Thanksgiving

Brief post from the road, from the unexpected trip mentioned late Wednesday. I made it to St. Louis all right and on time (a little early). I had a relaxing morning and a great day of taking photos of mostly abandoned/vacant things in suburbs I hadn't seen before. In between the photo opportunities, a pleasant afternoon watching the National Dog Show on NBC (a Thanksgiving tradition I haven't done before) and then eating at a restaurant with my host Darren's parents. (I was the only one who ordered a Thanksgiving-type meal; couldn't resist.)

Relaxing in the evening (looking at Black Friday ads in the StL paper, though I didn't intend to shop much this weekend), then a house party at his friends' where we probably consumed more calories of snacks (so much cheese!) than during the afternoon meal, and I bravely tolerated watching some of the Cardinals World Series 2011 commemorative DVD surrounded by Cards fans (reliving the infamous Game 6, which I got to watch with my parents on my most recent Iowa visit and the one kind of substituting for visiting for Thanksgiving, wasn't bad).

I've had good Thanksgivings with my family and good ones going on adventures around Chicago--seeing what stores were open on Thanksgiving one year; my first visit to the great Korean grocery store Chicago Food; my then-longest-ever bike ride in Chicago (about 50 miles on what I've told everyone was a 60-degree day, but from the forecasts this week saying Chicago was about to have its first 60-degree Thanksgiving in 13 years, I guess I was off a little); an excursion to an abandoned trade school in 2007 (one of my all-time favorite posts here)...This was a chance to do something a little different, and I'm glad I took it.

mmmm, cooking

I was all excited about how I'd posted a longer post than usual for NaBloPoMo yesterday--and earlier in the day than usual, too!--but today, just hours before I was about to go out and buy groceries for a Thanksgiving meal I was going to make for myself tonight/tomorrow morning (and possibly bring some of to a friend's--and I should clarify I didn't absolutely promise I'd be at a friend's so I'm not backing out of anything. I think), the chance to go out of town and spend it with someone came up. Yes, when I literally hadn't unpacked from the last trip!

Anyway, I figured I could go ahead with my plan for a sweet potato pie, since I needed to use the sweet potatoes and I should bring a dish with me, so I biked to the Aldi on the Humboldt Park/Garfield Park borderlines. Lines weren't as bad as I'd feared. I didn't find the premade pie crust--that and (soy)milk were what I went there for--until I got to the checkout. Somehow I wound up with three bags of cranberries and a package of mushrooms because they were 25 cents each (!) and cheap celery and cheap Yukon Gold potatoes even though I had some at home already...er, well, now I'll have ingredients (and I cooked some of it) when I get back from the trip. The pie (a vegan recipe I found online, put in a probably non-vegan crust) appears to be a success. I'm appalled I didn't have ground nutmeg (how could I be out of nutmeg?), but I used allspice with the three other spices called for.

But since I still can't upload new photos of the pie, I dug up these photos of orange cinnamon rolls from Aldi (purchased at a discount at Stanley's produce market, oddly), showing off that I do use my wonderful Le Creuset cast iron skillet. To cook a 99-cent package of highly processed pastries.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, if you're celebrating! (And warning, I'll have to blog from a laptop for a few days again.)

and now, Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Things here tend not to be in an order that makes sense--so, after yesterday's first day of winter post, here's my Thanksgiving/Black Friday excursions. Not especially impressive, but I got a few pics I liked.  

My approximation of a Thanksgiving dinner was the delicious (free!) food at the Whirlaway, a neighborhood bar in Logan Square. I hung out with some people that Wednesday night watching an amazing Blackhawks @ San Jose Sharks game, but I put that story on my other blog...

Since I've been in Chicago without family for the past few Thanksgivings, I consider it a big day to see a lot of the city. I think 2005 was my first time doing that--I took buses around, mostly to the far northwest side, and eventually found somewhere to eat. The CTA was on its holiday schedule, the weather was very cold and a little snowy, and I took 8 buses around. And waited a total--a TOTAL--of about 45 minutes for ALL the buses. I doubt I'll ever have such luck with the CTA again (for comparison, last week, I waited an hour in freezing rain for a bus that never showed up).

Then in 2006 (these link to my Flickr photos for each day, but I might not have many posted) it was sunny and 60 degrees F. I went on the longest bike ride I've ever had in Chicago, about 50 miles total, including bicycling all of Pulaski Ave. from south (111th Street) to north (Devon) within city limits. This needs its own post someday... In 2007 I had an exciting visit to my favorite, and now gone, abandoned building, Washburne Trade School. In 2008 I didn't do much, but had dinner a couple different places.

In 2009? I did even less. In fact, all I did besides stuff at home was go downtown for a brief visit before it got dark, to look at decorations and shop at Old Navy--they were open on Thanksgiving in the Loop.

I'll confess, I've done the early morning door-buster sale on the day after Thanksgiving--once. It was Target, years ago (they haven't done doorbuster sales--i.e. the 5 am-11 am Black Friday morning type of sales--in years), probably back when there was only the Logan Square Target in Chicago. I usually buy a few things that day but try to avoid crowds. I appreciate the spirit of Buy Nothing Day, created to counteract Black Friday hype, but...oh, I guess I now have 11 months to work on my rant about it (suffice it to say, I think it's a little elitist to have it on the day a lot of things people actually want are at a price they can afford, especially in this economy).

This year, I wasn't motivated to go shopping in the morning. But I felt like taking a look at the one Wal-Mart within Chicago's city limits, which happens to be just a couple miles down the street from where I live. 

It wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared. Kind of messy, though. I was there briefly in the early afternoon, snuck a few photos (Wal-Mart was being strict about photography/video this year because of negative publicity from last year's tragedy), bought a few things, and went home to watch a depressing Blackhawks game online, then went out to watch a not quite as depressing (but still a loss) Chicago Wolves hockey game in Rosemont.

I'd love to actually cook, or help cook, a huge Thanksgiving meal in Chicago, but it never seems to happen. A Thanksgiving potluck/big bike ride (if it's nice weather)/abandoned building excursion could be spectacular....