i want, i want!!!!!!!!

it may be bad that he has influenced me so much.

but thats ok, i miss the doctor.

dear world.

you should all be more like tito and paul.

that is all.

merry christmas..............all 5 of you

to all the folks who read this, have a good christmas.

im not going to post any xmas recipes or anything. right now im working on a zine-like recipe book that ill put out when ever i feel like it. and hopefuly do it frequently, it may have some art and chicago street art as well as food stuff. so if anyone wants to show me how to use microsoft word and a printer...........id love you 4EVA.

oh and just so you know. the people who put up signs like this.

are not f'ing around. look up.

and one more thing. one day has passed. and i miss this girl.



from a quiet, starry small town.

see ya on st. jacks day!!!!!!

warm drinks for cold shoulders.

jamie lynn spears, britney spears' 16 year old sister is prego.

i have reversed my position on eating babies.

in other news. xmas is just around the corner. ill be posting some food ideas soon.
but for now an easy drink for your xmas eve or day.

hot spiced apple cider.
1 jug apple cider
1 lemon-sliced into rounds.
3-4 sticks cinnamin
1 tablespoon cloves
and if you want 1 tbl star anise.

just add them all together and simmer for about an hour. keep hot. enjoy with some cookies. or baby bread.

Adam Joseph Paris

everyone this is adam.

he is the son of dan and sabrina paris. dan was a good friend of mine in high school and still is. we would sit around and play video games(he always beat the crap out of me in 007) and eat candy bars he was supposed to sell for a sports fundraiser at school. we ate lots of nachos in thoes days too. and he has a sense of humor that is nothing less than brilliant.
it's funny, a few of my friends have had babies in the past few years. and i was happy for all of them.
but this time its a different feeling. and im not shure how to describe it. im unbelievably proud just to know them. i was holding back tears in this coffie shop when i first saw the pictures. its amazing to look at a good friend's child and see the future.

and feel overwhelming peace in the fact that people i love are in charge of that future.

Adam Joseph
Born on: December 13, 2007 at 11:09am
Weight: 6 lbs. 13 ozs.
Length: 20 inches

i know this is a food blog for the most part. and i just want to let you all know that in no way do i approve of eating babies.

swayze cakes!!!!!!

after waching the movie point break last night. the greatest move i've seen in months by the way. i got up today thinking about Patrick Swayze and food that would be good on the beach. and the plantain came to mind. i love plantains. for thoes of you who need a quick description, a plantain is a BIG starchy banana. and are very versatile, almost like the potato(but more expensive). if you like the banana taste you can use it in alot of stuff, soup, gnocchi, or just baked and fried. and when they are unripe and green you could break a car window with one-you know, if you lock your keys in or somthing.
so after thinking for like 20 minutes i thought of "swayze cakes". much like the boxty that i posted about last week. SC's are a fried fritter type food made with plantains and chick peas.

1 cup dried chick peas-soaked in water about 4 hours.
2 cups plantain mash. roast in skin at 350 till soft. about 3-4 plantains.
1/4 onion diced small
4-5 crushed garlic cloves
3/4 cup flower
2-3 tablespoons allspice
1 tablespoon cinnamon

put plantains on baking sheet and roast with some oil till soft. remove and mash adding salt and pepper to taste.
take soaked chick peas and rough chop. big chunks are ok.
add all ingredients together. be careful with the flower as it is just an estimation on my part. you dont want it to be that thick.
add salt and pepper to taste again.
heat up some oil to fry in, drop some mix into oil, fry on both sides till brown .
i think this would be good with coconut rice. just cook rice with coconut milk and some water.

oh and by the way, check this stuff out. http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegrocer/
some chicago street art that i love.

not to be confused with the game on "the price is right"

i hate money. mostly that i have none. and spend it when i should not. and am to dumb to look for a job.

i think im gonna go to a party.

put back together again......

last night my dear friends "headlights" played at the double door. and i must say they could not have rolled through town at a more perfect time. i had a particularly bad day yesterday. and with eyes closed and a smile from ear to ear, it was all gone. i dont know what it is about the songs they write. but to put it simply, they fix me.
about 2 summers ago my grandmother died. she was 97 and had ben in failing health for some time. this was a woman who took in my dad and uncle after their parents died, my dad was around 2 or 3 i think. she was actually their aunt. but they call her mom. her passing was not unexpected. it was like an exhale of breath heald a little to long. but still very sad.
about a week after her funeral i was trying to rember the way she would talk to us, and i couldn't. i could rember the way her house smelled, the taste of the stale marshmallows she would give me. i rember the day we were visiting her and the nurse said "shes more awake than usual today" and i knew at that moment it was the last time i would see her alive. and i was right.
i decided to go see headlights at the monkey that night. and during the song "it isn't easy to live that well" i closed my eyes. trying to escape the feeling of searching for a forgotten voice, and finding nothing but forgetable ones.
i dont know if it was the lyrics, the way erin looks like she will explode from happyness when she plays, or just simply the music. but my mind whent back to the day my parents and i got home and my grandmother was already in the house. and when my dad asked her how she got in because the door was locked. at 80 somthing years old she explained to us how she borrowed the neighbors ladder and climbed in through a window. and i could actually hear her telling the story. ever sense then headlights have held a special place in my heart.

all that to say, these kids do it right.

a perfect example of what happens when you put all your love, excitement, joy, sadness, friendships, life, into what you do. it changes people.

i only have eyes for you.

today is ol' blue eyes 92nd birthday. and in honor of him. i have found a recipe for eggplant parmesan written by frank himself. i was going to post a different recipe, mama-mia farrows' pot brownies. but lets keep this wholesome. right?

For the Eggplant:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 medium eggplant, peeled and cut crosswise in 1/2-inch thick slices
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup (1-1/2 ounces) grated Parmesan cheese
1 (6 ounce) package mozzarella cheese
Tomato sauce (recipe below)
Instructions
Prepare tomato sauce (recipe below) and set aside. Combine flour and salt. Dip eggplant in egg, then in seasoned flour. Saute eggplant slices in hot oil in large skillet for 3 minutes on each side, adding more oil if necessary. Drain slices well on paper towel.

Place 1/2 of eggplant in single layer in 10 x 6 x 2-inch baking dish, cutting slices to fit. Sprinkle with 1/2 of Parmesan cheese, 1/2 sauce and 1/2 mozzarella cheese. Cut remaining mozzarella into triangles. Repeat layers.

Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until hot.

Tomato Sauce:
Ingredients
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 small clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 (14-1/2 ounce) can tomatoes, cut up
1/3 cup tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1 bay leaf
Instructions
Saute the onion, celery, and garlic in oil in a large skillet until tender. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, pepper, parsley, oregano and bay leaf. Simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes or until desired consistency. Remove bay leaf and set aside. Proceed with eggplant as above.

this should be paired with a full bottle of gin, a splash of soda, some ice, and a nice fedora.

tuesdays gone........................

well, its finals week. i havent taken a final in like 5 years.


skynard is playing in the coffie shop. i love the midwest.

"mother's ruin"

yesterday was gin day down in champaign. sooooooooooooooooooooooo

jack bless

last week liam asked me how to make "boxty" and i had never herd of it. i do love wikipedia sometimes.
"Boxty is a traditional Irish potato pancake. The dish is mostly associated with the north midlands, north Connacht and southern Ulster, in particular the counties of Sligo, Leitrim and Cavan. There are many different recipes but all contain finely grated, raw potatoes and all are served fried. The most popular version of the dish consists of finely grated, raw potato and mashed potato with flour, baking soda, buttermilk and sometimes egg. The grated potato may be strained to remove most of the starch and water but this is not necessary. The mixture is fried on a griddle pan for a few minutes on each side, similar to a normal pancake. Traditional alternatives include using only raw potatoes, boiling it as a dumpling or baking it as a loaf. The most noticeable difference between boxty and other similarly fried potato dishes is its smooth, fine grained consistency."
Boxty was seen as so much a part of the local culture in the areas in which it was made, that the following poem was written-
"Boxty on the griddle,
Boxty in the pan,
If you can't make boxty,
You'll never get a man."----ha, well im glad i know now.

one thing that is traditionally served with boxty for breakfasf in england, ireland,and scotland, is blood pudding. it is made from cooking blood with a filler untill it is thick enough to congeal when cooled(it normaly looks like sausage). then it is sliced and fried.Typical fillers include meat, fat, suet, bread, sweet potato, barley and oatmeal. it sounds gross but im gonna try it soon, ill let ya'll know.
i looked up some recipes for boxty. and decided to write my own. as big of a fan as i am of tradition......i wanted to add some more flavor and options.

boxty.
1 medium russet potato. cooked and mashed. 1 cup in the end.
1 medium russet potato. raw, grated using a cheese grater or food processor. 1 cup. (you could sub a sweet potato, or 1/2 sweet potato 1/2 beet)
1 tablespoon roasted garlic paste(you can buy in the store)
3/4 cup flower
1 teaspoon baking soda
about 1 cup buttermilk
salt and pepper to taste.
some things you can add for flavor. if so inclined.
1 tablespoon each cumin and oregano. and serve boxty with salsa.
1 tablespoon curry powder, 1/2 table chilly powder. serve with sourcream and cucumber.

all you do to prepair this is take the cup mashed potato and mix all ingredients except buttermilk. at the end add buttermilk till the mix becomes a thick but runny mush.
heat some oil in a pan. and scoop about 2 tablespoons of mix into oil. cook till brown on both sides. and enjoy. this is a good group brunch item.

modern toilet

12 chain restaurants have opend up in taiwan. called modern toilet. a bathroom themed eatery. so ya the owner wins my "holy crap that guy is my new hero award" this takes guts, and the 12 places are doing well. mostly the people who eat here are between 15 and 35. that makes sense.
all the 100 seats are made out of real toilet seats and napkins are despensed off a roll like toilet paper. the food is served in little toilets, and the ice cream..............well it looks awesome!!!!!






i would eat here every day if i could.

cover me in snow, and get that talking dog away from me.

a new blog site has gone up in champaign. and its great. i miss champaign and its nice to hear news and stuff from people i know. my old head chef alisa demarco writes for it. i miss working with her. she is an amazing cook, and was a great boss. ill be content if someday im half the cook and leader she is. there are very few people i hold in such high respect. on that list would be my parents, my grandmother, carl, and one of my old teachers. not on that list are: W, that guy from the bushes baked beans comercials, and of montreal.

the first snow of the year is one of my favorite times. sit around a fire and read, watch tv, whatever. but that moment when you first step out side and everything you once saw as familiar is now changed into somthing new and different. its wonderful. i see it every year. and it still amazes me.
i've found the best music for this weather is jolie holland. her voice is everything winter to me. check out her record
escondida. and walk in the snow.

and check her out.


its soup weather also. find a place that has soup you like. and eat it.

my 15 cents of gabo.

in an autobiography by Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Count Justice. He talks about putting a 15 cent sticker on his Yale Law Degree frame because he said that was what it was worth to him.
my dad told me about this.

and i feel the same way. after im 80-90 grand in debt the day i graduate. i hope to find a 10 cent sticker. school is very discouraging. but im gonna do what i know to do. and thats be here. i hope it picks up after christmas, when im actualy in a cooking class. but right now gen-ed's are making me crazy. and the fact that i have no desire to talk to anyone at this place makes chi kinda lonely. but iv got the west wing. right?

“What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.”
 -Gabriel Garcia Marquez

i read this the other day and realized all the things i remember from my life in the last 5 years are just quick smapshots of people. and that makes me happy. and the feelings that go along with their faces. im like a big freekish scrpabook.

just for fun here is a pic of gabo(gabbriel garcia marquez) with a good friend.



i makes me think of talking with carl at the pig.

free rice.

so i just found this site on another blog. and its a good idea and worth your time to check out for at least 10-15 min. you just play the word game and every question you get right the site will donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. this site started in october and on wed the 29th they donated 369,007,280 grains.
a total of 4,933,763,490 grains in 2 months. it should me so much more. we all know this.
my guess is about 800-900 grains are in a serving. it may be more.

lets give the hungry people of this earth some useful rice:


the site is freerice.com

i will follow you lord, and cover you in grape jelly.

so i have this idea for a toaster that burns the face of jesus into every piece. dose anyone know how to make this? im tellen ya this is a gold mine. it would sell itself. urban outfitters would jump my bones to sell them-as long as i had another toaster that burns conner oberst into toast(hes their jesus).
and yess jam.
salvation straberry.
orange you glad he died for your preserves.
anny ideas people?

chicago: drink this coffie, or tea.

my new home away from home away from home. star lounge is quite nice. it reminds me of aroma, and is very comfortable. the staff are great, and some of the first chicago poeple i've met and liked talking to. it makes me miss my times at the old merry anns. thoes days were allot like my times now, i rarely spoke out loud. except to order coffie. and was very content in doing so. so ya, my new refuge. the star lounge cafe.

"Home is not where you live but where they understand you." ~Christian Morgenstern

if i could save the world, i'd start with you.

not many people like beets. my friend liam had his first beet this week. and liked it. i was proud of him. beets are good for repairing the liver, producing stomach acids, and they help prevent cancer. not a bad deal if you can get people to eat them. its all about preperation.
here are some easy and delicious ways to get the masses to "beet it"


beet chips are a great way to get a junk food junky to enojy. the biggest problem is slicing them thin by hand.
slice about 3-4 beets as thin as you can(you can leave the skin on to make it easier-just wash them)
toss them with oil salt and pepper
bake on a sheet at 350 untill crispy.
mix some cream cheese and goat cheese to dip them in.

its cold out now and soup is a MUST. this is a very easy soup that i like chilled or hot.
1 cup carrots
1 cup onion
2 cups beets-all chopped.
1 spring fresh rosemary
vegetable stock

cook onions in oil till soft.
add carrots and beets cook with the onions 4 like 5 min.
add rosemary and veg stock till liquid just covers.
cook till veg is soft.
blend all, using the liquid to keep a good consistency.

pickled beets sound scary but you can pickle them with whatever you want. some countrys have whole meal courses of pickled foods. its an amazing way to eat.
my pickling liquid.
1 cup water
1 cup white wine vinegar
2 cups sugar
add all, in pot heat up till sugar is disolved.

*u can use many things to pickle with, this is a simple pickleing liquid. some people just use lime juce.*

my pickled beet mix.
dice 3-4 beets kinda small-1/2inch by 1/2inch. the smaller you dice the faster they pickle.
3 whole clove garlic
2-3 small jalapenos sliced in rounds.
1/2 red onion chopped
star anise(4-5 if you can find whole, 1 tablespoon if pieces)
salt/pepper
wait about a week and it will be ready.

mike doughty rocks my world. even if dave mathews is on his new cd.

turkey day eve, and turky day.

this was a great couple days. it all started with shopping and long bus rides in cold, rainy weather. then yes, we drank.



i woke up at like 730 hung over but ready to cook. i put third eye blind on in the kitchen, and started cuting stuff. it felt good to cook among friends and "ok" music. it was like being on stage(god i miss it). then the food was ready. and yes PBR was around.

the roast.



more drinking and laughing and general thanksgiving sillyness. it was fun. and lots of food.



we put the roast in around 12:30. and started to realize that we had a lot of food, and a lot of PBR. people started showing up the food was close to ready, and i was 1/2 drunk.
we took the roast out and got ready to eat.



i must say the above picture is hot.

we ate food, joked, ate more food. then just sat around and did nothing........... well, we drank more. and looked like a apple comercial.



but all in all it was a greeeeeat day. i miss my family, but i spent the day with people i love and good food. i could not have asked for anything more. i am very thankfull for my life and friends. i am feeling very happy, and content for the first time in like 2 months. i feel a change in the winds of backpack. i love you all. and hope you had a wonderfull day.
and now...............................

thanksgiving made possible by: third eye blind.

so i think i figured out thanksgiving. mostly.
pork tenderloin marinated overnight in red wine, chix stock, and sage.
then im roasting it with beets, parsnips, red onion, carrot, sweet potato. adding roux to leftover juce for gravey.
and a butternut squash/potato/goat cheese bake.
ill have actual written recipes later if you would like one.

god i love 3Eb.

and on the eighth day john hughes created josh

so i think my life was writen by john hughes. he is my god. and the jerk did not make me a judd nelson type. so just immagine anthony michael hall in cheff whites. thats how my weekend was. but no happy ending for the dorky kid yet. no riding in a convertable. or kissing the girl. just the pre-pubescent yelps and movement. i bet its entertaining from from the throne of john hughes.

just plain sexy.

is it bad that this makes me sexualy excited? i need a good knife that will last me some years. and i think iv found it. yumy.

a missinformed line cook. who grins like he has a secret.

"My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. Fortunately, everybody drinks water" -mark twain.

school is very diffrent from what everyone at kendall told me. so far my cooking classes have been easy. and my gen ed's are just annoying.
every day we get the idea that our life is over pounded into our heads. 70-80 hour weeks, working on every holiday, no time for friends, and a family? haha forget it kids. i know that they are useing scare tactics on us. trying to weed out the kids who are at culinary school because they saw rachael ray on a box of triscuits(couldn't tell the diffrence between their ass and a doughnut hole.). but the reality is its alot of hard work, dedication, and time consuming. i understand that, and have decided to say "no thank you".
just because the chefs above me did it and chefs before them did it and so on...dosent mean its the only way a person should go in this profession. im not trying to be chef che or anything but food has seen some amazing changes in the last 20 years. chefs are more respected. have tv shows. organic farming. and fast food is at least attempting to be healthy. change is around the corner again. and i think if my generation will see this we could do great things.
i have an idea of what i want to do out of school, it will keep me close to music. with a knife in my hand. more to come.

im trying to figure out what im cooking for thanksgiving. venison, lots of root vegitables, and wild turkey.-its just not thanksgiving without turkey juce!

yes its funny. why? well, if you dont know. sorry.

well, well, well.

welcome to St. jacks diner.
the not so wild adventures of backpack.
the place were i wll write dumb stuff about food, culinary school, food, and beer. I dont expect it to be all that interesting. im no markel. but this will keep me occupied and maby you will like somthing. and eat it.