It was good – we ate it for our dessert course in front of TV at 9:00, after the leftover chicken enchiladas*. I took the first piece that devolved into a pile of goo on my plate and let the guys take the more wedge-shaped slices. By the time I had my second slice, Thursday night, it had chilled enough to hold its shape.

I used the tried & true Betty Crocker recipe: Combine 1 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup cornstarch and a good pinch of salt in a 2-qt saucepan. Slowly whisk in 3 cups of milk – I used the almost out of date 2% that I had in the fridge; my real motivation for making the pie was use up that milk. Heat the mixture, whisking occasionally, until it is almost boiling. Meanwhile, separate 4 eggs – put the yolks in a bowl big enough to hold the milk mixture – I like to use my 4-cup Pyrex measure – and save the whites for something else. When the milk mixture is hot, whisk it into the yolks, and then scrape it all back into the pot. Continue cooking until the mixture thickens and really boils, then boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and whisk in 2 TBLS butter (salted is OK, and can be good, in fact) and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Pour into a graham cracker crust – pre- or home-made. For homemade, grind up 10 graham crackers in a food processor, and add 3 TBLS sugar, and 4 TBLS melted butter, pat into a 9 inch pie pan, and bake for 10 minutes. Let the pie cool first on the counter and then in the fridge before topping with the whipped topping – or whipped cream – either way a hot pie will melt & ruin the topping.

Of course, since I used up my milk in the pie, I had to borrow Mark’s for my coffee – his was a week older than mine, but still seemed OK – I just put the last of it in my coffee this a.m. and no telltale butterfat lumps.

Butterscotch pie

Topped (and cut into) butterscotch pie

Enchilada note – when we got back from Chicago on Sunday, Al & Emma had left us (in addition to the sink full of dirty dishes) a big bag of corn tortillas and an opened can of refried black beans. I had cilantro, and some odds & ends of cheese, so after I finally finished cleaning up & answering student questions on email & unpacking, I biked to the grocery store (first time I had my bike out for the year, yay!) and bought some chicken breasts to poach and shred, and canned green enchilada sauce, and made chicken-black bean enchiladas.

Asparagus salad at Acre

Aztec chocolate at XOCO

The rest are on the photo blog – and I didn’t take any pictures at Spiaggia Cafe.

It was almost like two trips – the extremely cold and rainy part, and the sunny & mild part.

We drove to Harvard IL, and took the metra train, arriving in Chicago in the rain, and cabbing to our hotel. We ventured out onto Michigan Ave. just a bit, then got cleaned up and into the outfits we had decided were appropriate for dinner in the casual side of a fancy restaurant, followed by a rock show in a university basketball arena, meaning I wore a tunic over jeans, and Mark & Ethan jeans and shirts with collars.

At Spiaggia Cafe, I toyed with the idea of getting small plates – I was thinking meatballs and a salad, maybe soup … but in the end I had the salad: Rucola – arugula, Capriole Farm goat cheese, Spiaggia balsamico and a pasta: Gigli – Manila clams, garlic, bottarga, parsley, bread crumb – but I had them leave off the bottarga (stinky fish eggs, mashed into a block and shaved onto my noodles – uh uh). I also got one of their Negronis to start, made with Campari, sweet vermouth & prosecco – what a good idea – they always come out so bitter made with gin. Mark & Ethan split one of the other salads, with frise & fennel, and Mark had the tagliatelle with spring vegetables – a few little fiddleheads in there, even. Ethan had the gnocchi with wild boar ragu – leaving me with the uncomfortable feeling that as the smallest person, I ate the most – but maybe not, because I only ate about half of my pasta.

It was really raining when we got outside, so we jumped in a cab – a Scion – and the cab driver actually asked me how to go, and followed my directions. But that kinda backfired when he asked us where we wanted to be dropped off; he made a left and pulled up in front the UIC Pavillion, and immediately got yelled at by a cop – “what are you doing stopping here”. I went back and say that I was the customer and I asked him to drop me off there, but that only got the cop yelling at me – “So what if you’re the customer – I AM THE POLICE”. But he let the driver go before we even got into the building. Shoulda tipped the driver a bit more I guess.

Saturday morning, the start of the sunny & mild part of the trip, was the peak dining experience – we went to Rick Bayless’ new joint, XOCO – Mexican street food, and stood in line for about 20 minutes for our table. Himself was there behind the counter in his whites – so he must like the place too. It was worth it. I got a torta – pork and black bean sandwich that came in a bowl of tomato sauce – good but messy. Mark got a dryer chicken torta, and Ethan had probably the best, at least the healthiest, choice, one of the Caldos, like Mexican Pho, rich broth with stuff in it, chicken and avocados and tortilla strips in this case. And, since the churros came three to an order, it seemed only right to split them. I saved a few slurps of my spicey Aztec chocolate to go with.

Churros at XOCO

Afterward, we walked and shopped and went to the MCA to see Jim Nutt. They had QR codes along with exhibition labels, so you could scan and see the backs of some of the pictures, or hear a curator talk about Nutt’s craftmanship, on your smart phone.

We ate an early pre-theater dinner at a place called Acre, nice neighborhood joint, used to be Charlies, I guess. The asparagus was the best. Then finished the night at The Book of Liz, a funny play written by Amy Sedaris. It was at this tiny indie theater way out on Irving Park Rd., tickets were only $18 each. Turned out Google maps knew what it was doing when it said to walk to the L – the 22 Clark, even though it was direct to our just off Michigan near North hotel, took longer because of all the traffic. Still, not a bad way to spend part of a Saturday night – watching the nightlife on Clark St. from the bus.

Book of Liz poster

We ate. Friday night we had a pre-theater supper at Trattoria No. 10 – a reliable old fave. I had the squash ravioli – 4 large ones, and the nice touch was shreds of zucchini and carrot over the top – softened by the heat of the pasta.

Then on to see Merchant of Venice, staged as Mad Men. I liked it – thought it was pretty incredible how Shakespeare’s words were uttered so easily by actors in modern dress, with cell phones and laptops. The couple next to left at intermission, though. Mark bought us CTA cards and we used the sh*t out of public transportation. When we hit Belmont Ave. at 11:30 on a Friday night, walking back to the hotel from the EL, the sidewalks were packed – we knew we were in the big city.

We ate some more. On Saturday morning we went to Bittersweet, a neighborhood bakery recommended by Lottie + Doof. Good bakery, but they don’t have the retail thing down at all – must be making all their $$ on wholesale out the back. As it should be, but still didn’t make it nicer for us front of the store customers. And, come to think of it, I had to look on Yelp to get their open hours – couldn’t find them on their website to save my life – so it all figures.

Sticky bun at Bittersweet

O'Keefe & Steiglitz in 1944

Then we walked to the Lincoln Park Conservatory, and the flower show. Took the EL to the Art Institute. We saw John Marin – most of the large collection of Marin’s paintings the Art Institute has came by way of Alfred Stieglitz. This picture of Steiglitz with O’Keefe was in a display about how they framed Marin’s work; made me miss Mark’s mustache.

I think my favorite thing at the Art Institute was the show by Peter Fischli & David Weiss – photographs of stuff they took out of the refrigerator mostly, and arranged into cities and fantastical machines. Reminded me of Robyn’s vid for Ordinary Millionaire, that stars a vegetable steamer and a tequila bottle.

Then we ate again, at 11 City Diner. Had a little lie down, and then to Hitchcock & Boyd. It was the early show, we were done at 9:00, so we took the EL back to Clark St. and saw the new Jane Eyre, with Alice as Jane.

1. Way Back in the 60s Incredible String Band
2. To the Aisle Five Satins
3. Masters of War His Bobness
4. I Can Hear the Grass Grow
5. Reynardine Fairport Convention
6. Chinese White Mike Heron
7. Bike Robyn Hitchcock – Syd Barrett Tribute May 26th 2007, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London UK
8. Way to Blue Nick Drake

Here’s the Internet Archive recording of the show in Massachusetts, the week before – March 12.

We came in yesterday on the train. It was a bit of a hike and lugging suitcases on the crowded CTA bus to get to the hotel – it was about 3:30 in the afternoon, and we went past Lane Tech just as the kids were getting out.

He doesn’t look as different as I thought he would – and, well, his smile is different. I think the biggest downside for him is that as long as he had the mustache, no one could tell what he was doing with his mouth under there. Now they’ll be able to tell that he’s not only rolling his eye but curling his upper lip in disgust – they’ll start thinking he’s not nearly as polite as they thought.

His upper lip is paler then the rest of his face – it sort of glows in the dark.

Freshly shaved

Not-enough-light, blurry balloons, people filing out after Green Day beneath

Far view of the stage for Green Day

Columbus Fountain

Good view of the balloons, even though one is popped

Kid with mohawk

Grassman, a little plaid shorts showing

Another totally covered view

Grassman, totally covered

When we got up on Sunday morning in Oak Park, for the last day of Lollapalooza, it was raining – as it is right now in Madison, as I write this, already the following Friday.

Mark and I went to Starbucks, and I took my computer for the free wifi, and wrote an earlier blog post. We woke up the kids and pent some time checking all kinds of weather forcasts, on phones and TV and computers. We voted to see where we wanted to go eat – I campaigned for Lou Mitchell’s, as an adventure, and a Chicago experience. But I got out-voted for the convenience of the same place we went Saturday – the Cozy Corner.

The rain pretty much stopped and we headed downtown. The kids went to Lollapalooza – we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art, and saw the Calder show. Coincidentally, I just wrote about it in the Scout report – the show paired Calder with 7 younger artists, who’s work shows his influences. But the best part was that they put all the Calders in one big room, and the made a kind of meta Calder, mobiles and stabiles seen in relation to each other.

We played with the iPhone 4G at the Apple Store – made a face in face call – and bought some bright-colored wine stoppers at Crate & Barrel. Then we split a sandwich and a salad at Corner Bakery, got cold drinks at Starbucks and finally moseyed on down to the show.

We just camped out at the northern end and saw MGMT, The National, and Arcade Fire. It was pretty squeezy getting out – don’t know why they couldn’t just take all the barricades down at that point – but the guy in front of me that I kept getting shoved up against couldn’t have been better – he wasn’t drunk, he didn’t smell bad, and the shirt he was wearing was really soft.

Down to Lolla-land in time for Blues Traveler who were pleasant enough. Then we bailed – listened to Against Me!’s first song on the way out – and went to the Art Institute, to see Henri Cartier-Bresson. It was a pretty amazing show – especially to us baby boomers raised on Life magazine, and photo journalism. The images were presented on their own, for the most part – there were two photo essays, on Mao’s China and a business in NYC, both in the 1960s (shades of Mad Men), that included Cartier Bresson’s captioning, but the rest were mostly just places and dates.The Chicago Tribune did a nice article on Sunday morning with a two-page spread (not recreated in the online copy) of some of the most striking and familiar images, like Brie:

Then back to Lollapalooza – we went to the more southern food court – Balbo St. – because the reviews were saying there were more interesting choices there, but we got pulled pork sandwiches, an easy & familiar choice. Then we sat in a kind of trampled and cigarette butt-littered, but shady, area, heard 4 AFI songs, and ate. Then it was time to reclaim our hillside spots to see Social Distortion, and the big closer of night, Green Day. Slightly Stoopid played in between. I listened for a little bit of them, and I hadn’t realized how reggae they are. John says the stoners love them. I didn’t love them all that much so I went to get an ice cream. I admired the technique the place selling the ice cream was using – 5 flavors, all waffle cones, frozen in the cone, with a sheet of plastic on top, that they peeled off as they handed it to you. Everything $5. No scooping, spoons, change, etc. I had cookie dough, and the ice cream itself, sadly, was not as good as the technique.

Here’s how old punk rock is – Mike Ness is almost 50, and Billie Joe Armstrong is almost 40. Not only that, founding punkers like Joey Ramone and Malcolm McLaren and Joe Strummer have died from old age diseases like cancer and heart attacks, not drug overdoses. And one of the founders of Lookout Records is over 60, and friends with my brother – their blogs link to each other.

So I’ve seen Green Day about 4 times now. And I think their showmanship has only gotten better and better. They engage the crowd – they bring people up on stage, they get the crowd singing along, they throw out t-shirts and usually gve away a guitar. At Lollapalooza, they had the first guy they brought up dive off – and Billie Joe told everyone in the front rows to put down their cell phones, so they could catch him. They brought up a really little girl, and a guy who not only knew all the words to Longview, and had a decent voice, he ran back and forth across the stage a la Mr. Armstrong. I get a little irked by all the antics, though, and start to think, “wait, I don’t want to hear the crowd sing, I want to hear the band” – but they are so charming about it all, you just gotta love ‘em. This show they worked in a bunch of covers, too: Hey Jude, and Sinatra’s My Kind of Town (Chicago Is) – and Tre Cool wore a Lady Gaga bra and straw hat, too. And they played a solid 2 1/2 hours with fireworks, pyrotechnics, and a mix of old and new.

My foot under the table at Oak Park-River Forest Starbucks

We got here at about 5:00 on Friday. Mark & Ethan & Abby went straight down to the show. My foster daughter’s aunt was here on the dot to pick her up, but we had to wait a bit for the stuck in traffic dad of the other girl we’d brought along to come get her. We went into the outdoor cafe and got some dinner – I had sweet potato fries & a salad, and Goose Island Belgian ale; chauffeured girl ordered a large burger & fries, with a smoothie to drink – and naturally, dad & food arrived the same time, so we got the girl’s burger packed up to go, and I handed off daughter & dinner to the dad.

I took the L down and found Mark & the kids easy enough at Jimmy Cliff. They went to watch Lady Gaga; I stayed put for the Strokes, but by 9:45 I had had it, and went for the L without waiting for the others. I got back to the hotel, showered and into sleep boxers & t-shirt, and then got dressed again to go meet the others for bar snacks – chicken fingers, apple pie, and mozzarella sticks – before  getting back into sleepwear and to bed.

And, this time I got back to the room in time to see the last 15 mins. of Public Enemies – that I saw in a theater in Chicago just about a year ago, when it first came out. Just enough time for me to watch Johnny Depp as Dillinger watch a Clark Gable as a gangster, and get shot in the street after. I thought they filmed it at the Chicago Theater on Lake Street, but they used the Biograph up on Lincoln Avenue, which is where the real Dillinger got shot – and evidently a nice upgrade to the Biograph’s facade. Come to think of it, I might’ve seen a play there – Chicago’s Victory Garden Theater company bought it in 2004.

The correct eerie green relish, but ketchup?!! Least it's almost full and the mustard's almost gone

It was too dark to get a good shot of the pizza

It had salami, pasta, garbanzo beans, cheese