I survived the Springfield, IL horse shoe

This shirt should exist.

We did it today, folks. Matt and I officially became Springfieldians. You might be wondering how we accomplished this life milestone. Did we take a citizenship test? No. Did we argue our case before the mayor? Nope. Did we get a library card? No. Well, at least not yet. Did we watch a marathon of The Simpsons? We're working on it.

No, friends, we did none of those things. We did something even greater.

We ate a horse shoe. (And not the equine version, by the way. This one is edible. And tasty.)

A reasonable person may well be wondering right now what a horse shoe is. A person who knows what a horse shoe is knows that it is not at all reasonable. It is, as our bubbly waitress put it, "a heart attack on a plate." Matt referred to it as "America on a plate" (or 'Murica, if you say it with enough gusto.)

After hearing for some time from folks around town that I must be initiated into the community by way of consuming this magical dish called a "horse shoe," I resolved that I would do it and share my story with all of you. You see, the horse shoe is a uniquely Springfield dish. It's the pride of Springfield, the glue (and grease) that holds the town together.

So here it is, folks, the horse shoe: Your choice of meat perched atop Texas toast (disregard the Texas...I'm going to call it Illinois toast), then topped with fries and a hearty dose of homemade cheese sauce. Sound good? Oh, it is. It's a native Springfield thing, and since I am now a resident of Springfield I felt that it was my duty to try one. And try I did.

We set out on foot to a neighborhood restaurant, Lake Pointe Grill, when our stomachs growled and our curiosity for horse shoes could be contained no longer. It turns out that walking was the best choice we made today, since after eating a horse shoe a good post-meal waddle does the body some good.

After chatting with our waitress about the crucible we were about to embark upon, we placed our orders: Matt tried the buffalo chicken horse shoe and I went with a good old hamburger one.

When the dish arrived, I was floored: it indeed looked like a heart attack on a plate, but it looked AMAZING. And as I sat there taking it all in, a flurry of catch phrases went through my head: Carpe diem! Just do it! YOLO! #iregretnothing.

My amazingly delicious hamburger horse shoe.

My hamburger horse shoe only 5 minutes after beginning to eat. I was STUFFED.

Every bite was as delicious as it looked: gooey cheese meeting the hot, crunchy fries, rounded out by savory hamburger and toast. Matt's buffalo chicken horse shoe was the big star; it was spicy enough to be very interesting and tasty, but not obnoxiously so. He loved it, and he did much better on his horse shoe than I did on mine. After about five minutes of gorging, I was stuffed, and I couldn't persuade myself to shovel another delicious bite into my mouth. Thank God for take-home boxes. Fourth meal is going to be AWESOME tonight.

Matt enjoying his buffalo chicken horse shoe.

I have to hand it to you, Springfield; the horse shoe is delicious. Eating it is a feat of strength, a victory of the will, as finishing one would truly be a mind of matter sort of effort. Side effects of eating a horse shoe may include feelings of shame, labored breathing, and cold sweats. I don't know who came up with the idea for the horse shoe, but whoever it was, they were a true patriot. I mean, it's essentially a deconstructed, amped up cheeseburger. It's gluttony at its best. Assuming it's not a stroke, that funny feeling you'll get when you dig into a horse shoe is the light, bubbly, warm feeling of being intensely American. There's nothing more American than a horse shoe.

Except for naps, which I did after I got home from Lake Pointe Grill.

Nap time.

I hope that you'll all, at some point in your life, get to try a horse shoe. It's a taste of Americana, a taste of Illinois, and a taste of Springfield, my new hometown.

Besides, the diet can start tomorrow.

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The Agony of [Pierogi] Defeat and the Ecstasy of [Bibimbap] Victory

We certainly have run the culinary gamut this week.

On Sunday, I decided to try my hand at Polish cooking by trying out this Potato and Cheese Pierogi recipe from My Gourmet Connection. The result of this adventure, unfortunately, was neither very gourmet nor very connected to what a pierogi is actually supposed to look like. After about an hour and a half of chopping, mixing, rolling, filling, and standing over a pot of boiling water (what I've since dubbed "the Polish facial"), I produced the most monstrously large, greasy pierogis I have ever seen. They were about the size of tacos or burritos and doughier than me in third grade.

I was disappointed; for something that I'd worked so hard and sweat so profusely to create, they didn't taste like the victory I was hoping for.

Luckily, though, that victory came the next night in the form of Spicy Korean Pork and bibimbap, a dish I've been curious to try ever since my sister- and mother-in-law came back from a trip to South Korea and regaled us with tales of dishes with curiously adventurous names like "kimchi" and "bulgogi." I began cooking the recipe convinced that it, like the pierogis, was doomed to certain failure.

The second I put the shreds of pork in the chili marinade, though, I knew it was going to be a good dish. The marinade is a combination of chili paste, chili seeds, sugar, soy sauce, ginger, sesame oil, and sesame seeds. And as soon as that marinated pork hit the hot pan, I was in love.

This dish is really played out in two parts: the first part is the bibimbap, Korea's answer to China's fried rice. Bibimbap is a crispy "fried" rice created by coating a pan with sesame oil, patting already cooked and cooled rice down, and letting it do its thing until it's nice and brown and crispy.

The second part of the dish is the spicy pork I was talking about earlier. Simply create the marinade/sauce, coat the pork in it, and cook over medium-high heat until your growling stomach and taste buds and take it no longer. I love dishes that use pork because it's such an affordable meat, much more so than chicken or beef, and that's always a good thing for folks (like us) who are on a budget.

The finished spread.

Spicy Korean Pork (adapted from Beyond Kimchee's Recipe) and Bibimbap
Prep time: 5 min.
Cook time: 20 min.
Serves: 2

For the Spicy Korean Pork:
Ingredients:

• 1/2-1 lb. pork (We used a roast and then just shaved off very thin slices off of it for this dish and then used the rest for a pulled pork recipe. I love ingredients that do double duty.)
• 3 T chili paste (Sambal Oelek. You can find it pretty much anywhere; we get ours at Target!)
• 1 T dried red pepper flakes
• 1 1/2 T reduced sodium soy sauce
• 1 T brown sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• 1 T sesame oil
• 1 1/2 T toasted sesame seeds
• 1 T canola or vegetable oil

Steps:

1. Mix together the chili paste, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, and sesame seeds in a bowl.
2. Put the pork into the bowl of sauce and turn pork until it is well coated with sauce.
3. Heat the canola or vegetable oil over medium high heat and cook pork, about 6 minutes.

Close-up of the Spicy Korean Pork.

 

For the bibimbap:
Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked plain white rice, cooled (use leftovers; they work best)
• 1 T sesame oil

Steps:

1. In a medium sized skillet or pan, heat sesame oil over medium heat.
2. Put cooked rice into skillet so that the rice is in a uniform layer; pat down firmly.
3. Cook rice 10-15 minutes, rotating pan every so often, until the bottom of the rice (the side that's making contact with the pan) is golden brown and crunchy.

See how the bibimbap is all golden brown and crispy? That's perfection!

Bibimbap Add-ins:

• Shredded carrots
• Bean sprouts
• Fried egg
• Others...be creative!

 This is such a great dish. Not only does it taste amazing, but you also get the added benefit of the fun of each person picking out the add-ins he or she wants on their dish. It's a lot of fun for a family meal, and it's very affordable, easy, and tasty to boot! Enjoy!

As a side note, every time I read or say the word "bibimbap," I always think of the little boy, Russel, from Disney's "Up" where he's talking about the GPS his dad gave him:

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Food = Love

Truer words were never spoken, Rocco! I mean, it worked for me!

Example A: 

Success!

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Dear Italy: "Grazie" for the Affogato

I was sorting through a box of some photos the other day and came across a picture taken on my trip several years ago to Italy. It's a photo of me smiling serenely, sitting at a street side Italian cafe. I'm most certainly smiling because of the delicious lunch I'd just eaten: a crisp, classic pizza Margherita with a cool bottle of water. Sometimes, the simplest ingredients make the heart (and stomach!) the happiest.

Dear friends: If your only experience of Italian cuisine up to now has been pasta, meatballs and red wine, you are sorely missing out.

Don't get me wrong; I love Italian food, but it has to be actual Italian, not the Americanized versions. The Italians are masters of basic, bold, and wholesome ingredients. Case in point: the Margherita, which exemplifies the Italians' love of simple, fresh, clean tastes and impeccable cooking technique. Pizza Margherita, if you're not familiar, is a beautiful presentation of the three colors of Italian flag in food form: white mozzarella, green basil, and red tomatoes. All of that is perched nicely on a perfectly crisped dough. It's almost too pretty to eat, although I usually get along okay. :)

So you think the pizza sounds good? Wait for this. I have two words for you: "gelato" and "espresso."

Wait for it...

TOGETHER.

The heavenly drink you see above is affogato, or more correctly, affogato al caffe, which means "drowned in coffee." And truly, if I could choose how to die, I'd probably go affogato al caffe, too. But thank God it's the gelato (the wonderfully smooth, decadent Italian cousin of ice cream) doing the affogato today!

To be fair, since good gelato is hard to come by in the Midwest, and since the good gelato you can find is expensive enough to make you cringe, I often opt for good old reliable ice cream. It does the trick just fine. You can pick whatever flavor you like best, but in my experience it's always best to go for a good quality, simple kind, like vanilla, chocolate, caramel, or coffee flavored. And since it's also pretty tough to find good, affordable espresso (and the fact that the only weapon I have now in my coffee-making arsenal is a four-cup Mr. Coffee), I like to go for good old-fashioned Italian roast. It's dark and bold enough (just make sure you get a good kind!).

My favorite ice cream to drown in espresso (or Italian roast) is Starbucks Java Chip Ice Cream. Just thinking about it makes my eyes glaze over with adoration. For the coffee, go with a good Italian roast (any brand you like will do, just be sure it's good and bold) or stay with the espresso (if you can stomach the cost and have a way to make it). Right now, we've got Trader Joe's Whole Bean Decaf, which is wonderful because it tastes great and is perfect for an evening treat. A word of advice: invest in a coffee grinder and buy only whole-bean coffee. Trust me, it tastes about a billion times better and fresher than the already ground stuff.

The recipe for affogato is probably the simplest one you'll ever see:



Affogato al Caffe
Serves: 2-4 (depending on how gluttonous you're feeling. Ours ALWAYS serves only two.)
Total time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

•  2-4 c. freshly brewed espresso or bold, dark roast coffee
• 1/2-1 c. gelato or ice cream, your choice
• 2-4 coffee mugs (depending, of course, on how many people you're serving)

Steps

1. Into each mug, scoop 1/4-1/2 c. gelato or ice cream.
2. On top of the gelato/ice cream, pour 1 c. hot espresso/coffee.
3. Enjoy!

I used my favorite Starbucks mug, found new with tags for 50 cents at a garage sale!.

I hope you enjoy! This is a great treat to have in your back pocket: it's easy, cheap, super tasty, and even has a fancy Italian name so that you can impress your friends and family. :)

Until next time!

-Betsey

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A Shameless Plug for Springfield, IL

Hey all! Hope everyone's having a great summer so far. (Technically, the first day of summer is this Friday, June 21, but we all know what's up.)

We've been here in Springfield for about two and a half weeks, and things are going pretty well so far (a.k.a. I haven't received my credit card bill yet...let's just say we've been to Target a few times.) To keep you updated on things here at Casa de Heidrick, I figured I'd post something I don't do very often: non-food pictures! So here are some memories from our most recent adventure in downtown Springfield:

Yes, I know it's a trash can. And yes, it was odd and kind of gross that I crouched, face only six inches from the trash can, to get this photo. Eh, I've done weirder things.

The Old State Capitol, where Abe Lincoln was sworn in as a lawyer in the State of Illinois. Isn't it cool how it's just sitting right smack dab in the middle of the city?!

The view of old store fronts, standing on the south steps of the Old State Capitol.

But because it wouldn't be a Betsey blog post if there wasn't food somehow involved, I wanted to share with you a little treat Matt and I encountered later that day: Smash Burger.

Yep. Smash Burger. A burger joint, but not just any burger joint.

Good Lord, why has Nebraska hidden this gem, this Nectar of the Gods, from me for so long? I mean, this burger place isn't like McDonald's, where you basically get two pieces of spongy cork held together by a resurrected frozen burger patty and broken dreams. Smash Burger has legitimate, good-quality ingredients. I was especially jacked about the make-your-own-burger option which included--wait for it--bleu cheese, my FAVORITE! (Well now I wonder what you think of me, taking photos of garbage cans and enjoying moldy cheese.)

Matt and I were floored by the Smash Fries, which are this lovely collection of fried potato-y goodness that includes coarse salt and rosemary. Yes, ROSEMARY! I feel like the simple inclusion of herbs beyond parsley qualifies any restaurant above "fast food joint." And you can choose between the old reliable Russets or sweet potatoes. We predictably chose both.

To all those anti-fries people out there, I say this: Fries fill the cracks in the heart. There is literally no problem in the world that fries can't fix. Except diabetes. Fries cannot fix diabetes.

BEHOLD! And on the fifteenth day in Springfield the Lord said "Thou shall eat Smash Fries." And it was good.

This is what happiness/gluttony looks like.

Do any of you guys out there have Smash Burger in your town? I feel like this is my new Runza, which is a heaven-sent mélange of beef and cabbage bundled together in a oven-warmed, golden bun (another delivery straight from Fast Food Heaven). To all those who aren't from Nebraska, you can read the love poem--I mean blog post--I wrote for Runza here.

Next recipe up...affogato! Go ahead and Google it now...it'll blow your mind. Those Italians think of everything!

Peace and love (but no leftover Smash Fries) to you all! - Betsey

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A Little Saturday Evening Thought...

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Pesos, Pennies, and Pounds, Oh My!

I know, you're sitting there, agonized, thinking, "What am I going to do with all of this discontinued foreign currency I have sitting around?" Turns out that I'm plagued with the same problem. Interesting that it never seems to happen to me with American money...but I digress.

Thanks to some traveling, our families' travels, and some good old fashioned garage sale-ing, Matt and I have compiled a very nice little stash of foreign currency (most of it discontinued). It's cool, no doubt; bills and coins from Canada, Britain, Germany, the Czech Republic, Mexico, and South Korea make for an interesting conversation piece, but it's hard to get a conversation started around them when they're stashed away in a box on the bookshelf.

But once again, Pinterest comes to save the day!

I was perusing the site today when I came across a pin from a fellow blogger, Dana from Tattered Style. (Definitely check it out...it's a delightful little blog with some great craft/design ideas. Dana has impeccable style!). The idea was for turning old foreign coins into magnets for your fridge. Perfect! What better way to be reminded of your travels--or simply have some really funky magnets--than to see foreign currency each time you open your fridge door (which for us is quite often).

It's pretty simple, really: Grab some craft/modeling glue and cheap little magnets from a craft store (I used some of Matt's modeling glue, Testors, and bought some magnets from Michael's for $2.49). Put a little dab of glue on each coin (I put the glue on the side of the coin that said the country's name, or on the side that had a cooler image :D) and stick the magnet on the dab of glue. Make sure to give it enough time to dry! Throw (but don't literally throw) your magnets up, and be impressed with yourself for being so crafty! Thanks Dana from Tattered Style!

Here's a link to Dana's directions and her original post with this idea.

Here's how mine turned out:

Cool, huh? It's very neat to have little reminders of your travels, plus it reminds you that there is a great world of adventure out there...and you'll start exploring it as soon as you finish your business sneaking leftover cake from the fridge. :)

I have a few other foreign souvenirs that I'd like to do something special like this with: a few foreign bills, an entire collection of stamps that I inherited from my grandpa (even a few he snagged from Nazi Germany while he was a POW there in WWII...he was such  kind man and I miss him so much!), and a giant collection of post cards, maps, and some of my photography (the few good photos I ever managed to shoot!).

Anyone have any ideas as to some cool ideas you've done with your travel souvenirs? Let me know in the comments!

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Fire-breathing Broccoli

I have devised the best, most insane, almost masochistically spicy, delicious dish ever.

Aaaaaaand it's a veggie.

All the men reading this post probably just groaned. Yes, a veggie. Broccoli, to be exact, one of my favorite veggies in the entire world (bested only by asparagus and potatoes of any variety). It's an amazing food, really; it's incredibly nutrient-dense, packing a wallop of fiber, vitamin C, calcium, potassium, and iron. And when cooked, it turns a cheerful color of green (don't you love food that's happy to see you?). My only issues with the stuff are a) when cooked or roasted, it often smells like veggie farts; b) when I tried to grow it in my garden last year, it morphed from a sweet, innocent seedling into a monstrosity somewhat resembling the plant from "Little Shop of Horrors"; c) you nearly have to take out a second mortgage on your house to pay for it* and; d) Matt won't eat it unless it's smothered in sauce and tucked neatly under a pile of chicken or beef.

Taking this last point into consideration, I tested out a new recipe on Matt last night: stir-fried broccoli with Asian chili sauce. Or, as I have lovingly renamed it: Fire-breathing Broccoli (because it's nice and spicy!)

It was the most amazing broccoli I have ever tasted, and that's something from the gal that's eaten broccoli about a thousand different ways (What? I like broccoli, okay!?). The teeny bit of sugar gives a nice caramelized crust to the broccoli, and the soy sauce, garlic, and chili sauce gives it a beautiful savory-ness and firey zing. I LOVE THIS BROCCOLI. Unfortunately, Matt did not. I don't think the chili sauce adequately killed the broccoli taste for him. :) But if you're trying to find new way to gussy up your veggies, this recipe is definitely worth a try.

So here it is, friends, Fire-breathing Broccoli!

*Note: I do not own a house. I live in a very quaint two bedroom apartment. But you get the idea: broccoli is kind of pricey. But check your farmers market, where prices are often kinder than at the supermarket. Plus, you'll be shopping local! Yay!


Fire-breathing Broccoli
Time from fridge to table: 5 minutes
Deliciousness: A+
Crunchiness: A+
Happy green color-ness: A+

Ingredients

• 1 big broccoli crown OR 2 small broccoli crowns, cut into florets
• 2 T lower-sodium chicken broth (I used Swanson)
• 2 tsp. lower-sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 T Asian chili or chili-garlic sauce (you can always adjust, as per your heat preference)
• 1/2 tsp. corn starch
• 3 tsp. vegetable or canola oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp. white sugar

Directions

1. Heat 1 T. of the oil in a skillet over medium heat. 
2. While the oil is heating, in a separate bowl, mix together the chicken broth, soy sauce, chili sauce, garlic, and cornstarch.
3. When the oil's hot, throw in the broccoli and sprinkle in the sugar and stir, keeping constant watch over the broccoli. Watch for the caramelization on the broccoli. Cook the broccoli for about 3-5 minutes, or until it's got some good caramelization crust on it.
4. Stir in the broth mixture and cook for about 30 seconds.
5. Serve and enjoy!

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Mastering the Art of Asian Cuisine

I'm on an Asian kick lately, which probably contributed to the fact that what I made for dinner tonight left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied. Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese...you name it, I want it. And tonight's dinner was none of those delicious things.

On tonight's menu was parmesan pork roast (weird sounding and equally weird tasting) and proscuitto-wrapped grilled asparagus topped with toasted bread crumbs, garlic, and lemon. They were both recipes I've had hanging around my "to-try" pile of recipes; the horde, at one point torn fresh from magazines, now inhabits an entire drawer in my kitchen (a behavior I lovingly adopted from my mother). If the recipe passes with good scores from the judges (being myself and Matt), it goes in my cookbook (basically a three-ring notebook with sticky scrapbooking pages). If it sucks, it gets thrown in the trash. It's a hard knock life for recipes out there.

I'm on a mission this summer to try every recipe in that drawer, and tonight I outdid myself with two recipes. The result for both was decidedly "meh." It was kind of like eating a gussied-up TV dinner. Think about it: pork roast, rice, and asparagus. My reaction was pretty much the same: "It does the job." And it did, because I'm full (but have been whining for about 15 minutes now about going out and getting ice cream or Milk Duds, my favorite candy--followed closely by Swedish Fish). Anyway, it was a kitchen fail. I won't even bother posting pictures. Ah well, you don't learn unless you try, right? Right.

The good news is that one of the meals on this week's menu is influenced by more Eastern flavors, and for someone who's currently obsessed with all things Asian foods, that's very good news. I've got a honey sesame chicken recipe queued up, paired with stir-fried broccoli with chili-garlic sauce. NOM.

This obsession has lasted about three weeks now. In fact, the very last meal we ate in our old apartment back in Nebraska was Kung Pao Chicken, dutifully torn out of a Clean Eating magazine. It was AMAZING, and it passed the taste test and now sits proudly at the top of my cookbook's "main dishes" section. The amazing thing is that I didn't even alter the recipe very much at all. So, loyal readers, 99.9% of the credit for this recipe goes to the friendly folks down at Clean Eating magazine.


Kung Pao Chicken
Time from pantry to plate: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1-2 large boneless, skinless chicken breast(s), cut up into chunks (about 1 in.)
• 1/4 c. raw unsalted peanuts (You'll get all the sodium you need from the soy sauce, so try extra hard to find the raw unsalted or roasted unsalted! I used roasted unsalted.)
• 2-3 green onions, thinly sliced (plus extra if you want to be fancy and garnish your dish when it's done)
• 2 tsp. rice vinegar (a must for Asian cooking!)
• 2 c. cooked brown (or white) rice
• 1 T. canola oil (the original recipe called for olive oil, but I think it's almost a sin to put extra virgin olive oil in an Asian dish because it has such a distinct flavor that your mouth wants to associate with Mediterranean dishes. So use canola oil instead; it has no flavor and it won't weird out your taste buds.)
• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes (the original recipe called for only 1/4 tsp, but hey, we're Heidricks, and if we're not sweating profusely and experiencing some degree of pain by the end of the meal, it's just not hot enough)
• 2 T. low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. fresh grated ginger or about 1/2 tsp. powdered ginger
• As much hot chili sauce as you want/can stand without having a medical emergency

Steps

1. In a wok or large pan, heat your oil on medium-high heat. Add in the red pepper flakes, chicken and peanuts and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. When you add red pepper flakes to hot oil, you'll get this amazing infusion of heat in the dish. It makes me happy.
2. Into the pan, stir in 1/4 c. water, the soy sauce, the garlic, ginger, onions, vinegar, and chili sauce. Bring this concoction to a simmer and cook for about 3 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
3. Throw in your rice and stir to combine or serve the chicken mixture over the rice. Garnish with green onions and more chili sauce, if desired.

Hiiiii-yah! This Kung Pao Chicken recipe will slap you in the mouth with all of its heat.

Because I'm very interested to learn more about Asian cuisine, I picked up a book that I'd bought on clearance some time ago at the University Bookstore called "Try This: Traveling the Globe Without Leaving the Table" by Danyelle Freeman. You can see why I was interested! In it, the author explores 14 different world cuisines: their ingredients, methods of cooking, traditions, and even table manners. I flipped it open to the section about Chinese cuisine, and learned that there are four primary types of Chinese cuisine: Cantonese, Beijing, Szechuan, and Shanghai. Each of them has their own unique flavors and ingredients. For example, the stir-fried broccoli with chili garlic sauce I'm going to make later this week is probably most closely associated with Cantonese or Szechuan cooking.

I doubt that I'll ever reach the degree of skill to create truly authentic-tasting Asian dishes, but hey, like I said before...you'll never learn unless you try! And with a seeming lack of Asian restaurants and Asian food stores around Springfield, I'll have to learn how to make this stuff in order to feed my obsession (literally).

(That was a head's up to expect a few more kitchen fails from me in the very near future regarding Asian cuisine.)

Until next time!

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Making our home in the Land of Lincoln

It has been a while! Matt and I have completed our big move from Lincoln, Nebraska to Springfield, Illinois and are working on settling into our new home. We moved here on Friday, May 31, after a few unfortunate delays including a flat tire and impressive severe weather. But we made it! We're still moving things in, and so I won't post pictures of our new place (and most importantly my new kitchen!) until it looks more like a place where quasi-civilized people live and less like a pig sty.

Matt giving one last look over the green space behind our old apartment in Lincoln before saying goodbye.

Most of the last several days have been spent looking for a "home base" grocery store (unfortunately, no Hy-Vee's or Super Savers in Illinois...bummer). Our apartment is a bit of trek to any stores (but it is very close to the University of Illinois at Springfield campus, which is great for Matt), so I'll need to learn how to plan my meals ahead and create a shopping list. No more daily jaunts to the grocery store for this girl. :(

We found a few good possibilities: County Market and Schnuck's. However, since I'm a big fan of local food, we'll be sure to check out the farmers market scene in Springfield. Until then, we've got our fledgling garden of porch pots of herbs and veggies (a.k.a. peppers of every variety) to rely on.

Speaking of local food, we've scoped out Springfield's awesome local restaurants and, as soon as we have enough disposable income, we'll check them out. Just about a five minute walk down the road from us is Crow's Mill Pub, which--as I described to a friend--looks like just the right mix of modern American pub and good old-fashioned greasy spoon. Reviews to come soon!

Yesterday and today were spent trying to find some good tennis courts in Springfield, but so far we've only come across cracked, weed-ridden ones that were really too dangerous to play on. Springfieldians--Springfieldans?--if you have any ideas of where to find great public courts, please let met know! And let me know if you'd like to play sometime!

To avoid boring you with details, the report so far from our new home is a very positive one. Springfield seems like a very nice town, and my favorite part, hands down, is downtown Springfield. There, you can find everything Abraham Lincoln, plus an eclectic smattering of local shops and cafes, and a few very interesting-looking souvenir shops. No doubt I'll be posting pictures of those very soon. :)

In the evenings, I've been cozying up with "Cooked" by Michael Pollan. I'm not very far into it at all, but it's incredibly thought-provoking so far. Pollan has done a great job of digging deep into American food culture to discover where along the line we lost our love of cooking. Since that moment--whenever it occurred--we seem more interested in the end result of the love and labor of preparing food: consuming it. Hey, I love eating just like the next guy or gal, but I also have a love for and appreciation of growing and preparing food. "For," as Pollan says, "is there any practice less selfish, any labor less alienated, any time less wasted, than preparing something delicious and nourishing for people you love?" (p. 23).

Whenever I read a book, I carry with me little sticky notes to mark passages that stick out to me. Pollan's book is already covered in sticky notes! Lots of great stuff in here.

That's all for now, dear readers. I wanted you to know that I haven't abandoned you! I'll post the recipe for an AMAZING Kung Pao Chicken tomorrow. It's a new family favorite.

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