Grilling Out

When I moved to Chicago in 2005 I didn't know that it snowed. Well, that is not entirely accurate. I knew that it snowed, but I figured that snow was romantic and fluffy like it is in the movies. I thought it would cover the city in a soft, white blanket and I would be able to twirl in the park as the snowflakes danced down from the sky and onto my eyelashes. Oops.

Five winters later I am beginning to understand why people from the Midwest get so excited at the prospect of a 60 degree day. 60 degrees was an unimaginable cold in southern California, but I now find myself wishing for 30 degree days in the wintertime. While I can safely say that I will never love winter, I can say that I do love the changing of the seasons because every season comes with something that is indicative to that season that I look forward to. In the fall, I look forward to apple picking and pumpkin flavored food. In the winter, I look forward to snowboarding and baking Christmas cookies. In the spring, I look forward to my first outdoor run of the season and fresh fruits, and in the summer, I look forward to laying out in the sun and grilling.

The thing I love the most about grilling is that the simplest ingredients marry together into explosive flavor combinations. Take, for example, the photo to your left. 5 scallions tossed in extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Grill for about 5 minutes. You can eat them on their own or as an addition to tacos. They tend to be stringy and can be a little hard to manage if you place them whole in a taco so you might want to cut them into pieces if you care about maintaing proper table manners. Simple. Quick. Healthy. Delicious.

The same can be said for the photo on the right. 3 ears of corn still in the husk. Place on grill for about 20-25 minutes. Note: The cooking time may vary depending on the size of your corn and the temperature of your grill. We use a gas grill and set the heat to medium. I don't know how this would translate to a charcoal grill, but we just got one this weekend so I will test that out and update accordingly. Cool. Peel. Enjoy!

Seriously, can it get any simpler than that? I don't think so. I like to squeeze fresh lime juice and sprinkle salt and pepper on my corn, but you can enjoy this plain as well. Grilling them in the husk keeps the kernels brightly colored and crisp and gives them a nice overall earthy flavor. The best part of this is that it keeps very nicely unrefrigerated and can be enjoyed the next day for lunch. I like it room temperature. Microwaves freak me out so I try to avoid them at all costs, but I would assume you could heat these up the next day in the microwave. If you wet the husks and leave them intact, I would imagine they would steam as you heated them up, but I have no idea how successful that would be since I haven't tried it.

Tonight's menu will consist of grilled chicken, grilled pineapple, brown rice, steamed broccoli, and grilled romaine (something I have been wanting to try and that I am hoping resembles roasted brussels sprouts).

The Big Mango - Part 1

I have been back from Thailand for a little over 3 weeks and I think my jet lag has finally worn off. Never in my life have I experienced jet lag like this, it was awful. I was wide awake everyday at 4 a.m. and would uncontrollably fall asleep around 6 p.m. The strange thing about falling asleep was that it would just hit me. I had no inkling that I was getting tired. One minute I would be wide eyed watching television and the next minute it was 4 a.m. and I had been asleep for 10 hours. I imagine that is what narcolepsy feels like.

The first leg of our trip was a ~15 hour flight from Chicago to Korea. We had a 3 hour layover in Seoul and then a connecting five and a half hour flight from Seoul into Bangkok. It is absolutely retarded to be on a plane for that long, I never want to do that again. My feet and ankles were so swollen by the time we arrived I was wobbling about the airport, and my poor toes looked like little sausages stuffed into my flip flops.

After collecting our bags, we headed out to the taxi stand to grab a cab to our hotel. The cabs in Bangkok are all brightly painted in hues of pink, green, and orange and most of the cab drivers have their dashboards decorated with stuffed animals and various trinkets. Our taxi driver had his dash decorated with money and a hand grenade. Let's hope this guy doesn't suffer from a bout of road rage while transporting us from the airport to the hotel. Should I have been worried?

I must admit, I did little to no research before leaving on this trip so I had no idea what to expect when I arrived in Thailand. For some reason I had imagined Bangkok to be cleaner than it was and more futuristic looking. The traffic and exhaust fumes are both unbelievably dense and everything seems to have a rather thick layer of dirt on it. It is easy to see why people wear those hospital masks when they are outside of their homes. In contrast our hotel, the Grand Sukhumvit, was ridiculously amazing for $70USD/night. Our room was like a small apartment. It had a fully stocked kitchen, 2 flat screen TVs, a very big and comfortable bed (honestly, this was probably the most comfortable bed I have ever slept on in all my life), tons of pillows, a couch and sitting area, and a bedroom that is separate from the rest of the room. We were on the 29th floor and had a fantastic view of the city. The hotel also had a fitness center and a lavish brunch buffet that we took advantage of almost every morning. The only downside to this place (and this is a rather minor downside) was that the pool never got any sun. I would suspect that the pool and shaded area are refreshing in the hot, stickier months of the year. We happened to be visiting during cooler seasonal weather and desperately wanted to return to Chicago with golden tans. We had to wait to get to Ko Samui to accomplish that.

We arrived to our hotel around 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning where Shaun and Brendan were waiting for us in the hotel bar drinking whiskey. Johnny Walker Black Label is huge in Thailand which made me very happy. Soi 4 was the street adjacent to our hotel and it is littered with bars, clubs, and ladyboys. Holy crap, is it hard to tell the difference between a real girl and some of these ladyboys. Some of them are very obviously men, but for the most part you can't tell that a lot of them are ladyboys just by looking at them (I will go into more detail about this in another post). We were able to grab two drinks before the bars closed for the night and wearily headed back to the most comfortable bed in the universe for a night of much needed sleep.

A Single Serving

I have done a fair amount of traveling alone (gasp!). I am not sure why this tends to shock people so much, but when they find out I have traveled abroad by myself on more than one occasion their reaction is often something along the lines of, "Wow, I could never go anywhere alone. I would be so lonely!" I am floored by this reaction as I can honestly say that my travels have been anything but lonely. When traveling alone, especially in Europe, it is not out of the ordinary to meet fellow solo travelers. I have met people from all over the globe in hostels, bars, restaurants, train stations, museums, parks, bookstores, playhouses, on beaches and on buses. I find it exciting to travel alone and on the days that I haven't met anyone new I have no issues with going to a museum or a play by myself. It's really not as scary and intimidating as people think imagine it to be. No one stares at you funny when you walk up to the ticket counter and purchase an admission ticket for one. I swear!

I didn't realize it at the time, but all of this solo traveling experience came in handy when I first moved to Chicago. I didn't know anyone when I transplanted myself from the West Coast and it took awhile for me to make friends. In the meantime, because I didn't want to miss out on the things the city had to offer, I started doing things on my own. I attended plays, visited museums, went to the zoo, joined a wine club and a running group, attended networking functions, went to wine and food tastings. The list goes on and on and I quickly made friends through each of these avenues. I will admit, I was slightly intimidated to attend some these functions alone at first but I reminded myself, "When you were in London, you went to the theater alone and it was fine." Or, "When you were in Spain, you met that girl on the subway and spent the next few days hanging out with her in Barcelona and it totally was not weird." No one thought I was a big giant loser when I attended things by myself in Europe, why would they think that here? The answer is: they don’t. In fact, most people do not even notice you are by yourself because they are usually too busy Twittering or texting on their phones to even notice someone is sitting next to them at all… but that is subject matter for another post.

Anyway, I have been living in Chicago for four and a half years and I find that I still like to do things alone on occasion. My boyfriend also works nights so there are plenty of times where normally he would accompany me to an event and he can’t because he is working. Side note: I am going to give him mad props for sitting through the awful play I made him go to with me on Sunday. He fell asleep, but never complained once. He is so great. Ok back to the post. On average, I would venture to say I do something alone at least once a month (give or take depending on the time of year). Obviously, this has nothing to do with lack of friends or people to do things with. Sometimes I just like to do things alone. I call them “me” days.  

I have decided to start blogging about these experiences because I want people to know that just because you choose to do things alone, it doesn't mean that these have to be lonely experiences. I also think that doing things alone has helped me develop social skills that many people are lacking. How many people do you know who can command attention in a crowd of people, but can’t hold a conversation one-on-one to save their lives? More than you thought huh?

So without further ado - my first recurring post series (how exciting!). A Single Serving.  

Español 102

I am a student again! How exciting!

So.... my boyfriend is Mexican and his family alternates between speaking English and Spanish when they get together. Because I took 3, 4, 5, 12 (I don't know, I have lost count at this point) semesters of Spanish throughout high school and college I can recall enough to understand them perfectly fine. Ok, not PERFECTLY. There are words here and there that I get hung up on, but I can understand enough to get the gist of what they are talking about. For the most part.

I signed up for the second level Spanish course at one of the city colleges in the area in hopes that getting back into a classroom atmosphere will allow me to practice my speaking and beef up my grammar. Not to mention that whole accountability thing. Since I have shelled out the money for this class it gives me an incentive to show up rather than sit on the couch during the harsh winter nights which haven't been that bad considering it is mid January. On second thought, let's not challenge Mother Nature.

In other news, I have been extremely overwhelmed at work this week and am looking forward to recouping over the weekend and getting back in the swing of blogging next week. Stay with me people! I am new on the scene, but promise not to let you down :)

U.S. Travel Destinations

I have done a fair amount of traveling abroad, but I have done very little travel within the U.S. save for a few business trips. I have such a desire to see the world and yet I tend to ignore the country I live in when I am making destination plans. Below is a list of the top 15 places within the U.S. that I hope to visit within the next five to ten years. God, that sounds like such a long time frame. Actually, ten years and 15 destinations might be a little ambitious considering I plan on doing international travel during that time as well. Although, a lot of those places can be knocked out at the same time or can be quick weekend trips.

• New Orleans
• Seattle
• Nashville
• Austin
• Louisville (Andrew, I promise I will make it for the Kentucky Derby soon!)
• Portland
• Denver/Colorado
• Memphis
• St. Louis
• Cincinnati
• Atlanta
• Miami (I have a feeling this one will be the first off the list)
• Washington D.C. (Actually, this one might be first off the list... depends on if Caroline moves or my brother graduates first)
• Maine (for lobster!)
• Boston*
• New York*

The asterisks mark the two places on the list I have previously visited, but am dying to visit again. 

In other news, I made chili for the first time last night in preparation for a chili cook-off my friend, Flo, is hosting next month and it was a semi-flop. The recipe I used called for 3 tablespoons of chili powder which looked like a HUGE amount next to the rest of the spices it called for. It also called for a sizeable amount of cumin and minced chilis in adobo sauce. I should have trusted my instincts because, as you can imagine, the dish turned out to be overpoweringly smokey. I could barely taste any of the other ingredients in the chili so the recipe will definitely need to be tweaked before it is contest eligible. I will say though that the addition of unsweetened chocolate added a layer of flavor I did not know could exist in chili. If anyone reading this has any chili secrets, I would love to hear them! :)

I Don't Know Any Fat Vegetarians

It's true! I need to stop eating meat completely...

In all seriousness though, I started to cut back on meat a few years ago when I was trying to lose weight. I didn't do this on purpose, it just sort of happened over time because most of the really good recipes involving meat also involved butter, oil, frying, breading and other things that weren't conducive to maintaining a low calorie diet. I know there are a ton of techniques that can yield bold flavor with lesser calories (braising, slow cooking, roasting) but I wasn't that advanced of a cook at the time. Filling my diet with fresh fruits and veggies was not only healthy, but it also opened my eyes to a variety of foods I never would have thought to try before.

Generally speaking, I think there is a common misconception surrounding vegetarian food and cooking. People tend to think that vegetarian dishes consist solely of lettuce and carrots. However, I find it to be more abundant than any meat-centric diet I have ever been on. I feel such a burst of excitement rush through my veins when I walk into a fresh foods market. I am sure walking down the aisles I look like I am attending an intensive tennis match. Pumpkins! Tomatoes! Beets! Parsnips! Apples! Mangos! It is hard to control myself. I am getting excited just typing those words.

I have recently discovered butternut squash. I have tried it this way and give it an A++ for taste and ease. If you are looking for a way to try butternut squash, I recommend trying that or the recipe below. The recipe below is from Vegetarian Times and yields 6 servings. Because I am only cooking for myself, I used the recipe below as a guide and just sort of winged it. I included the amounts I used in parenthesis next to the original amounts and it was enough for me to enjoy for dinner and lunch the next day.

Butternut Squash—Bartlett Pear Soup
Vegetarian Times Issue: November 1, 2009 
Serves 6 

Ingredients

• 3 Tbs. olive oil (I used cooking spray)
• 2 medium leeks, white and tender green parts finely chopped (3 cups) (I used 1 leek)
• 1 small butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces (2 lb.) (I used 1 because my squash was very small)
• 3 Bartlett pears, peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch pieces (11/2 lb.) (I used 1)
• 5 cups low-sodium vegetable broth (I used about 3)
• 1 14-oz. can light coconut milk (I used 1/2 cup)
• 1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
• Pumpkin seeds for garnish, optional (I toasted the seeds from the butternut squash, salted them, and used those)

Directions

• Heat oil in saucepan over medium-low heat. Add leeks, and cook 10 minutes, or until soft, stirring often.
• Add squash and pears, and sauté 5 minutes. Stir in vegetable broth, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and add salt, if desired. Simmer 20 minutes, or until squash is fork-tender.
• Remove from heat, and stir in coconut milk. Purée soup in batches in blender or food processor, or use immersion blender in saucepan; blend until smooth. Return soup to saucepan, and stir in thyme. Reheat over medium-low heat 2 to 3 minutes, or until warmed through. Season with salt and white pepper, if desired. Serve garnished with pumpkin seeds, if using.

Slacking already

Oh, goodness! We are a week into 2010 and I haven't posted anything new yet. I am not exactly sure what route I am going to take with this blog, but I need a shtick. My main purpose for starting this blog was to give myself a forum where I can write on a consistent basis about whatever comes to mind, but I have come to realize that I need a common theme or some sort of categorization for my posts or I probably won't acquire repeat readers. I mean, no one starts a blog if they do not want people to read it right? Although, rather than wasting time not posting while I try to figure out what direction to take, I figure if I just start writing as often as possible this blog might end up taking a road on its own. So, as I craft and shape this blog over the next several weeks, I hope you decide to stay with me.