A Lolla weekend without Lolla!

 This year it truly was a family visit only, the only headliner that looked good to me was Foo Fighters, and Lollapalooza 2017 left a persistent bad taste in my mouth, so going to it was not on my radar at all. It was just weird luck that it was the only time all 3 of us could get off work. Bill insisted on being the only driver of his newish 6 speed Mazda, so I got a good start on my reading. 

We arrived in plenty of time for supper, ravioli in a rich homemade sauce and garden salad, I had to help my dad read the directions on the ravioli package, so he is having eye trouble on top of hearing trouble, but this print was small enough that I needed magnification myself! The boys did some tech troubleshooting for their grandfather, and Bill started streaming Our Planet, which was a nice pairing with the first book I dived into, "The Uninhabitable Earth".

The next morning we travellers had a late brunch (my dad was up and at it early as usual) , then we caught a Metra train for downtown since parking is a nightmare during Lolla. We saw some festival attendees at our station, recognizable by Camelbaks on the dudes, and short shorts & skimpy tops on the girls,  2 stops later the train was totally infested with them, most not wearing masks, the girls going back & forth while trying to keep their body parts inside their clothes. So we got all the people watching  for the low price of a train ticket! I just hope they were all vaccinated. 

Our purpose downtown was the Chicago River Boat Architectural Tour and to see my sister Diane's new place..  I don't know what Diane paid for the tour, but it was well worth it, super educational and full of photo ops, though I made better use of some than others. 

It will always be the Sears Tower to me! 

Then I think it was Peter, Diane's partner, who thought it would be cool to walk back to their place along the lakeshore. It was very nice, and not too hot, but some of us were not used to walking 5 miles at once!  So we whined a bit and dived right into the chips and dip when we got to our destination. We had a rather upscale burger cookout as you might expect in a place like this! It is technically a condo,but feels like a house and has a private entrance. 

Bill, Ted and Joe lounging 

Thankfully Diane was able to drive us back to the suburbs though it might have still been early for running into drunk Lolla attendees. 

Sunday started out at a relaxed pace but was almost ruined by DuPage Medical Group! I was able to hear the call since my dad has his phone turned up, they told him to come to the ER right away because a blood culture from Tuesday made it look like he had a raging infection of some kind.  We were all baffled because he clearly wasn't sick after walking 5 miles the day before.  He had been in to urgent care for a stomach bug the weekend before, followed up with his doc on Tuesday and supposedly everything was fine. After a couple hours of undoubtedly expensive further testing they let him out in time for dinner and admitted the other test might have had "external contamination" . In other words, he got to pay for their sloppiness so they could cover their butts. 

Joe and his girlfriend Hannah brought their cats over for a visit before we went to dinner. My dad sits for them so it's like their 2nd home. 

Toulouse

Avignon 

Anyhow, the afternoon drama made us extra glad to be having a relaxed dinner at Reza's. Persian food is a bit different from Armenian, but still, many things tasted like what Auntie Rose would have made.  We went a bit crazy on bread and starters, the tabbouli was top notch, and the eggplant dip ( a cousin of baba ganoush but slightly different) was yummy. So then when our huge dinner portions arrive, we knew we'd need doggie bags! Sadly no room for dessert. 

My dad, my nephew Joe, and Hannah

Chicken Kabob Sultani

Lamb kabobs

Then we did  obligatory family photos since it had been so long and who knows when we can all manage this again. 

My dad, Bill, Diane, Ted, me & Joe - Hannah took the photo

Bill, Ted, & Joe

Then it was back to Minnesota and our own cats since Ted had to get back to his new job.  We were lucky to have nice driving weather and no accident-causing traffic jams either way. 

Should I do it again? This could be chapter 1

 Or have you seen the Pumpkin Man? 

Newborn Billy aka Pumpkin Man

That was one of our nicknames for Bill when he was a baby because the ginger in his hair really showed up then. He did take his time getting here, labor started 2 days after he was due, and went on too long according to the doctors, not that I had enough energy left to argue with them by then, so he was delivered by C-section at 8pm on Oct. 8, 1988. I had argued with them ahead of time during the blistering hot summer (1988 set some records, a preview of the climate emergency) ; we health care professionals are the worst patients! Luckily, breastfeeding went much better, almost without a hitch, despite my mother's skepticism.  I had my best friend Patty for support, and she had also introduced me to the local La Leche League, though I knew of their good work from college nutrition classes. My then spouse, Mark, was also on board as his mother had breastfed him,  a rare thing in the 1950s. My own mother was told formula was the way, and like most others, did what the doctor said. 

It was kind of nice that my parents were there to help when Bill was born, except they were so excited they couldn't wait until he was actually born and travelled from Chicagoland to St. Peter  MN anyway, and ended up arriving when I was in the early stages of labor. So my cats, Chandra and Anoush, had someone to look after them. Since I'd had the C-section, my mom stayed for  a whole week though my dad had to get back to home to their cat and work.  It was great to have someone to cook for us while we got settled in, even if she did rearrange all my kitchen drawers. I remember she roasted a chicken one day, and the cats were VERY attentive. 

Grandma Donna, Chandra & the chicken

Billy was a fairly easy baby, a bit colicky, resulting in some extra vacuuming sessions. Car rides were also a good way to get him to sleep, but of course taking him out of the car would wake him. Luckily we had an attached garage, so I admit a couple times, if he was really short on sleep and the garage was a reasonable temperature, we left him in the car seat with the baby monitor in place! Most of the time we just did good old fashioned rocking. Chandra helped with that, too. 

    

Billy & me napping, Chandra on alert

It was a fall & holiday season of joyous family gatherings as everyone came to see him and take way too many photos- he was the first grandchild on both sides. We started solid food slowly at 4 1/2 months,, and I was determined to breastfeed at least a year so there was no hurry. He was not fussy about food at first, I could puree just about anything and he'd eat it, including Grandma Doris' pork, dumplings and sauerkraut! The pork roast part is not included, but the rest of the dish was published in a family cookbook.

Sauerkraut and Dumplings 

Recipe by Doris Otteson

1 beaten egg

1/2 c. milk

1/2 to 1 tsp. salt

1 c. flour

1 Tbsp, baking powder

2 Tbsp.  cornstarch

16-20 oz. can of sauerkraut 

.Combine egg and milk.  Combine dry ingredients, and sift together and mix well with egg-milk  In wide kettle, empty can of kraut and heat to boiling. Then drop dumplings by spoonfuls onto hot kraut. Cover and cook over medium to low heat for 15-20 min, Don't peek! Excellent served with a pork roast and flavorful gravy; serve kraut in separate bowl. The dumplings are a potato substitute. 

However, it doesn't seem fair to end this chapter with something Bill would not eat now; sauerkraut is not really his thing. In keeping with his first nickname, he does like pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin Pie

Crust based on recipe in Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook\

Filling from recipe in Joy of Cooking

Pie dough for 2- 9" crusts:

2 cups flour, may use half whole wheat pastry flour\

1/2 tsp. salt

2/3 c + 2 T. ice cold butter

5 T. ice water

Mix flour and salt in large bowl. Cut butter into flour until lumps are the size of small peas. Sprinkle water on mixture 1 T. at a time until dough holds together. Pat into a ball and refrigerate at least 20 min. 

Cut dough in half. Roll out each half between sheets of waxed paper, it helps if you moisten the surface underneath with a damp cloth, then it won't slide.  Roll to 1 "  bigger around than your pie pan.  Keeping dough between wax paper, pop in the freezer for a few minutes, the paper will peel right off once the dough is stiff.  After removing paper, set gently on pie plate, but allow to warm up and soften before fitting it to the plate. Trim edges and flute or decorate the edge if desired. 

Pie filling for 2 pies:

2 cans  pumpkin

2 cans evaporated milk

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 c. white sugar

1 t. salt

2 t. cinnamon

1 t. ginger

1/2 t. nutmeg

1/4. t. cloves

4 beaten eggs

Preheat oven to 425 or 420 for glass pie plates, which I prefer. 

Mix filling ingredients until well blended. Pour into prepared crusts. Depending on how deep they are, you may have a bit of extra filling. I pour this into a greased custard cup or small pyrex pan .   Bake pies for 15 min.  then lower temperature to 350. Bake about 35-45 min. more for a full pie, test by inserting a knife, if it comes out clean the filling is baked. Small cups and pans will get done faster. 

Allow to cool, serve with sweetened whipped cream. We like this pie all the way chilled before serving. Keep in refrigerator.