The plans
had been set for a good few weeks. My old friend Mike Przygoda was leading his
Big Band, Mike P and the Cool Breeze, at a late Saturday night show at Strawdog
Theater in Chicago. In my free minutes in-between teaching this past week I had
scoured the internet for great restaurant spots I could write about from Tango
Sur in Wrigleyville or Big Jones in Andersonville. Weather had turned fresh
blues skies and temperate winds into charcoal clouds and bitter reminders that
early March can still be hellishly unforgiving before that first day of spring.
Then, a turn for the worse - Ally got sick and then I begin to battle a cold on top of
allergies. Imagine my frustration with having to not take any allergy meds or eye
drops for five days as I prep for a first meeting with my allergist next Tuesday.
When the
shades are drawn and you have a blanket wrapped around your shoulders like a
babushka in a Siberian winter – what do you do? You make some comfort food, watch
comedies and drink enough green tea to if your situation requires it, flush out
any illegal substance before a drug test – not that I have to worry about this.
First, the
tea. My buddy Nick hooked me into the world of loose-leaf tea. For the past
year he has worked at a Teavana, a specialty tea shop chain that has tea in its
purest, natural form. Though the tea and products can be expensive, I am glad I’ve
had to buy less than half of what I have used – Nick has kindly supplied the
rest. I take about 3 to 4 pinches of green tea leaves, mix with two teaspoons
of a pineapple herbal blend for flavor and toss in a spoonful of clover honey.
After sitting in the right temperature for a few minutes, I carefully sip in intense
flavors with enough vitamin c inside my cup to ignore the oranges in my fridge.
I defrosted
a bone-in pork roast. On the skin I rubbed garlic olive oil, and a spice mix of
cumin, herbs de Provence, thyme, paprika, salt and pepper. After pan searing
all sides, I toss the four pound roast into the oven to cook for two hours at
between 325 and 350. The meat comes out quite tender from the absence of
extremely high heat over time. Skin cooked in that fashion has this succulent
and savory flavor on its crusty ring. In addition, I slowly cooked and stirred
a great mixture of wild rice. If you want your kitchen to become engulfed with
a perfume of culinary awesomeness, mix 1 cup of wild rice into 2 ½ cups of
chicken stock and a ¾ cup of white wine with two tablespoons of butter. To better
beat our illnesses, I pan sautéed up a whole bulb of smashed garlic and shaved
almonds to later mix into the completed wild rice.
Ally had a
copy of that goofy rock-n-roll comedy That
Thing You Do from Tom Hanks. Remembering that this film premiered in 1996,
my freshman year of high school, I was more than willing to relax to two hours
of personal nostalgia, carefree laughs from a talented cast and some great rock
tunes, circa early 1960’s.
Yes, I could have listened to live renditions of
Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington tunes at Strawdog. Yet considering my
anti-bodies were waging a war against a bug soon to be drown out by green tea, satisfying
food and movies made for a good time.
Tune in next
Saturday for my post on Smoque BBQ in Chicago. I’m taking Nick there for his
birthday this upcoming Friday.
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