My Jeep

Well it was only a matter of time, but it finally happened, my wonderful Jeep decided it did not want to go on.

I was driving home from the suburbs when it happened. The engine started to become increasingly louder and louder the car began shaking and the interior lights were fading fast. As I tried to accelerate to make it off the highway nothing happened. The more I accelerated the more it slowed down so with its last bit of strength it was nice enough to get me to the side of the off ramp. That is where its last stop would be, the Kimball off ramp on 90/94. The car began smoking and there was a pungent smell all around. As I sat there on the side of the highway at 1:00 in the morning, my mind racing a million miles a minute, thinking about how hours from now I would be getting to work. Thinking, how would I be able to buy a car seeing as I am broke most of the time. Or whether I would have to rent a car for the rest of the week or get rides from co-workers. Suprisingly enough I had forgotten to worry about the immediate future, what was I going to do right then.

I did not even realize that as soon as I had pulled off the highway someone had pulled up next to me. I would have rolled down the windows, but obviously that didn't work. So I got out of my car went up to the man and he told me to try and make it to the end of the ramp where there was a gas station. I told him no way the car was dead. "what's wrong?" he asked, " It's dead, she isn't workin at all, it has a lot of miles (240,000 to be exact) and this is the end for her," out of no where he says, "alright then get in, where you going?" I told him and he was going some what near there so he gave me a ride. Man, I was lucky I would not know what to do sitting on the highway late at night with barely any money and no idea where I was in relation to public transportation.

So my car, my great car, my companion and friend who was always there for me (except when it would break down) is gone, its sad and can not be replaced, but I must move on. So I have a rental and am looking for another. I'll let you know what I get.

Tamales

2 - Packages of Ojas De Maiz
2.79 - Pounds of Tomatillos
1 - 5 Pound Gaud Masa
1.28 - Pound Jalapeno Peppers
3 - Full Chickens
1 - Giant Tamale Pot
7- Hours

This, along with some old myths and legends is what you need to make a whole lot of tamales.

Last night I went my friends moms house, who is from Mexico City, to make tamales. I love tamales so when I had the chance to learn how to make them I had to go for it.

First you take the chickens and start boiling them with some onion garlic and salt. While that is happening you take the Gaud Masa, (Crushed corn, lard, salt, other stuff), and scoop it all into a big bowl. Add 2 parts water and stir. This part is tricky you want to in the beginning stir it around like brownie mix, but as soon as it gets soft and a smoother consistancy you need to actually whip it. This process is supposed to be done with your hands, but I used a really big spoon. You whip the masa for 45 min or until your arm falls off. The real way to know when it is done is you drop a piece into water and if it floats you are done. Actually though the longer you go the better your tamales will be and whoever starts the stiring process has to finish it otherwise it will not be good.

Once the masa is whipped you rinse off all the ojas de maiz, the corn shuck the tamale is wrapped in, all the time watching the chicken. Next you prepare the Tomatillos, little green tomatoes. These tomatoes are specifically for the type of Tamales that we were making. There are many different types of tamales, basically red green and sweet. We were making are tamales with salsa verde. So you clean off and boil the tomatillos again with onions garlic and salt. You then twist the stems of the jalapenos to make them mad so that they will be spicier. They are then thrown into the pot with the tomatillos.

While the tomatoes and the jalapenos boiled the chicken was cleaned and then shredded. The tomatillos were then done. You can tell they are done by the color that they change and they become very very soft. Put them in a blender with the onion and garlic that was boiling in the pot add some salt and liquefy. The same is done with the Jalapenos and then they are mixed together. A separate pot is used to heat up a thin layer of oil, any kind, and then the peppers and tomatillos are thrown in. When this happens there is a loud whoosh and what looks as though it is all going to come flying out of the pot, but it does not. If this does not happen, if your oil is not hot enough, you might as well start over because it will be no good any more.

The salsa is then cooked and is ready once it is cooled. It is then mixed with the shredded chicken and always use a healthy amount of salsa because it is what is keeping the chicken from being to dry.

Then on to making the tamales you take a healthy spoon full of the masa and spread it directly in the middle of the ojas de maiz and then make a indent inside that and put the salsa chicken mix, kind of like mashed potatoes and gravy. You then fold over the two sides trying to get the masa to surround the chicken. Then one more fold at the bottom.

After about 65 of those you bless them,(Very Very important part), and then you put them in the tamale pot. The tamale pot has levels inside it so you put water up to the first level, then a tray sits inside of the pot above the water. You stack the tamales on an angle always pointing up. You can just keep laying tamale upon tamale as long as the open end is facing up. When all are inside start the steaming. When you hear the water boil that means you have one hour.

An hour later you check, if they just fall of the side of there wrapper they are done, if any part of it sticks then 15-20 minutes more.

Mine took a total of 2 and a half hours, I forgot to bless them. The end result though was 65 delicious tamales and a great time learning. I cant wait to make them again, but it will not be for awhile.

Fry Daddy

Well my brother gave me a little fry daddy. I have not yet gained 100 pounds, but I am not doubting the potential downfalls and heart attacks this little thing can cause. So far I have made fries, tater tots, chicken fingers, and onion rings and I have only used the thing twice. To add to its goodness I happen to have a plethora of different dipping sauces that I don't use enough, so it gives me the excuse to fry up more things. The cleanup though is a major ordeal and literally takes me two days to get it perfectly clean. I am trying my hardest to use it at a minimum and so far have been doing a good job, but in a few months if I have gained a ton of weight you know why.

The Green Mill

The Green Mill is a really great little old place that plays live music almost every night. It is setup as though it is the 1920's and you are sitting at a club where Frank Sinatra might be singing.

At one time this famous place was actually run by Al Capone through one of his hench man "Machinegun" Jack McGurn. There is a replica booth where Al Capone used to sit when he came to the club, it was located perfectly so that both entrances could be seen. In this great place there is also a trap door in the floor behind the bar, where now they store the liquor, but back then it was for hiding it. It is also said that this door leads across the street to the Aragon ballroom in case anyone had to leave in a hurry.

The bar has a couple of major rules though that all pertain to when the music is playing. "Big Al", the one enforcing the rules, lets you know right away what they are, when the music starts no smoking and no talking. If you really have to do one or the other you are sent to the way back corner of the bar. These rules are tough, but the music does sound much better when you are hearing it in such a quiet room.

This may be my new favorite bar in Chicago and I plan on heading back there again and again.

Charlie Hunter

The Charlie Hunter Trio is a jazz group that I went and checked out this weekend at the Green Mill, (separate entry), and this show was unbelievable. I am actually not lying I could not believe my ears and eyes.

Charlie Hunter plays an 8-string guitar, this means that the guitar is more than just a guitar it is also a bass. It is not like the old 80's guitars where it is two different instruments combined, it looks from a far as though it is a normal electric guitar, but when you get closer you can easily realize there is something special about his guitar.

When he is playing you do not know where to look, his left hand, his right, his face, his feet, everything is moving a mile a minute. Because he is playing both the bass and the guitar at the same time he can not take his right hand and just go across all the strings like a normal guitar, but instead has to pluck each individual string every time. While this is happening his left hand is somehow playing two different parts of the instrument with his fingers. Two are playing the guitar part and two are playing the bass part.

My favorite part about Charlie Hunters playing though was his expressions. I can only imagine the amount of work that is going into the way he plays, but I got some sort of idea of it by the way he contorts his face and mouth. The music almost seems to be coming out through his body expressions.

The music was amazing and his ability was gifted, but he was not the only part of the band. John Ellis on the Tenor Saxophone, Bass Clarinet, Wurlitzer & Melodica, (google it, its worth it) and Derrek Phillips on the Drums and other percussion instruments.

These two were also masters of their instruments and made it look easy to be playing two or three instruments all at the same time.

My favorite part of the show came during one of Derrek Phillips' drum solos, he was jammin and then all of the sudden Charlie hunter came over and started playing the symbols while Derrek kept bangging away at the drums, one hand with a drumstick the other just his hand. Then John came over with moraccas and some other noise maker and all of them crowded around the drums and played in perfect rhythm.

They will not be around again for awhile, but I am going to make it my mission to see these guys again.

Sushi Samba

Went to Sushi Samba last night. They have really good food there. It is a mix between Brazillian, Japanese, and Peruvian meals. Which is actually really nice if you do... or don't like raw fish. I am someone who not only likes, but loves sushi they had me covered.

Not going to lie at first I was kind of turned off by the trendy "Mod" look they were going for, but the waitress was nice and not pretentious, so it worked out.

I ordered a couple of sushi rolls. First the standard spicy tuna and then one of their special Samba rolls. It was called the Unagi Tamago, which is fresh water eel, zuke tuna, cucumber & tempura flake with wasabi tobiko crema. It was un real. This sushi was delicious and was one of the better sushi rolls I have had.

A great finish to the meal was an amazing dessert, Valrhona Chocolate Fondue. Which came with coconut marshmallows, japanese rice crispies, passionfruit cake, brigadeiro, fruta fresca & sorvete. I could not eat it all but sampled one of everything and it was all perfect.

The end price wasn't to bad and I am going to be back there real soon.

Big City Swing

Well I actually did it. I started swing dance classes at a place called Big City Swing. I never could have seen this happening, but my cousin asked me awhile back if I would be down for checking out a dance class with her. I said yes, which is scary because I already knew that she was good at dancing therefore I was definitely the one who was going to make a fool out of myself.

We actually found the dance studio over the summer, but we just missed the signup and therefore had to postpone until yesterday. The class though is really awesome.

The set up is such that you do not always have the same partner. So even if you are bad your partner does not really know because you are only doing a small part of each step with one person. Since there are less men than women (honestly though not by much) the men form a circle around the outside edge of the class and the women rotate in the middle. The instructors are in the center explaining and showing each step. After their presentation they turn on the music and everyone practices it. "Thank your partner then rotate."

I did not get told I was bad so I guess that was a good sign, but really it is only the first class so who knows. I think though this is going to work out and we are having and will continue to have a lot of fun.

Thanks Carmel for asking me to go, see you Monday.

The Saturday Evening Gentlemen

Well this weekend was great. It started off with the Disco Biscuits and the MOE concert at the Aragon which was really good. The place was packed. I did not realize how big the Aragon was and how popular Moe is.

That happened to be just the beginning of what would be a ridiculous weekend, mainly because of my Saturday night.

My Friend Pat was in town from New York for what was supposed to be a Bears- Colts Super Bowl, turns out it was neither, oh well, so we met up on Saturday at the old APT. There were a few people over and we were doing the standard chillin listening to music sippin on a couple of beers watching bad TV, or good, depending on your opinion (Elimidate).

We decided the night needed a little something more because it was seeming a little boring. After a few outlandish ideas that were thrown around Al decided talk was cheap and he was actually going to follow through with one of our ideas, so...Martin grabbed the markers and we started making sketches. No one truly knew where this was headed, but Al was not backing down and then the hilarity began.

Al went first and choose the 1980's Mike Ditka/ Coach Dyer mustache in the color black. So I proceeded to use a good old fashion crayola marker and drew to the best of my abilities a mustache on Al. To my amazement it didn't look bad and in fact it looked real from more than 3-4 feet away.

This started a chain reaction next was a fu-manchu with the upper lip missing, I believe it was called the Mick Mars. Then there was the pointy villain mustache, the Yosemite Sam, the pencil thin just above the upper lip, the 1920's barber, a bar code, and a Hitler.

This alone made the night absolutely ridiculous, but the night was just beginning. We decided that it was perfectly normal and definitely socially acceptable to draw mustaches on oneself and therefore we should go out to bars looking like this. So we did.

The first bar, "Louie's Pub: Where Friends Meet", happened to be having
karaoke night which was not not all that surprising because at this particular bar they have karaoke 4-5 times a week.

We all were singing on the mics, talking with complete strangers, dancing and if anyone asked us a silly question such as, "Why do you guys all have drawn on mustaches?", everyone would reply, "what are you talking about", "who has drawn on mustaches", or "Its saturday night isnt it", people were so suprised by the ridiculousness of the situation that they soon didn't know what to do or say so they just stopped asking.

The bar was coming to a close and so for the finale "The Saturday Evening Gentlemen" where called apon to sing Black Water by the Doobie Brothers. I am sure it was the most aweful sounding thing in the world, but hilarious none the less. The night went on, but this is where I departed. Only to wake up and find out that they were not washable markers.

Pictures to come soon, being developed. Here is one off my phone, its Pat with a pencil thin.