This past weekend Matt & Kate came to visit. On Friday night, we went out for dinner at a bar called Murphy's located downtown in campustown. Its a great greasy burger / Leinenkugel's on tap kind of place. We also scored some great Leine's Oktoberfest mugs and T-Shirts with our beer. On Saturday morning I took a shot at replicating my great pancake success of late, of course, under pressure I cracked and the pancakes weren't very good. They were immensely dense, almost unleavened. I have some theories of what went wrong, but the number one suspect at the moment is an unrelated Murphy. After breakfast, we left Anna to do her homework and we went to the Farmer's Market in Urbana. Lots and lots of good things there, as usual. This time we left with some roma tomatoes and bell peppers (intent on making salsa). We drove around town for a little bit, taking in all of the sights of Chambana and headed home to make salsa and get ready for the Beer tasting / Chili cooking event in Urbana. The salsa I made was alright, overall it was kind of bland, a combination of a short integration time, and somewhat lackluster ingredients I think... (probably more of Murphy poking his head in on my cooking). We had a very nice lunch at a place called Sunsinger Cafe, after Kate requested we find a place that had a pile of vegetables. I think they fit the bill, and everything we had looked and tasted fantastic. I would definitely recommend the place to others looking for a quiet lunch spot... My only complaint would be the somewhat small tables, but other than that, everything was great. After that, we went to a huge wine/beer store called Friar Tuck's and got some beer and bourbon for the weekend. Then we headed off to the festival in Urbana.
First the bad: when we got there, the chili was pretty much gone. There were two places still serving it, so we got in one of the lines. As we got to the very front, the astute Kate noticed they were just serving Hormel chili out of a can! So, we jumped into the other line and had some of their chili instead. It was alright... but overall, the chili experience was a little disappointing. The beer experience was a little more interesting, but I think it was kind of crowded. They had 30+ tables of different beers (each table had 10-12 beers on it) that you paid a ticket or two to get a small cup's worth to taste. We tasted quite a few, including some of the local home brewing club's stuff (it was alright, there were definitely better ones that we tasted, but that doesn't discourage me from starting my own home brew adventure... that is definitely another post!). After we had our fill of beer, we headed home for a night of tolerable mint juleps (dang Murphy! interesting side note: mint juleps don't scale well, just make them one at a time. I think our downfall was trying to make four simultaneously), some beers, and an absolutely awful premier of SNL.
Sunday's breakfast was very good. Sunday's breakfast was eaten out at Merry Ann's diner in Champaign. The food was excellent, the service was quick and polite (as always), and the check was very reasonable. Merry Ann's is definitely our most favorite breakfast spot in town. After breakfast, we dropped Anna off for .. you guessed it.. more homework! And then we set out on our own assignment... Let's find Kate an Erector set. We searched everywhere in Urbana, and nearly everywhere in Champaign... and unfortunately came up empty handed. In the end, we decided some Tapenade would probably be just as satisfying as building something, so we went to Meijer and got the ingredients we needed for that and dinner.
The Tapenade actually came out pretty decent. Suprising enough, Matt, who insists olives are soaked in camel piss, actually ate some of the tapenade and appeared to tolerate.. maybe even like it! While we consumed tapenade in the backyard, I fired up the smoker for some smoked chicken. I butterflied and rubbed down the chicken as I normally do, and smoked it for the rest of the afternoon while we had our libations. We paired the smoked chicken with sautéd green beans and baked acorn squash (ala Matt & Kate). I think the meal was a big hit. The chicken was moist and smoky, the squash was warm and squishy, and the green beans were firm and tasty. Perhaps the most interesting thing was that Anna and I have never really had baked squash (not since we were kids anyways) and were pleasantly suprised to find that we both really liked it.
We had a really nice visit with Matt & Kate, and hope they come back soon. It is nice to visit with friends that you have shared many good times with. Plus Matt & I always seem to have something to jabber about (computers, photography, etc.!)
Well, that's all for now. It seems like I've now promised entries about my Japanese knives (which Matt saw and even got to cut with, so he may have to jump in and comment on them) and my growing plans for home brewing my own ales (and eventually lagers)... those will have to come later.