The power of the (un)written word

So I took a little break there. Did anybody notice?

Here's what happened..... Way back, in June, I think.... I recall it was after the students left for the summer, because one of the B-Town Bites crew pretty much refuses to go near campus during the school year... we went to Yogi's .... it was a nice night, with good weather, no traffic, a Thursday evening after a not-bad work day.... so - Yogi's. Yogi's had (yep, past tense) been in Bloomington many years, and I had been there on a couple of occasions. The first occasion included a bottle of Patron and a very generous friend. I don't have a lot of memory about that one! The last occasion I was with a dear friend whom I don't get to see very often. We had a great conversation and the food was definitely a second act.

So I decided Yogi's definitely needed to be blogged about. I needed to pay better attention to the food. I need to check the accessibility. I needed to see a clean toilet! Well, a bunch of those things got done! I really liked that in the women's restroom at Yogi's one could get out without touching any door handles! Woo hoo!

A lot of the other stuff though, I found somewhat dissatisfying. Very slow service in an almost empty restaurant, soggy fries, uncomfortable patio tables and chairs for dining room furniture... nothing terrible, but by the end I decided Yogi's is okay, but maybe I would recommend that it is the kind of place that's good enough, but only go if somebody else pays.

I never wrote the blog entry (as you know). It kept feeling unsettling to me. In the few reviews that I've done, I've never really had to be negative about a place.  There was always something redeeming that made me want to go back and give it another chance, another dish I needed to try, or a desire to find out more about something I didn't cover fully, like What IS a feta roll? I stalled... a week had passed. I stalled some more, two weeks had passed. I stalled some more, and then I read in the Herald-Times that Yogi's was going to close. So I'm sorry Yogi's, the power of the unwritten word and all my thoughts about not spending money at Yogi's must have entered the collective conscience of Bloomington.

Another month or so has passed since then. B-Town Bites is going to get past the Yogi's experience and the non-blog. I am going to choose more local restaurants, and I've been considering a chain every now and then, they are part of life, after all, and get back to the blog. My taste buds are itching for some good seasoned fries and my fingers are itching to type it all up!

Has it ever happened to you that you didn't like someplace very well and then it closed? Did you feel a little relieved when you realized - Hey, I must not be the only one who didn't really like that?

My camera has been lost since my trip to Virginia. If I ever get it back I'll post the Yogi's photos AND all the photos of the diners (and one Italian restaurant) that we visited during the Virginia adventure. So keep on watching this space, and keep on eating, B-Town!

Fairchild Family Cookbook, Lasagna by Lynda Briggs

My usual M.O. when trying new recipes is to follow them without any embellishments or changes so I can REALLY test the recipe, not my cooking instinct or prowess. This time I didn't quite stick to it.... reasons being a mix of using what I had in the house, and that it's LASAGNA! I have been making lasagna for thirty years and have some pretty specific tastes. This recipe taught me a culinary trick that I LOVE and will forever be using in every lasagna I make! Keep reading to find the trick! 

I've chosen to blog about this recipe because after not seeing my cousin Lynda for DECADES we recently met up on a trip to Florida and Walt Disney World.  We got to meet up and rehash some old times, meet each others' husbands and have a good time with good food (Polynesian Resort Bread pudding), good drinks (ask my sister Heather about the drink in a pineapple!), and a little more  ( A LOT MORE) walking time and car time than we bargained for! Do you know some roads around the Walt Disney World parks are closed after the parks close for the evening? I didn't! Heather didn't, and she and Ian, her husband, go two or three times a year, and neither did Lynda and Bill and they both work in the parks!  LOL! WHY DIDN'T WE TAKE ANY PHOTOS TOGETHER??

Here is the recipe as written in the cook book: 

I substituted: Italian seasoning blend for oregano and basil, mozzarella and Italian blend cheese for the Swiss, a mixture of ground beef and Italian sausage for the all Italian Sausage, and dried minced onion for the fresh onion.  Also, I ended up using two 24 oz. jars of sauce - a lot more than the recipe calls for!  I like my food to be saucy, just like me!

I should note that the Ricotta "carton" was 16 oz. 

I also used dehydrated minced onion, as I had no fresh onion on hand. 

I added it to the ground beef to get rehydrated by the fat and moisture from the meat for extra flavor. 

I had one cup of Italian sausage in the freezer, so that is what I used!

I was able to skip the step of boiling the noodles by using the Aldi type that do not need boiled. This is a big win for me. One reason I've only made lasagna occasionally is because I hate boiling the noodles and either handling them while they are hot or risking them all sticking together! Thanks Aldi for making new products available!

SEE BELOW FOR THE MAGIC TRICK!

Blending the Italian seasoning (oregano and basil in the recipe!) into the ricotta! 

Because my husband and I are both garlic lovers I decided to throw in some garlic powder as well!. This really made the ricotta a flavorful note in the finished dish.... It had the creaminess and the needed fat as usual, but the entire profile was "kicked up a notch" as one professional chef likes to say.  I will ALWAYS do this from now on when I make lasagna. Thanks, Lynda for putting this recipe in the family cookbook!

Layering it up!

Yummy!

Top view

Look at all those layers of deliciousness!

This was so hearty, warm and delicious. I served it with a salad for health's sake. 

I was so happy to make this recipe and learn a tasty new technique. Do you have any family recipes that you have tweaked - either because of new products available or just to adjust the flavors to you and your family? Let me know in the comments - maybe I'll learn something? 

You oughta try Otto's

I frequent a couple of group Facebook pages about Galena. Every time a soon-to-be visitor comes in and asks about breakfast several folks recommend Otto's Place. I hadn't even SEEN Otto's before, but I knew I wanted to give it a try. On a Sunday morning when I had no motivation to cook I knew it was time. I wasn't really planning to do a review, just planning to get out of the house on a nice day and let someone else do the cooking and cleaning. 

Otto's Place was such a mystery to me that I had to do an online search to find it. They have a great website here and somewhere I found a street view picture that made me realize that I have driven by it many times, and in fact was married in nearby Grant Park. Husband and I arrived about nine o'clock, parked in the city lot nearby and walked on over to find there was about a half hour wait. We strolled off down the trail along the railroad tracks and spent some time enjoying the morning. We went back half hour later, had to wait a few more minutes and then were seated upstairs. The building and the decor are quaint, homey, and comfortable. High ceilings, wood floors, and local art create a comfortable atmosphere. Our server Colton greeted us quickly and offered drinks. Husband ordered the pretty well-known Bloody Mary. I requested a Diet Pepsi from the canned soda offerings. Colton returned to report that there was no more Diet Pepsi, so darn it, I had to go ahead and order a mimosa. The Bloody Mary is an amazing concoction, garnished with cheese, sausage, olives, Flamin' Hot Cheetos, and probably more things that I can't remember. I will let the photo show it all. The mimosa was pretty standard, good sized - I am not a frequent drinker of alcoholic beverages so I am not sure what is standard, but it would have been fun to have an orange slice or a cherry or something to dress it up a little. It looked pretty naked next to its cousin Mary. 

Thanks for using paper straws, Otto's Place!

It was hard to choose from the fabulous sounding items on the menu. I finally went for the breakfast tacos and Husband chose banana bread French toast. The French toast was served with syrup and butter on the side. Husband said it was so sweet and delicious that nothing else was needed! The French toast looked a little lonely on the plate.... I know we are talking delicious and filling food, but a sliced strawberry or a couple of blueberries as garnish go a long way in making food appetizing. Although it just occurred to me that with the farm-to-table philosophy berries are not in season yet, so I'll give them that! The egg tacos were fabulous. I am usually one to go with the sweet items for breakfast, but no regrets in ordering these savories. They are usually served with sriracha, but I requested it on the side because of my dislike of "too hot" foods. I did dribble a little bit on there and it really added a zest that the tacos needed. Each bite with a little bit of feta and a tiny bit of the sauce was amazing.  I chose the home fries (fruit is the other option) as the side. They were hearty and hot, cooked well, and yummy. 

Egg tacos and home fries

Banana Bread French toast

As busy as it was, I didn't get a chance to explore the entire building. There is seating both upstairs and down, and with the weather getting more agreeable, they plan to provide more outdoor seating. Downstairs there was a bar right up front with a couple of seats and where you can place and pick up take away orders. I did check out the upstairs non-gendered bathroom. It was pretty and clean, considering how busy the place was. No changing table, but a small wash stand that might do in a pinch. There was a line for the downstairs bathroom so I didn't get a chance to check it out. 

Covid precautions - The staff and servers were all wearing masks and everybody I saw had them on properly, covering both mouth and nose. I also saw this sign: 

They did appear to be following these guidelines well as far as I could see. 

As a historic building Otto's Place is not required to be ADA compliant. With the outside seating, however, it becomes more accessible. There are steps up to the front door, but I completely admit that I forgot to look for an alternate entrance or other accommodations. Is anybody familiar enough to add comments about the accessibility? Let those comments roll in if you are!

One more really nice feature - wall art is by local artists. It was too busy for me to go around and really scout without disturbing other diners, but I crept over and took one photo of a lovely work with amazing colors and texture. I'd really like to go back and do some more exploring of dishes, art, and the building. If you go to the website and read the story you'll learn that the story of the building, its original owner and the new owners is quite charming. With no wi-fi in the restaurant once you are there take the chance to unplug, sit down, take a good look around and relax. 

Does anybody know the artist's name? I didn't get it!

Moving on to Galena, IL - Embe Eatery & Lounge

 I moved to Galena full-time in January 2020... well, we all know what happened to 2020! As well as getting to know my new home,  working from home for the first time, and surviving my first winter in NW Illinois - COVID. Covid really made trying to get started as a restaurant reviewer pretty impossible. 

Now my second NW Illinois winter is nearly over, state-imposed Covid mitigations are reduced, and things are looking up in lots of ways!

This week it warmed up to the thirties and forties and I am getting out in the sun as much as possible. I had some items to deliver downtown tonight then said, "Let's go walk up and down Main Street!" My husband (Craig) agreed and it was glorious! No crowds - which is bad for business revenues but good for my nerves - a beautiful & sunny late afternoon, and nowhere to be except exactly where we wanted. 

We parked at the south end of Main Street and started walking north. It was a great walk in every way. We turned around and came back and as we neared our parking spot a chalk-written sign touted mushroom soup with sun-dried tomatoes... Craig is a fan of mushrooms in general. It lured us into Embe, in spite of the chicken at home thawed and waiting to be worked into a stir-fry. There was only one other table with a couple that was filled, the server/bartender was well-masked, tables were well-spaced and we decided to give it a go!  

You can find Embe's here. We both chose sandwiches and chips in addition to Craig's cup of soup. Craig had the Cuban on white, which surprised me by NOT being a pressed sandwich, but served on a nice white Kaiser roll. He declared the pork "just right." I had the Dave with the ham option, as opposed to roast beef, pork, chicken, or turkey, with melted Swiss cheese and a homemade Caesar pesto. It was so good! Thin sliced ham stacked high and a whole wheat Kaiser roll.  The sandwiches were large enough that they needed to be sliced in half to handle them well. I didn't even finish mine, despite trying to go with just the filling and leave the bread behind after a certain amount. We both chose the chips option for a side, and there is also cottage cheese or coleslaw available. The chips were bags of Maui Sweet Onion Kettle Chips, and were really crunchy and good. Craig also declared the soup delicious!

I asked for the Wi-Fi password which was something like "have the bread pudding for dessert," not the real thing, I'm not telling secrets! I said, "Good suggestive selling!" and we did! The bread pudding was warm, soft and sweet, and topped with whipped cream; SO SO good. I actually started by asking for the sauce on the side, afraid a "rum sauce" would taste too boozy to me. In the end I asked her to go ahead with the sauce and I am so glad I did! Just as we finished the place started to fill a little more with folks who were ready for a drink from the full bar and dinner. 

I general, when I do a review I try to get pictures of the food, check the location for accessibility, make sure there are clean and accessible restrooms, and a few other things that I am not including in this impromptu review. I promise to go back to Embe Eatery & Lounge and check all those things and report.  Maybe also a taste for one of their "candy bar" martinis!You know what? I won't mind doing that at all! Embe's, we'll be back! 

Any of you Galena residents - what do the HOPE signs posted downtown mean? I'm guessing something to do with Covid, but I can't help but feel personally welcomed! Thank you!

 Many years ago my paternal grandmother's family (Fairchild) printed a family cookbook. Everybody was asked to submit recipes, it was printed up and made available for purchase at the next reunion. For the record, I did NOT submit the recipe for "Chicken Stew" that is under my name. My father submitted it under my name and to this day I perceive it as a way to criticize my chicken and noodles, in which he thought I used too much salt. In any case, I take my cooking and recipes much too seriously to start an ingredient list with "one dead chicken." He could be a real asshole sometimes. 

I've decide to occasionally  (oh, the discipline it takes to not type "weekly" or "monthly" and then perfectionize myself out of doing it the first time I fail to meet a deadline - so I am sticking to occasionally) occasionally try one of the recipes and post it here or on the family Facebook page or both. 

Yesterday we had a dressed down Christmas, with just the two of us, and I decided not to cook. We had frozen lasagna and salad from a bag (although I did jazz that up with some marinated onions). I didn't regret it, except later in the evening I said I wished I would have made a dessert. So today on day two of my self-imposed weekend of complete relaxation I decided to do a recipe from the Desserts section. I flipped past a lot of fruit desserts, though tempted by Crazy Cobbler, flipped past Sugar Cream pie, even though I am sure Craig has never had the Official State Pie of Indiana, and landed on Brownie Pudding, a recipe by Patsy Dillon, whose relationship to me I do not know. She must be back a generation or two. 

As I read through and assembled my ingredients (mise en place y'all) I thought "ooh, if this is good I will be able to recommend it for people who don't eat eggs!" BUT, the dough (not a batter, a DOUGH) was so stiff I could hardly stir it, let alone POUR it into a pan, so I added an egg. With the addition of the egg it was a normal, thick brownie batter. While this was in the oven I did some internet research. Recipes of this type are often called "Hot Fudge Cake" or something of that ilk. One that I found was very similar to this except the batter had two additional tablespoons of butter and 3/4 cup of milk. Those changes would probably correct the batter consistency without the addition of egg. 

This is what it looked like after I poured the boiling water on it. 

I think the photo even captured the steam. 

Just out of the oven, looks like a regular brownie -                    amazing aroma, very chocolatey!

Underneath the brownie is a warm hot fudge sauce!

I served it with ice cream

and whipped cream and a cherry. After all, it IS a holiday!

This recipe with some adaptations will probably be on repeat. I will make some changes to the fats and liquid to loosen up the batter and I will probably add some espresso powder because this would be a great mocha brownie and sauce. 

Big Woods Brewery Bites

I waited a little too long to write this review...Life, it gets in the way sometimes! If I come to a place where I don't recall, I'll be sure to note that!

Big Woods Brewery is tucked into an older building just west of campus on grant Street. I recall it most as Django cafe, where I fell in love with nutty noodles! It appears that the building has been added to, as it certainly seems larger than in the Django days -  probably the outdoor seating area is an addition.. As far as I could see it doesn't have its own parking so you have to be willing to feed a meter or park in a garage if you drive there. Part of what has been added is a nice ramp, so it appears that the building would be accessible by wheelchair or people with mobility issues. Once inside however, it might be a little too crowded to make way through easily.

When we entered we were greeted immediately by a cheerful hostess, but had to wait standing for several minutes while she took a to-go order. Finally a server came over and seated us. Though it was a Thursday evening that didn't seem to be of any special significance the place was super packed. It was very noisy, which made it difficult to have a conversation, but once we settled on the right volume level for speech and degree of proximity we could discuss our super secret spy talk, without fear of any eavesdroppers.

The beer menu seems extensive, and I can't really give a good evaluation, being my non-beer-drinker self. Thinking about that makes realize that I need to get someone on the crew who is a beer drinker to do this kind of assessment. I will say that I witnessed lots of beer imbibing all around me, so it must be good. The place does sport a full bar with spirits and not just beer. They have sodas which are Coke brand, with just the usual, not a huge variety, but do offer free refills.

Veggie Nachos

The menu only has three appetizers; wings, nachos, and pretzel sticks. We went for the veggie nachos and they were so good. I never would have thought I would enjoy nachos with barbecue sauce, but I was happily surprised that it was a good combination. I think the pulled pork version would be good as long as the meat is done well. It was a great start and we literally ate every bite!

Every bite gone!

We went on to order a bowl of  "Busted Knuckle"chili and the Classic Poutine from the entrees menu. (I will offer that in my notes I indicated "offered to remove nuts from salad, but didn't know what kind it was" I'm not sure what the "it" refers to). Gluten Free and vegetarian items are noted by a symbol on the menu, there doesn't appear to be a lot of variety in either, but I don't think you'll starve. The chili arrived and it was a surprisingly large serving. It was served very plainly, and could have used a more attractive plating for sure. The taste was rich and peppery.

Busted Knuckle Chili

The poutine was pretty much a mess of brown goo with cold fries on the bottom. I will completely admit that I am FAR from a connoisseur of poutine, but whether or not I know what I am talking about I am sure it should be hot. The gravy that is purported on the menu to be "rich beef gravy" tasted like gravy from a "just add water" packet and was mostly just salty. I see the gravy as a cruel thing to do to what might have been good fries!

Poutine

The Poutine was so bad and not to my taste that I gave up and ordered a grilled chicken and asparagus sandwich to replace it. The sandwich arrived and was the most attractive food we were served that night. It was served open faced and just looked beautiful! I was so excited and relieved. Sad face ensued though when I bit into it. The chicken was stringy and dry and closely reminded me of a type of frozen chicken breast that my mom used to purchase at Sam's club and reheat in the microwave....

Chicken Sandwich

That was the end of all my food adventure that night. I had the server throw away the dismal poutine failure, but I did take home the chicken with me, only to leave it in the refrigerator at work where it either still sits or maintenance has put out of its misery in their alleged weekly cleanouts....

A visit to the bathrooms did reveal nice pretty clean one unit rooms. The "men's" with a urinal and a toilet and the "women's" with a toilet and a changing table. Caregivers I recommend that you feel free to use the bathroom with the changing table! I walked in to check out the men's room with no trouble.

In general the place has a pub-ish atmosphere, which is completely appropriate. As we sampled and discussed we decided maybe you need to be drinking a lot of beer to really enjoy the food! As for me, with my water and soda habits I will probably not try it again, unless I am with a group who really want to do it. If I do end up there again, I will try the fries, but plain and a regular burger - pretty safe bets.

I had high hopes for Big Woods, a local place that does well, but didn't quite live up to my expectations. Have you ever had a place that you expected to be great, but were disappointed? Is there anywhere in Bloomington or nearby to try poutine that is good?

These extra limes my companion requested to try as a chili add-on were the most attractive presentation of the evening!

Big Woods Brewery is at 116 N. Grant St. Bloomington, Indiana 47408. 

The website is http://www.bigwoodsrestaurants.com/bloomington/ where the regular menu and a monthly "feature menu" can be viewed. 

In The Soup Kitchen

Here is an article that I wrote about one of my food gigs in Bloomington. It's not a "review" as such, but it is something that I care deeply about!