Not-So-White Christmas

This past Christmas was the first one A and I spent alone. We didn't travel to our families, and they didn't come to us. That sounds really sad. Let me explain. One of my sisters was working over the holiday on a cruise ship, the other spent it with her boyfriend's family, and my dad also worked over the holiday. Plus A had E.R. shifts right up until Christmas Eve and then the day after Christmas. So... yeah, we weren't going anywhere.

Since we were in Chicago for our first Christmas, I had my fingers crossed for snow. It would rock my socks to have the always-hoped-for white Christmas. Things looked promising as we had snow a week before, but then we moved into this strange weather pattern where temperatures are 20 degrees above normal. It all melted. :(

Not to worry - we still had a great holiday, even with Mother Nature withholding the fluffy white stuff. 

In college we started the tradition of building a gingerbread house during the holiday season, usually coinciding with Hanukkah. We would buy a kit at a store, then go crazy with the decorations. As last year we were traveling and the year before we were getting married and on our honeymoon, we haven't made a gingerbread house in a while. I decided to bring it back this year, but with a twist. 

We would bake our own gingerbread.

Yes, you heard right. I did some research (thank you internet), and found most people recommending amateur bakers not attempt gingerbread dough. I've been baking for quite some time, so figured I could handle it.

We started out by making a pattern for the house. Many ideas were sketched on a handy whiteboard, but then A had a breakthrough. Why would we go with a typical design? If we're going to make our own dough, we might as well go all out and make...

The Hancock building.

(If you look closely at the above sketch you can see where we have an issue later!)

Next step: Actually making and baking the pieces. Building gingerbread dough turned out to be the most difficult thing I've ever made. It is a "hot dough", meaning you roll it out while it's warm. When I first started mixing it, it was crumbly and refused to come together. I started to panic and scanned multiple comments on the recipe I was using. Thankfully the combination of additional water plus the microwave gave me something I could roll out. Crisis averted! A went to work cutting out the pieces using a pattern we made.

He also did a little free-styling for our backdrop.

The dough went into the oven, while we watched carefully. Would it burn? Fall into pieces? Once again we lucked out - it browned (only slightly - we didn't use true molasses) and was very solid!

Once we had all the pieces, I whipped up some frosting to glue them together. We lined up all the pieces. Or so we thought. See what's missing now? We forgot to make a roof piece! However, we were able to use some of the extras A baked for the backdrop to improvise.

We let the pieces sit for a few hours so the frosting could dry. Once that was solid, we went a little crazy with the decorations.

We attempted to reproduce with candy some of the trademark architecture on this famous Chicago skyscraper.

Much candy was used.

It turned out great! (Well, we like it.) A commented that we need to up our decorating skills as our building is comparable to work done by a kindergartner. 

We admired it some more. Then we ate it!

Just kidding! The thing about building gingerbread is it doesn't taste particularly good. And it's hard as a rock. It's better to appease your visual appetite.

Here's a closer look at the backdrop... we wanted to add a skyline, and also ended up using extra candy to construct a road.

And of course we added our initials!

Our gingerbread building was so well constructed it lasted three weeks! (Mostly because A couldn't bear to throw it out.)

Warning: This post now moves into Orion overload. If you have an aversion to cute dogs, stop reading now. :)

While we were decorating, Orion was observing from her usual position - lounging on the couch.

O is one lucky puppy... she received multiple holiday gifts! One she doesn't really like that much yet because it's a thinking toy. We like to give her things which force her to use her brain. We're so mean.

You put treats or food inside the plastic bottle, then your dog has to move it around to get it out. There's an opening at the top with a piece of rope that can move in and out.

She didn't know what to do with it at first.

Then she realized she could tug on the rope.

A was excited since he's always trying to get her to play tug-of-war!

She quickly abandoned that toy and moved on to one much more desirable - a peanut butter-flavored chewing bone from my parents. (Actually from my parents' cat, Barcardi.) Here's what we imagine she was thinking:

This smells amazing! Can I really have it? Really? All for me?

Which end do I start on? It's bigger than I am! Yum!

She loved that bone. Took her a long time to finish it, and she jumped up and down, spun round in circles and generally went crazy whenever we brought it out.

But by far her favorite present was another from us. A new dog bed! She hasn't had one since she was sick at the beginning of last year and we threw the old one in the trash. As soon as we gave it to her, she curled up in it and stayed there almost all day.

This is by far the most amusing way she sleeps in it.

Not entirely sure how that's comfortable, but if she's happy it's all good!

Hope you had a great holiday season!

Someone Hates Showers

"Please, won't you save me from these crazy people?"

Experimentation: Chocolate Noodles

During our second attempt at molecular gastronomy we attempted to make chocolate noodles. However, we didn't want to make the amount on the recipe, and we wanted to try a couple different flavors, so some math was involved.

It's sad when an engineer needs a calculator.

We eventually figured out the math and moved on to the creation of some tasty noodles. Again we used agar agar as the key chemical. You heat up the agar agar in water, then add chocolate and melt that too. We made two varieties - one with Frangelico and one with rum.

After you have everything melted down, you suck up the mixture in a syringe, then squeeze it into a long plastic tube.

The tube then sits in an ice water both for a few minutes. Next you squeeze out the noodle! This was the tricky part - you have to wait long enough, and then squeeze air into the tube with the syringe.

It was well worth it - they were so tasty! We put them on pancakes. Total yum.

Rollin' Down the River (Road)

Yet another catch-up post... one resolution for 2012 is to keep this blog up-to-date! (Cross your fingers.)

In October we decided to make a fall color road trip an annual event for our family. (Yes, that includes Orion.) One of the first things we did after we adopted Orion in 2011 was to take a road trip to Wisconsin to hike and see the leaves. Orion loves hiking! And I love the fall leaves, so it's a great mini-vacation.

This year we decided to see more of our current state of residence than just Chicago (which almost doesn't count). We drove down the Illinois River Road to the middle of the state.

Our first stop was the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. This 20,000 acre area is being actively restored to the natural prairie land most of Illinois is (or was before farming began). It was really quite beautiful. We pulled off at one trailhead and walked until there was no longer a trail.

Then we got back into the car and went to a loop trail.

We don't know what these are - some kind of seed? They're bigger than the size of your fist.

Orion wasn't a fan of the bright morning sun.

Family photo time! (Yes, I totally bring a tripod on all our road trips, and even some of our longer trips.)

The people who work the land were doing experimentation with different strains of prairie grass.

Back in the car, we drove until we reached the big bustling city town of Ottawa. It's best known for being the location of the Lincoln-Douglas debate in 1858. The big rock proves it.

The town had an Old West feel to it.

They had a whole display of painted over-sized top hats. This one was the prettiest. (Orion's thrilled, can't you tell?)

We continued on to Starving Rock State Park. I'd been told to go in winter to see the frozen waterfalls, but it was just as amazing in the summer. 

This is the view from one of the overlooks. That's the Illinois River! It's mostly used for freight transportation now.

The park is just a huge area of giant cliffs and valleys. Okay, maybe not that big, but they're huge for Illinois! Most of the state is very flat (as you'll see in a later photo). Look how deep this crevice is!

View from the top.

Orion loves to jump on everything, including the rocks.

Yay, pretty fall leaves!

This is how our hikes go - Orion is full of energy the entire time and pulling like crazy to smell every single leaf, tree and rock. (Then at night she passes out.)

The park had these nifty signs to tell you whether you were heading towards the Visitor's Center or away. (Away! Further away! Get away from the tourists!)

We spent the night at a hotel in Bloomington. Dinner location was decided upon the number of televisions available. Logic being more televisions = more chances they'd let us watch the Gator game on one of them. We lucked out and got our own TV at our table!

The next morning we headed towards Havana. Illinois, not Cuba. That's a bit far in a Subaru. This is what most of Illinois looks like. Fields. They're really pretty.

This is how Orion enjoys most car rides. Lazing in the back seat. Sometimes she looks out the window, but she prefers to nap.

We arrived in Havana and really liked their water tower. (It's so old!)

One of the suggested things to do was walk along the river front. Remember how I said earlier it's mostly barges? Yeah, not particularly scenic. But we walked anyways.

More old-fashioned buildings.

We pointed the car back toward the north and made our way slowly up the western side of the river. This preservation area said you could hike, but there weren't really any trails.

We made it to Peoria in time for lunch on the river front.

They were lacking for local foodie spots, so we had crab!

This railroad turntable is in the middle of a park. Why it's there, it doesn't say. There aren't any tracks around. It's a mystery.

We drove up along a road in the hills and found where the well-to-do live in Peoria. (Giant mansions!) They had some hiking trails too.

This is the view from some of the mansions.

We liked Starved Rock so much we decided to go back. Plus, we didn't really see much the first time and ended up sticking in the area most visitors see. This time, we grabbed a trail map and went off on our own.

Literally.

Not really, though. We did see a total of four other people hiking between the three trails we took.

Look how giant the rocks are! Can you see me and Orion?

Orion demonstrated how brave she is.

Then we headed back to Chicago and somehow managed to not run into crazy traffic or construction!

Oh, and for anyone that's detail-oriented like me and wondering, "Why is Orion wearing a harness but you have the leash clipped to her collar?" We hook her leash to her harness in the car (safer for her and us) but use it on her collar when hiking in case a tree falls in the forest and makes a great noise and she tries to bolt.