Food, Glorious Food!

It's so great to be home!

I would have blogged sooner, but this is the first night I haven't attended a concert or performance since I got back home on Sunday afternoon: a violin recital on Sunday, a cello recital on Monday, a voice recital on Tuesday, and a musical last night! (And they were all free!) Definitely the most musically fulfilling break I've had.

Strangely enough, my two favorite days of last week revolved primarily around food. (Or maybe that's not very strange?)

The notable part of our 8-hour drive day from outside Milwaukee to outside Dayton was not the fact that the drive seemed never-ending, but more that we had coffee in Milwaukee, lunch in downtown Chicago, and dinner in downtown Indianapolis. How crazy is that?! (Okay, so all these stops admittedly made the day longer, but if it's already going to be long, why not stop to eat good food?)

Eating at Gino's East, one of Lindy's favorite deep dish restaurants, right in the heart of downtown Chicago.

Part of my first ever Chicago deep dish pizza!  I can now officially choose sides in the deep dish v. thin crust debate: thin crust all the way. (Sorry, Chicago...no human should ever feel that full.)

This Gino's location prides itself on letting customers write on the walls, chairs, tables, etc.

I was less glad to have chosen this seat after I read what was written on it.

Standing in the middle of the park in downtown Indianapolis during sunset. (Click on the photo to see it larger.)

I didn't take any pictures inside the Moroccan restaurant at which we ate dinner, but it was absolutely incredible. Should your travels ever take you through Indianapolis, you must stop at the Saffron Cafe! (Make sure you get the tea.)

When we were outside Columbus, OH, one of my great friends from ASU, Ashley, came to the show. Ashley was my first friend to see me in Barrage back in 2008. It seems like it was just last week that I was in her living room, so enjoying seeing into a friend on the road; three years later, it was just as exciting to sit down in her living room!

When she and I had been deciding what to do on Friday (a day off for me), I apprehensively threw out the idea of cooking dinner at her place instead of going to eat at a restaurant, not knowing whether she would be receptive. It took a bit of convincing to get her to realize how much fun it would be, and the next day we found ourselves going to Trader Joe's and picking up ingredients for dinner!

It was, without a doubt, one of the coolest things to happen on a day off in recent memory. 

It's tough for me to describe just how nice it is to cook on the road. I'd say about 85% of our food is restaurant food (the other 15% would be home-cooked food from parents at our school shows). And while eating at restaurants all the time can be exciting (eating with these people, as I've discussed before, really opened my horizons), it also gets really old. 

Sometimes it's just nice to make your own food and share it with friends.

Adventures in cooking: this is what your stove top should not look like when you're done. (Doubling the recipe provided some problems when it came time to mix all the pasta together...whoops.)

Spaghetti carbonara, one of my favorites!

In Ashley's cozy dining space.

Thanks Ashley!

Now, if I could just figure out a way to have all of my friends and favorite people in one place, to eat at great restaurants (or stay in and cook, should we choose!), and attend free concerts every night, then I'd truly have it made.