Coyote Ugly Soup
As a follow-up to my last post, I thought I’d share how I used the wonderful chorizo I bought at Publican Quality Meats. Originally, I was going to make split pea soup, but, to be honest, split pea soup is kind of boring. And I didn’t quite have enough split peas to make a whole [...]
meeting people, a how-to from the world’s most socially awkward woman
I’ve been asked a lot of strange things in my time, but, “Are you going meat shopping with us later?” is surely one of the strangest questions I’ve ever received. The answer was, of course, “yes.” Because who could pass up something so…odd? A few hours later I was traipsing around somewhere in downtown Chicago [...]
Team Pastrami
Last night, the first major project I’ve been a part of here at the Trib launched. Vivelohoy is a Spanish-language news site, which, let me tell you, broke my brain in all sorts of ways. It’s a complete joy to see it live. The team went to a place called Manny’s today to have a [...]
Brr!
One “advantage” to having most of your family in a warmer climate is getting constant reminders of how cold it is where you are. “The Weather Channel says it feels like minus four there,” wrote Mom helpfully in an email to me today. “Do you have plenty of supplies in case you get snowed in? [...]
Overheard in the newsroom
The newsroom is a pretty crazy place, and journalists are just a little bit loopy sometimes. Here are a few of the more entertaining things I’ve heard in the past month, including a couple of things from yours truly that got “oh-ayched” on Twitter. “That’s the smell of synergy.” (On how often geeks do laundry.) [...]
Snow!
“25, feels like 16,” I texted my best friend Sarah. “I thought you were talking about ages, not temperatures :-p” was the response. I’d never felt 16 degrees before. To my surprise, it really wasn’t that much worse than 30 (at least until the wind kicked up and went right through my thick wool coat). [...]
Charcoal and code
All the many strange and difficult-to-explain things that I do can be summed up rather neatly: I am a maker of things. It’s a very generic description, but I have discovered that it is an important distinction. Some people are orchestrators of things, and in fact without them, makers of things would probably never get [...]
chestnuts
Growing up in California, the Christmas lyrics, “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire / Jack Frost nipping at your nose” had very little meaning for me. (The only Jack Frost I was familiar with sold bags of ice.) Here in Chicago, as temperatures dip and people in my office start to talk about snow (“It’s [...]
Things I’ve Learned, Chicago Edition
It’s been a while since I’ve written here. Adjusting to a new pace of life is weird and hard. I find myself working late just because if I come home, I don’t know what to do with myself. (My dishes, floors, and bathroom should be much cleaner than they are as a corollary to this.) [...]
Hollywood:beauty::supermarkets:produce
“I grew up in open land. I’m not comfortable in the city. And until you have walked and worked in the fields of Central California, I’m not sure you can really understand what it is like to see them gone.” — Arthur Parham There’s an earthy realness in a fresh-grown vegetable. You can hear it [...]