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FOOD -- of course!
Adventures in Late Night Eating Syndrome etc
2008 -- more Illinois food

Dueling turkey church turkey dinners, fall 2008...

...gobble, gobble

September fresh peach by me
(July was fresh cherry)

September farmer's market corn

4th of July Franklin burgoo kettles, the morning after...

...and the result, at Marilyns..

 
 

SUMMER 2007 -- food, food, everywhere
 


From the sublime (jasmine tea) to....

this really happens in Illinois!

Steve's last breakfast before The Tests

Super summer for greenbeans, corn and tomatoes.
Just a few peaches

Favorite road food

Favorite camping brunch

Choices!

Birthday Choice - bread pudding

Y's Choices

Dining In

What happen's when Bob goes out

Dining Out




48th Annual Sacred Heart-Griffin Mostaccioli dinner, Springfield, 
March 4, 2007  (note wine glass!)
After dinner "cigars" (wafer cookies), Italian night at Melrose,
February 2007 
Chili and oyster stew dinner, Berea Church
February 2007
WINTER 2007

Food and more food!  How do Illini spend the winter?  Yup, eating.  Dinner after dinner--in churches, schools and homes; annual Kiwanis Pancake dinner, the same one my father was involved in 50 years ago!  Indeed, the perfect social activity for a cold winter--meeting for lunch or dinner--or both.  Lunches out with the gals at the tea house.  On and on.

Post Script--In February I joined TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) to help cope.  Having been brought up to clean my plate and not throw away food, I'm over my head.  Don't ask.  I too may be writing "How I Lost 5 Pounds in 6 Years: An Autobiography".  Tough.



Charley goes for the burgoo, Sept 2006
(C took home a gallon; Dianne, 5 gallons!)

Dinner with Dianne and family, June 2006 

From market to lunch, June 2006
Doesn't get any better!
FALL 2006

Hello Illinois, goodbye Idaho.  No more cooking by Chan--sniff.  Last trip to Boise, as I loaded the car for the flight home, the resident dog found Chan's exquisite potstickers.  The 4 legged cudda died.  This fall it's Illinois farmers market produce and regional specialties like burgoo!  www.burgoo.com. Jacksonville doesn't have real grocery stores; never thought I'd miss Albertson's Boise monopoly!  We have a outlet stores; that's it.  Even larger Springfield 30 miles away has lost it's grocery stores.  The worst part (in my cherished opinion) is how folks look forward to the latest and biggest discount grocery chain, while I allege I'd pay a premium prices, like we do at the farmers market, to have a neighborhood store back.  (Who knows, talk's cheap.)  As a result, we all pretty much have the same stuff, same brands, in our kitchens here.  Of course I "don't like it"; but I'm adapting rapidly to "what is".  Maybe next year I'll be in a position to can a bit of the harvest.  It's still done here!  "18 quarts" (of beans), I heard one of the local market growers say yesterday she'd put up.

There's always the nonseasonal Charley Diet--rye crisps, yams, kippered herring and spirits (augmented by burgoo).  Works for him.  I should be so slim.



Cuisine by cook extraordinaire Chan

APRIL 2006

The other evening, at closing time I stopped by Boise's famous Lou's West Side drive in.  Again.  As a drive-in fan, mercifully I've had bad luck there, and it's not all that close to home (though when did that stop me!).  Took at least a year to recover from the finger steak sandwich one customer recommended.  Cripes, too much grease for even me!  Once again, everyone else orders arrived, as I waited and observed somewhat guiltily.  The longer I wait for food I don't need, the guilter I feel.  That's why fast is good, you get it and try to forget as quickly as possibel.  This time it was a pleasant evening to watch people and above all--the waitress gal run from the walk up window to car window, taking and dispensing everyone's but my small order of sweet potato fries.   When my time came up, the gal apologized for losing my order (again, I thought); the cook decided to give me the large order to compensate.  Eek!  She warned me sweet potato fries need to be eaten hot.  They come with honey and cinnamon butter dip, she explained.  (Feel like a Weekly reviewer, darn it.)  Needless to say, I had absolutely no trouble eating the rest of the fries at room temperature the next day (with a dash of salt).

As the energetic young waitress dashed from window to window and flipped signs to closed, I was agog and commented on how helpful she was.  "Been here 5 years.  Paid well."  Didn't know such jobs and folks existed!  No wonder she knew everything on the menu, was fast and pleasant, the very opposite of having to deal with a cranky "attitude"!  I'll be back to try the blueberry float.

Luckily the line was way too long this noon.  Good thing I'm leavin' Boise soon.  Oink.  Oink.