and by monday i meant tuesday

Driving to and from the Maryland/DC area was exhausting.  Mark drove nearly a total of 22 hours roundtrip (I drove a measly 2 hours)....my husband loves me.  We got home Monday afternoon and collapsed (why was I so tired?!?! LOL).

Anyway, those were the bookends of the trip but the middle was really fun and great.  Here's what we learned while driving to the east coast: Maryland is way prettier than IL, Pennsylvania would be gorgeous in the fall, and that Indiana and Ohio have nothing redeeming to offer.  Don't visit these states.  ;P

**Side note: Once we got to MD I was horrified to discover that my little point and shoot camera was out of batteries so the pictures we took were very limited.  :( Dispair and horror!!  I definitely learned my lesson: always bring the charger.  Pictures were taken by Mark with his cell phone.

We were in MD for a wedding but other than wedding responsibilities all we did was eat.   LOL so here is our eating journal...we arrived Friday afternoon in time for the wedding rehearsal and dinner.  This was the first wedding I would participate since my own and I have to say it was a bit weird.  I totally appreciated all the planning and manpower required now because I had been clueless before my own wedding.  The rehearsal dinner was at Smokey Glen Farm where they do "Fridays on the Farm" in the summer time which is an all-you-can-eat (AYCE) BBQ feast on Friday nights.  I mean, the place is literally a farm with rolling hills and a huge barn.  The AYCE buffet includes: steamed crabs, steamed shrimp, BBQ chicken, BBQ ribs, corn, baked beans, mac and cheese, hot dogs, salad bar, cole slaw, potato salad, bread, 4 different pies, and unlimited non-alcoholic drinks!  PHEW!  It was a sight to behold.  We packed our plates and literally ate inside a big wooden barn...it was really fun.



Saturday we slept in and had time to grab lunch before the evening wedding.  After consulting a friend who grew up in the area we headed towards Addie's for lunch.  The restaurant is in a converted home and it's definitely a must-eat for lunch if you're in the area.  Peeking at the dinner prices we felt that the lunch was definitely worth it compared to dinner prices.  The restaurant has a changing menu based on the season and what the local farms are growing....love that.  It's how eating should be done - local and fresh.  We LOVED the soft-shell crab sandwich (which was a special that day) and the Prince Edward Island Mussels (which were part of their regular menu).  Prince Edward Island!!  I love Anne of Green Gables.....but I digress.  For dessert we had a rhubarb tart with buttermilk ice cream that was DE-licious.  Love the tart rhubarb with the sweet and creamy ice cream.... smacking lips.  I thought that the un-sung hero of the lunch was the BREAD.  I'm a certified carbo-holic and I love a good piece of bread and this place had such a perfect baguette that we had 3 baskets worth.  Augh, crusty and soft, flavorful and chewy, spread some delicious butter and sop up the broth from the mussels with it and you're in HEAVEN.  Heaven I say!!  Augh, eat there...take me with you too.

Maryland/DC Part 2 on Thursday...

road trip!

korean fried zucchini

Cooking for two is crazy hard.  How much food do you buy?  How much food do you make?  One of my kitchen pet peeves is throwing away food because it's gone bad before you can eat it.  It feels weird going to the market and only buying one potato, or one tomato, or two zucchinis.  Side note: how hard is it to spell the word, "zucchini"?!

Mark really likes zucchinis...a guy that likes veggies, go figure.  Zucchini (if you keep staring at the word it starts to look spelled wrong, weird) are great raw or cooked but don't make them mushy...it's just gross mushy.  One way any Korean will know how to eat a zucchini is dipped in egg and fried.  

Cut off the ends of the zucchini and slice a washed and dried zucchini in circles.  

I only used one zucchini so keep this in mind for the flour and egg ratios....Next, put a 1/4 cup of flour in a small bowl, add salt and pepper to taste.  Use a fork to combine.  In another small bowl whisk one egg.  

Put the slices of zucchini in the flour and dust off the access flour.  Next dip each floured slice in egg and place in a pre-heated pan (already with heated oil) over medium heat.  Turn the slices once the egg has browned.  Once both sides are browned, remove from the pan and let the zucchini cool on a plate.  Serve with soy sauce and vinegar (ratio 1:1).  

unsolicited wedding advice wednesdays : how to ship

Like I said before I was a moving bride from CA to IL.  Our engagement period was a short 6 months so I basically had half a year to plan a wedding and prepare to move to IL.  If you've ever moved out you'll understand how surprised I felt when I started to realize how much STUFF I actually owned.  I actually flew to IL so I had to ship most of my belongings during our engagement.  The last resort was checking in baggage on the plane because it's expensive and there's a greater chance of damage.  Here's what I did:

1. PURGE.  Give away, throw away, or store away things.  Be ruthless and try not to be too sentimental with your belongings (this was SOO hard for me).

2. ORGANIZE.  Once you've thinned out your stuff and have decided what you're going to move get organized.  Organize by category (clothes, kitchen, books, etc etc) and then by like-size.  If you're using boxes this will help your fill them efficiently.  Fold clothes to similar dimensions so stacking items will be easy.

3. BOX.  I used cardboard boxes that I got from work.  I talked to our warehouse supervisor and asked him to save certain size boxes for me and I began to hoard bubble wrap from like a mad woman.  Wrap fragile items with bubble wrap (newspaper is no good) and eliminate empty space inside your boxes.  If your items have a chance to move around there will be a great chance for breakage.  It's also a good idea to line your box with bubble wrap.  Try to keep fragile items in the same box and heavy items in the same box...try not to mix items.  If you're shipping kitchen items like pots, fill the empty cavity of the pot will smaller items and then cap with the pot top then seal it shut with plastic wrap.  Always mark fragile or heavy boxes as such and draw arrows to indicate which way is up.

4. SHIP.  I have found that UPS was the cheapest option for me because of the large size and heavy boxes I was shipping.  If your boxes are smallish (less than 20" cubed) and are less than 40lbs it might be cheaper to go with USPS media mail.  Both have websites that will let consumers calculate cost before shipping.  If your work will let you ship through your warehouse and pay back the company this is the best option.  Shipping rates for businesses cost substantially less so take advantage of it!

5. TRACK.  Be sure to email yourself the tracking information and cost (if you're paying your company back).  This will help you communicate with whoever will be receiving your shipment and will give you a way to keep track of which shipments you have already paid for.

6. RECYCLE.  Before you recycle your boxes in your new locale maybe check to see if anyone in your new area is moving and is need of boxes.  It's really expensive to move so wouldn't it be nice to give a new friend a helping hand AND your box a second or third life!

convenient garlic trick

Garlic.  Love it?  I sure do.  It gets added to almost any savory dish I make.  I love the flavor and even the aroma of garlic...it's the smell of something delicious cooking in the kitchen.  The thing that is the most annoying about cooking with garlic is peeling it and mincing it.  It's time consuming and a pain to do.  

A minced garlic trick I learned from my aunt really helps out this pesky problem.  In your local grocery store they probably sell pre-peeled garlic in a plastic bag or container.  This is a dream for any home cook but there's still the problem of mincing and quantity.  Mincing is easy enough to do with a knife (although I personally don't like the lingering smell left on my fingers) but the bigger problem I think is that usually the pre-peeled garlic containers are very large.  Unless you have a family of 10 I can't imagine how a person could go through the whole container one or two cloves of garlic at a time without the rest of the bunch going bad.  

My aunt's solution was to pre-mince the pre-peeled garlic and freeze the fresh garlic for later.  Brilliant!  You'll need a blender or food processor.  Mince the fresh garlic by pulsing it in the blender/food processor.  

After you've minced the garlic grab your sandwich sized resealable bags.  Prep the bag by folding back the zip closure so none of the garlic gets stuck in it.  Fill the bags with the minced garlic.  Press the air out and seal close the bag.  

Next, press flat the minced garlic.  Make sure it gets in each bag corner and is evenly flattened.

Grab a chopstick (or you can use the back of a butter knife) and press it in the center of the closed plastic bag.  Then subdivide the two halves to make 4 columns.  Repeat on the other axis.  

It'll look like this when you're done!

Keeping the bag laid flat, stack your bags on top of a tray or plate and place in the freezer.  The garlic will freeze and stay fresh.  When you're ready for a bit of minced garlic just open the bag and snap off a small piece of the frozen block.  The lines we pressed onto the bag will help us break off a small piece of garlic.  Your freezer may smell like garlic but a box of baking soda in the freezer will help with the odor.  I used a large container of pre-peeled garlic and I was able to fill 12 plastic baggies.  Whoa!  I won't have to worry about minced garlic for a while!

the klaus burger

Meet The Klaus Burger at What's UR Favorite in Streamwood, IL.  It's massive.  It's huge.  It's delicious.  It's a 1/3 lb. burger with cheese, topped with an onion ring, with a scoop of chili, bacon, barbecue sauce, repeat steps 1–5, finish with lettuce, pickles, and tomato.  Holy cow!  Definitely not something to eat everyday but it was a really yummy dinner to split with my hubby.

chicago style sport peppers

I don't know why but whenever someone in CA found out that I was moving to Chicago they always said, "Well, at least there'll be really good food there."

I don't know.

Call it my SoCal loyalty, call it my locale arrogance, call it what you will but I think CA fare runs circles around Chicago food (on the whole).  Mexican food?  CA: winner.  Korean food?  CA: winner.  Japanese food?  CA: winner.  Taiwanese food?  CA: winner (especially because I can't FIND a Taiwanese place to eat in Chicago).  Vietnamese food?  Haven't had it yet but Mark says, CA: winner.  (Apparently I eat a lot of Asian food hahaha)  I could go on and on.....

HOWEVER, there are some things that Chicago does well...Hot dog?  Chicago: winner (with the exception of Pink's because what they serve I would call deliciousness on a bun and not just a "hot dog").  I got to admit that in the world of regular hot dogs I prefer a Chicago style one above the rest.  Love that pickle, celery salt, poppy seed bun....  But the key ingredient for me is the Sport Pepper.  It was unlike any pepper that I had had in CA.  Small, narrow, crunchy, great flavor, and good heat but not too much.  No, they're not like the small yellow chillies you get at Tommy's, The Hat, or a hole-in-the-wall burger joint (GOD I'd kill to eat Tommy's right now).  No, it's not a pepperoncini or giardiniera either and don't you dare say a Tabasco Pepper.  It's a sport pepper and unless the jar says, "Chicago style Sport Pepper" it's a fake.  The last time I visited Mark before we were married we scoured the markets in IL for the prized Sport Peppers and we couldn't find it (I tired in CA too and failed miserably).  But 3 weeks ago, while perusing the aisles of Valli Produce Market for the first time we found a jar that specifically said, "SPORT PEPPERS."

YESSSS!!!11!!1!!1  Victory, sweet sweet victory!

Now, what exactly is a 'Sport Pepper'?  I have no idea.  There are thousands of pepper varieties and under the list of ingredients it just said, "Peppers."  LOL, maybe it's a secret because even online I couldn't get a straight answer as to what constituted a genuine "Chicago style Sport Pepper."  I have no idea what it is exactly and why it's so effing hard to find in stores but what I do know is that I love them and I can eat it with nearly everything.  I also have no idea if there's a particular brand that is better than others but I say, "Love the one you're with."