![\"Robyn](\"https:\/\/debslunch.com\/debslunchblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/RHselfie.jpg\")
<\/a>Robyn Hitchcock selfie, I think on the plane from the Twins to Chicago<\/p><\/div>\n
I took a couple of days off from cookies to do a cultural weekend in Chicago.<\/p>\n
I didn’t do any baking Friday, but I got my hair cut and then spent like 2 hours and close to $500 shopping for ingredients. I think I’ll do one last trip to Woodmans on Thanksgiving morning – they say they’re open till 1:45 – and I will have everything. I also processed some of the vegetables that came in my two giant CSA boxes<\/a>. I blanched the two bunches of kale I got, one lacinto and one curly, and used some for dinner<\/a> (made with whole wheat gnocchi & cottage cheese; not as good as the plain potato gnocchi & whole milk ricotta called for in recipe, but good nonetheless). I took the three giant squashes I had in the vetsibule – 2 from the market, one from CSA – and cubed and roasted the necks for quiche or quesadillas or maybe chili<\/a>, and baked and pur\u00e9ed the bulbs for pumpkin pie<\/a>, and scones<\/a>. So I made more room in the vestibule for cookies.<\/p>\n We went to the farmers market on Saturday morning to get the turkey<\/a>, and then took the train down to Chicago. We were trying to plot a pre-Robyn-Hitchcock dinner, but we sort of ran out of time. We considered this place<\/a> and this one<\/a>, where I think I’ve been before, but we ended up at the bar across the street<\/a>, where we were able to eat and make it back with five minute to spare. I had a veggie burger, in Robyn’s honor. Or honour, I guess that would be.<\/p>\n It was an interesting show, too – I think he started with a new one – riding trolleys with his dad – “my eyes have seen the trolley bus”. It reminded me a bit of this interview<\/a> from last summer, that I listened to, where he talked about his dad, and Percy<\/a>. The first half was all Robyn (and Soft Boys, but that’s still RH), and there were a few I didn’t recognize, as much of a fan as I am. He came back for a lengthy encore, 8 songs, all covers, sung while drinking 1 1\/2 plastic cups of the cheap red plonk they serve at the School. I joined setlist.fm and posted it<\/a>.<\/p>\n We took the L back, Mark watched a bit of Saturday Night Live, but I just went to bed and read a bit.<\/p>\n In the morning we went to see the Bowie show the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. The much-hated audio tour headphones were a must. Mine got out of sync but then I changed them for a new pair, and was fine. I wish there was a little more late stuff, but, since Bowie himself seemed completely in charge, I suppose he’s saving that. I liked the glam rock, Ziggy, the best, but I always have. In the section on Bowie as other people, in movies, it was nice to see\u00a0 the clip of him as Warhol, in Julian Schnabel’s Basquiat<\/a>, one of his best roles I’ve always thought.<\/p>\n We walked down Michigan Avenue, getting hungry, and stopped at Le Pain Quotidien<\/a>, a Belgian chain with like four stores in Chicagoland. Mark cased it as a source of take home loafs, and we bought a baguette and a cookie to carry out. I had the Avocado tartine, and hot chocolate, which our friendly waitress said were their biggest sellers – I’m sure they say that to all the girls. The home, quick wardrobe change, and off to the Lyric for Porgy and Bess. Which I’d only seen excerpts of, or really, I just know the music, so seeing the whole story was kind of eye-opening.<\/p>\n When we came out it had started raining pretty hard, so we dived into the L, and back to the apartment to meet friends and go to dinner. I had a little Wisco spread – Willi bandaged cheddar, Potter crackers, and Giardiniera a la Mark Bitmann<\/a> (I used cauliflower and peppers and carrots, no celery, added 2 teaspoons of sugar, and a hot pepper, and I didn’t chop the olives as they are clearly NOT chopped in the pic) that I’d made with veggies from my CSA box. We went to The Chicago Firehouse<\/a>,\u00a0 good steak – my fillet was tasty even medium-well, as I like it. And we got to sit right next to the arched doors that the trucks used to drive through. Discovered I do not like rosemary in creamed spinach, and I think they did the restaurant trick of adding instant granules to the whipped garlic potatoes – to make them whip better. They were good, but had a bit if granularity on the tongue.<\/p>\n On Monday, it was still raining, so we stopped at Walgreens to get me a new umbrella – which I promptly left on the bus back to Madison at the Janesville bus switch. Oh well easy come, easy go – it was really hard to fold up, anyhow, making for awkward getting on the bus, train, and into a taxi, events.\u00a0 We sat in Intelligensia<\/a> and had coffee, then Mark headed off to work and I started walking to Union Station, but ended up cabbing and had a nice woman driver, my first time for that in Chicago. I told her how I used to drive for Union Cab<\/a> in Madison, and we had a nice chat. Then it was just the long sloppy bus ride back, the rain changed to slushy snow at Des Plaines. I caught up on work email and phone calls via iPhone. Back to work and cookies, that I will tell you about in the next post.<\/p>\n
![two giant CSA boxes<\/a>. I blanched the two bunches of kale I got, one lacinto and one curly, and used some](\"https:\/\/debslunch.com\/debslunchblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/DSCF8942-2-storage-2-boxes-400x300.jpg\"){kind=link}