Paella, Sushi, and Cider: a week full of delicious things
Ohmygoodness. This past week HAS been busy. I totally meant to post on at least three days last week and just didn't get to it. So, a recap:
So on Tuesday night around 10pm, I found an email in my inbox that had arrived 3 hours earlier but I didn't see it til later. It was a CouchRequest through the website CouchSurfing.org, which connects travellers with hosts who offer a couch or bed or some sort of sleeping surface. If you can't or don't want to offer sleeping space, you can also list yourself as just willing to meet for coffee or show a person around your city. So I was listed as a "maybe" for having couch space, and don't get many requests, but this one caught my attention. It was a couple, a Japanese-American woman and Japanese man, from Tokyo, travelling around the world and their next stop was Chicago. They knew it was very last minute and understood if it wasn't possible but they really liked my profile and were genuinely interested in meeting us and staying with us. I knew the week wasn't really busy at work and I talked with Brent, who agreed, so I had the couple call to discuss arrival times (it was about 11pm by this point)... and then we started cleaning. Brent fell asleep on the couch but I stayed up until about 1am cleaning the bathrooms and litter box. To be fair, he didn't have to go in to work until a bit later the next morning so he got up with me and continued cleaning and tidying the living room.
I stopped at the store on my way home for dinner and discovered a 5 pound (resealable!) bag of mixed seafood at Sam's Club and thought: Paella! I had never made paella before but figured it couldn't be that hard. So I had Brent find a recipe online, picked up all the ingredients we didn't have at home, and then came home to start making my first paella ever. I meant to take pictures of everything but I forgot so here's the paella when it's almost done cooking. We did start it in what was the closest we had to a paella pan (large and low) but then it almost overflowed so we had to transfer it to a larger sauce pan. It still came out great!
Sorry if that came out really big. I am somewhat new to embedding pictures in my posts. Anyway, it was delicious, and Alisa and Masa, our couchsurfing guests, arrived a bit later than planned due to traffic but still got in by about 6:30pm. We ate in the living room, the only place there's room to put a table, and had some great conversation. They are really interesting people. Alisa grew up in Texas and moved to Tokyo; both her parents are Japanese. She is bubbly and talkative but also intelligent and curious. Masa is The Tallest Japanese Man In The World (or so it seems) at 6'2" or 1.88 meters and likes economics and jazz. He is a bit quieter but that's partly because his English isn't as good as hers. It's still good, though and he was able to join in the conversation a bit.
Alisa and Masa are nearing the end of their Round-The-World trip, having been to Australia/NZ, the Middle East, Eastern and Western Europe, South and Central America, the southern and western parts of Africa, and now North America. They sort of skipped eastern Asia because it's easier for them to get to from home. The whole idea fascinates me (is anyone really surprised?) and the seed is firmly planted in my brain and will gestate there until we finally get our asses in gear and actually do it ourselves. Brent is open to the idea! OMG GUYS I WANT TO TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD SLEEPING ON PEOPLE'S COUCHES! Alisa said it wasn't nearly as hard as she thought, as long as you're pretty flexible, and she said that basically anywhere that tourists can travel, it's not a big deal to get to. The only places they avoided were those countries currently at war like Egypt and Lebanon. She really wanted to go to Egypt, too, so I don't blame her for being disappointed. Anyway, we are now FB friends and have promised to connect next time Brent and I are in Japan, because we quite like them and felt a definite connection.
This doesn't mean that I will go around accepting couchsurfing requests willy nilly, because we simply don't have time for that. But now that I've paved the way for it, I think we can start taking people in now and again when they sound interesting. Fun times ahead!
On Saturday Brent drove us up to Burlington, Wisconsin, where Aeppeltreow Winery is, to have a tasting there. Aeppeltreow was recommended to us by the proprietor of Lakeview Liquors when we told her we were interested in having kegs of cider for our wedding instead of beer, since neither Brent nor I are really fond of beer. And since glass bottles aren't allowed in the forest preserve, kegs are a great option! Cider would be more expensive than beer of course, but not too bad.
When we arrived at Aeppeltreow, we discovered that they were out of all but one of the ciders, though they had some sorghum whiskey that Brent tried and really liked (we thought of you, sashatwen), and some apple and pear brandies that were nice, but I'm really not a brandy/schnapps person. I like my cider, and I like wine, and I like hard liquor in mixed drinks, but usually not straight. In any case, we tried the one cider they had left, a spiced hard cider, which was quite tasty, and went to a nearby store that the owner thought would have some of his other flavors, which they did, so we got some other flavors of the Aeppeltreow cider to try when we got home. It was a grand adventure! And when we got back into Illinois, it was close to dinner time, so we went to try out this new Pan-Asian Buffet called Royal Buffet in Schaumburg which was quite tasty and very reasonable. Only $21 per person for a seafood buffet (with fresh sushi and a mongolian grill) on a Saturday night. I quite recommend it.
This week... is going to be crazy! Today I helped make my boss with... I think there were about 10 or 12 full-size sheet pans of brownies in preparation for the 1000 box lunches we will need to put together for Thursday and Friday. I think he said there were 78 for Thursday, 450 for Friday, and 450 for Saturday. And on top of that we have one appetizer party for Friday and 2 parties for Saturday. Liek whoa! So we'll have all hands on deck and hopefully get lots of stuff done on Wednesday early so that Thursday and Friday aren't tooooooo crazy. I just hope that we will have room in the coolers to put everything!!
So on Tuesday night around 10pm, I found an email in my inbox that had arrived 3 hours earlier but I didn't see it til later. It was a CouchRequest through the website CouchSurfing.org, which connects travellers with hosts who offer a couch or bed or some sort of sleeping surface. If you can't or don't want to offer sleeping space, you can also list yourself as just willing to meet for coffee or show a person around your city. So I was listed as a "maybe" for having couch space, and don't get many requests, but this one caught my attention. It was a couple, a Japanese-American woman and Japanese man, from Tokyo, travelling around the world and their next stop was Chicago. They knew it was very last minute and understood if it wasn't possible but they really liked my profile and were genuinely interested in meeting us and staying with us. I knew the week wasn't really busy at work and I talked with Brent, who agreed, so I had the couple call to discuss arrival times (it was about 11pm by this point)... and then we started cleaning. Brent fell asleep on the couch but I stayed up until about 1am cleaning the bathrooms and litter box. To be fair, he didn't have to go in to work until a bit later the next morning so he got up with me and continued cleaning and tidying the living room.
I stopped at the store on my way home for dinner and discovered a 5 pound (resealable!) bag of mixed seafood at Sam's Club and thought: Paella! I had never made paella before but figured it couldn't be that hard. So I had Brent find a recipe online, picked up all the ingredients we didn't have at home, and then came home to start making my first paella ever. I meant to take pictures of everything but I forgot so here's the paella when it's almost done cooking. We did start it in what was the closest we had to a paella pan (large and low) but then it almost overflowed so we had to transfer it to a larger sauce pan. It still came out great!
Sorry if that came out really big. I am somewhat new to embedding pictures in my posts. Anyway, it was delicious, and Alisa and Masa, our couchsurfing guests, arrived a bit later than planned due to traffic but still got in by about 6:30pm. We ate in the living room, the only place there's room to put a table, and had some great conversation. They are really interesting people. Alisa grew up in Texas and moved to Tokyo; both her parents are Japanese. She is bubbly and talkative but also intelligent and curious. Masa is The Tallest Japanese Man In The World (or so it seems) at 6'2" or 1.88 meters and likes economics and jazz. He is a bit quieter but that's partly because his English isn't as good as hers. It's still good, though and he was able to join in the conversation a bit.
Alisa and Masa are nearing the end of their Round-The-World trip, having been to Australia/NZ, the Middle East, Eastern and Western Europe, South and Central America, the southern and western parts of Africa, and now North America. They sort of skipped eastern Asia because it's easier for them to get to from home. The whole idea fascinates me (is anyone really surprised?) and the seed is firmly planted in my brain and will gestate there until we finally get our asses in gear and actually do it ourselves. Brent is open to the idea! OMG GUYS I WANT TO TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD SLEEPING ON PEOPLE'S COUCHES! Alisa said it wasn't nearly as hard as she thought, as long as you're pretty flexible, and she said that basically anywhere that tourists can travel, it's not a big deal to get to. The only places they avoided were those countries currently at war like Egypt and Lebanon. She really wanted to go to Egypt, too, so I don't blame her for being disappointed. Anyway, we are now FB friends and have promised to connect next time Brent and I are in Japan, because we quite like them and felt a definite connection.
This doesn't mean that I will go around accepting couchsurfing requests willy nilly, because we simply don't have time for that. But now that I've paved the way for it, I think we can start taking people in now and again when they sound interesting. Fun times ahead!
On Saturday Brent drove us up to Burlington, Wisconsin, where Aeppeltreow Winery is, to have a tasting there. Aeppeltreow was recommended to us by the proprietor of Lakeview Liquors when we told her we were interested in having kegs of cider for our wedding instead of beer, since neither Brent nor I are really fond of beer. And since glass bottles aren't allowed in the forest preserve, kegs are a great option! Cider would be more expensive than beer of course, but not too bad.
When we arrived at Aeppeltreow, we discovered that they were out of all but one of the ciders, though they had some sorghum whiskey that Brent tried and really liked (we thought of you, sashatwen), and some apple and pear brandies that were nice, but I'm really not a brandy/schnapps person. I like my cider, and I like wine, and I like hard liquor in mixed drinks, but usually not straight. In any case, we tried the one cider they had left, a spiced hard cider, which was quite tasty, and went to a nearby store that the owner thought would have some of his other flavors, which they did, so we got some other flavors of the Aeppeltreow cider to try when we got home. It was a grand adventure! And when we got back into Illinois, it was close to dinner time, so we went to try out this new Pan-Asian Buffet called Royal Buffet in Schaumburg which was quite tasty and very reasonable. Only $21 per person for a seafood buffet (with fresh sushi and a mongolian grill) on a Saturday night. I quite recommend it.
This week... is going to be crazy! Today I helped make my boss with... I think there were about 10 or 12 full-size sheet pans of brownies in preparation for the 1000 box lunches we will need to put together for Thursday and Friday. I think he said there were 78 for Thursday, 450 for Friday, and 450 for Saturday. And on top of that we have one appetizer party for Friday and 2 parties for Saturday. Liek whoa! So we'll have all hands on deck and hopefully get lots of stuff done on Wednesday early so that Thursday and Friday aren't tooooooo crazy. I just hope that we will have room in the coolers to put everything!!