New Mexico's State Cookie

 Albuquerque, NM

My new New Mexico Pinball Shirt!

New Mexico's Official State Cookie

Yesterday Donna started on the Official New Mexico State Cookie Recipe, the Biscochito and today she finished it.  The cookies are great!  I would like the recipe we used but it's behind the America's Test Kitchen Paywall.  We have the book on our trip so we got it out of that.  It seemed a bit more straight forward than the recipe on the state's site.

Delicious flaky cookies with Anise Seeds and cinnamon sugar coating.

Lunch With Friends

We headed north to Rio Rancho to have lunch with friends, one who was also a former coworker with me at Point of View.  It was a great lunch of catching up and sharing what we have been up to on this trip. We will probably get together again before we leave.  

Shopping

After lunch we drove around like suburbanites and went to Target, PetSmart, and 2 Mexican Grocery Stores.  We had some essentials to pick up and they all ended up getting picked up on the same day.  Our menu this week calls for Tamales and we were trying to figure out how we would steam them when a $9.99 tamale steamer / pot presented itself.  We don't usually try to increase our load of cookware but it seemed worth it in this case and we can use it for 4 months before we have any really heavy road tripping to do.  All of our stays are just one after the other until February.

We passed on the Scratch and Sniff pet waste bags.  I am not sure who would see this as a selling feature.

Tamales soon!

And More Pinball

At 4pm I headed back to Sister Bar to play some more pinball.  I was excited to learn a few more machines there before the Saturday tournament.  I ended up meeting the guy maintaining the machines and he invited me to the tournament.  I let him know I would be there and then bought a shirt to represent New Mexico Pinball on our travels.  I now have 4 pinball shirts.

I improved my Rick and Morty score from yesterday by revisiting a tutorial I watched.  Not an amazing score but a score I would be fine with in a tournament.  I also improved my Bram Stoker's Dracula and Rush scores.  My goal was to learn Rick and Morty and Monopoly a bit better and I did that.

That's it for today.  If you missed A Weekend in ABQ, check it out.  We played pinball amongst other things.

Chicago Dogs and Bowling

 Chicago, IL

It's only when I write the blog that I realize I forgot to take a selfie of the day.  Here is the back of Donna's head.  It was supposed to be used as a shot to give you a sense of place at Redhot Ranch.

Carl's List

One of the things that was very appealing for us about San Francisco was the food.  Not just the food but the food culture.  Both Donna and I had good friends at work that were foodies and we could talk to them about all of the places we should eat, all of the new places opening, and all of the places closing down.  It was their hobby and we benefited from it.  Carl was my go to for foodie talk and I still get his recommendations from time to time.  One of the good things about Carl's List is that it doesn't have to be fancy to make the list, it just has to be top notch good.  In fact if the dining establishment has a white tablecloth it probably won't make Carl's List.  Redhot Ranch was a recommendation from Carl.  It's delicious and cheap and the one we went to was right under The L (Blue Line) so it's also iconic.  Their website appears to be down (they are a food joint and not a tech company) so here is an Eater article with them on the list.

The entrance (this is actually us leaving but the narrative wants an establishing shot of going there so I put it first.  I don't think people will notice). 

Not fancy, just good.

"Their idea: Replicate the In-N-Out Double-Double for Chicagoans. In our fair meat-and-potato city, one could throw a rock and hit a corner grill with a mediocre burger."  (The next photo would have been the one of Donna reading the stuff on the wall but I had to use it in "The Selfie" spot).

I was going to go for the free earplugs but in the end I didn't.

Iconic eating spot.

The Train was quite loud when it went by.

We both got Double Dogs with Fries.  They came wrapped up nicely.

As you unroll the fries and double dog reveal themselves.  Some of the fries were in the dog which was fine.  You can't see it here but it's a hot dog bun with 2 dogs, Mustard, Hot Peppers, Onions, and never ever, ever ketchup or catsup.

Waiting is the hardest part!

Donna got a new phone so the quality of the images are much better.

We Are Becoming Bowlers

After our hot dog experience we decided to go bowling.  Donna has been wanting to go go Waveland Bowl since doing research and it's cheap during the day M-Th.  We hopped the bus and soon we were at Waveland Bowl.

The Entrance is pretty iconic.

This is what I look like when I do a bad bowl.

We didn't roll ourselves into The Finals.

Not the most hygienic place but I guess being born in a bowling alley would make a good story.

On the way out I took pictures of their bowling tie collection.  It was the largest of it's kind that I have ever seen.

Dinner

After all of the adventure and hot dogs we went home and made a light dinner, Spicy Cold Tofu with Century Eggs.  It tuned out great.  It was my first time having preserved duck eggs and I can say I don't mind them but I also don't think they added anything to the dish, especially for the price.  I would add a soft boiled egg next time.

Yum!

After dinner I went to Logan Arcade to play a few games of pinball.  I got 100mil on Addams Family.

That was it for the day.  If you missed Free Pinball and Expensive Beer check it out.  I played pinball.

Keeping Busy Without Really Going Out

 Baton Rouge, LA

Francis is too busy to open his eyes

The Call of the Couch

This week we are going through a cold snap and this Airbnb has a really nice couch and TV so sometimes it is hard to get out there and do stuff all of the time but we are keeping busy none the less.  Here are some of the things we are doing to keep busy when we aren't exploring the city we are staying in because sometimes you have to take a break.

Clear Ice

I watch quite a bit of YouTube and I often scroll through the suggested for you stuff.  The other day a video on how to make clear ice showed up so I watched it and it was fantastic so I tried it and it worked!

Cooking

We cook a lot. Donna has been taking the lead this past week and the food has been great!  She has been making a bunch of meals with local ingredients.  I help chop those ingredients sometimes.  Other times I watch YouTube and let her know it smells good.  

Here are the recipes we made this week.

https://acadianatable.com/2021/12/27/cajun-cabbage-casserole/

https://acadianatable.com/2019/06/10/potato-brussels-soup/

https://acadianatable.com/2022/01/31/red-bean-mustard-green-green-onion-sausage-soup/

I also made Pain De Epi last week and baguettes this week.  

The counters are gross here so I have to kneed on a cutting board which isn't optimal.

It still turned out though!

These are my favorite videos for these recipes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36CisvPJYXI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBBJYda-dyA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLfLetvF96E

Taking Photos of Silly Stuff

I also keep busy by constantly taking photos of things that get my attention while we are out.  Most end up here but some just have no context and don't really fit with the story I am telling.  Here are a few of those.

We took a special trip to the grocery store for really cheap yams.  

And picked up some more really really cheap Mirlitons.

I have heard Yellowstone is good.  

Some butcher got an idea.  Maybe it will catch on.

This syrup is reveling in he fact that it is artificially flavored.  Who would buy this?

Nintendo Switch

Yesterday I hooked up The Switch.  I figured we would have low energy days during the Thanksgiving weekend.  I started playing Hollow Knight and Animal Crossing again.  Animal Crossing bought back waves of Covid Quarantine Nostalgia if that is a thing.

We have 2 weeks left and the list of things we absolutely have to do is short.  I know there will be a ton of things to do in New Orleans so taking it easy isn't such a bad thing, it just gives me less to write about.

That's it for today.  If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.  We had a fairly high energy day climbing to the top of Tiger Stadium.

On the Road Francis Photo

 Somewhere Between Baltimore and Baton Rouge

This is a first person view of eating a baked potato while Francis begs

We do a lot of cooking when we are staying in our vacation homes.  We pick and choose our meals that we eat out and make sure they are totally worth it.  On this night we were eating baked potatoes with sour cream and cheddar cheese and Francis was down for the diary parts of the meal.  

Yesterday's Post