Warm And Gooey > Cold And Crispy

What I wanted to eat for a snack yesterday:

What I actually ate for my snack yesterday:

Sometimes eating better is just plain boring!

This Year, I'll...

I've never been a fan of resolutions. Perhaps that is the internal contrarian in me creeping up, but I just always felt that making resolutions for the new year was a bit arbitrary. I suppose it's as good a time as any, but why not resolve to make a situation better when you see that it needs to improve rather than wait for a set date to roll around?

Of course, that contradicts my love of Christmas and the arbitrarily imposed date to give your loved ones gifts, but whatever. I'm so contrarian I can even contradict myself! That's hard core ;)

Last year I had a resolution to lose weight. It wasn't a new year's resolution, per se, because I made that resolution in October, but I did decide that it was time I drop about 45 pounds. Over the course of the year I made that resolution come true and I'm proud as hell of myself for that.

So it's time for a new goal, and since it is now around that time of year that others tend to make resolutions, I may as well do the same.

Trying New Foods And *gasp* Seafood

I've never considered my palette to be bland, but there are just some things that I refuse to eat. Namely anything that swims or lives in the water should not touch my plate. I'm not sure where my aversion to seafood came from, but it's about time to put it to test and see if the dislike is all in my head or if I just really don't like water creatures.

Lately I've discovered that I enjoy tuna, and not just canned tuna. We had a tuna appetizer at our wedding last summer and it was delicious, so there's a start. And I've started to realize that crab meat is pretty good as well. So with those two realizations, perhaps there are other sea-dwelling thingies that I might enjoy just as much?

Besides, most sea foods are pretty healthy. I need to expand my proteins beyond chicken, turkey and peanuts. What better way than with some of the leaner sea critters?

Get Out And Socialize

I've never been a particularly social creature. I love spending time with and around people, just like anyone else, but I'm perfectly happy spending time with my husband as my social outlet. That's not a bad thing, per se, but I've noticed that for me that has also meant less effort in maintaining other friendships, be they close or just casual acquaintances.

I can be very social when I decide to be. When I decide to put on the social face and get out and meet people, I'm pretty good at it. But I haven't been putting as much effort into that part of me lately, and I'm worried that perhaps I'm isolating myself. So it's time that I step up my efforts and make amends with anyone I might have offended and start trying to forge new friendships as well.

That's All Folks

Keeping it simple and manageable, I'm sticking with these two ideas. It's easy enough to force myself to try new foods and with my husband's social senses helping us stay in sync with the outside world, I think these are achievable goals.

So here's to a new year and new beginnings!

Beignet: The New Orleans Treat!

Of all the New Orleans/Louisiana/Cajun/Creole/French dishes that are out there, I have to say that I'm very partial to the Beignet (pronounced Ben-Yay). Even though I do my best to avoid pasteries in my everyday life, I tend to be the type that makes exceptions while I'm on vacation (afterall, what are vacations for if not for splurging a little?), and I made plenty of exceptions for my sweet, lovely beignets while in New Orleans last weekend!

What Is A Beignet?

A beignet is, simply put, fried dough with powdered sugar toping. Sounds delicious, right?

You're probably thinking that a beignet is just a fancy name for a doughnut, and you wouldn't be too far off. Beignet, for those not fluent in The French, quite literally means fried dough, and according to Wikipedia, the word can refer to quite a few different (but similar) pastries in France and other parts of Europe. For our purposes here in the states, we know only of the famous New Orleans style beignets.

Beignets are made with a slightly sweetened dough which is made to rise ever so slighlty as to be puffy, then deep fried. Many times they are served in little triangular shapes or even crescent shaped, and they are topped with what any sane person would consider an obese amount of powdered sugar. They are most often served for breakfast, but can also serve as appetizers, and sipping on a cup of café au lait is practically required while snacking on these pastries. For a simple dish, they are absolutely magical!

Where To Get Them

Now if you go to New Orleans, you will likely be told to go to Café du Monde. And you should. Once. It's a staple of the city and it's pretty well known for this delicious doughy treats. It's also been coporatized and turned into a machine. In itself, that's not a bad thing, and the beignets are good and the café au lait is strong and tasty. You'll love the beignets and you'll be tempted to go back for treats the next morning. But please don't.

Instead, make the trip into the French Quarter (like you're not there already…) and go to Café Beignet on Royal Street. Not only is the café more… café-esque, being small and quaint and full of friendly staff, the beignets and café au lait is vastly superior to Café du Monde. The beignets are made fresh to order and the mix is done in house. When we went, we got the perfect balance of warm, gooey, doughy center and crispy, flaky outside, all perfectly sweetened and just as covered in powdered sugar. Even the café au lait was better! Because of it's location, there may be a bit of a wait in the mornings, but I garauntee it's a shorter wait than at Café du Monde!

Further Tips

By now, I'm guessing you're already booking your trip to New Orleans or fervently searching the Internet for ways to have these wonderful treats shipped to your door. If you find that magical shipper, please let me know! I would not recommend getting the Beignet Mix you can find online though as it tends to be overpriced and just doesn't come out right.

My only other tip for you is to be VERY CAREFUL while you eat these delicous treats! They are caked in powdered sugar which isn't known for staying on the pastry. You will likely get some sugar all over you if you aren't careful. You may want to break common convention and eat over your plate or with a napkin under your chin. It may look odd, but your clothes will thank you!

So go out and book your tickets to New Orleans now and make sure to make time for a few beignets during your trip!

Our Very Own Seinfeld Episode

I have found Chicago's soup nazi. Only it's not exactly a soup shop. It's more of a burger/bar joint. But still, they are just like that most iconic episode of that one TV I didn't really care for.

It's a place called Bar on Buena and they have the absolute best burgers I've ever had in town. They're just plain delicious, and the beer selection is wonderful. We found the place because it's right around the corner from my old apartment in Uptown and we would eat there fairly often, but we started getting a bitter taste in our mouths about the place after awhile because they're just plain mean people.

Last night we tried to go there for dinner mostly because of they have $5 burgers on Mondays. So we hop the train and invite a few people and make it there around 8:30 only to find the place packed. That's not a completely unusual occurrence there: the place is pretty small in general. We also learned that "The Game" was on… oh, the things straight people so! It's so cute when they say things like The Game and assume anyone has any clue what in the world they're talking about. Football, baseball, ballroom dancing, who knows!

Anyway, we asked the first waitress the passed us by if she thought any of the tables might be getting up soon, to which we got an emphatic "No!" with a little chuckle thrown in, as if it were amusing to her that we'd even think such a wild and crazy thought like people leaving when they are done eating. Not convinced, we decided to wait a few minutes while the rest of our crew showed up to see if we could spot any tell tale signs that a table might be leaving soon, but no checks were dropped at the tables and empty glasses were all filled with fresh beer. Finally, we asked another waitress if we could move a few of the tables around outside and, since one of the other outside tables had managed to snag ALL of the chairs for themselves, if they had any additional chairs to which she responded: "No. We're busy. The Game's on. People aren't going to leave." with as much attitude as a 120 lb glasses-wearing, bottled blond can muster. And a neck and eye roll, just for flavor.

There are no TVs outside from which to watch this mythical game.

From the tone of the waitresses in this place, I can only assume the fate of our very souls was being battled over in this Game. And we were the idiots that were bothering the poor staff there with our very presence.

We were not getting burgers. We simply could not get in to enjoy the deliciousness that is the Buena Burger. It wasn't going to happen. And the staff is more than happy to let you know that you just aren't going to be able to eat because they have more important things to do.

In the end, we went to an old favorite Mexican place a few blocks away and were gifted with good food and Heartburn. Chicago.