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Tanara McCauley

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Tanara McCauley

Tag Archives: food

Race for the Chicago Hot Dog…A Food Tour Tragedy

04 Saturday Oct 2014

Posted by tanaramccauley in Faith, Relationships, and Other Topics, Writing and Pursuing Publication

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

ACFW, American Christian Fiction Writers, amwriting, bicycling, biking, Chicago, Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder, coffee, conference, Dear Mr. Knightley, dining, Eataly, espresso, food, food tour, hot dog, Mezcalina, Navy Pier, photographs, pictures, restaurants, Roka Akor Chicago, sightseeing, St. Louis, The Billy Goat Tavern, The Purple Pig, tourism, travel, writing

On my way to the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) conference in St. Louis, I made a two-day pit stop in Chicago to visit a dear friend who’d just moved from my town to that town. My sister, who lives in Boston, jumped at the chance to join us, and we spent days before our little gathering emailing back and forth about how we’d spend our time.

Oddly enough, the conversation turned to hot dogs, and went something like this:

Sis: Carissa do you know a good hot dog place?

Me: Hot dogs?!? I call foul. FOUL I say!

Sis: Hey, Tanara, it’s not all about you, lol. I heard Chicago style dogs are good!!!

Carissa: True, true! I asked Chris & he said Chicago hot dogs are famous & good! We will have a hot dog stop!

Sis: Thank you so much. You don’t have to try one, Tanara!

Me: Hot dogs. We talkin’ bout hot dogs (in my Allen Iverson “talkin’ about practice” voice). Fine, being the good follower that I am ;-), if everyone else is having hot dogs I’ll have one too. Hot dogs. smh.

And so the race for the famous Chicago hot dog began. I arrived in Chicago before my sister Makena.

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Being hungry, and not wanting to eat her precious hot dog without her, I lunched with Carissa at Mezcalina. I ate the pollo almendrado (chicken in almond mole) and we shared two guacamoles (traditional and del dia).

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We’re beating hot dogs by a mile straight out the gate.

My sis arrived at dinner time. We met her at an Orange Line exit, then hoofed it the rest of the way to Roka Akor Chicago, where we had dinner reservations with Carissa and her husband Chris. We ate Omakase style, which allows the chef to pick your food for you.

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The experience was Ah-mazing. I’ll admit, though, not being a lover of food that hasn’t gone through a trial by fire of sorts (ahem…cooking), I struggled through the raw fish course. Hot dogs sounded pretty good in that moment. Then the next course came…what’s a hot dog?

Dessert made me want to run a good two miles, circle back to the restaurant and have another…to myself. It was that good. No, really, it was THAT good.

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Next day we hopped on city bikes and cruised the streets like we owned them. Carissa in the lead, dinging her bell at every poor soul unfortunate enough to share the trail. Makena brought up the rear, her legs working overtime to compensate for her too-short bike. Between her and Carissa we had our own theme song going. It went something like, “Ding, ding! Wait for me, guys!”

We spotted a couple of hot dog stands along the way. They looked a little shady, so on we went…

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For lunch, Makena had a place on her list considered a must dine.

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The Purple Pig, voted one of the ten best new restaurants of 2010, had some of the best calamari I’ve ever tasted, served cold like a salad. That I enjoyed it says a lot, because the only cold food I’m really fond of comes out of the freezer and is eaten by spoon.

Next we ate at this little joint:

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The Billy Goat Tavern happened to be featured in a book I read recently, Katherine Reay’s Dear Mr. Knightley (great book), so I saved my appetite for one of their cheezborgers (that’s how they spell it, don’t ask me why). I know what you’re thinking: I complained about hot dogs and scarfed down a cheezborger.

Yes. I did.

Mr. Goat’s was a homey place, the walls plastered with pictures of famous people who’d dined there over the years. Munching on my borger, I leaned over the table and fixed my attention on the Jeopardy episode playing behind the bar. I celebrated every question I answered correctly. Nobody minded. It’s that kind of establishment.

Next was Eataly. An Italian market/restaurant/gelato/winery/coffee, etc., etc., place.

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Since “life is too short not to drink well,” I ordered an expensive espresso. It was so strong I forget which exotic country produced it.

Evening arrived and still no hot dogs. Surely the Navy Pier would have a stand we could patronize. We set off on foot. The shadows of dusk gave way to an over-dark nightfall, and we soon questioned the wisdom of our choice. We passed under a bridge and up a flight of concrete stairs, heads turning to and fro in search of rats and ruffians. Made it to the pier just in time to watch them locking up.

Legs tired, bellies grumbling, we piled into a cab. It took us to Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder. This place was also featured in Dear Mr. Knightley (seriously, great book). We split a Mediterranean bread. Then the pizza pot pie and oven grinders arrived.

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The sight of that huge sandwich shut me down. I took a couple bites of delicious sausage blanketed with melted cheese and killer sauce, then raised the white flag.

One look at my girls and I knew my flag had company. Two days of walking, biking, eating, and exploring caught up with us. We boxed up the food, cabbed it back to Carissa’s place and stuffed our boxes in the fridge, pleased to know Chris would enjoy the fruits of our surrender.

Not until Makena and I boarded separate planes the next day did we realize her tragedy. We’d raced through the city of Chicago in search of a great hot dog, and ducked off the trail before crossing the finish line.

It’s a problem in need of remedy.

Your turn: If you live in Chicago, or have been to Chicago, do you know a hot dog spot worth recommending? Or better yet, one worth an extra trip? I might be inclined to say, “We talkin’ bout hot dogs.” But then again, it’s not about me :-).

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White Chocolate Banana Nut Bread

17 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by tanaramccauley in Faith, Relationships, and Other Topics

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

amwriting, author, banana bread, coffee, cookbook, cooking, culinary, Essentials of Baking, food, holidays, recipes, white chocolate, William-Sonoma, writers

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My favorite banana bread recipe is from William-Sonoma’s Essentials of Baking cookbook. If you can find the book, which is no longer available through their site, I recommend you snag it. It’s a culinary gem.

I’ve since slightly altered the way I make the banana bread recipe, mainly adding white chocolate, more nuts, and cutting or tweaking an ingredient or two. I make it often, and promised a friend I’d share the wealth in time for the holiday season.

2-1/2 large ripened bananas (or 3 medium ones)
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour*
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour*
*(I sometimes do 1 cup of each type of flour instead)
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar (dark brown has a richer flavor than golden in this bread)
1/2 cup 2% milk, room temperature
6 tbsp. melted butter
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and make sure rack is centered in the middle of the oven. Butter* and flour either a 9×5 loaf pan, or a large muffin (makes 6) pan.

Combine the dry ingredients and mix together well. In a separate bowl mash the bananas until smooth. In another bowl (or mixer) mix together the brown sugar, eggs, milk, and butter until well blended. Mix in the dry ingredients “in 3 batches alternately with the bananas.” Add the chopped nuts and the white chocolate chips and stir in.

Pour the batter into the loaf or muffin pan. Add nuts on top (chopped, whole, decorative or random). In my oven I bake it about 50 minutes. The original recipe calls for 55-60 or until a toothpick comes out clean. In the muffin pan the baking time is cut to about 35-38 min.

ALWAYS best served warm (it might fall apart if you don’t let it cool completely, but who cares when you’re gonna chew it to pieces anyway), with coffee, and a house full of friends. Enjoy!

*Cooking Tip:
When I finish a stick of butter, I save the butter wrappers in a Ziploc sandwich bag specifically for the purpose of buttering a pan when baking. Take the wrapper out and let it sit at room temperature. The butter residue melts fast and you can rub it all over the pan fairly quickly, easily reaching corners and sides without the hassle you get from using the actual stick.

 

 

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Sunday Dinner with a Cultural Twist

21 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by tanaramccauley in Faith, Relationships, and Other Topics

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

allrecipes, Bill Gates, Christmas, crack coconut, dine, eat, egg bread, family traditions, food, grub, Hawaiian, home, Jesus, kahlua pig pork, memories, psalm 46, stay at home mom, Sunday dinner, Thanksgiving, travel

As a stay-at-home-mom I’m always looking for ways to make home life enjoyable and  memorable. Some of my ideas fail hysterically, others are not so bad.

When I read an article about Bill Gates in which he discussed the importance of family traditions, I scolded myself for not having thought of that before. I resolved that we would have at least one.

Then I drew blanks for what it would be.

One of Gates’ was to wear matching pajamas on Christmas. Since I couldn’t think of anything better, I tried that the first year. Christmas pajamas are expensive. And with every kid under ten in this house–with markers, food spills, spit ups, and growth spurts–the odds that they’ll all put on and keep on the same pajamas in a twenty-four hour period, let alone from year to year, are unlikely.

Operation Matching Pajamas was scrapped.

I then thought back to my upbringing. For Thanksgiving my parents made the staple foods like turkey, ham, and potatoes. My sisters and I were each responsible for creating a new dish from a cookbook recipe no one in the family had tried before, and my brother would use a new cookbook recipe to make a dessert. What resulted was a modern, eclectic Thanksgiving meal with the traditional bones as the framework.

My family drew from that idea and came up with something suited for us.

We decided our tradition should involve things we enjoy that resonate with who we are. We are a family who loves Jesus, a troupe who likes to travel, and each of us is a tried and true member of the “I love to grub” club.

So we came up with Psalm Sunday Dinners. Based on Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth,” we use the nations God created to inspire the foods we eat on different Sundays of the month, and we of course take a moment to be still and give Him thanks for it all.

Here’s how it works:

Each family member writes on a piece of paper what food they’d like to try for a Sunday dinner (for little ones just ask what they’d like and write it for them (be ready for pizza)). It can be general (e.g., French food) or something specific (e.g. Arroz con pollo).

Put the folded sheets of paper in a container and have one family member draw one. That will be what’s on the menu for the coming Sunday. During the week google recipes (or use a cookbook) and buy any necessary ingredients.

Have everyone in the family participate in some way: Eliana is my little sous chef. Mathias ducks in and out for the jobs he likes (cracking an egg, playing with sticky dough). Iselle gets to pour in ingredients that have already been measured out. Jon typically taste tests, responds to on-call tasks, or takes Iselle from the kitchen when she gets ambitious and decides she wants more important jobs.

When the meal is done we pray together, eat together, then discuss fun facts about the country or culture our meal was inspired by. At the end of dinner, we pull out the container and someone else draws next Sunday’s meal. Refill the container every 1st Sunday.

This can be done once a month, every other Sunday, or every Sunday. However you do it, if you decide to try, it’s a blast. The kids love it, and as far as memories of family traditions go, I think it’ll accomplish what we’re aiming for.

This Sunday’s theme was Hawaiian (courtesy of Eliana).

We had Kahlua pork and Hawaiian egg bread (recipes courtesy of allrecipes.com) with rice.

Cracking the coconuts with Daddy!

She had high expectations for the coconut milk: creamy, sweet, candy-ish…

She was highly disappointed. He, however, enjoyed it.

So did he.

The dough was so sticky we were happy to get it on the pan in any shape. It was hard to stop eating though….sooooooo good!

Fun facts: The name Jon in Hawaii is Keoni. The state fish is the humuhumunukunukuapuaa.

Next Sunday is Chinese orange fish (courtesy of Mathias).

If you try this out please let me know what you make, how it goes, and post pictures!

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