Chicago, the "this is the last one, I promise" edition

So after I left Sweeney, Lor and Penny at Navy Pier on Monday afternoon, I realised that I had about 36 hours left in Chicago, and way too much still on my list of things to do. I had high hopes for going up to the zoo seeing as how it's free and all, but sadly there was insufficient time :(

On Monday night, I headed up to the John Hancock Observatory to watch the sun set over the city. That was pretty awesome. The audio tour was narrated by David Schwimmer, which was a little disconcerting because I kept expecting the information about Chicago's landmarks to include the line "We were on a BREAK!!" at regular intervals...

Anyway, the view from the top is incredible. And being up there for sunset was pretty cool. I think I may have elbowed a small child out of the way to get a decent spot at the window to take photos. #whoops

The something-or-other building. I have no idea. Anyone know?

Sunset over the Chicago River. And, you know, Chicago...

I then went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory at the base of the John Hancock Building, and ordered a weight management salad (cos I'm ALL about the dieting. What?) and a side of macaroni and cheese in an attempt to get over the trauma of the mac and bonfire that we'd had at lunchtime. The waiter may have laughed at me when I ordered. Clearly, he's never needed to get the taste of mac and bonfire out of his mouth... *jealous*

The next day, I got up to find it tipping with rain. After unsuccessfully trying to wait it out at my hotel, I was forced to make a mad dash across the street to 7-11 to buy an umbrella. By the time I'd done that, it was thundering. It made walking a mile down Michigan Avenue rather interesting, that's for sure!

I finally made it to the Art Institute in one (slightly squelchy) piece. And I had an awesome time there. Do you guys ever play a game at museums and art galleries where you pretend that you're insanely rich and can take home one thing from each room?

I have no idea when I started playing it. I have half a suspicion that it's something my mum the teacher would have invented to make sure that we were paying attention to the objects and reading the text labels and generally learning stuff rather than aimlessly wandering around. If it *was* my mum (HI MUM!!!), at least it paid off - she got a museum curator out of it!

Anyway, I played said game at the Art Institute the other week. And thank God I'm *not* filthy rich, or my house would need to be much bigger than it is, because i would now be the proud owner of the following:

• a Mayan stelae,
• several Monet paintings,
• a couple of grandfather clocks,
• Grant Wood's American Gothic,
• a medieval necklace in the shape of a dragon,
• a half suit of armour from sixteenth century Italy,
• a Van Gogh self portrait, 
• a frieze of donkeys from the wall of an ancient Egyptian tomb,
• some Chinese bronze water vessels,
• a painting of an orange grove in Spain,
• a truly awesome library ladder (though sadly not of the slide-y variety), and
• this painting, solely because of the completely ridiculous hat that (male) baby is wearing:

Awesome... I hope he gave his parents hell for this painting when he grew up. 

Of course, it stopped raining during the four hours I spent in the Art Institute, and started again the minute I left... And the rain was even harder than it had been on the way down there. When the rain started coming THROUGH my umbrella, I decided it was time to take shelter under the portico of a nearby office building. Still, by the time I got back to the hotel, my shoes made squelchy noises and my socks were so wet that I had to wring them out in the bath #funtimes #ew

But despite the thunderstorms, my last few days in Chicago were awesome. Well...except for the part where I dragged my suitcase three blocks in the wrong direction on my way to the airport because I threw out my map of Chicago at the hotel. And the part where I asked someone where the train station was and he gave me a weird look and then pointed about two metres to his left #FAIL But, ya know, other than that, it was great!! ;)

Seriously though, does anyone else play that game? Or am I a crazy person?? :S

K xx

Challenge recipe 2: Chilli, lime and chicken salad

It was stinking hot yesterday, it was even worse today, hitting 38 degrees in the 'berra. The trend is to continue for basically the whole week, with an increasing degree of humidity. Awesome... So I figured it was time to break out one of the salads that I'd flagged for my cookbook challenge. This is a crunchy, tangy salad that's a hell of a lot more exciting - not to mention healthier! - than my usual chicken salad. I made a couple of little changes to the recipe - I replaced watercress with lettuce, left out the two spring onions because I can't stand them raw, and made a little change to the dressing - but apart from that, this is as it appears in the book.

Speaking of which, this is the book:

It's one of the AWW's tiny cookbooks, and I think I got it at the newsagent for $5.00. Score!

Here's what you'll need for the salad:

Start by putting 1 cup of chicken stock and 1 cup of water into a saucepan. Bring it to the boil (and pay attention to it, or you'll find it erupting all over the stove like I did...), then reduce to a simmer and add 340g of trimmed chicken breast.

Simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked. Cool for five minutes, and then dice.

While the chicken is cooking, julienne the carrot:

And slice the capsicum thinly:

Then slice up the Chinese cabbage (also known as wombok)...

...and the iceberg lettuce (or, if you want to do it by the actual recipe, use 100g trimmed watercress):

Then dump all the veggies into a large salad bowl that you gave your housemate for Christmas and are now taking advantage of, and add 1/2 cup of chopped coriander...

...along with 3/4 cup of bean sprouts:

Toss the whole lot together, and start on the dressing. Here's what you'll need:

I forgot to take photos of making the dressing, because I was trying to work out if the chicken was cooked at the same time, but I'm sure you can work out how to make dressing. Take 1/4 cup of lime juice (limes are easier to juice if you stick them in the microwave for 10 seconds first!), add 2 tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce (technically, the recipe calls for oyster sauce. But it makes me gag, so I switched it out...), 1 clove of crushed garlic, and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil.

Add the chicken to the top of the salad, and drizzle on the dressing:

Serve and enjoy! (Oh, it serves 4, btw)

The verdict? This was delicious. I was somewhat sceptical, given that in my mind "poached chicken = what you give Domino when he's sick and won't eat his dry food". Plus, I wasn't sure about the raw Chinese cabbage part of it. But it's just crunchy and fresh, with the tang of lime and the sweetness of honey from the chilli sauce. To be honest, if I made it again, I'd probably marinate the chicken in lime juice, and grill it with a little bit of spray oil rather than poaching it. But other than that (and the other few changes that I made...), it's all good.

And given that it contains less than 200 calories per serve, I think I can deal with adding an extra few calories to the recipe in the future. It's surprisingly filling too. At least, it is when you follow it up with a serving of homemade chocolate mousse... But that's challenge recipe number 3!

Give this a try in stupidly hot weather - you'll be glad you did!!

K xx

A salad that wasn't made for rabbits!

The past couple of months, I've been buying those cheap recipe magazines from the supermarket in an attempt to expand my cooking repertoire. So far, I've added a grand total of two dishes to my list. But they were both pretty good, although I'll make alterations to the first recipe if making it again, and I already made alterations to the second. I'll post about the pumpkin and ricotta cannelloni eventually (I actually took step by step photos when I made it three weeks ago and still haven't sorted through them...), but for today, here's the spiced lamb and couscous salad:

Sorry about the ugly flash photo and the mess on the bench. I was using my point and shoot, and I was starving.......

I didn't take photos for this one, because I already had half the stuff left over from the Halloween party last weekend, so we'll have to do this the conventional way.

Spiced lamb and couscous salad - adapted from Recipes +

2 tablespoons olive oil
250g lamb steak (I used eye of loin because it was the nicest looking cut the supermarket had. The recipe calls for 500g lamb rump steaks. But I figured it was a waste of money because at least half of the 500g is fat!)
2 tablespoons Moroccan spice mix
450g butternut pumpkin, peeled and cubed
1 red capsicum, chopped
1.5 cups couscous
400g chickpeas, drained and rinsed
60g rocket leaves (I used baby spinach because I think rocket tastes like pesticide)
1/4 cup honey mustard dressing (I used reduced fat)
100g reduced fat feta, chopped (my addition - I had it left over and didn't know what else to do with it!)

Mix 1 tablespoon of the oil with the spice mix. Coat both sides of the lamb, then cook in a grill pan until done to your liking (I, for once, actually succeeded in not obliterating the hell out of my meat!). Transfer to a plate and cover with foil.

Add the pumpkin to the pan and cook for a couple of minutes (or, if you're me, use leftover roast pumpkin from making mini pizzas!). Then add the capsicum and the chickpeas (the recipe doesn't call for heating these, but I think they're gross cold...), and cook for 5 minutes or until tender.

Place couscous and remaining oil in a bowl, add 1.3 cups boiling water. Cover with Glad Wrap and set aside for five minutes. Use a fork to fluff up the grains.

Slice the lamb thinly, and add it into the pan with the vegetables to warm up for a minute. Add the chopped feta at the last minute (unless you like your feta melty... I don't know why it didn't occur to me that feta melts like any other cheese!), along with the spinach/rocket. Stir through the dressing. Dump the whole lot into the couscous and toss to combine.

Serves four as a main course.

This was really good, although I don't know that I'd be as taken with it if I hadn't added the feta. It just gave it a little extra kick. Recipes + calculated it at $3.65 per serve, but I can't really judge that because a) I used a cut of meat that cost double what the one in the recipe did, and b) I had half the ingredients already... But regardless, it was a quick and easy meal that classifies as a salad without the need for cucumber and radishes and olives and all manner of other vile things that get put into salads!

$3.30 a month for over 300 recipes? I think the magazine is worth it, even if I do end up adapting things!

K xx