This weekend was a relaxing one. Friday night we watched a movie and did nothing. Saturday was equally relaxing. I had a bit of a cold this past week so I spent Saturday doing a lot of football watching. There were supposed to be some good games on but none of them were close or very exciting to watch. This weekend’s highlight was eating my first batch of chili this season. That’s all I got for you this week. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!
This weekend I felt a young spry 26 again so instead of staying in like I normally do on a Friday night, J and I actually left the apartment for a change. Chappy was having people over by him so we decided to venture the block. Adam and Stacey were there along with a couple of their friends. The night was a lot of fun but we really didn’t do anything “crazy”. We sat around most of the night just telling stories and acting crude. There was a little dice shaking by the others but I avoid those games at all cost. We were planning on going out to the bars but we were having so much fun that the time melted away. I remember seeing ten o’clock and the next thing I knew it was 3:30. Club Jim shut down and walked out with everyone. They were on there way to Mykano’s but I had pizza oven quesadilla on my mind so I skipped out. I had a bunch of fun, a cheap night, and was able to stay up late just like the days of old.
Saturday was another football game. I called up the troops from the night before to see if they were up for some festivities at Apt. 54. They were all surprisingly up for it so I had a gathering for the Badger v. Minnesota game. Todd, Steph, Adam, Stacey and Chappy all came over. The ending to the Badger game was pretty amazing. They got their butts kicked all game but somehow stayed with the Gophers. Then during a punt with thirty seconds left the Badgers blocked it and recovered the kick in the end zone. It shocked the Badger fans as much as it did the Gophers fans. Craziness ensured in Apt. 54 and we celebrated with some tequila. After that game we watched USC v Notre Dame and Michigan v. Penn State. They too were awesome games that ended on the final plays of the game. After the games we DID NOT go to Brothers, amen. Instead we all went to Joey Buona’s for some family style Italian dinning. Oh, did we eat too much! I have never felt so unbelievably stuffed in my entire life; I was drunk on food, delicious food. Everyone at the table was in the same overstuffed boat after the 2 salads, 2 appetizers, 2 pastas, 2 entrees, and 2 desserts. It really is the definition of gluttony but the food is so good! I struggled to stay upright during the walk home. It felt so late when we arrived back at the apartment and it was only 10. There was no way anybody was gong to be able to go out so we all went our separate ways. I was up for about another half hour when the food coma set in and I passed out cold.
Sunday Luedke and I went to Germantown and I helped him set up his company’s new network. It’s a lot of fun doing network setup. I wish I could find a full time job doing that. No Packers this Sunday so nothing to worry about.
Friday I made some jambalaya. Now that I have free time on the weekends I will start cooking more again. My jambalaya turned out good but it was hot because I accidentally added too much hot sauce. J and I watched a movie about the real school of rock out in Philly. The kids that were in this school were amazing and the twelve year old guitar player was unbelievable. Rock School was a great movie.
On Saturday we invited Adam, Stacey and Schwenker over for the Badger game. We watched the Badger defense get run over by Northwestern in a 51-48 loss. We were pretty bummed after that but we pulled it together. Ham was in town for a wedding so we went down to Water St. and met him at the Water Street Brewery for a couple beers. After that we headed over to brothers for their two for one happy hour. That was a bad mistake again! I had way too much to drink which is my fault. No more Brother’s happy hour for this guy. We were home and sleeping before midnight. Not the relaxing weekend I was hoping for.
Packers finally got a win this Sunday. They beat New Orleans 52-3. They should have banked some of those points for the rest of the season. Let’s hope they can pull it together and put some wins together.
My friend Chris sent me this great email:
Are you interested in learning about your Ancestors’ life?
Here is a short story about our city of Naples. We hope you will enjoy reading it.
Proverb in dialect: Vide Napule e po’ muore (Vedi Napoli e poi muori)
See Naples and then die
There are legends that tell the story of the city of Naples and many others who tell a story of the origin of almost everything else. Even the Neapolitan meat sauce called Ragu’ or RRau’ (dialect) has one: It was the end of the 1300s in Naples and the Compagnia dei Bianchi (Brotherhood of the Whites – established for the purpose of helping the poor against tyranny and starvation) used to walk around the city preaching “Peace and Forgiveness”.
At that time the “Palace of the Emperor” (the building is still standing on Via Tribunali and was home to Charles, Emperor of Constantinople and of Maria Di Valois daughter of King Carlo D’Angio’) was inhabited by an aristocrat, unkind and merciless to many. If the preaching of the Brotherhood convinced almost all the population to make peace with their enemies, only the man living in the “Palace of the Emperor” bearing ancient and vicious grudges refused to follow the preaching. Not even his 3-month old son was able to convince him after he miraculously spoke three times the words: Peace and Forgiveness”. The aristocrat continued to be blinded by anger and revenge until one day his wife tried to soften him by cooking some pasta, maccheroni. The Holy Providence filled the dish with a sauce full of blood. It was then that the stubborn man finally decided to make peace with his enemies and become part of the Brotherhood. His wife reacted to this miraculous behavior by cooking the pasta, which magically turned red again. That mysterious sauce was so good and tasty that he decided to call it “Rau‘” like his son.
The Recipe of Napolitano Ragu’:
This traditional tomato and meat sauce takes a long time to prepare, needing between 3 and 5 hours of very gentle cooking. If you are using a piece of leg, tie the meat into a roll. Use a terracotta casserole if available. Place the diced bacon fat and lard in the casserole, heat and when it starts melting place the meat inside. Cover with water and cook at moderate heat covered with a lid. When all the water has evaporated, pour a glass of good red wine on and let it evaporate on low heat. Turn the meat occasionally so that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan, adding the extra wine. When it has all evaporated add the tomato sauce and cook for another half hour. Add 2 glasses of water and cook on low heat with the lid on until the sauce is thick and dark. Remove the meat, which can be used apart. If it has broken up completely as in the case of spare ribs, use it as the sauce for spaghetti.
Ingredients
50 g bacon fat, diced
3 tbsp lard
500 g veal or pork leg or spare ribs
2 glasses good red wine
500 g tomato sauce
Salt
So this weekend was pretty big. But I can’t just overlook Friday. Friday J and I went to the Brewers game. The Brewers played the Twins and these tickets were one of the sets of Beer Pen tickets that I bought on in the beginning of the year. The Brewers picked up the victory and we met some nice people in the parking lot tailgating before the game.
This brings us to Saturday. So this was the big day as was previously mentioned. I had this day planned for a couple months but it almost didn’t come together. The day kind of snuck up on me and I booked the hotel and the dinner cruise the week before. It was tough finding a hotel and my original cruise was sold out. But it all turned out in the end. We woke up early and drove to our hotel, the Congress Plaza in Chicago, at about 11. We weren’t able to check in and I had the ring (which I bought online at bluenile.com) in my bag and wasn’t about to let Jose throw it in the corner of some room. So I told Jocelyn that I didn’t want to check my bag because my watch was in there and I didn’t want it to get stolen. She didn’t buy that so I told her that I had to go to the bathroom. She kept on yelling to leave my bag but I just ignored her and kept walking. I got down the corridor a bit and ducked down a hall where I took the ring out and put it in my pocket so I ended up having to walk around with the ring all day in the cargo pocket of my shorts. Once we got our bags dropped off we headed across the street to the Taste of Chicago. The Taste was a good time. It’s a big food festival and they have a “taste portion” at eat food stand which is a sampling of the food of the restaurant. Some of the taste portions were actually a good size and we had plenty to eat. After the taste we walked to Navy Pier and around Chicago a bit. Wired NextFest was going on at Navy Pier and I really really wanted to go. If it was any other weekend I would have probably put up a stink and went but it really wasn’t on my mind this weekend. I did get to peek in the entrance doors and I did have a little “doggy in the window” feeling. After Navy Pier we headed back to the hotel to check in and get ready for the night. We got back and I was getting ready to shower when I realized I grabbed the wrong the shirt. I grabbed my light blue short sleeve one when I wanted my long sleeve one. Then I realized that I had NO PANTS! I had laid out my outfit the night before and hung my pants on the hanger with my long sleeve shirt. So I started to panic a little and off we went to try to find some pants at 4 on Saturday. Luckily we were in Chicago and there was a Carson’s about four blocks down. We got the much need khakis and I was able to relax a bit. So back to the hotel we went. We both got ready and then cabbed it to Navy Pier for our dinner cruise. The cruise I ended up booking was the Odyssey dinner cruise. Since it was a special night I also booked the “special occasion” package where you get a souvenir picture and I got the champagne special where you get two souvenir glasses. So we sat down and had some drinks. We walked around the boat and checked out all the decks. Then we had our dinner. We both ended up ordering the same thing. It started with a tasting appetizer. Our first course was seafood in a puff pastry bowl and our main course was filet mignon with some potatoes and delicious creamed spinach. Our waiter was very nice and part of the special occasion package was a special dessert. I told him that we were there to celebrate Jocelyn’s birthday which was over a month ago but that really was what she thought we were there to celebrate. But never-the-less they brought out a special dessert with candles on it. I have neglected to mention that the weather was sweltering which made for some interesting weather on Lake Michigan. It was very hazy when we left the pier and continued to be very hazy throughout our cruise which actually kind of stunk. You couldn’t see the skyline too well which is a big part of the cruise. Then all of a sudden the haze lifted but it didn’t stay that way for long. It was crystal clear for about thirty minutes. You could see the entire city of Chicago for thirty minutes and then the haze got doubly worse. So after dessert they back the boat up to Navy Pier so you can watch the fireworks but it was so foggy that we could barely see the fireworks. It was kind of cool but there was no way I could give Jocelyn my jacket with the ring in it so she was forced to tough it out. After the sub-par fireworks we headed back to our table. It was kind of strange again because no one really came back into the dinning area until about twenty minutes after the finale, so this was my time to act. I told Jocelyn, ‘are you ready for the real grand finale,’ a funny pun on the fireworks, get it. Then, after that, I proposed. She was quite shocked and surprised and couldn’t stop smiling, it was great. After that we danced to a couple songs and waited for the boat to dock. Once back on land we tried to go to a couple bars but they were closing so we ended up going to the Hard Rock hotel. It was a very modern trendy type bar. It was nice and we sat down and had a couple beers. It was a long day in the sun so we headed back about oneish and called it a night, a very special night.
Sunday we woke up and went to Cosi to get some lunch before we checked out. After we finished eating we checked out and headed over to my cousin Steve’s in Lincoln Park. We went there and checked out the remodeling he’s doing on his condo. Then we went over to a bar with an outdoor eatery and had a couple beers and enjoyed the Sunday sun. After that we headed home. I being the computer geek stud that I am will have a wedding website. There will be some cyber invitations, cyber confirmations and information for the wedding. The website is not built yet but all the information you will need be able to be found at http://www.ryanandjocelyn.com.