forty

Oh yes, I AM milking this birthday. Unabashedly so.

I will have fun posts on the food, the shopping, the people in my life, certainly. I just want to take a bit of time this morning while I linger over breakfast and lattes to take stock.

I am 40 today.

I have a man I love, one whom I will marry next year. Conrad grounds me, Conrad completes me.

I have family. I have a lot of family - steps and halves and such. At the core, though, is my sister Marie. We've been in this together all my life and most of hers.

I have three of four parents. I do not have a father alive any longer, and I wish he were here to celebrate. I am not sad, do not think that, just simply wishing he could enjoy this celebration and the ones still ahead.



I have no grandparents left. How odd to realize that.

I have a good job that I will still not comment about on this blog. I am employed, I have tenure, and I have great colleagues.

I have my health. I set a goal of being in the best shape of my life when I hit 40. I think I've come pretty close, though I've indulged well in food and wine this last week or so. No matter. Do I need to lose more weight? Well, maybe re-distribute it a little more and firm/tone up more. But I like how I fit my clothes, and I am pretty comfortable in my skin at this moment.

I have friends whom I love dearly. I have former friends I wish were no longer "former". I miss some people who have moved on in my life. I am thankful for my best friend (Todd), my Best Woman (Allison), Kendall, CG, Jeph, Martin (and Mark), BTH, the SF, Darth and Heidi
and the great group from library school, our Yoshi's friends, the good friends who have stuck by Conrad since before I knew them and him,

Louise and Sandra and Wayne and others in Terrace, the Don Diego's family, the Smelts and other swimming friends like Chris and Brian and Daniel and Frank.
The list goes on, and I struggle to name every one.

I have a good life. I have said that several times to Conrad lately, and also to TK when we chat. Oh sure, I want to win that Lottery ($50 million? I MUST buy a ticket today!) and have a life of ease. But I've earned every grey hair starting to poke through, every wrinkle, every memory, ever difficulty and every reward.

So, yep: totally milking 40. Why not?

And thanks all of you who read this blog for being a part of it, too.

Darth! Heidi! Niles!

First in a cluster of blog postings to appear in the next day or two, most of them related to the recent weekend in Michiana. Ah, glorious Michiana. Home of many strip malls, as we learned. The stretch from South Bend, IN, to Niles, MI, is replete with them.

But never mind, for Niles is also the home of friends: Darth and Heidi.

Yes, you wonder, I know: what sort of name is Darth? A nickname, of course. Darth is better known to our library school classmates and others by his real name, Conrad. But that, as you may guess, gets to be confusing in conversations among the four of us. Whether he approves or not, he is Darth, and Allison will back me up on this one!




Given the schedule of wedding events and things going on with Darth and Heidi, we had to settle for a quick visit with them at the library in Niles, catching up on our personal events, wishing for a future longer visit together. Funny coincidence: Darth is taking part in a community theatre production of Escanaba in da Moonlight, a play of a movie set in Conrad's (my Conrad's) hometown. Yooper jokes popped out for a minute or two.

And then we had to leave Darth to his work (Heidi, by then, was en route to Ann Arbor). At least he gave us a must-see/must-do in Niles recommendation before we left: Veni's Sweet Shop. Conrad and I had a little fun shopping in there, restraining ourselves somewhat. And, as a thank you to Darth, dropped off a little treat box with him from the shop before we drove on out of town.

Indian Garden

You know those little twenty-questions quizzes that get forwarded around on e-mail? Find out about your friends, where they've been, have they ever toilet-papered a car, what was the name of their first dog, do they like rainstorms or snow falling? That sort of thing that we're all guilty of and that suck a little bit of the life out of our workdays every do often. You know what I mean?

I'm kind of a sucker for them, sorry. Invariably there are food/beverage questions, and a common one simply asks for favourite food. I never know whether that means a single item, a recipe, a style of cuisine. I usually respond, truthfully, that Mexican is tops for me. Indian, though, is close behind that.

Darth and Heidi (above) bookended my work week with Darth sharing sushi with us on Monday and Heidi in town last night. I met her and a couple of her friends up on Devon for dinner, and though (don't snicker, FXK) I was having a great day with data analysis for some research and kind of wanted to hole up at home and plug away at it, I hopped the Red Line north to Loyola


and caught a bus west from there.

Heidi always likes Indian Garden, they have her favourite dish. Me, I'm willing to give any place a go. I'd only been up to Devon once, dining at Hema's Kitchen with CG and Conrad after catching a movie in Evanston. I also tried Raj Darbar, in Lincoln Park, years ago.

Now here's the deal: I've never been hugely impressed with Indian food in Chicago despite such a large, vibrant strip of restaurants on Devon. Hema's Kitchen was good, but not memorable. Raj Darbar is easy to get to but wasn't worth me going back. Anyone back home reading this will understand: when you come from a place that has a large Indian population, and you can enjoy good food in people's homes, restaurants don't measure up well. I loved Haryana's when I lived in my hometown, and ViJ's has taken Indian to new heights in my view. Places like Indian Garden have a lot to live up to.

So, let's start with the really good: Heidi and her friends. It was a fun few hours with them. I'd met Alexis before, and Susan was great to get to know. Darth and Heidi live not too far away in Michigan, but we need to get over there and see them at little more frequently than we make time for. It's always terrific seeing them.

The food. Well, hmmm. One interesting dish and a few ordinary ones. I neglected to whip out the camera when the pakoras came, but they weren't the star of the meal anyway. As for mains, we had Tandoor chicken tikkathat had good flavour but was fairly dry. I did like to take the chunks and swirl them in some of the other sauces. Next up, a reliable standby, sag paneer.It was fine, I thought. My selection, the murg badami, sounded really good.I'd never seen it on a menu before, and the description of boneless chicken cooked in a rich almond flavoured sauce was intriguing. I fear, though, that it was a bit subtle, perhaps. Bland, maybe. The chicken wasn't as tender as I would have expected, and it seemed as if it had been cooked separate from the sauce as the meat didn't carry any particular flavour of almond. It's telling that the two chicken dishes were the ones we didn't finish.

Heidi's old favourite proved the crowd pleaser. The photo isn't great, and, in fact, it isn't the most appealing looking dish. It was another I'd never seen on a menu before, I don't think: navratan kormamixed vegetables in a gravy of cashew nuts and fruit. It was good. Different. Just sweet enough without being too sweet. Looked like canned pea soup but tasted better than anything else we had. Great choice Heidi!

Rice, raita, and naan (garlic naan here)accompanied the meal.

I feel like I'm pissing on Heidi's memories of all her good times with her friends at this restaurant. It wasn't bad, by any stretch. The navratan korma was a terrific surprise, and I very much enjoyed seeing Heidi and her friends. Plus, did I mention how inexpensive it was? All in all, though, it left me wondering what other restaurants on Devon to try.

Christmas dinner

Maybe I need to reconsider this librarian thing. Jeepers, if I can put together a dinner for 11 for Christmas, maybe I do need to go back to restaurant work.

Nah.

Who am I kidding - many people do bigger dinners for the holidays. I'm pleased with mine, but it wouldn't have happened without Conrad cleaning the house and otherwise putting up with my ultra-intensity in the kitchen.

We had an eclectic bunch there last night. Kenn and Cliff from swimming, Conrad (another one, this one a friend from library school who lives and works in Niles, MI) and his wife Heidi, Conrad's (my Conrad - this is too confusing. Henceforth, other Conrad will be known as Darth. Darth Rader - get it?) colleague Jim and his partner Dan, Scott from Yoshi's, and Kevin and Richard from UIC. It ended up being a decent mix - many times I heard laughter erupting from the living room while I was in the kitchen.

The night was not rushed. After the main course I had people sit and relax and open the presents we had for them. The last people (other than Darth and Heidi, who stayed the night) left at 10:30ish. Not too bad.

The menu is on the example of the place card we set at each person's setting. We didn't photograph the soup (decent - and I really don't care for mushrooms!) or the biscotti and cheese course, but they were well-received. Otherwise:

Pre-dinner snacks.

Salads.

Cornish game hens.

Slices of the chocolate and meringue cake - it's a super recipe that I will gladly share.

And guests - we're still a little floored that Jim actually consented to wear the crown from inside his cracker - most of the 'mericans didn't even know what the crackers were.

Darth and I had much to explain to the Yanks. Thank goodness we had each other!