melted all into a gooey coating and then a poached egg on top. It was good. Very nice and good and good and nice and tasty and nice and stuff.

The parents arrived in town yesterday and will be here through Sunday. Expect good meals.

Beets!

To read about (and how to make) the beet soup I made yesterday go here.

When Did The Knee Go Down ... And Where Was The Football?

Photographs from the Food & Wine magazine event I attended at the MCA. You can read about it (as I've already noted) at the Chicagoist site.

In The Brain ... Briefly

So I've seen a lot of movies and read a few books in the past month. I thought I'd do one super summary about it.

Barton Fink...had no idea who directed it when I started watching it ... was not surprised to learn that the Coen brothers were behind it.
Sweet Heart's Dance is a 1980s movie starring Susan Sarandon, Jeff Daniels, Don Johnson and Elizabeth Perkins. It's about relationships and marriage in a small town. It could have been worse.
The Kiss is a memoir written by Kathryn Harrison. It reads a bit like a novel but is all fact. All fact about the author's incestuous (and adult) relationship with her father. This book is interesting in that this was an incestuous relationship that didn't start until Harrison was 18. In fact she had only seen/met her father twice before. I left feeling like there was still something missing in terms of explanation or emotional depth.
I liked when, in A Prairie Home Companion, John C. Reilly and Woody Harrelson tell inappropriate jokes like: Why do they call it PMS? ... Because Mad cow disease was taken.
The Island is a silly movie. The boyfriend doesn't think cloning human beings will ever become a reality. I think he's probably right, scientifically, but I still like thinking about the ethical and moral dilemmas.
Family Guy is always funny.
I'm enjoying this book. It's about a woman's childhood in southern Georgia. Hers was a childhood completely unlike my own: in the 1950s, evangelical extremes, junkyard as home, um, yeah, stuff like that. It's very interesting in terms of what she has to say about her family but also in terms of the land and eco-system she describes ... I've been down there, you see, and I think long leaf pines are very very pretty and calming.
I read The Turn of the Screw a while back ... I wasn't scared.
I'm also making my way through the second season of Scrubs and I still think it's funny.

That's the round up. Right now I'm watching a very tense football game between OSU and Michigan. My parents are somewhere in the crowds and I keep hoping to get a glimpse of them ... but there's 100,000 people there so I'm not holding my breath. Go Buckeyes!

Fancy

To learn about the fancy pantsy food event I went to on Wednesday go here.

Steak Dinner

A while back the boyfriend and I went to Dominicks. This specific Dominicks was having a grand remodeling opening with lots of sales and, more importantly, samples. We were loaded with coupons like the winner of the marbles olympics. And so we got some steak. Then things got busy somehow and we didn't quite have the time to eat it. We had gotten the steak in a basic marinade and left it there, in the refrigerator, for two days. Then we lit a fire on our porch. By "fire" I really mean barbeque ... though there was a fair amount of purposeful, well-reasoned and contained fire ... but in the context of the barbeque of course. To complement the meal we made cheesegrits and the boyfriend made some green beans. A hearty meal eaten, finally and happily, over a game of scrabble.

Alternative Breakfast

Last Sunday we went to Augie's instead of Furama. I had two eggs (ordered over-medium) over-easy and sausage links. The boyfriend had pancakes with a poached egg. We shared a side order o' ham. Mousehead had cornbeef hash and exploded viewer had eggs and ham ... or ham and eggs? It kind of sounds funny putting the eggs before the ham ... it's kind of like putting the cart before the horse or, rather, the horse before the cart ... no, wait, the first one.
I was disappointed by the eggs not being cooked to order. But I didn't send them back. There's something about sending something back ... it's not something I do lightly.

Birthday Party

After our lunch I started making a cake for a friend's birthday. It was the first (with the exception of coffeecake) cake I ever made from scratch. Golden cake. The icing, I admit, was store bought. I had this fantasy of being able to make very intricate and complicated icing designs ... but, as you can see, all I was really capable of was intricate messiness.
The boyfriend and I hosted this friend's birthday shin dig due to her own apartment's easily annoyed neighbors. I made up some of my macaroni and cheese (half with pesto, half without) and everybody had a grand ol' time.
The icing I used to write things with turned everyone's mouths a very potent blue color. It was funny. The end.

Indian Lunch

On Saturday the boyfriend and I went to Usmania Indian restaurant with a Vassarite. I had a mango lassi.
We shared bindi masala.
A mutton dish whose name I forget. It was good though. The meat just fell off the bone in this wonderful, tender, delicious way.
And chicken biryani.
The service was a bit brusque in terms of personality ... but brisk in terms of how quickly the food came out. Which is something since Indian restaurants are kind of notorious for taking a long time (understandably).

The Night Continues

After the dinner a large majority of the Chicagoist staff went to Hothouse. There was a live samba band and no place to sit. I, generally, felt a little too immature to be there but there was safety in numbers, good smoking conversation and great music ... so I got by okay.
There was then a further splintering of groups that resulted in me and a few others cabbing it to Pontiac Cafe to witness or participate in Live Band Karaoke. I'm unsure as to whether posting photographs of those who did perform would be encouraged. So I'm going to hold off. But believe you me, it was good, funny, fun and great.

A Rant and Restaurant Outing

Friday was a rainy day. Very rainy. It started off poorly in many a way. Mainly in that I had a plum enrollment time for registering for next semester's classes ... that I managed to fuck up by having a hold on my account. This left me a bit of a teary mess. Teary mess because I, once again, was unable to sign up for the advisors I really wanted. Or at least that's partially true. In the end a friend was able to get one of the women I wanted to work with ... he will then drop the lady in question at the same moment that I pick her up. But the fact remains that I was in the position to get everything I wanted and, instead, I've gotten two things I want. Part of what angers me about this is, of course, that (ultimately) it's my fault that shizz got out of whack. But there's also a little room for me to be angry at something else. The entire reason I couldn't register is because there was a 'hold on my account'. This hold was definitely not there when I checked last week (two weeks ago?). And it existed in the first place because I had underbudgeted how much I owe the school. This is something they have known, or had the ability to know, since September. So my outwardly directed anger is at the office that couldn't have told me long ago of the problem...the office that waited until I was stressed out. Grrr.

Anyways. The day was long and hard and came after a few other long and hard days. So it was nice to finally, even in the rain, get to Zapatista for a dinner with a bunch of Chicagoist folks. The sangria flowed freely ... as did the margaritas.
I tried the tortilla soup (not so great).
And had the chille rellenos for an entree. The relleno was okay but I'm not going to be too enthusiastic about it. Really, the food was not half as interesting as the decor and dinner companions. There were twenty five of us and it was nice.

Pasta and Words

Alrightey. I am going to try and post a bunch of things right now. This is my reward for turkey research and my stay of execution for grading student papers (which I will do after this).

First off, a simple meal of tagliatelle with parmesan cheese and pepper. This was accompanied by a game of scrabble. The boyfriend kicked my ass in a major way. But at least there was candy (the boyfriend hit up CVS for their post-Halloween sale).

Learning

To learn about the best place to reserve a turkey in Chicago, go here.

Svea

M. Lady, she-who-has-no-blog and I had breakfast at Svea before She-who went off to Argentina. The eggs were cooked exactly right. The potatoes were yumsy and the sausage was okay.

Sushi At A New Place

The boyfriend and I walked two and half miles to Tank Sushi on Wednesday. It was pretty good. We had the tuna/white tuna appetizer.
The sake flight.
I had wasabi tobikko, ikura, a roll called 'Green Island' and another roll called 'Kaki Fry'. It was all very nice and all. But here's what it comes down to Hama Matsu is the best. I keep on looking for another non-fancy pants sushi type place, thinking that I'm going to find this amazing new place. But Hama Matsu is that place. I am going to stop trying to push Hama Matsu away. I am going to embrace Hama Matsu and it's Frank Sinatra music and cinnamon tea.

Chicago Gets Foggy ... And Then Wonderfully Warm!

So this week started out a little woggy. Or facky. The first two photographs were on Tuesday around 2.

This last one was Wednesday. See that really tall building? Yeah it's also in the first one ... only you can't see it because of all the fog!
The glorious thing. The unexpected thing. The wonderful thing is that yesterday and today have been delightfully warm. All these upbeat adjectives.