The things you learn at TJ's

It is getting HOT. I am not a happy camper in this humid, high 80's weather (with 90's looming in the forecast for the next couple of days). So when we did a big grocery shopping trip this weekend, I gravitated towards mostly cold and refreshing items, or things that wouldn't take long to cook. And after abstaining from "adult" beverages for many months, I picked up a Pinot Grigio at Trader Joe's for Matt and I to share after the baby is born. When I told the guy who was bagging our groceries that I was excited about enjoying a cool and refreshing wine in a couple weeks, he shared a great tip! He said a great way to keep your wine cold on a hot day is to keep some frozen grapes on hand and to put them in the glass with your wine. It's like having ice cubes that won't water down your drink, and you'll have some icy fruit to eat when your glass is empty! It also sounds really cute. Thanks, TJ's guy!

UPDATE:

Speaking of refreshing, I should share a recipe I love for a great summer salad. I like it because it's very easy and it can keep in the fridge for a couple days. I know lots of people make variations on this, but this is how I learned to make it:

Black Bean and Corn Salad

The salad:
1 can black beans, rinsed
1.5 cups frozen sweet corn
1.5 cups peeled and chopped cucumber
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (or to taste)

The dressing:
.5 cup lime or lemon juice (and some of the zest, if you prefer)
.5 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 tsp cumin
4 teaspoons sugar (or to taste--I prefer a sweet dressing, and the lime in the dressing is quite tart)
Salt to taste

Whisk the dressing ingredients together in a bowl or shake in a bottle. Toss enough of the dressing with the salad ingredients in a large bowl to coat and flavor the salad. You may not use the whole cup of dressing, but you can save it for use on another salad if you have some left.

I had this salad with a hot dog and some tortilla chips last night, and I'm going to eat some with an egg salad sandwich for lunch in just a few minutes! Yum!

Linky Linky

I haven't had much to write about this week, so I thought I'd share a few things I read that caught my eye in the last few days.

1. Its hard to stop speculating about a cross-town series this October. Chi-Town would go nuts. It would be awesome.
   
2. Fleming Rutledge on "Blind Boys of Alabama and the Living Jesus"
3. Greg Boyd does a Philosophical review of The Dark Knight.
   
4. Baby ducks + Danger + Happy ending = "Awwwwwww..."
5. I suddenly don't feel so bad about my Bacon-Brat a few weeks ago.

Tonight is the Chicago Covenant Softball League Championship. Tuesday night was the divisional championship and the Seminary team beat Ravenswood Covenant in a dramatic contest that ended in a walk-off seventh inning win. Tonight we take on the surging Sojourner Covenant Church who are this year's Cinderella team. Go Sem Scholars!

Zaccheus' Baconfest '08

We went camping last weekend near Tomah with some friends from MN and WI. Towards the end of the trip we titled the outing "1st Annual Baconfest" since we had bacon at almost every meal. The most unholy creation was the bacon-wrapped sausage (pictured). And since we were in Wisconsin, of course Matt and I had to stop at a cheese factory on the way home. We hiked, grilled, took a dip in the lake, got a tan, and just hung out. It was really fun!

Things I Notice When Grocery Shopping

• Yesterday at Trader Joe's the woman in front of me in the check out line had a cart that had 5 jars of organic peanut butter, one jar of almond butter, three bags of slivered almonds, one bag of mixed nuts, and a couple of nut granola bars--and that's it. What she was planning to do with those was the question that bugged me all day long.
• Ever since I could first eat solid foods, Ramen has been a staple in my life. The problem is that it is packed full of nutrionless calories and ungodly amounts of sodium. Behold a new healthy version of Ramen. My arteries are grateful.
  
• I love hot dogs. Classic, all beef hotdogs done Chicago style. I also do my best to eat and shop ethically (we white people love this stuff.) Its surprisingly difficult to find socially responsible hot dogs to eat. Hebrew National are made by ConAgra foods (an irresponsible corporate monster), Best Kosher are made by Sara Lee (a slightly less evil but still not entirely ethical corporation), and God knows where Ballpark franks come from. Vienna Beef seems to be a quality local independent operation-- but I'm not sure they taste better than the others. What to do?!? Good thing I don't have real problems like other people.
  

Cheese

Ah, cheese. This summer we're selling it and eating it. Some look awesome, some look nasty, but they all taste great!

Beautiful Food

Strawberries! Matt brought home a ton from the market yesterday, and I guess they won't be in season very much longer so we've been enjoying them while they last. These are so good and sweet, there's no need for sugar. We had strawberry shortcake for a treat last night (well, more like strawberries and cream with angelfood cake--it has less calories than shortcake but it's still so delicious) and I made this yogurt parfait for lunch today. It tasted even better than it looked!

Summer in the Greatest City in the World

It's a little presumptuous, but that's how Chicago is frequently referred to by the DJ on one of my local radio stations. Some days I can almost believe it. My summer work requires me to awake at wee early hours to drive downtown before heading out to farmer's markets. Since today is the longest day of the year, it also happens to be one of the earliest sunrises. Having grown up on the west coast I've seen the sun set over the ocean a million times but I've never seen the sun rise over a body of water. Living in Chicago I've never been up early enough to watch it rise over Lake Michigan, and my job wakes me up too early most days for it (about the time he sun actually rises I'm down inside a sub-zero underground freezer). Yet this morning I got to behold the awesome sight. As I drove the expressway towards downtown, early morning light made the northern half of the skyline silhouette while the southern half of the skyline was still in enough dark sky to be illuminated only by the light of office windows. Very cool.

The summer I interned at Lutheran General Hospital I often volunteered for overnight shifts. I remember one particularly long night where six different deaths required some ministry from me. After all the sadness and pain of the evening I went up to the 12th floor caferteria to get some coffee to push through my last 30 minutes on call. I looked out the panoramic window worn down by a night of death but grace gifted me with a vision of hope, the sunrise over the city. Even though many living light's had been extinguished through the night, the sun still rose the next day and each and everyday. Long after I and everyone I love has passed on the sun will still rise each morning. The universe will unfold as it should. We are but a small piece of a larger symphony. The sun rises every morning--that does not change. Mercy is new every morning. Life goes on.

Its a lot like the promise of changing seasons. Long winter has now become welcome summer. Though I spent most of my afternoon stuck in traffic, I got to listen to exciting baseball as the Cubs and Sox played an exciting game ending with a walk off home run. A near perfect 72 degrees meant driving through the city with my windows down. Driving up Lakeshore drive I admired the city's fantastic architecture to my left, and summer fun in Lincoln park to my right... and Lake Michicagan beyond that. When the humidity is not oppressive, summer in Chicago is a lot of fun. There are an abundance of festivals and concerts--many free. For our birthday Nicole and I took advantage of the great ethnic diversity of our city to find some new cuisine to try (Ethiopian food has some charms, but we weren't entirely won over). Still, our city affords us lots of opportunities for adventure. Heck, there's even abundant wildlife! Just today they've found an alligator in the Chicago river. I've heard multiple versions of a North Park legend about a python in the north branch, but this is new. After our recent cougar incident, nothing surprises me.

I'm finding that this "in-between time" of being finished with seminary but not yet placed in ministry is just fine for right now. It's a great time to be in Chicago.

Xenophobia, Cowardice, and Donuts

I've always been fickle about Dunkin Donuts. Here in Chicago they're on almost every block, making them very convinient. Historically their coffee has been very delicious save for recently when it seems to have gotten weaker. Many people are surprised that a lot of DD franchises use Fair Trade beans exclusively. But before I can enjoy a socially responsible self righteous sip, I have to wave my finger at those Styrofoam cups--hardly biodegradable. I should also confess that I find the sausage, egg, and cheese bagel sandwich a calorie packed guilty pleasure. Yet with this new controversy out of bizarro world, I'm pretty disappointed in them.

Apparently Rachel Ray's black and white scarf looks slightly similar to a Palestinian keffiyah. Some loons decided to take offense... so Dunkin' Donuts pulled the ad, for fear that some Americans would be sent into the streets in a pants-wetting panic that someone in a donut ad might be wearing a black and white scarf that looks kindof sortof like something a Palestinian would be wearing. You know, if it wasn't a scarf but was a headdress. And if it had a different pattern...

What exactly is offensive about a scarf? Is it that Rachel Ray has olive skin? (She is Sicilian, not Arab). We don't want someone who marginally resembles a Muslim hawking coffee? Heck, what if she was a Muslim Arab? Do we really think a 30 second TV spot means a victory for Terrorism? That sausage bagel I mentioned earlier... yeah, basically Dunkin Donuts is anathema to Islamic Fundamentalists. This is nothing but xenophobia, irrational fear expressing itself.

A few facts Americans should get straight:

• Barack Obama has an Arab sounding name. He must be Muslim right? He's not. Feel very free to disagree with his politics (I do on a number of issues), but don't perpetuate lies.
  
• In the Bible, the book of Revelation makes no mention of Muslims. The New Testament was written in the first century A.D., Islam was founded in the seventh century A.D.
  
• Most people of Middle Eastern descent in America are Christian--not Muslim.
  

I don't discount the danger of Islamic Fundamentalism in our times. I don't disagree that Islam has a deep disfunction and a faulty worldview. But the truth is that living in the United States we have succumbed to an irrational level of fear that manifests itself in the willingness to trade freedom for "security" and to let prejudice trump sound thoughtfulness. The cholesterol and sugar in your Dunkin Donuts are far more likely to kill you than a suicide bomber.

What Makes Milwaukee Famous...

...makes a loser out of me.

After church yesterday Nicole and I made our way to Milwaukee to go see the Brewers take on the San Fransisco Giants. The Brewers shut out the hapless Giants, 7-0. The Brewers have a pretty good offense, but I think the score more reflects the Giants ineptitude. They're as bad as the press says they are. Seriously, look for SF to lose more than 100 games this year.

A week into the regular season has been somewhat disappointing for the Mariners. Erik Beddard's debut was fine, but not stellar. Felix Hernandez looked good as did Carlos Silva. The biggest disappointments are closer J.J. Putz going to the 15-day DL and poor offensive production. The one silver lining is the plate discipline the hitters have shown, drawing a lot of walks. Still, there isn't enough hitting deep in the line up--particularly impotent are Jose Vidro and Brad Wilkerson going 1-16 so far this season.

So at 2-4, dropping three to Baltimore, Is it time for Mariners fans to jump ship? Not yet. Detroit, Boston, and the Yankees have all been humbled by mediocre teams this week, but no one is doubting them as contenders. Maybe if we go 4-8 its time to start panicking. Until then, lets hope the bats start firing up.

Check out Nicole's helmet of "Cheese Fries". We call that artery cloggin goodness.

Frontera

Last night's Valentines day date was delicious. I mean, romantic.

I'm usually not much of a big beef consumer, partially out of taste and partially out of conscience. But when I saw that Frontera had local grass fed beef, I thought I'd take the opportunity to have one of my 3 or 4 steaks a year. It did not dissapoint. The rib eye was perfectly cooked medium rare, deliciously marinated in a spicy red chile sauce. The blackbeans were fine, but the guacamole was excellent.

The company was good too. We've become accustom to celebrating Valentines day not on Valentines day to avoid the incredible headache of competing with every other couple in the city for a table, tickets, etc. Besides, we didn't want to miss LOST this week!

Valen-time!

We did our Valentine date tonight. We had dinner at Frontera Grill, which is an AWESOME Mexican restaurant. It's owned by the host of one of our favorite cooking shows, "Mexico One Plate at a Time."