No Chicago food education is complete until you’ve logged some man hours on Harlem Avenue.
Over the next 3 posts, I’m going to take you on an educational journey down Harlem Ave. We’ll start at Addison and Harlem, and head south from there.
Although the real Little Italy is down by UIC, this stretch of Harlem Avenue is a close runner-up. Everywhere you look, you see Italian people, Italian grocery stores, and bumper stickers proclaiming “FORZA AZZURRI!” But among all of the Italian restaurants in the neighborhood, Caponies Trattoria sets the bar.
As you may know, my blog is a thinly veiled love letter to Chicago’s Northwest Side.
But this entry may sound more like a eulogy, as I paint you a picture of Elliott’s Dairy – a great little store, and the great little neighborhood it serves.
Confession: I’ve been working ridiculously long hours lately. And sadly, it has affected my ability to obsessively decorate our home for Christmas. The garland and ornaments have sat, forlorn, in the back of our closet while I spend my evenings wading through a sea of flowcharts and spreadsheets.
I don’t want to say I’ve lost sleep over it… but only people of a certain disposition wake up in the middle of the night, thinking about Advent calendars.
So, let’s say you love to bake cookies. And you have some vacation days to use up before the end of the year. And you miss the neighborhood you grew up in. What do you do? Enter the Resurrection Arts & Crafts Fair, of course!!
If you live on the Northwest Side, the Resurrection Arts & Crafts Fair was the place to see and be seen on Saturday. I’m not kidding! You think the bars in Lincoln Park are crowded? Check this out:
Oh, Slap-Chop guy. I wish you lived in my kitchen.
You guys are familiar with the Slap-Chop, right? It started innocently enough, as an infomercial for a vegetable chopper. Then a Massachusetts DJ got ahold of it, and turned the whole thing into performance art.
I wish real rap music was this entertaining:
This is so bad, it deserves to be studied. Shall we?
Ah, the holidays. Andy Williams will tell you it’s the most wonderful time of the year.
As much as I love this season, it’s easy to get cabin fever. So if you’re tired of visiting with your family, and you can’t watch another re-run of I Love the 80’s, check out The Daily V Holiday Calendar!
October:
Sunday 10/11:The 4th Annual Andersonville Dessert Crawl - The Andersonville Dessert Crawl takes you up and down Clark Street, into famous bakeries such as Ann Sather, Svea, and The Swedish Bakery.
Sunday 10/18 :The 5th Annual Bucktown Apple Pie Contest - Who cares if Chicago lost the Olympics bid? The Bucktown Apple Pie Contest is the Olympics of pie baking. Sample the winning pies, and check out the pumpkin painting too!
Saturday 10/24:Hallowed Haunts – presented by the Civic Orchestra of Chicago - The Hallowed Haunts concert at Symphony Center features some of the spookiest music ever composed, performed live by the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Halloween costumes are encouraged!
Friday 10/30:The Saint Pascal’s Haunted House - Why do Catholic churches always have the best haunted houses? St. Pascal’s Haunted House has been scaring Chicago’s Northwest Side since 1988. HauntedHouseChicago.com has rated it one of the Top 10 Haunted Houses in Chicago. For only $7, it’s a great deal!
Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to get a bunch of old recipes that belonged to my grandmothers. I remember their cooking fondly, so I couldn’t wait to read them. Each recipe was like a little treasure, full of handwritten notes and dog-eared pages.
So, you can imagine my dismay when I saw that almost every recipe called for Crisco, instead of butter. My heart sank, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was like the moment I realized Santa Claus wasn’t real.
But it wasn’t their fault. In the early 1900’s, Crisco had America under it’s spell. American housewives had no idea that hydrogenated oil was bad. But in Proctor & Gamble’s defense… they had no idea, either.
We always knew that our friends David and Mel would eventually leave Chicago, and move back to Australia. But we secretly (and not-so-secretly) wished it would never happen, and they’d just live happily ever after in Chicago.
But all good things must come to an end, and this weekend, David and Mel got the greatest Going Away party ever – complete with Tim-Tams, Australian Flag cookies, and my new favorite vegetarian dish – Tabouli!
Making the Australian Flag cookies was difficult, but it was a labor of love. I wouldn’t have done it for anyone else except them. Check it out:
If you’re familiar with the Australian flag, you’ll notice that I accidentally left out one of the stars in the Southern Cross constellation. Whoops!
The challenge: Create desserts for my sister-in-law’s bridal shower, that fit the theme of “Black and White.”
The real challenge: Create desserts that don’t cost a fortune, will feed 30 people, and survive the hour long drive to Lindenhurst without breaking. Or melting.
The results:
Chocolate Bark:
Bark is one of those desserts that only looks difficult. For all of you musicians out there, making chocolate bark is like playing a power chord on an electric guitar. It’s not difficult, but it looks socool.
Would you ever think that the genius who created this:
and this:
would take an hour out of his Saturday morning to hang out with me?
While most people were still hunched over their morning cup of coffee, I was lucky enough to be in Mark Seaman’s sugar art studio in Ravenswood. I must admit, I had an ulterior motive – I needed his advice on how to improve my apple pie. (Details on that in October)
Comments (2) 
