Concertina Bar

Friday night Ryan and I had a quintessential Milwaukee evening. After an exhausting day at work we headed out for a fish fry at Benno's, our favorite West Allis Bar with something like thirty craft beers on tap. I sipped the day away with a pint of Double Bastard, from Stone Brewery out of San Diego. It's got a pretty high alcohol content so Ryan enjoyed teasing me by telling me I drank the equivalent of five PBRs. We enjoyed our cod and french fries and made our way over to Kochanski's Concertina Beer Hall where we met our friends Andy and Cindy.

Kochanski's has colorful Christmas lights strung in all the windows, concertinas and accordions decorating the inside and a diverse crowd (ranging from 80-year-olds to hipsters). The owner was celebrating his fortieth birthday so there was a party happening with a predictable Wisconsin style spread including, sloppy joes, pulled hot beef, potato salad, chips and dip, and Planter's puffed cheese balls. Two bands were competing for our attention in a friendly duel, one rockabilly and the other traditional polka. We sipped on Zywiec (Polish import beer) and watched party goers dance polka to In Heaven There Is No Beer. There was a little two year old there with some family member that all of the relatives couldn't get enough of. He kept getting picked up by this grandma and that aunt to dance polka or having his picture taken. We spent a few hours laughing with Andy and Cindy and then headed off to Leon's Custard for an end to our over-the-top Milwaukee evening. You know you're in Wisconsin when you wait in line for custard at the end of January in near-zero temperatures.

Saturday morning I woke up with a horrid migraine and spent the entire day in a black hole. I slept from nearly 11am through to 6am Sunday and still woke up with a headache. We tried to get outside for some fresh air today, but I find nothing has cured the headache completely. My throat feels a bit sore now and Ryan would concur that I'm crabby, so I think full-blown sickness may be coming on.

I still managed to finish my cover letter and application for a position at UW-Milwaukee. I hemmed and hawed over this thing for over a week, even though I clearly meet every preferred qualification. Lord help me when I have to write one where my qualifications don't line up quite so clearly. We also made it to the grocery store and shopped for our abridged meal plan this week. We are heading to Chicago on Wednesday to chaperone an international Model UN competition.

Sunday - Homemade Spinach Feta Pizza (Ryan's recipe)
Monday - Carrot and Ginger Soup (Journal Sentinel cutout recipe)
Tuesday - Potato and Vegetable Curry (Lemlin)

Ryan's whipped out two loafs of whole wheat dutch oven bread and he's working on his "Wacky Cake" - a depression era cake made with flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, oil and vinegar. It sounds like it would be weird but it tastes no different than any other chocolate cake you'd make at home and it's delicious. Ryan's taken to adding a bit of coffee to spruce up the flavor.

Ryan gets wacky:


Research:


We purchased tickets to Mexico City for our spring vacation in April. We rented a sweet guest apartment for our stay.

Since it's almost February we got a new monkey on our calendar:

Coq Au Vin

Last weekend I created a meal plan, something I had never done for an entire week. My goal was to keep us committed to cooking at home several nights, to reduce our impulse buys at the grocery store (this is especially dangerous when you reguarly shop at Whole Foods - what can I say, we just love gourmet products) and to try out a few new recipes (at least one vegetarian included). We stuck to the plan throughout the week, despite a little snafu not making it to the store over the weekend.

Here was the menu:

Monday - Was supposed to be a soul food dinner at an MLK Jr. event at Memorial Hall in Racine but we arrived late. Instead we ended up eating out at Erv's mug in Franklin afterward. Unhealthy as all get out, but a colorful experience nonetheless.

Tuesday - Split Pea and Barley Soup from Simple Vegetarian Pleasures (Lemlin). Cooked by Megan.

Wednesday - Homemade Spinach/Feta & Mushroom Pizza. Homemade crust, sauce and fresh toppings. Ryan's own recipe. Cooked by Ryan.

Thursday - Leftover soup.

Friday - Coq Au Vin (Chicken in wine sauce) and braised fennel. We totally forgot about cooking the fennel and swapped it out for some homemade garlic mash taters. Cook's Illustrated Best Chicken Recipes (Kimbell). Cooked by Ryan.

We had ourselves a quiet little night together at home. Ryan loves to cook these complicated french sauce recipes so I let him go at it. We made our second use of my sister Greta's lovely Christmas gift of a dutch oven (first use was Cook's French Chicken in a Pot). Dinner preparation took nearly four hours from boiling and peeling the pearl onions to frying the bacon to searing the chicken to reducing the complicated wine sauce to chopping up the parsley garnish. The end result was rich and divine! We paired it with our recent favorite Cotes Du Rhone red (a steal at $6 from Trader Joe's).

Greta's new burnt orange dutch oven being put to the test:


A little impromptu ambiance created by Megan. Our pumpkin has dried out on the table since Halloween!


Our Friday night table. You can see the steamed windows backlit by the street light on the pedestrian mall in front of our building.



The final product. Chicken cooked in bacon fat, thyme, garlic, tomato paste drenched in a sauce reduced from pearl onions, white mushrooms, a bottle of red wine and some butter whisked in at the end for good measure. Garnished with crumbled bacon and minced fresh parsley. All I have to say is that I have a new found love for pearl onions and that my hubby is a culinary god. He has much patience for following recipes and waiting for the complicated end results. Har, har for gluttonous French recipes!