The Battle for Thanksgiving Part 3: Pizza Wars

And so we reach the thrilling finale of the Battle for Thanksgiving - Pizza Wars!!  

Now, before all you NYC thin crust pizza peeps get your knickers in a twist/panties in a bunch (snigger), I think we can all agree right here, right now, that thin crust pizza IS the best pizza there is.  As to which Original Ray's Pizza is the best, authentic NYC slice - well, I'm not going near that hot potato.  http://gothamist.com/2011/09/27/the_hunt_for_the_real_original_rays.php

The reason for the preface is that this Pie Throwdown was taking place in Uno's Pizza - the original home of Chicago's deep dish pizza!  And, depending on where you sit in the Great Pizza Debate, deep dish is either yummy or a complete abomination!!  I think probably one of the only things that people can agree on is that no-one who actually lives IN Chicago eats deep-dish pizza EXCEPT for when they have out-of-town guests and then its the perfect thing to do with them!

Thanks to Travelzoo (love that website!), I'd managed to go one better than just eating there - I'd booked Komal and I into a Deep Dish Pizza Cooking Class, so we could learn how we, too, could make 1000-calorie pizzas in the comfort of our own homes for breakfast.  

Yep, hot off the heels of Paint Wars last night, Pizza Wars started at the crack of dawn (-ish) with the class scheduled to kick off at 8.30am.  We left the apartment around 7.30am (on a Saturday!!) and made very good time into the city, found somewhere reasonably priced to park, and wandered over to Uno's.  We were a bit early so the doors were still locked, but the staff inside took pity on us looking in forlornly through the windows, shivering in the 30-degree cold.  It was good that we arrived early, as we were able to get good seats, with a great front row view of all the doughy-action!  

Smiling through the pain of an early morning - on a Saturday!!

There were about 15 or so people in total - the class was very well organized - we all had little recipe booklets and they'd pre made the pizza dough beforehand, placed in little doughy lumps in individual pizza tins.  The chap who taught our class was great and seemed to be genuinely enthusiastic about deep dish pizza (he even claimed to make it for himself at home - a likely story!).  He gave us a bit of the history of the dish too - did you know that deep dish was invented totally by accident?  The restaurant that originally opened was supposed to serve Mexican food - however, the first day of opening was a disaster, so the panicking owners started to experiment with other recipes in the kitchen.  In the process, some bright spark (and exactly who it was who first created deep dish is not known for certain - though 20 or so peeps make that claim to fame!) put dough and cheese and tomatoes in a baking pan and baked it in the oven.  The red sauce of the pizza was made from the tomato salsa and the dough was originally from the flour that was supposed to make tortillas.  And thus, the deep dish pizza was born!!

Another interesting factoid - the "cornmeal crust" that is characteristic of deep dish contains precisely zero cornmeal!  The texture of the crust is actually achieved by, get this, pretty much drowning the dough in oil - this is what gives it its crispy texture as it bakes in the pan.  The other "secret" - the recipe  for the tomato sauce - just tomatoes!  A mix of plum tomatoes that you break up by hand and pureed tomatoes - and thats it!!  For the mozzarella cheese on the bottom, its better to use low-fat cheese and, if you are going to be adding raw sausage meat, you want to make sure to put that directly on top of the cheese. Other than that, its pretty fool proof - the dough is a cinch to make (he demonstrated it for us) and they've modified the recipe so that it will work in home ovens. 

So - let battle commence!! 

Magic instruction booklet

Easy peasy dough recipe!

Don't add too many veggies or your pizza will get
too watery (at last - an excuse NOT to eat
your veggies!!)

You are welcome, blog watchers!
Happy pizza making!  

Dough ball, sitting in a slick of oil.
Mmmm…..healthy!!

Ingredients, ready for action!

Our pizza guru with the super shiny head showing
us how to mould the dough into the base of the tin

My effort - not bad for a first attempt at dough
smushing

Nom nom nom… cheeeeeeeeeeeese.
And, remember, by this point it was still
only 9.15am!

Tomatoes, chilis, spinach, mushrooms and
onions - a veggie fiesta!

Ta da!!  Topped with pepperoni and sprinkled
with parmesan!

Making sure our glorious creations make it back
to our plates - complete with seasonal name tag
embellishments!

Salad!!!  At 10am!!!  Mumsie - you'd have
loved it!

The finished yummy product!

Mine's on the left, Komal's on the right!

Yes - it was very very tasty...

Thats one hellava lot of cheese!!

Pans, pans, pans

Showing us how its done in the kitchen

Lining the pie with sausage meat

So then - who won?  Well, we put our chap on the spot and asked him to judge. He was suitably diplomatic and said that he preferred the cheese topping on Komal's pizza but he thought mine would taste better!  So, I think the only fair conclusion to pizza wars was to call it a draw - given we were eating pizza at 10am on a Saturday morning, we were both winners!

So then, the final scores on the doors - an equitable, honorable draw!  Now taking suggestions for suitable duels for next year's Thanksgiving battle… 

After pizza, a quick trip to the Christmas market for some
gluhwein and fancy festive ornaments!

Bundled up against the cold, enjoying a
civilized mug of mulled wine

The Battle For Thanksgiving Part 2: Paint Wars

The day after the Brussel Sprouts the night before is always a little, um, delicate so Komal and I had a nice easy morning, watching telly and re-admiring the handiwork on our respective gingerbread creations.  You've got to wonder if anyone has ever actually tried to eat one?  Is it physically possible to eat something that rock solid?  (perhaps if you gum it, granny-style, first?)  

Despite the sloth, I'd had to get up pretty early to take the cat to the vet (he'll be the subject of his own blog post soon, so I won't steal Izzie's thunder) so the morning stretched out in that mildly hungover, still-full-but-go-on-then-I'll-have-some-stuffing-for-breakfast state that you happily justify with the universal panacea of "well, sod it, we're on holiday!".  I can't remember what we watched as it all blurred into one in the end, but Komal roused herself enough by 4pm to go and get a massage and I had to head back to the vet to pick up one rather disgruntled Siamese.

After that, it was time for the main event of the day and the focus of today's Thanksgiving battle - Paint Wars!!  No - not getting all armored up, TWD Glenn-style, for paint balling but something i've been wanting to do for AGES - a wine and painting class!!

Its quite the trend at the moment (its probably been that way for a while but, hey, I'm a slow adopter) and there are loads of places locally that run the classes (with lots of deals from Living Social, Groupon etc etc).  The deal is you turn up at an art studio (or sometimes another public venue like a pub or bar), you bring some wine, and you paint!  Yes, ME - painting!!

You already know what you will be (attempting to) paint as all the different pictures are shown on the event calendar, so you just scroll through, find one you like, book your spot, turn up, open the wine and voila!  Game on.  The classes last 2-3 hours each, depending on the complexity of the painting - ours lasted the full 3 hrs as it had so many lines in it (as you'll soon see below).  The two guys teaching the class were great - explaining each step very clearly so that - amazingly - everyone pretty much ended up with something that bared a decent resemblance to the demo canvas!  

The three hours was pretty intense as it required complete concentration (so I don't know how you could do the class and drink too much wine - you'd be buggered!) and weirdly enough, the stress levels started to creep up incrementally as I got towards the end of the class as my painting was starting to look pretty good, so the consequences then of fucking it up got greater and greater!!  But I managed to hold it together so that I was actually really really happy with my finished piccie - I enjoyed it so much, I've booked another class for this Saturday!

Komal's painting looked great too (she's a veteran of these wine & painting classes, doing one a month in NYC) - although I have to say I think I probably took the win here as I painted my "O" and she didn't - however, I will leave it to you, dear blog watchers, to adjudicate on this one.  Who do you think took the Battle For Thanksgiving Part 2 - Paint Wars??

The studio, poised to witness my artistic greatness

Festive fireplace lounge area to sit, relax and
mentally prepare

Painting is underway.  First step, drawing outlines
onto the blank canvas with pencil.  All
FREEHAND, may I point out....

First bit of coloring in.  Please note - and appreciate -
the truly awesome blending in the "A" square.

Starting to take shape now….

This is where the stress levels started to kick
in ("don't fuck it up, don't fuck it up…")

Almost finished… just one last finishing touch….

Signed "SITC '14" - an instant masterpiece classic

Proof it looked just like the demo one - impressive, huh??

VOTE NOW!!  The one on the left or the one on the right?

Proud artists!!

The Battle for Thanksgiving Part 1: Gingerbread Wars

That's the turkey sorted then.

What an epic Thanksgiving I just had.  And, for reasons you'll see over the next few blog posts, one that got quite, well, competitive at times (I know, right??).

One of my dearest NYC mates, Komal, was joining me for the holiday and a well-deserved break from her crazy work schedule.  She arrived late on Wednesday night after some suitably seasonal travel carnage, with her flight from NYC being delayed about 3hrs because of incoming inclement weather.  That, plus the sheer volume of folk that travel for Thanksgiving, had snarled everything up good and proper.  But, she finally arrived and was picked up at the airport by the lovely Tim, who delivered her safely to my place around 11.30pm.  She was pretty knackered, so after a quick natter and catch up, I showed her to her wing of my palatial estate and turned in for the night.

And thus ensued Part One of The Battle for Thanksgiving.  

Before battle could commence, the old adage that "an army marches on its stomach" (which must take ages, frankly) was duly respected as I was (gasp!) cooking Thanksgiving dinner for me, Komal and Christopher (my trainer and a diamond geezer*).  Now, originally I'd had in mind to do a British 70's themed dinner for a bit of a giggle (you know the score - all the old cheesy classics - prawn cocktail, duck a l'orange and pineapple upside cake) but in the end, I decided against it and instead went for a classic roast dinner - Jamie Oliver's roast chicken with all the trimmings!  

Despite some "excitement" with the fire alarms going off several times because the oven was too hot at 475 (which is utterly ridiculous!), the stuffing getting a little charcoaly-crispy on the bottom and the sugar for the banana puff pastry dessert I was trying to make failing to caramelize (fortunately Christopher had brought over a pumpkin pie too, so not all was lost!), it was DEE-LISH!!!  Moist succulent chicken (with a lemon stuffed up its arse), perfectly outwardly crunchy and inwardly fluffy roasty spuds, roasted parsnips, brussels with chestnuts and caramelized onions, pork sausage and chestnut stuffing, Yorkie puds, bisto gravy and BREAD SAUCE in Loopy's honor!!!   Nom nom nom!!  

I did keep one little element of my original homage to the 70's menu - inspired by Dad's visit a couple weeks back, I recreated his very tasty (and ridiculously easy to make) prawn cocktail with the secret sauce.  I then amped up the retro-naff by serving them in cocktail glasses but - hey! - that's just the kind of wild and crazy kid I am!  All washed down with suitable quantities of bubbles and vino - including a bottle of the finest Downtown Abbey claret, just for sh*ts and giggles.  Well - given the high concentration of Brits for dinner, it seemed only fitting!!

A simple Thanksgiving table - but complete with decorative
paper turkey and ironic appetizers

Thanks for the recipe, Dad!  

Not entirely sure what I'm doing here.  I think I'm
immensely excited by the proximity of roast potatoes.

Da Table, y'all

Why, but of course.  What would a traditional
meal in Amurica be without a decent claret, old chap?

After the final spud was savored and stuffing stuffed down, it was time for WAR!!!  First up, the 1st Annual Crappy Gingerbread House From Walgreens Smackdown Challenge!!  I saw these little bad boys in the drugstore and just couldn't resist.

And…as you can tell from their expressions below, Komal and Christopher were equally as excited as I was to put our construction, design and decorative skills to the test.  At stake - well, nothing really other than bragging rights and a beautiful edible snack to keep for all eternity.  Which they probably would.  Gingerbread houses and roaches.  They will inherit the earth when all other species have twinkled out of existence.

Here's how it all went down - YOU be the judge (HINT: ITS THE MIDDLE ONE, THE MIDDLE ONE!!!)

Christopher and Komal can barely contain their excitement

Simple, IKEA-level instructions.  Easy-peasy,
especially after several glasses of champagne...

Christopher is temporarily overwhelmed by the intense
competitive pressure

Komal forging ahead, Amish barn raising style...

This may be the reason I ran out of icing but, hey, there ain't
no draughts getting through these suckers!

I think this is Christopher's "I'm not entirely
impressed with the blueprints for these gingerbread
houses" face

Bloody overachiever.

AHHHH- look at THIS house - isn't it just beautifully
decorated with JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT of
candy on the roof

And a BEAUTIFUL stained glass window effect
and vintage authentic hand-carved 1920's
Tiffany glass door knob

PLUS it had PETS!  A chocolate shortbread
Scottie dog loved the look of the house SO MUCH
it decided to move in!!

Some other houses.  I think the one on the right has been
photoshopped.  And I think a murderer lives in the one on
the left.

Well, then.  The outcome?

I think Kim Kardashian's arse really DID break the Internet.  Its the only explanation I can come up with to explain why The Internet did not vote my house the winner.   Despite the subtlest of hints, the tally on Facebook by the end of the night awarded the house on the right the win by the narrowest, hairs-breadth of margins.  I'm sure everyone MEANT to say the middle one was by far the superior build, but I guess post-prandial Turkey Comas and residual sugar cravings were drawing people to the Candy Condo instead.

So, to conclude - End of Day 1 and the scores on the doors: Komal 1, Sarah 0

* Christopher - I know you wont have a clue what this means - hee hee! (don't worry - its a good thing!)

Mr. Bean!

Dad's in town!!  Now, unlike Mumsie (who gets a 3 month pass), Dad is only here for the week, arrived on Monday from having spent Remembrance Sunday in the UK.  The last time Dad came to visit I was still living in San Francisco, so this is the first time he's been to my new apartment in Evanston and to Chicago.   He leaves on Sunday, so its only a flying visit - enough time to chill out for a bit, see a few of the sights and enjoy some good scoff!!  

Mother Nature had also rolled out the welcome mat, and dropped the temperature to a eye-wateringly chilly 25 degrees.  The first truly cold snap of the year and a depressing reminder of winter weather to come.  Fortunately Dad had come prepared with a very warm coat, gloves, scarf and hat so he was all sorted and I, of course, had my Canada Goose to keep me toasty too (or so I thought…).

Unfortunately, I didn't have enough holiday left to take any time off while Dad was here, but I managed to Make It Work by going into the office when I had meetings and Working From Home the rest of the time.  We also get a half day Friday as standard (I know, nice, eh?) so we were able to find time to check out a few things.  

Izzie keeps a close eye on breakfast shenanigans

Monday was arrival day, so I left work at lunchtime to go and pick Dad up from the airport.  His flight actually arrived 40 mins early (gotta be a first for Turkish Airlines!) and he was through immigration and customs in no time!  His flight had been fine & uneventful and he had followed Mumsie's careful instructions to come prepared with an empty suitcase so that he could take back to Cyprus some of the stuff that she wasn't able to fit into her bags at the end of her trip!  It should mean I can then get all the stuff that I'm looking to take home for Christmas into my 2 big suitcases and 2 carry-ons (this will include a Santa outfit, a reindeer costume and an elf outfit - watch this space!).  Dad had managed to get some sleep on the plane so we went shopping in Trader Joes and Whole Foods to get some supplies in (OMG - there is BREAD in the house!!!) before taking it easy the rest of the day and then hopping across to the pub/restaurant across the street for dinner (called, appropriately enough, The Firehouse Grill).

Tuesday I worked from home and Dad spent the day relaxing, reading and sleeping (seems to be a parental theme here…), so not much to report.  

Wednesday afternoon, I took a couple of hours off (after my interview with HR in the morning to - hopefully - stay in a job with my current company - yes, that behind the scenes drama is STILL ongoing) and took Dad into the city to to visit Millennium Park.  This is the quintessential tourist destination of Chicago - our Times Square, if you like.   Millennium Park is just brilliant, especially in the summer, as it really is a hub for loads of cool events and outdoor concerts - the pavilion is the perfect place to go with a blanket, a bottle of wine, some bread and cheese and enjoy free classical concerts throughout the summer!  I really must get round to doing so next year!! (though, in my defense, I was away an awful lot this year!).  There are a number of other fun things to see and do there (check out the link below) but the main attraction is "the bean"!

http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/millennium_park_-artarchitecture.html 

"The Bean" is actually called the Cloud Gate and its absolutely beautiful.  Here's the blurb about it from the Millennium Park website: 

"Cloud Gate is British artist Anish Kapoor's first public outdoor work installed in the United States.

 The 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect Chicago’s famous skyline and the clouds above. A 12-foot-high arch provides a "gate" to the concave chamber beneath the sculpture, inviting visitors to touch its mirror-like surface and see their image reflected back from a variety of perspectives. 

Inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture is among the largest of its kind in the world, measuring 66-feet long by 33-feet high".

Approaching the bean - can you spot us?

As you can tell from the pics, it was absolutely bloody freezing - and this is when I (sadly) discovered the limitations of my beloved - and hard sought-after - Canada Goose coat.  Its mid-thigh, three quarter length and - while the top half of my body is toasty warm and snuggly, alas, I discovered that it wasn't quite long enough to stop the icy winds from freezing my arse cheeks into solid ice blocks!  I'm quite, well, bummed about it as I had planned to buy the full length version of the puffer coat but got talked into buying this coat instead by the lady in the shop in Quebec City as it was more "mobile" and easier to move about it.  I also plumped for this one cos the full length ones are virtually impossible to find in the US (don't ask me why!) - I'd already had one on backorder at Nordstrom's for the last 4 months, with no sign of when (if ever) it was going to show up!  So, I didn't have that much choice at the time, but - given today's experience - the hunt starts afresh for the full length one.  I don't think my poor beleaguered buttocks could take a whole winter's worth of such arctic abuse.  Fortunately a dear friend (and blogwatch super fan) has come to my rescue and has put me in touch with one of her friends who is Canada Goose connected, so fingers crossed my rear end will soon have a toasty happy ending…  Otherwise, there might just have to be another trip to Canada in my future…. :-)

Mr. Bean

Bundled!

Wandering around the rest of Millennium Park, we also came across a pop-up Red Bull exhibition, where lots of either very talented artists or people who had waaaaaay too much time on their hands had fashioned various sculptures out of cans of Red Bull.  Despite Red Bull being The Devil's Potion (evil stuff - only good for all-day drives across America between National Parks), it was a fun diversion - and a welcome respite from the cold!  http://phhhoto.com/i/M4xwOF1qmgx (not entirely sure what Dad was doing in this photo!)

Dad not taking any bull

Bearing an un-canny resemblance to those hardcore
NYC urban squirrels!

Made entirely out of RedBull ring pulls!

Where's Wally??

After we'd finished messing about in Millennium Park (walking past the soon to be opened ice rink too), it was time for some well-earned sustenance, so we headed off to The Purple Pig - one of the city's  most loved and popular restaurants.  YUM!  Its a place I'd been dying to try for AGES, so I was very excited to finally be giving it a whirl - and it didn't disappoint!  We tried a variety of things, but I think the pork belly on a bed of mashed potatoes was spectacular, as were the roasted beets with goat cheese and the burrata salad!  Here's the menu in case you want to torture yourself….. http://thepurplepigchicago.com/menu.html

About to get our Art On for the David Bowie
exhibition

Another one of the attractions I took Dad to was the David Bowie exhibit that's currently showing at the Museum of Contemporary Art.  I had heard extremely good things about it and everyone I've spoken too who's been have told me i HAD to go - so off we went!!

It was phenomenal.  Unfortunately due to "copyright reasons" (hmmm…), photography was not allowed and (unlike the Sisi museum - which I really should write up too), there were too many official bods standing around for me to sneak any pics for you.  I remember becoming aware of David Bowie probably around 10 or so, around the time of "Lets Dance" and the Labyrinth movie.  I remember being completely incapable of processing what I was seeing and figuring him out - he was just so out there and unsettlingly unconventional.  Well, seeing the whole of his career, artistic influences, costumes, multiple personas, drawings, music and well, everything, on display - I'm not surprised a 10yr girl back in 1982 had trouble wrapping her head around him!  He's utterly brilliant and utterly bonkers!  OK, OK - thats probably a bit harsh but wow - talk about being completely unafraid in how you express yourself and having absolute confidence in yourself and the choices you make.  There were several moments where I felt the hair on my neck stand-up because the music was so incredible (especially when presented in the social context of the time) - especially listening to Space Oddity while watching the footage of the first ever mission into space with the picture of the fragile blue earth hung in the inky blackness of space.  Major Tom = Major chills up and down my spine.

The immersive tour experience took around 90mins and - resisting the urge to buy several David Bowie albums in the gift shop on the way out - afterwards we headed off to the Peninsula Hotel to enjoy a very delicious, upscale Chinese lunch.  The restaurant had these adorable chopstick rests but I figured it would be bad form to attempt to steal one (unlike a dinner guest one year who tried to pinch one of my pewter partridge name card holders - and was Oh So Surprised when it "turned up" in the bottom of the gift bag I'd given him - i mean, who does that??) so instead we enjoyed some yummy dumplings, duck, wonton soup and stir fried beef.  After that, it was time to head back home and watch a few more episodes of the Graham Norton Show.

Wednesday night supper:
Putting Dad to work in the kitchen for a "feeeeesh picnic"

And so thats been Dad's trip so far - pretty chilled out (literally) but with a couple of fun outings and lots of yummy food.  Its now Saturday morning and we're about to head out to go see some Open Houses - thought it would be fun to start looking around and getting to know the various parts of town I could eventually move into (sorry, Mumsie - Evanston is just a bit too quiet for me!).  First up today will be Wicker Park and then tomorrow, I'll check out Lincoln Park and maybe River North - I'll keep you all posted!!

Very cool chopstick stand.  Even cooler cos
I didn't try and nick it.