taz_39 | Entries tagged with itaki

I think I actually slept all right, though had weird dreams about a huge crocodile coming after me in the water because I didn't give it an offering (this seems like a mash-up of TikTik account @fishingarret, which I did watch before bed, and the Mugger of the Ghaut from The Second Jungle Book)

Anyway, before I could run off and have fun I had to do my cooking.
Hello Itaki, it's been a while :)

I cooked my chicken breasts first, in a regular chicken broth and seasoned with Goldy's spice blend and black pepper.
Next were the tilapia filets from Harmon's, also given the spice blend and pepper treatment before going into a turmeric ginger chicken broth.

I have a good sense of timing for the Itaki, and pulled the fish at the perfect time. It was flaky and moist, and the seasoning was great! Ate some of it for lunch with a challah roll and veggies.

Then a whole bunch of emailing and blog updating and meal planning before getting an Uber to the Natural History Museum!!
( Museum Stuff! )

By this time I had spent a solid two hours in the museum, and was getting tuckered.
I was about to head back downstairs when I noticed some people going out onto a sort of patio, and decided to follow them and see what was out there. An incredible view, that's what. (CLICK HERE to see)

There was lots of signage describing the atmospheric phenomenons, cloud structures, solar impacts of blah blah blah, but I just wanted to fill my eyeballs and not necessarily understand the mechanisms this time. It was 3pm, and the sky was just otherworldly.

Imagine what the sunsets must be like.

Unedited proof that I was here.

After that I did call an Uber, which was supposed to take me to Walgreens but we got held up by a "Free Palestine" protest. I was only a few blocks away so popped out of the car in the middle of stopped traffic, watched the protest for a while, then continued on to Walgreens just for a jug of distilled water for my tea kettle.

Back at the hotel I made myself tea and had snacks, and chatted with Jameson while he got ready for the premiere of Jollywood!! I can't believe the show goes live tonight!! He is SO HANDSOME in a suit :D

If you'd like to watch the new Jollywood show CLICK HERE.
Jameson is on the left upper level, sitting across from the blonde female keyboardist.

For dinner I had decided to try Zest, a vegan restaurant around the corner from the hotel.
It had great reviews, but I got a bad vibe as soon as I stepped in. 5:30pm on a Saturday, with a vibrant night life in SLC and lots of events happening downtown, and there were TWO people in the dining room. That should have been my cue to leave, but I didn't take it.

Here's what I ordered from the menu: "coconut yellow curry w/forbidden black rice and sesame stir fry vegetables, mung bean "tofu", sesame seeds, and cashews."

Here's what I got: green curry w/plain white rice in straight-up unseasoned coconut cream, with overcooked squash, bok choy, and green peppers, and mung bean "tofu."

AND IT WAS $25.

As soon as it came out I said something (I mean when you order BLACK rice and it is stark white, and the curry is green not yellow, something is clearly not right), and the server said, "Oh, our menu changed, the yellow curry was a SUMMER dish, this is our FALL curry."
Yeah ok, but like when were you going to tell ME that? Never, I guess. He seemed surprised that I had said something. I decided to eat it anyway--I really shouldn't have, but apparently my self-preservation was in the "off" setting tonight. Not only was it not at all what I'd ordered, it just was not good. The green curry broth itself was flavorful and nice, but the rest of it I'm sorry to say was just LAME. Overcooked eggplant and zucchini, bland goopy rice...and for $25!!!

I wrote them a scathing review but have to wait until we leave town to post it (it's one of the rules of traveling with a show, not to start a stink and invoke repercussions that could reflect badly on the company.) Man, what a disappointment. It WAS edible, but I could have easily made that in my hotel room with the Itaki and done a better job of it. I feel like such a sucker out-of-towner. I should have REALLY looked around and realized that the locals have shunned this place, and there must be a reason.

Ah well. This kind of thing happens from time to time. I'll have to take it as a "fool me once."
The rest of the day was lovely, so if that was the worst part of it I can't complain!

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday was an early sound check because we had two shows, the first one being at 1pm.
So at 9am I was at the theatre warming up. It's a pretty one with a sparkly ceiling.

Sound check was fine, just running through a few numbers for the orchestra and then with the actors doing mic checks on stage. Back to the hotel for lunch, then back again for the first show. I thought it went well AND it was sold out, all three balcony levels were completely full! Yay! We did have a prop bouquet of fake flowers fall into the pit and hit Eileen (French horn), and it's not like a fluffy bouquet, it's a BATON with flowers tied to it, so she said it did hurt. That'll probably be an incident report. That's the second large object to fall into the pit so far, maybe we need a traveling pit net.

Otherwise it went well. Dinner at the hotel, then show number two, which also went well.

And then, opening night party!

It was at a restaurant a few blocks from the theatre, and what a nice setup we had!
Good food, really great mixed drinks (although I stuck with wine myself)

I tried to mingle but am not great socially, plus most of these people know each other already.

One fantastic surprise was my friend Tyler, who was my tour manager over a decade ago with another touring company and just last year was hired by my current touring company to do bookkeeping and tour management! I knew he'd been hired on, but didn't expect to see him here!! We haven't seen each other since 2008!! I didn't get a pic with him but should have! Ah well. We got caught up as much as we could in the loud environment, and it was just great to see him again. It is amazing that we met on tour so long ago, and our paths intersected again for the second time tonight. The entertainment world is a small one indeed :)

I drank and had some finger foods and a slice of cake, and chatted it up with mostly members of the band.
Somehow I managed to stay for almost the whole party (10pm-12am), but peaced out right before the end.
We were each given a lovely gift bag, which I checked out back at the hotel.

Inside were two luggage tags (obligatory, I've met people who use these as a sort of flex to display all of the shows they've been on) and a warm fluffy dusky-blue My Fair Lady hoodie! (It looks grey in the photo but it's not, promise.) I was impressed that they'd given me "my" size without having to ask me about it...I guess someone actually checked my existing records to see what size I am.

Not great photos but it was late at night and hotel lighting, you understand.
Everyone, male and female, also received these flower necklaces. I don't go in for jewelry but did appreciate how short the chains were, it will not interfere with my tromboning so I may actually wear it from time to time.

Overall, really nice party, and I appreciated the chance to interact with my peers outside of work hours :)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday is another day off! Wow!
I'm definitely going to go for a walk, where exactly is TBD.
We also have single evening shows all week so really every day this week is quite free and open, there's no need to cram a lot into one day just because the evening is free. I expect to have small adventures here in Salt Lake, see some sights, play some shows, and then fly back to Orlando for that pesky overnight rehearsal (omg I can't think about it, I'll freak out!)

Other stuff:

There is a pup at this theatre named Tuukka who greets everyone who comes backstage!

Someone stuck googly eyes on this stairs sign. Watch OUT for those stairs, they're gonna getcha!

Random things that I forgot to mention from last week:

There was a restaurant down the street that made an entire TOOTSIE-themed menu! How cool is that!
A few people tried some dishes and said they were delicious.

I also uploaded a recording that I made of myself playing some circus music.
This is part of my portfolio that I send out when auditioning and such, but I felt it might be interesting for people to kind of visualize how the cuts, vamps, and jumps in the music work according to what's happening on the arena floor, and in each act. So I added little captions explaining what's happening or who's performing (and why they are awesome)

CLICK HERE to watch

And then a little sad news: I've decided to let go of my nursing home data entry job for the remainder of the tour.
There are two reasons.

Reason One is that for the entire two weeks in Cincinnati I was unable to do my work for more than a few minutes at a time. I spent HOURS on the phone with tech support every day for the first EIGHT DAYS of our stay, wiping my caches and running virus/malware/disk scans, reinstalling VPN and support software, and fighting with the hotel front desk to the point where an engineer had to come up and see for himself that internet truly was not working in my room, even for him, and then I ended up switching rooms at 1am which gave me a poor connection but STILL did not resolve the core issue.

Reason Two was that according to hotel staff I was the only one experiencing this issue, and after one of the many scans and updates things did sort-of go back to normal, which tells me that in addition to the poor internet I could have had a virus or something that compromised the information on my machine. I'm talking about a nursing home resident personal information. That is NOT OK. I have done everything that I can to protect the sensitive data that I work with as I travel, but the bottom line is that every week (and sometimes every few days) we are in a different city at a hotel with a different IP address and different security protocols, and ultimately ALWAYS on a public network.

This whole ordeal was incredibly stressful, demeaning, and ultimately did not resolve the problem, so I got no work done for two weeks. This is not the first time that this has happened, just the longest period of it. It's not fair to the employer, and it's become way too much stress for me to struggle with on top of travel and looking for full time post-tour work.

I've sent a letter asking to either be "put on hold" until June if for some reason they still want to keep me on, or if not, to consider it my two weeks notice and big thanks for letting me work with them this far. I feel sad, it's not how I wanted this to end, but we will see what happens.

-------------------------------------------------------

On Monday we had an uneventful travel day, which is the best kind of travel day!

We got to the hotel as scheduled. This hotel is one of those "artsy" ones with a "theme", which is "art", and so the "entryway" is an "art gallery". Lol.

In addition to paintings on the wall, there was a functional piece of art involving little doors that you could open to reveal misc abstract artistic statements (I suppose?). I've seen other folks playing with it and will take my turn with it eventually :)

Each floor of the hotel also has color-themed rooms, which is kinda cool.
The colors are red, yellow, green, and blue.
It looks like one of us is staying in rooms of every color except blue (or the blue room ppl ain't sharing haha)

The blue image is stock from the hotel's website.

The red room is the room I initially had, but unfortunately there was food in the fridge and something nasty in the trash, so I was quickly relocated to a smaller room that, ironically, has exactly the same layout as the room I had in Cincinnati. Once again there is limited counter space, so I'll be using the ironing board as a table. The ironing board is NOT red, if you were wondering ;)

After getting settled in I walked to the nearest grocery which was called Fresh Thyme Market.
Located in an old foundry near a college, I figured it had to be some hipster co-op or something.

But once I saw the logo I knew exactly what this was.

Does it look familiar to you? When we were in Grand Rapids earlier this year, there was a grocery called Bridge Street Market.
Which turned out to be a Meijer in disguise as a hipster co-op:

That's right, Fresh Thyme is another disguised Meijer.
So I was not surprised to see Meijer-branded products on the shelves.
It was a bit pricey, but the quality was good and they had a mix of everyday products and unique local finds.
I got some interesting things to try which I'll detail later.

Back at the hotel I unpacked and spent the rest of the night resting.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, I woke up too early because Central Time.
I used a laundry service because I am feeling flustered and stressed this week, and really wanted to use today for cooking and job applications. Once the laundry was sent off I fired up the Itaki and made the dried herb and tomato risotto that I'd picked up at Jungle Jim's, cooking it with chicken broth and cracked black pepper. It turned out fantastic, creamy and delicious despite the lack of cheese.

Then I did two tilapia filets, which cooked up perfectly in just 15 minutes and were flaky and tasty with the risotto and some green beans.

Then it was job applications for a while, and chores like finding a dry cleaners nearby for my coat, working on Foodie Finds for upcoming cities, trying to find a PCP back in Florida, and making plans with my friend Elliana for Wednesday.

The Fabulous Fox here in STL is right next to our hotel, so it was a short walk to get backstage.
This theatre is amazing.

(stock image)

These photos don't do it justice...there is so much going on. So much filigree, decor, history, etc.
Not to mention every square inch of the backstage is covered in signatures and wall tags from both famous and unknown bands, shows, and artists.

We are getting a tour of the entire theatre next Thursday, so I'm going to hold off on more pictures until then.
I'm very excited to learn more about this historic and incredibly beautiful theatre!

And, I'm going to be recording some portfolio materials here.
The sound isn't "the best" for that sort of thing, it's a big gaping space that feels kind of like playing in a barn.
But the timing seems right.

Anyway, our opening night show went well I think. Good crowd, and it was good to get used to the space.

---------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, adventures with my friend Elliana!

Here she is:

(photo from NPR)

Elliana is circus-born; that is, she was one of those children literally born into the circus, on the road, and made her stage premiere before the age of three, riding into the ring on the back of an elephant. When I worked for Ringling, she was a Human Cannonball (that should tell you something about her bravery levels!) and now she's a circus arts instructor for several facilities here in St. Louis.

She expressed interest in having a foodie adventure together, so off we went to The Foundry Bakery!

( CLICK HERE for Foodie Adventures )

Thus ended our foodie adventure! We hugged and parted ways for now.

Back at the hotel I put my exciting food finds away and gave the duck a try. It was salty and sweet, the skin was not as crunchy as I expected but the flavor was amazing and I can see why duck cooked this way is so prized. I'll definitely enjoy eating this for the rest of the week!
I tried to look up nutrition info for my other food items as well, and think I got some pretty good estimates so I can do my calorie counting.

At the theatre, Elliana came to say hello at the edge of the pit :)

We had a good show. It was our 400th! A company photo was taken which hasn't been shared yet, I'll put it up in the next post.

Paul (our drummer) helped me to set up some recording equipment, so I messed around with that throughout the show and will be interested to see how my footage and audio came out.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

It's Thursday morning, and I just finished a podcast interview with Heidi Herriott for her "Animal Tales" podcast.
She interviews animal specialists, or just people like me with experience alongside animals, to try and get different perspectives on animal care, welfare, husbandry, etc. The interview was fun and engaging, so hopefully it will be a helpful addition to her content.

I got up very early for that, so now I'm going to take a look at my footage from last night and make notes on any changes for the next recording. Then I hope to check out a nearby Goodwill, pick up a jug of water and some oatmeal from the grocery, and enjoy some of my tasty Asian treats for lunch and dinner!

The plan for Friday is to eat at Fountain on Locust before watching Elliana perform at City Museum.
Saturday and Sunday, no plans because they're two show days.
Monday is a Golden Day, so I'd like to visit the art museum and adjacent park, then have lunch in Little Italy/The Hill.

Last week, I posted all about Jungle Jim's because it took up SO MUCH. Time, media, and words, lol.

But other things happened too!

I met up with my boss Brett again on Wednesday, he took me to Pappadeaux for lunch because I'd never been.

We had alligator bites for the appetizer, and they were really good! Best alligator bites I've ever had actually.

We both had fish for our mains, Cajun catfish with shrimp etouffee for him and tilapia with hazelnuts for me.
It was very good, the fish was perfect. I only wish they'd chopped up the hazelnuts, it was weird chasing whole hazelnuts around the plate.

As we ate we talked. About lots of things.
How we're doing. Misc health issues that we've noticed as we've gotten older, and lowering tolerances to things like alcohol and dairy and fatty foods. Other circus people and how they're currently doing. Circus family who have passed away, and memories that we had of them. Our plans for the future.

It was great. Brett is someone that I consider a true friend...someone who was there for a very important part of my life, and who guided me through a lot of that, and continues to support me today despite all of my shortcomings. He and his family are precious to me, and getting to spend time with him today was a true joy and a memory that I'll cherish :)

After lunch Brett said, "Let's go to Jungle Jim's!!"
I laughed helplessly and said yes, of course!

We parked at Rhino. Inside we poked through alcohol, but Brett doesn't drink any more and I drink very little so it was mostly just window shopping. I went back to the cookware section and found a silicone grippy thing that I'd wanted and hadn't gotten, it'll help me pick up my hot Itaki containers instead of using my sleeve or a paper towel. Brett found a promising-looking low-carb bread, and I discovered a powdered egg white mix to supplement my protein intake. We dug through the European candies looking for Polish "birds milk" chocolates but didn't find them.

Overall I hardly bought anything, but enjoyed having a second chance to look at the aisles and ask myself if there was anything I'd forgotten on the first trip. Nope! All good.

From there we went to Brett's house just a few minutes away.
Brett gave me a Ziploc full of beef jerky that he'd made himself, insisting that I try a piece to make sure I'd like it.
You guys, it's REALLY good! It's very dry and almost crispy, which is how I personally believe homemade jerky should be. When I was little I used to go to the Bloomsburg Fair specifically for the homemade jerky sold under the bleacher seats, and it was just like this, super dry and peppery and just fantastic. Good freaking job, Brettastic!!

He also gave me a big jar of honey that had fallen off his Amazon truck and he'd been allowed to keep.
I'll be sharing that with the production office as they keep honey on hand for tea, so the whole company can enjoy it :)

Brett brought me back to the hotel and we hugged goodbye. I'll miss him, but it was wonderful to see him again!

------------------------------------------------

Shows have been going well. Soto (MD) is back on the bandstand, and I'm sure it won't be long before we all get notes on how we're playing (a good and normal thing...always strive to improve!).

The cast took a day trip to the zoo and got to see the hippos, I don't know if they were able to interact but they did get to watch a feeding so that was cool! I also saw from their pictures that more mammals were out, including lions and giraffes and such. Everyone seemed to have a great experience.

There were also other carpools to Jungle Jim's, so I'm seeing lots of international snacks around the production office and in dressing rooms. Oh, and company management got us some local ice cream from Graeter's! I couldn't partake because I was already having a bad lactose reaction (too much dairy overall this week but especially the black raspberry milk) but it looked delicious and was very nice of them to do that for us.

-----------------------------------------------------

On Thursday I had a slow morning, and spent most of that typing up the massive blog post for Jungle Jim's.
After that I got a few supplemental groceries, just some Greek yogurt and fruit, and had lunch before taking myself on an adventure across the river to Kentucky!

The view of Cincinnati was nice.

It was a balmy 60F and partly sunny. My excessively shiny shoes flashed in the sun as I walked, and brought me joy :D

( CLICK HERE to Explore KY )

All in all it was a 4-mile walk plus the mile to the theatre that night, so I had good cardio today.

While waiting for the elevator I was staring blankly out the 9th floor window, and was startled to notice some beehives on the roof.

These are a collaboration between the hotel and Fifty West Brewing Company.
They use honey from the hives, and lavender from the rooftop garden, to create a beer called "NP Buzz".
I don't drink beer, but maybe I'll have to try it before we leave!
The show went well, nothing to report. Supposedly there was a "Cincinnati trombonist of note" in the audience, but I heard about this secondhand and post-show so there was nothing that I could do about it.

-------------------------------------------------------

Friday I woke to a dreary rainy day. It's good that I got a walk in yesterday!

I decided to try out some more of my unique international foods today.

- Evergreen Coconut Milk Drink, Banana flavor: this was very good! Creamy banana coconut beverage with little cubes of coconut jelly. However the label clearly says "NON-DAIRY" but the ingredients list SODIUM CASIENATE which is from milk!! So if you are vegan this is still not for you.

- Wild Boar Jerky: tasty! This was real whole strips of feral pig. Was it good, yes. Was it worth how much real feral pig costs? Not really!

- Empire Spruce Soda: Blech. Tasted just like pine sap. Worse than that, it was nearly flat, not bubbly at all. Glad to try it but not for me.

- Granadilla Pulp: it's just passionfruit pulp, so it was delicious :)

- Vedshakti Toothpaste: Not bad! The color of the toothpaste reminded me of red clay. Sort of a "brick" color.

The overwhelming flavor was of clove, which was fine with me. It was a little sweet I guess, but mostly herbs and clove.
There may have even been a little spiciness to it, but there are loads of herbs and even fruit extracts in here that I have NO clue what they are, so I don't know which would have caused the spicy aftertaste.

Not sure if this is true for everyone, but for me clove causes a mild and temporary numbing sensation of my tongue and throat.
This is why I sometimes carry clove candies, because it helps me out with motion sickness.
Anyway, it's a nice toothpaste and I'll use up the tube. Now I'd like to try the herbal one as well!

Before lunch I got a little bored, so walked a mile to OTR Bagel Bar to get my Travel Bagel for Monday.
They have weird flavors like Fruity Pebbles and Flamin' Hot Cheeto bagels.
They were out of Fruity Pebbles so I got graham cracker instead.

On the walk back I asked Jameson to check on my plants, especially the vanilla orchid as I wanted to know how the flower bud is developing.
( CLICK HERE for Plant Excitement! )

I rode a "My banana tree finally fruited!" high for the rest of the day, and breezed through the evening show on a cloud haha.
It was St. Paddy's Day too, so downtown was rowdy and festive. That was nice to see.

------------------------------------------------

Saturday, I got up early to walk to Sleepy Bee for breakfast with my trombone buddy Phil and his brother.

Phil and I attended the PA Governor's School for the Arts back when that was a thing.
That summer was magical; it was one of the defining moments of my musicianship.
I learned a lot, made new friends, and improved my musical abilities a great deal.
I haven't seen Phil since that time...good lord, that's over 20 years ago!

Anyway, we chatted about our doings and enjoyed a tasty, healthy breakfast.
They both had some form of fluffy, delicious pancake.
I had avocado toast on multigrain with a poached egg, pickled raisins, arugula, evoo, and walnut dukkah.
It was very flavorful, healthy, and a perfect portion size.

I couldn't help showing off my banana and vanilla orchid pics. Luckily Phil's brother gardens so he "got it" as far as my excitement levels haha. We swapped plant stories and pointers, and Phil said they were planning to visit Jungle Jim's after we ate based on my recent pictures and posts. I gave some small advice regarding that trip ("Get a map right away!" and "Expect to spend more than you expect!").

It was great to see these two and share a meal together, and I'm excited that they'll be at the show later this afternoon!

From there I went back to the hotel and relaxed and did some job hunting before our first show.

The show went well. I was a little distracted with thoughts about this tour ending, but still played my best.
The walk back to the hotel was rough, it is back below 30F and very windy.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday, I decided to do Sleepy Bee Cafe again because I didn't really have enough random leftovers lying around to make three whole meals. This time I went with their "Queen City Bee" sandwich: vegan goetta, sliced green apple, arugula, over easy egg, and "nectar sauce" (sweet and tangy aioli) on a milk bun.

Sooooo good. Look at that lovely yolk.

Goetta is similar to scrapple. They're both a greyish "meat mush" made from carcass scraps boiled for a long time and then blended with some sort of binder and spices. Scrapple is made with pork carcass and cornmeal or flour, while goetta is usually a mix of pork and beef and uses oats for a binder.

The end result is very fatty and not very good for you, which is why I chose the vegan version, made with cremini mushrooms.
It was crunchy, chewy, nutty, and flavorful. Far superior to goetta and scrapple IMO!

The rest of the two-show day was very normal.
Our final two shows in Cinci went well and were well attended.

---------------------------------------------------------------

This two week stay in Cincinnati has been wonderful and memorable.

I am so grateful beyond words that I got to be here...to visit my circus home, to interact with elephants, to share circus memories and foodie finds with friends new and old. It really was amazing, and a highlight of my time with Tootsie the Musical.

This tour ends in June, but these wonderful memories will stay with me forever.

And when I woke up this morning, facebook reminded me that six years ago today, the circus train pulled out of Cincinnati for the last time on a rainy Monday. What an appropriate coincidence.

----------------------------------------------------------------

It's Monday morning and I'm typing this up before we head out to St. Louis.

We'll be here for two weeks as well, so that'll be really nice.
There's a lot to look forward to...museums and restaurants of course, and some local friends...and playing shows for people ready to enjoy themselves and have a good laugh!

A normal travel day, though some luggage was lost and some connections barely made.

The band and crew flew from Huntsville to Charlotte and then Hartford, but cast was flown to CHICAGO with a basically nonexistant layover. Somehow everyone made the connection, I guess they just ran Home Alone-style, but their luggage was not as swift as they so some people will need a return trip to the airport tonight or tomorrow.

Anyway, for the second flight I had a window seat, and the clouds were puffy and nice.
30 Seconds of Clouds:

Watch on YouTube

Also, some container ships off the New England coast as we approached for landing.

The hotel is a Holiday Inn, and it's "normal", not scuzzy and not fancy.
But if you EVER think your hotel carpet is clean, try this Pro Tip:
take one of those sticky lint rollers and rub it back and forth on the carpet, especially near the bathroom or the foot of the bed.
You'll never walk barefoot in a hotel room again.

AAAAaanyway, we have rental cars again so right away I asked Paul and Jared (drummer and guitarist) if they wanted to carpool over to Whole Paycheck for groceries as there are no grocery stores in walking distance. I also brought our covid officer Katie. The Whole Paycheck was in a plaza that also had a Target, CVS and Walgreens, and something called "Big Y" that seemed to be a grocery store too.

I went to Walgreens for Core Power protein shakes, which I prefer to the watery flavorless Iconic shakes sold at WP.

The rest of my groceries for the week:

Boneless skinless chicken breast in BBQ marinade
carton egg whites
one salmon filet
fat free Greek yogurt
Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and kumquats
sumo orange
banana
rice cakes
wheat sandwich rounds
oatmeal (I was out)
snap peas
tabouli salad
vegetable soup
nut butter
avocado
vegan potstickers (didn't know they were vegan but not complaining)
beef in a pouch!
local canned coffee

As usual, this is to illustrate what I eat most of the time, as opposed to what I post on Instagram most of the time.
Gelato and croissants and big pastrami sandwiches are just fine. Once.

We drove back laughing and talking about this and that. It was nice.

At the hotel miraculously no one was using the washer so I did a load, then Sam (keys) asked in the group chat if he could pay someone to take their microwave as I guess he didn't get one in his room. I was happy to offer him mine because I've got the Itaki and it can do everything a microwave can :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday morning, woke to find that my fridge had frozen my snap peas, a yogurt, and a few other things. Very annoying. If you have ever frozen veggies without blanching them, they turn into disgusting mush. Yogurt becomes grainy and sandy when thawed as well. So I threw those two items out.

At least most things aren't harmed by freezing. I cooked my chicken and a serving of rice for lunch with salmon and frozen tabouli (weird but at least not ruined). Spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up from cooking, trying to finalize my Cincinnati Foodie Finds, and trying to get this refrigerator to be a FRIDGE and not a FREEZER. I might have to just accept that my stuff will be frozen, and maybe move my yogurt to my tiny travel fridge so it isn't damaged.

This is the first time I've cooked with the Itaki in a while, and I forgot how nice it is.
Yes, the microwave is convenient. But a nice slowly-steamed chicken breast in broth just comes out so much BETTER.
And grains like rice and oatmeal are just so lovely when cooked in the Itaki, the texture is much improved.

Anyway, for sound check we drove to the theatre. This is an old theatre and the backstage is cramped and dirty, heated with radiators and hot pipes so that it alternates between over-hot and slightly chilly as the heat cycles.

But the house itself is GORGEOUS.

That's the ceiling mural, with one of the images flipped so you can better see the art.

The wall sconces, and the view from our dressing room:

The huge Deco mural features a personification of Drama, surrounded by constellations, 1920s-era symbols of America (airplanes, skyscrapers), musical instruments, and performance arts people performing their crafts.
Golden suns, moons, and stars march along the walls in bands of ribboned gold, ending in large bright Deco wall sconces backed with red curtains.

It was a sight to behold, and we all took some time for photos before beginning sound check.

After the check I stayed at the theatre to post a Miss Piggy update and eat a packed dinner.
And since there was a large sink backstage I borrowed some dish soap from Wardrobe and washed my trombone.
I always like to leave it clean before layoffs, so stuff isn't...festering.

The show went well, nothing to report. I suspect people are doing their "best-or-better" because we are so close to NYC, and some Troika people are in the audience, and who knows whether some talent scout might show up!

I'm sure the bigwigs in the city are always scanning for mediocre trombonists :p

----------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, I was happy to have a pretty relaxed day ahead of me.
After breakfast I did an hour of data entry, then walked to a local bakery.

There is a pedestrian walkway across the river.

Another short decorative bridge near the Science Center.
I remember this from previous circus visits.

I even remember this tiny halal food truck.
Circus people ate here DAILY when we played Hartford, it was very good and a great price for the amount of food.
Good on them for surviving the pandemic!!

(fun fact: this pic is from 2017, from a post I made during the circus's last visit to Hartford. That post is full of awesome memories...this food truck, cuddling the animals, our No Talent Talent Show...CLICK HERE to read it)

The bakery didn't have much, maybe because it's a weekday. But I got some nice flower-themed cards to send to friends and family, and a shortbread cookie that had pansies pressed into the top (it will probably taste like normal shortbread, but it's a cute visual).

It was nice to walk around a bit, and made me think that I should plan to do something tomorrow, too.

Back at the hotel I had lunch and watched The Last of Us before working on my taxes and doing more data entry.

At show time we drove in since it was sleeting, then had a nice and well-attended show.

For tomorrow, I'm thinking a walk to The Kitchen (restaurant of course) and possibly going to the art museum, which despite being to Hartford several times I've managed to avoid visiting.

-----------------------------------------------

Other stuff:

Jameson left on a cruise with his friends to celebrate our friend Simon's 50th birthday!

He also sent me this pic of the arena at Miami while they were pushing away.
I guess it's a week of circus memories :)

I woke up this morning in a hotel in Knoxville. Missing Jameson. But also excited to be here!

I had a nice slow morning, and eventually got an Uber to the company hotel downtown.
My room was ready, so it was time for my routine: drop everything and go find groceries!

Well, sort of. First I wanted to get lunch.
Good Golly Tamale was one of few restaurants open, and they were on my way to the grocery too!

It's a small but spacious place with plants and cute quilts hanging on the walls.

The menu. I wished I could have tried them all!

I was helped right away, and because tamales are pre-made I had my food like 30 seconds after ordering!
This is the Vegan Soul: blue corn masa, black-eyed peas, mashed sweet potatoes, and collards.

It was so good! The beans were cooked perfectly, the collards were very flavorful and had been cooked just how you'd have them as a Southern side. The sweet potato contrasted the semi-spicy collards nicely. The blue corn masa was perfect. And they were pretty dang big, so one was plenty for me. The tamale was served with a side of salsa, but it didn't need it at all, everything was so flavorful already.

I really, really enjoyed this first meal in Knoxville, and felt energized to continue on to Three Rivers Market, a local co-op grocery.
On the way there I walked through some neighborhoods that reminded me of Winston-Salem, where I lived for two years.
Quiet streets, slightly run down houses, but well-kept and with that patina that speaks of plain age, not neglect if that makes any sense.

I think once you have been to a lot of places, everywhere looks like everywhere else to some extent.
At the moment Knoxville is part-Kansas City, part-Memphis, with smatterings of Louisville and Winston-Salem thrown in.

The "Kansas City" part is all the dang hills.
No way am I walking back UP this hill carrying all my groceries, no ma'am!

( Read more... )

---------------------------------------------------

It's Thursday morning. The weather will be a bit colder today, but sunny and rain-free.

Plan is to do some data entry, eat lunch, go for a walk, and do the show.
That's pretty much it.

The local art museum is free(!) so I HAVE to pop in there. And there's a historic cemetery.
Should be a nice day!

Tysons Corner is quite the nice place to spend a holiday.

It's a huge shopping area. Our hotel is right next to two large malls and many shops and restaurants.

Because of this--and because it's a holiday, and because we're about to have a layoff--I decided to allow myself to eat out extra this week.

But for Thanksgiving, the company is providing us a lovely Thanksgiving meal (and an open bar!).
To prepare for that and because it was very nice out, mid-50s, I took a walk to the theater.

The route was a bit wonky, taking me on a walking path through some undeveloped woods, which was actually really nice.
Haven't been among trees in too long.
Cardinals and sparrows were chirping socially in the bushes, squirrels rustling through the leaves. All that fall stuff.

Turns out the theater is inside a larger complex, so I didn't actually "see" it.
But I did see the metro station and got a feel for the walk.
And there's a Wegman's right next to the theater too!
Since they were open anyway I popped in. It wasn't too crazy, actually kind of light-to-normal foot traffic.

I got a seasonal Olipop, Apple Crisp, and that's all.

The walk back was less pleasant because I was hungry and it was almost entirely uphill.
But I logged four miles, which for me is about 260 calories and will cover two glasses of wine nicely :)

Back at the hotel, a small snack and put the National Dog Show on in the background while I wrote emails to friends and family until it was finally time for the Thanksgiving meal. It is so hard to wait, lol!

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Company Thanksgiving was a lot of fun!

The food was "standard" catered fare: premade turkey breast with gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, salad, rolls, and cranberry sauce. Dessert was apple or pumpkin pie (or in my case, both).

I had two glasses of wine, a rare treat for me :)
Ate moderately so I could have big hunks of pie.

At each table was a paintable plate with a cartoon turkey emblazoned with the words "Turkey Time".
I guess that was our group activity, lol.

The band was shockingly collaborative about it. We passed the plate around the table as we ate and talked and drank, each of us completing little parts before passing it on. Other tables had multiple collaborators as well, but I am pretty sure we're the only table where everyone participated. Working this way it took over an hour to complete, but complete it we did.

At the crew table, their mascot plush possum was festively dressed in a turkey costume (designed for a dog haha)

Crew also brought their huge blow-up Buc-ees mascot, which the band used for a photo op.

It was all going well until Clayton accidentally unplugged it with his foot and it started collapsing on my head.

A bit after that we took a full group photo, which didn't come out the clearest but was fun to do.
( Read more... )

Now it is Monday and we are flying to Akron, OH.
We are only there for two days, then I think we bus to Toledo, OH.

And THEN we have the month-long December layoff! And I get to see my Jameson!!

Other stuff:

At the airport there was this big armored car near our bus.
I found out later that these are made by Terradyne. Cool.

I've recently been elected "band representative", which just means any time there's an issue that impacts the whole band it's my job to look into it. The first issue that I was given to address was lighting in the pit, which in some theaters can be pretty poor or nonexistent during our scheduled setup times. I met with Troika management, and we decided on a good solution: these rechargeable lights, and two headlamps!
I'm happy to have contributed to a safer workplace for myself and my peers.

Our hotel this week does not offer free coffee, and I dislike making my own on the travel day because then I have to pack my kettle and Aeropress while they're damp. So I went to Wegman's for a canned coffee, and found this High Brew self-heating can!

Here's how it went: CLICK HERE to watch

We had about a 5-hour bus ride to Syracuse.

Other than getting off to a late start, it was uneventful.
It'll probably be our last bus transit for a while, and we'll go back to flights again after this week.

We arrived at the hotel around 3:30 I think.
It's an older hotel, but in a fairly quiet area which is a pleasant change from being next to the NJ Turnpike.
The rooms have quite a lot of floor space, too. AND a mini kitchen!!

I am thrilled with the little kitchenette. In addition to the larger fridge and the microwave, it's a great thing to have a sink exclusively for washing dishes instead of having to fight with a shallow and poor-draining bathroom sink. There's no stovetop here, but loads of counter space and I will be very happy to cook some things with my Itaki this week.

Right away I grabbed some tote bags and started walking to the Wegman's 3.5 miles away.
There are grocery stores that are closer, but Wegman's is SPECIAL.
The thing I love about Wegman's is, they have everything that Whole Paycheck would have, but you can also get "normal" groceries like Tide laundry detergent or Froot Loops or Ziploc bags. In other words, Wegman's doesn't "limit" themselves with product quality standards.

Anyway, I had a blast going up and down the aisles and mathing out how much of what to get.
When I was finished I took an Uber back because the walk had been nearly four miles and it was now dark.
I unpacked and watched the latest episode of Great British Bake-Off "with" Jameson before calling it a night.

----------------------------------------

Tuesday was Cooking Day!

After breakfast I got started making some fonio that I'd purchased way back in Providence.
Fonio is a tiiiiiiny African grain, a millet grass seed.
You can cook it just like rice and in about half the time as rice. It's very nutritious with a "light and fluffy" texture.

After that I cooked two mustard-marinated chicken breasts (bottom compartment) and some broccolini (top compartment).

Somewhere in there I steamed three eggs.

( Read more... )

Today is Thursday, and I am steaming my last three eggs in the Itaki.

Plan for today is to do some data entry this morning, then go get homemade pierogi (and hopefully a cup of borscht) for lunch before walking to the big mall, Destiny USA.

I don't need anything, but enjoy window shopping and with Christmas coming up I might get some good ideas.
Plus it's good exercise.

**Long post because it's a fun week**

-----------------------------------------

The travel day was a little rough for me personally...mostly I let a lot of little things get under my skin until they'd built up and made me into a Negative Nancy.

There will always be good travel days and bad ones.
And there will ALWAYS be inconsiderate, oblivious, or rude people at airports.
And the important thing is to stay calm and patient, and to focus on the good things happening all around.

We eventually got safely to Providence. Let's leave it at that :p

The hotel this week is a Graduate hotel, formerly The Biltmore.
It is supposedly haunted! But I do not care. Ghosts Welcome.

Like the last Graduate hotel we stayed at in Tempe, the room keys are made to look like student ID cards.

The room:

A wall of photos and a lamp featuring a blue bear wearing red overalls (Graduate hotels are known for their quirky decor)

Upon opening my luggage there was a little note to say "TSA wuz here".
I'm surprised I don't get more of these, with all of the weird stuff I travel.
They didn't confiscate anything or muck up my things.

There is no AC available here for whatever reason (some older hotels have seasonal climate control believe it or not), so I will have to have the window open all week. This keeps the room around 75 degrees, but it's quite humid here so that's a slight bummer.

There's also very limited surface space here so I got creative.
I took the minifridge out of it's little cupboard and will use the top of the fridge as surface space.
I also took out the ironing board to serve as a flat surface for my clothes.
The desk will hold my computer and also most of my dry goods.
The top of the fridge cupboard will be where I cook and prep food.
And inside the fridge cupboard will be more groceries, dishware, etc.

Each hotel is different, but there's always a way to make things work!

It was too late to go grocery shopping, so instead I had a nice hot shower and a cup of tea and watched TV "with" Jameson.

--------------------------------------------------

Tuesday morning I woke up early, 7:30am, to get breakfast at Seven Stars Bakery.

( Read more... )
Now it's Thursday and I'm setting up to do data entry, then will reorganize my suitcase, go for a walk, and around 3pm I'm excited to eat a really big really awesome ice cream sandwich!

And that's my plan. Oh, and a show I guess :p

We have the weekend here in Providence, then a few days in Utica, NY and New Brunswick, NJ respectively.
We will be taking buses instead of flying, which I'm thrilled about because I could really use a break from the stressful airport.

Other stuff:

View from the layover flight coming into Charlotte.

Some cool graffiti in Providence.

Monday was a long day.

The bus left the hotel around 11:30. Flights were at I think 1 or 1:30, landed in Charlotte, another flight to Raleigh.
From there, a 3-hour bus ride to Wilmington with a stop at a Pilot on the way.
I always carry a lot of nonperishables, so only picked up a bottle of water and a yogurt for tomorrow's breakfast.

When we finally got to the hotel it was after 9pm.
I watched some Food Network with Jameson while unpacking, took my covid test, and fell asleep pretty quickly.

----------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday I took my time in the morning, doing data entry and chatting with Jameson.

At 11 I walked to Better Basket, which I had thought was a sort of grocery but turned out to be a very weird collection of cheese, wine, candies, and deodorant, with some sad and aged vegetables in a few dusty baskets. I rescued some tangerines and another yogurt, and found some pepitas, but that was about it.

A few blocks further was a DGX, which is Dollar Store's attempt at an urban grocery, and they had much more of a selection.
I got my protein shake and some granola there, and dropped a link to a walking map in my foodie group since I'd initially directed them to the Better Basket. So kind of a grocery fail this week, but I can't see everything via Google Maps, after all.

Then I had a nice stroll to The Kitchen Sink, a restaurant near the theater offering a nice assortment of sandwiches and soups.
I was gratified to see three of our crew in line for sandwiches when I got there...some had already known about the place because they'd been through Wilmington before, but others had used my foodie sheet. Cool :)

I got the "Sweet & Savory", which is a turkey sandwich with Brie, green apple, microgreens, sweet hot pepper jelly, and mayo.
It was supposed to be on a croissant but I subbed in oat bread.

I guess it's kinda similar to the sandwich I got in Grand Rapids.
I like the contrast of salty deli meat, rich cheese, and sweet fruit.
A "handheld charcuterie", if you will.

After lunch I relaxed a bit, feeling extra tired from all the traveling the day before.
I tried to give myself good seats for the next set of flights, not that it matters since they're so short.

At the theater in Wilmington we were treated to a Green Room packed with snacks and beverages.
There were bagels, muffins, fruit, prepackaged snack cakes and crackers and chips and cereals, coffee and tea and milk and juice and several kinds of water, and even a soda fountain.
This is far more than we would usually expect, and it was really very nice, especially in a town with no real grocery store.
I nabbed a bagel for my travels, and a few individually-wrapped prunes because I found them amusing.

Whoever set up our stuff in the pit had put labels on each seat to help local crew know where things go.
Then they forgot to remove the labels afterward.

I had to play with mine. You guys I play trombone! Thank goodness for this label or I might have forgotten lol.

(photo courtesy Bill Dowling)

Our show went well, and the audience was nice.
Even though we were only in town for a day, it felt very welcoming. Wish we could have stayed longer!

I tried to get to bed early but the toilet in my room runs constantly, there was a lot of street noise filtering in, and the climate control wasn't working so it was cold and I had to burrow like a hibernating animal under the covers.

--------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday morning I was up before my alarm, very tired and not feeling very rested.
Had a coffee and some random breakfast items before the bus arrived.

A 2-hour ride back to Raleigh/Durham, then a longer-than-usual layover.
I treated myself to a sandwich from La Farm. Read my book on my phone. Walked around the airport.

Took a picture of 5/10ths of the band waiting for our flight.
(from left to right: Paul, Drums; Brandon, Bass; Kevin, Reed 1; Jared, Guitar; Josh, Key 2/MD)

Travel day things.

Both flights went well, both were very short. One of them was delayed a bit, so we were a little later getting to the hotel than planned.

Our hotel in Lexington is approx five miles outside of downtown, so we have some rental cars to use.
Immediately on arriving I checked to see that I had a fridge and that it was working, then shot out the door to find the rental car with Paul and Jared. We went to Whole Paycheck for groceries (I hadn't been planning on this as there's a Walmart Supercenter a lot closer, but listen here, I am NOT complaining!!) and on the way Jared revealed that he's not been to a Whole Paycheck in a REALLY long time.

Oh boy, I thought to myself. You're about to have an experience!
An hour later we were back at the car, Jared with like ten bags of food and a big smile on his face.
Nothing like a good grocery haul to cheer one up after a long travel day!

Back at the hotel I unpacked while watching LEGO Masters "with" Jameson.

You guys, Jameson started studying to get his Masters degree today!!!
I'm SO extremely proud of him!!!
Whether it ends up being a milestone for him or not, the fact that he is trying, and learning, and attempting to grow, is a wonderful thing.
His first day went well, and I'm excited to see what the future will hold for him :)

He also recently started a meal subscription service, which I'm ALSO very excited about for him as it will mean healthier and more varied food options. When I'm home I like to cook for us, but he doesn't prefer to cook so when I'm gone he's been eating out a lot.

Here's his first subscription meal: creamy dijon dill chicken with roasted potatoes and broccoli!

----------------------------------------------------------

Thursday I woke up a bit later than usual, tired from the travel day and trapped for a bit in dreams where I was still moving.
Had a lovely breakfast thanks to Whole Paycheck and my adorable Itaki which was responsible for my oatmeal.

After the oatmeal I got some snap peas going, and got the timing right (8-10 minutes).

Then I set it up to cook some barley. It's happily bubbling away next to me as I type up this post.

(notice the silicone trivet it's sitting on. So pleased to finally have gotten one!)

When the barley is done I'm going to Walmart to find nut-free protein bars, earplugs, and wet wipes (Whole Paycheck doesn't have EVERYTHING you know), then heading downtown for an unhealthy lunch from DV8 Kitchen!

I have one other special foodie stop planned. We also get free breakfast in this hotel, and the theater is providing an "usher meal" for us between shows on Sunday, so I'm feeling very fortunate food-wise this week.

I probably won't have a load of time for exploration, but will do my best!

It's going to be a long post because I LOVE Grand rapids and there's a LOT of good food here.
You've been warned.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

It was an early flight, with the bus leaving around 7am for a 9:30am takeoff.
I have been SO EXCITED to see Grand Rapids again!
The circus came here several times (2012, 2014, 2016) and it quickly became one of my top 10 US cities.

At the last minute they switched all our seats around (I think we got a different plane?) and I got L-U-C-K-Y!
Exit row baby! How bougie.

We arrived in Detroit a little early and began our epic 2.5-hour bus trek to Grand Rapids.
Our bus did not have AC unfortunately, so it got pretty uncomfortable, but we made the best of it.
Coming off the bus I lucked out again, somehow my luggage got shoved out early so I was one of the first to my room
(and subsequently out the door to hit the grocery.)

The nearest grocery is Bridge Street Market, which is really a Meijer masquerading as a "local business".
That said, it was a REALLY good grocery store because of all the local products!
Locally butchered meats, and locally roasted coffee, locally-made snacks and pastries and breads and ready-to-eat meals.
I got my weekly basics of fruit and veggies and base proteins, but then had a good long oogle at all the foods I wanted to try.

Blueberry-infused maple syrup!
Plant-based tamari "jerky"!
Peach habanero chicken sausages!

I picked out some goodies and escaped before I could bankrupt myself.

Pretty much all of these beverage brands (Olipop, de la Calle, Aura Bora) are nationally available, and I've had them before, just not in these flavors. Different parts of the US get different flavors, isn't that interesting?

But most of the food is very local, either to Grand Rapids or to Michigan.
A friend of mine pointed out how appealing and "joyful" the packaging on these products looks, and I think she's right.
I think that when a small business owner invests in appealing packaging, it shows that they care deeply about their product.
And that definitely makes me want to support that business!

I had some of the Big O' Smokehouse salmon jerky for dinner and y'all...
It was so good that I SWORE.
I mean look at this.

They had several flavors to choose from, but this one is "Dragon's Milk", so named because the salmon is brined in Dragon's Milk stout beer with brown sugar and vanilla before it is smoked using bourbon barrel oak and tossed in cracked black pepper. I'll swear again: holy HELL, it was so good. Like, I've had the "salmon candy" from Whole Foods, and this is MILES above and beyond better than that. This stuff belongs on an upscale charcuterie, and on Michelin star menus.

With that, I unpacked and did some meal planning before watching Halloween Baking Championship with Jameson and then heading to bed.

Welcome to Michigan.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday morning I enjoyed a cup of the cherry-flavored Michigan coffee with my breakfast. Yum!

Then I got to work cooking some tilapia filets in the Itaki. ( Read more... )
Today is Thursday and I'm working on some more data entry this morning.

Plan for the rest of the week is
- Today: sandwich from Two Beards and a visit to Grand Rapids Art Museum
- Friday: my new in-ears are supposed to arrive + thrifting + dinner at The Electric Cheetah
- Saturday: two shows
- Sunday: two shows
- Monday: off to Wilmington, NC for one day only!

Other stuff:
Brianna (management) has updated the internal Tootsie site to give it a spooky Halloween feel!

Monday was a "golden day".

This is what theater people call a day off...because "day off" can mean no shows, but it can still mean a day of travel, or a day of rehearsals.
"Golden day" means you really do get the whole day free with no company obligations.

I was wide awake at 7am, because I am the type who would rather do a lot in the morning so I can have no worries in the evening.

First, breakfast and packing up a few things that I'm done with (tupperware, the Itaki, the aeropress, misc cooking tools).
Next I loaded my small suitcase with laundry and headed out to the laundromat.

It was raining so the walk was uncomfortably cold and damp, but not unmanagable.
I stopped at the co-op for some breakfast items for tomorrow.

Laundry was uneventful. An hour later I folded it all up, packed it into the suitcase, and walked to Original Grains for a poke bowl.
This place wasn't on my foodie list; it just looked healthy and was on my way back.
I got tuna with a variety of veggies over herbed basmati. It was larger than I expected, and very good.

Back at the hotel I put away the laundry and did 90% of my packing.
All that's left out are some toiletries, the kettle for tea later on, some food, and my computer.

The rest of my day was relaxing. I did some data entry work, napped, watched anime and Food Network with Jameson.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday morning I woke up super early, having slept SO poorly.
I really hope the next hotel is QUIETER.

Had some breakfast, and at 8:30 packed up the last of my things and got on the charter bus.
Our flights were on time, retrieving luggage was fine, the 40-minute ride from Boston to the hotel in Marlborough was fine.
And despite what our info sheet had said, we DID get refrigerators in our rooms! Score!

I walked to the nearest grocery and stocked up on some nice things, but we have a long commute this week so there will be less fancy cooking. I did get some fancy Al Fresco chicken sausages (precooked), a lemon pepper raw chicken breast, and some local eggs to steam in the Itaki. But most of my veggies and some of my other food items are nonperishables in case there's no fridge at the theater.

Once that was done I unpacked for the week, using the desk as my cooking space and a small side table for my coffee station.

One of our rental cars was reserved under my name, so I picked up the key and went to Kennedy's Restaurant and Market for a takeout dinner. I ordered the "Carolyn's Favorite", which was described as a popover "stuffed with warm roast beef, served with au jus and horseradish sauce". What I got was a very soggy halved popover, buried under lukewarm beef and congealed gravy, no horseradish sauce to be seen.

I rescued the meal by buying a fresh popover unmarred by gravy, rinsing most of the nasty gravy off the beef, and adding steamed veggies. This restaurant is on my foodie list and I'm having second thoughts about it, but there are very few restaurant options in the area. Plus, many of their other meal options still look quite good.

And the additional popover that I bought was VERY good. Clearly freshly baked, light and eggy and wonderful.

Inner texture. If you've had a Dutch baby, a Yorkshire pudding, or a French cruller, the texture is similar.

I'll leave Kennedy's on the list for now, solely based on this heavenly popover and for lack of better options near the hotel.

----------------------------------------------------

Wednesday was, weirdly, another golden day.
Last year I could count on one hand how many golden days we got, and this year we have two nearly back to back!

No matter. Since I had a rental car, and since no one else asked to use it, I woke early to drive to downtown Worcester.
First I drove to the theater and the parking garage so I could see what they were like, so I'd be less likely to get lost on opening night.
Then I went to BirchTree Baking Co for breakfast.

( Read more... )

It's Thursday and we'll finally get to have opening night.

Some things that I haven't mentioned:

For travel this week we were broken into two groups, and while our group arrived with no issue the later group had an issue with their plane that delayed them by like five hours.
Also Jared, the guy who plays Jeff in our show, fractured his foot (DURING the show, worker's comp) so now the whole cast has to go back into rehearsals to figure out how to cover.

We only have one show on Friday but I expect the actors and a lot of crew will need to rehearse for much of the afternoon.

The info sheet for Athens, GA has already been given out...we are only there for one day.
This will be my first time doing a "load-and-go" with only one night in a city. I imagine it'll be rushed and stressed.

I still made a MFF foodie sheet for Athens, but it only has the VERY nearest grocery (a Target), nearest pharmacy (a CVS inside the Target probably), and two suggested restaurants listed as "One Shot Stops" for people to consider if they get time to order out and want to make it something special/local.

Anyway, today I'll do some data entry work and take a walk and pack a dinner to bring to the theater since we have a 20-minute commute.

Monday I had a lot of trouble sleeping.

In general I find that there's an adjustment period to living in hotels. It takes me a while to let go of tension, and let strange noises fall to the background, so that I can sleep through the night. So this is ok, just a bit annoying in the moment.

Regardless, I had a full day planned.

First was my self-administered rapid Covid test.
While the timer was counting that down I cooked my breakfast in the Itaki and scheduled a SudShare pickup.
There are laundromats here, but not within easy walking, and it was worth the extra money to me not to spend 2-3 hours of my day at a laundromat. The SudShare person couldn't pick up until afternoon, and then it started to pour. I had planned to walk to Wegman's and to Village Bakery for lunch, but had to scrap that and borrow one of the band's rental cars instead.

I drove through the rain to Wegman's, where I picked up my final groceries for Rochester. Mostly proteins.
Of course, as soon as I'd finished shopping I got an email saying that we'd be FLYING to Rochester instead of bussing.
Drat. The benefit of bussing is that you don't have to worry about luggage weight or leftover food, you can just bring it along to the next city.
Hopefully I didn't overbuy my groceries. We'll see.

Next was lunch at Village Bakery. I'd preordered my sandwich because they only make so much bread each day, and I wanted to guarantee myself a house-made roll. My sandwich was hot and fresh right when I got there.

I did a Build-Your-Own, using their Veggie Sandwich as a base.
Roasted eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, bell peppers, mushrooms, balsamic red onion, and basil with mozzarella, to which I added egg whites and pesto on their house roll. It was very delicious but very messy because of all the juices from the veggies. I could easily make something like this at home. Will have to remember that.

I also bought a carrot cake cupcake and a vanilla bergamot kombucha to take home.

Back at the hotel I unpacked and updated my meal plan for the week as best I could, then ran downstairs to hand my laundry off to the SudShare person. Once that was done there was nothing keeping me at the hotel plus the rain had stopped, so I walked to two different thrift stores. Didn't find anything but it's always fun to look, and to get outside for a bit. I got a 3-mile walk in anyway.

Made a little TikTok update when I got back: CLICK HERE to watch

Then we got an updated hotel sheet, so I worked on updating MFF while sipping a glass of cheap wine.
When dinnertime rolled around I had some Greek yogurt and my cupcake.

It was good, but nothing to write home about. Having now made stabilized whipped cream myself, I felt that I could recognize gelatin in the frosting on this cupcake, and that it was gummy instead of smooth and creamy. All that said it was a nice treat, just didn't make my top ten.

The rest of my night was spent chilling out, watching Food Network remotely with Jameson, and planning for the week.

---------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, I struggled with sleep again and woke up early.
Hopefully the next hotel is better.

Breakfast in the Itaki, then I cooked both of my fish meals because raw fish goes bad quickly and it'll last longer cooked.

Cod with capers, artichoke hearts, spinach, and butter sauce: CLICK HERE to watch

Teriyaki salmon with mushrooms and peppers: CLICK HERE to watch (wonder if I'll EVER get to embed video on DW)

We were called for rehearsal at 3, and mostly just gave support for the actors as they ran through things.

Somewhere in there I realized that my high heels (which I haven't worn for probably a decade) were rather LOUD.
Turns out, the heel rubbers had fallen out sometime, somewhere, without me noticing.
I shyly poked my head into Wardrobe and asked for help. They were so kind!
Not only did the Head of Wardrobe offer to repair my shoes, she also lent me a pair of nice black dance shoes for the meantime.
I'm very grateful. She has no professional requirement to work on my personal clothing. I'll have to find her a thank you gift.

Anyway, the opening night show was at 7:30.
We arrived in the pit to discover a goodie bag for each of us. How thoughtful!
I'm always surprised to be given gifts on opening night, though I guess it's custom.
This year we were given a Tootsie-logo umbrella, tote, plasticware set, lapel pin, some chocolate, and some thoughtful cards.

I was thrilled with the umbrella and was playing with it before the show. Bill (trumpet) took this photo for me.

Though this was a smallish theater, it filled up pretty well. And the audience had fun, which was the whole point.
CLICK HERE to hear the laughter :)

Afterward we had our opening night party!

The actors got all dolled up as usual, while the band showed up in our pit blacks (why get changed?).
I'm not very social, but enjoyed a drink and chatting with people for about an hour before heading off to bed.
That's it, this tour is officially out of rehearsals and underway. Wild.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday I woke unfortunately early again.

My laundry was back, so I put it away.
Breakfast and catching up on emails and food logging before walking to the highway overpass to steal fruit.

Getting the apple was harrowing; there was a tight squeeze through a rusted fence, which put me inches away from stepping into thin air and falling onto the highway below. But when doing stupid things I am still cautious and slow, so I made sure to have a good grip on the fence and watched carefully where I was placing my feet, and it was fine.

I retrieved two apples and some of the Siberian crabapples as well.

Our drummer, Paul, is just as excited by "overpass fruit" as I am, so I was sure to send him pics.
He advised cutting the apples open to check for worms, which I did and found them nice and bug-free.
The apple was watery and a bit tart, much like an underripe store-bought apple. Not very good.
Paul says they may need a good cold snap to get better flavor (makes sense, that's how my lemons work too).

I'll try the crabapples later.

Next I had an appointment to get new in-ear monitor molds.
The ones I use now are circa 2015 and are discolored and worn, definitely overdue for some new ones.

I drove to the wrong location, thinking my appointment was downtown.
It was actually 20 minutes away. So I drove like a maniac and rushed in the door 20 minutes late, super stressed.
Luckily the doctor was a patient dude with a calm demeanor. His calmness calmed me, and I got the molds made and shipped and paid for within the hour. Unclear whether I'll get them while on tour, but they're going to try to catch me somewhere in Grand Rapids.

A 30 minute drive back to the hotel and picking up a new parking pass from the front desk (they expire after a week).
Then up to my room to eat cold teriyaki salmon. It was quite good, even cold.
After that I cooked up my two remaining raw chicken breasts from Wegman's in the Itaki.

Somewhere in there my Mackie food scale got delivered.
I had pussyfooted around getting one of these because thus far I've gotten along fine without one.
But this week after being confounded by serving sizes for my proteins for the umpteenth time, I decided to suck up the cost and get it.
"One chicken breast" can mean anything from 3oz to 2 pounds. This is the easiest way to know for sure.

FINALLY, after all of that, I got to chill out a bit.
Watched some anime, tried unsuccessfully to nap, and updated this post.

Our show was at 7:30 again.
Drove in early to pick up the next covid rapid test and to see if the Head of Wardrobe had had time to fix my shoes.
She did! And they looked great. Rubber, textured heel tips. She doesn't like sweets so I'll have to make her a gift of coffee.

The show went well, and the creatives are leaving so we'll likely not have rehearsals unless we choose to as a band.

--------------------------------------------------

It's now Thursday, and I've got the whole day free except for the evening show.
I've passed the rental car off to the drummer, who wanted to go shopping I think.

Today's plans are to do a lot of walking. It's 60 degrees!! Magical!!

Some random stuff:

☆ While I've been out here rehearsing, Jameson has been in Vegas going to see Aerosmith and Nine Inch Nails, and doing some gambling, and lounging by the pool, and eating at Gordon Ramsey's (beef Wellington and sticky toffee pud to be exact). He's been keeping me updated but I've been trying to leave him alone a bit so he can relax and enjoy this time to himself.

☆ On our first rehearsal day last week, I brought my homemade caramels to Andrew. "Oooh, this bag is heavy!" he exclaimed with joy, and then ran off to presumably eat some. In following days I received many complements on the caramels not only from Andrew but also members of production (I guess Andrew was sharing/rationing them out), including "These are DIVINE" and "Ok these caramels are like crack!". A few people even asked for the recipe, or tips for their own caramel recipes. I was very happy that everyone enjoyed them :)

☆ I keep forgetting to mention this: remember that time I tried a bunch of interesting Asian-inspired oatmeals? Those are made by a company called Yishi, and come in flavors like Red Bean, Black Sesame, and Taro Bubble Tea, among others. Now you can buy them at Whole Foods! If you see them on the shelf I recommend giving them a try (especially if it's the individual cups, so you can sample different flavors).

☆ I have come crawling back to MyFitnessPal. Cronometer was good, but I decided to uninstall the app after realizing that their food database was so incomplete that I'd have to manually input almost every single food item I'd bought at Wegman's. That would have taken hours, and frankly it is just not worth doing. That, and admitting that not being able to separate out my calories by meal actually does make counting calories more difficult for me personally. Nobody likes to admit they're wrong, but I was wrong. MFP still has the best food database, even with all it's flaws. AND when I reinstalled the app, the barcode scanner works again, so they must have actually listened to their users and put it back.

☆ This week in Rochester our hotel is about a mile from the theater. It's a straight shot and an easy walk so I've been walking it pretty regularly during the daytime. While looking around yesterday I noticed a tree that seemed to have dark red globs all over it, dangling from a highway overpass across a rusted fence. I'm pretty sure it's an apple tree!!

And on the other side of the overpass, another apple tree with a variety that looks more like honeycrisp or gala, and also a pear tree, and something that my phone says is a Siberian crab apple.

Fruit trees just randomly growing on the side of a highway is not normal where I'm from, so this is novel to me.
It is now a goal to get one fruit from each tree and see if it's edible (the pears may not be ready).
There will be a bit of squeezing through rusty fences involved, but I think it's doable.
( Read more... )
Monday is a glorious and much-needed day off.
Sadly I didn't get much sleep because this hotel is just LOUD.
I'm right next to the elevator and there were people coming back at 3am, talking loudly in the hall.
Then at 7am someone was blasting yoga music incredibly loudly (not very relaxing at max volume!) and not even my 32db earplugs could block it all out.

But, perhaps I'll have time for a nap later.

For now I'm taking care of laundry, restocking groceries, and going back to Village Bakery for lunch!

I spent Monday prepping for tour, and Jameson spent it prepping for vacation (I'd say now is a great time to rob our house, except it's not because our neighbor across the street is a cop and there are cameras e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e on our block lol).

I cut up the caramels for Andrew, wrapping each piece in parchment paper and storing them in my coffee canister.
They're in the fridge so they'll be fresh and less likely to melt, then tomorrow I need to remember to grab them.

We ate random leftovers around to avoid throwing away good food. I did have to throw away a few things like some leftover cream from the caramels and an onion that never got used. We each had a little drink with dinner, just because.

At times like these, with a huge pile of Disney candy on the counter and the two of us going off on adventures, I am extra-glad we don't have children.

----------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday I woke up super early, and the cab was waiting for me.
It felt surreal. Somehow I never thought this day would come.

All of the flights went smoothly. I had packed my usual snacks, so only had to buy coffee at the airport.
And of course, Biscoffs on the plane! Love me those Biscoffs.

Oh, there was this cool vending machine at Philly airport! Jameson and I have seen something similar on an episode of Shark Tank.

It's pretty much just salads in a jar, but sometimes at the airport it can be difficult to find something healthy, that can also be easily carried onto a plane. I can see the appeal. However I didn't buy one this time.

I met our new bassist, Brandon, on the first flight. Seems like a cool dude. He and Jameson know each other from previous Orlando gigs.
Met the Reed 1, Kevin, on the second flight. He's fairly young, excited to be on his first tour. I hope he has fun!
Since neither Brandon nor Kevin had been on tour before, they had a few questions which I tried to answer.
I also bullied them into my foodie group :p

Upon landing we retrieved our luggage and got an Uber.
The hotel is nice, nothing crazy just a normal one. It is so, so weird to be here again. I'm definitely not in the tour mental space yet.

I retrieved my mutes, which I'd shipped to myself. Everything arrived intact.
I dug the caramels out of my bag (TSA didn't take them, yay!) and put them in the fridge for whenever Andrew gets here.
I took the provided covid rapid test, and once it came back negative, I called an Uber and took off to Wegman's.

Have you been to Wegman's? It's AWESOME. If you like Whole Foods or Fresh Market you'll love it.
I especially love their prepared foods section, which features both cooked take-home meals and raw one-person dinners that you can take home and cook. Meals like this one will be GREAT for trying out my Itaki!

I was weirdly nervous about getting raw meat...it's mostly that I don't trust these janky hotel refrigerators to keep food actually cold. But that's silly. I settled on a chicken marsala, pre-marinated with the mushrooms and herbs and sauce on the side. And I got some spaghetti'd veggies to go with it. I also got a box of barley, which I will have to experiment with to see what the cook time is like.

I got all of my usual foods--egg whites, yogurt, soup, protein shakes, berries, veggies--but also found some new things that I'm excited to try! Gosh, this is one thing I missed about tour: finding new and exciting foods in the grocery!

- Next to the oatmeal was this 5-grain blend which has oats, rye, triticale, barley, and flax. Nutritionally it offers a bit more, and only a few more calories than regular oatmeal, so I want to try it!
- Then there was that "Deli Pop" which seems to be a plain rice cake but made with a few other grains as well, very low calorie and kind of tasteless, now I know lol.
- The morel mushrooms are dried, I have always wanted to try morels and now here's my chance! I'll use them in an Itaki meal.
- The beans...I mean look at that packaging, how could I NOT try these! There were many flavors to choose from but only the Sweet Sriracha had his bean a$$ out like that, lol! They're quite tasty and good for you too!
- The smoothie, there were at least five different kinds but this nut butter one matched my macros so I wanted to try it :)
- The Mongolian jerky was on sale, why not!
- And the little white plum is actually a hybrid of some kind, a pluot perhaps, I've been wanting to try one of those.
- Then we have these coffee sodas. I knew about Coke's coffee + Coke in a can, but have never seen these! One is black cherry cola with coffee, the other is a citrus vanilla cream soda. They're high in sugar, but c'mon. I just had to try 'em.

Got my goodies home and ate a premade sushi for dinner, then began the daunting task of unpacking.
It took a while to get situated but eventually I had a cooking station, where Itaki and skillet and mess kit will live:

Next to that is all of the spices and oils and cooking utensils. Then my pile of nonperishables, grains, snacks, and fruits.
Of note is the half-loaf of bread, which is called "marathon bread" and has lots of seeds and grains, but also dried and pureed carrots, bananas, and apples mixed into the dough. The result is kinda wild! Tasty, but with kind of a strange texture. Anyway:

Then over by the door and above the fridge is the coffee station.
I shoved the crusty hotel Keurig under the sink and replaced it with my kettle, new coffee canister, and Aeropress.
The tea will live here too eventually.

All right. Ready!

When everything was unpacked I crashed and decompressed.
Chatted with Jameson as he enjoyed a well-deserved Beef Wellington at Gordon Ramsey's in Vegas.

Rehearsals tomorrow aren't until 2, so maybe I can sleep in.

------------------------------------

I slept pretty terribly, probably due to proximity to the elevator. Dingdingdingdingding all night long.

Tonight, earplugs.

This morning I made the 5-grain cereal in the Itaki and it turned out great.
I really love the flavor! It must be the rye. There's something naturally sweet in there that is pleasant.

I have the keys to the rental car but no one seems to want it and everyone wants to walk to the theater (look how motivated we all are), so all I have to do is get myself there this afternoon.

Because having a bunch of raw chicken in a hotel fridge makes me nervous, I decided to cook the chicken marsala single-serving meal I bought last night for lunch.

TikTok: CLICK HERE to watch me make chicken marsala in the Itaki

It went pretty well. I was expecting that the veg might be overcooked but didn't want to interrupt the chicken's cooking to remove them. Now I know, I NEED to interrupt it and get those veg out of there if I don't want them to be mush. The chicken itself turned out very nice, and the mushrooms being fairly sturdy also held up well. I shouldn't have added water to the sauce, other Itaki chefs out there sometimes do that but in this case it was unnecessary. Those two small changes would make this meal perfect.

I'll be making barley at some point, another thing that I'll have to guess cook time for but I suspect if I treat it like brown rice it'll probably be all right.

Too soon it was time for rehearsal, I didn't feel ready!
But I wore my "beef on Weck" shirt, and brought snacks and my trombone and mutes and everything, made myself a nice green tea, and had a pleasant walk to the theater.

The band is rehearsing upstairs in a lobby, while the cast is rehearsing on stage.
We had a good first run of the show. Tomorrow we'll do sectionals (working on specific parts in sections, mostly to get us all to agree on articulations and do note checks and such).

When I got home I was very tired, but cooked some barley in the Itaki because it takes a long time and I want to have it available to eat.

---------------------------------------------------

The next morning I got up a bit early to cook both my morning egg and some chicken in the Itaki.

TikTok: CLICK HERE to watch me make eggs and chicken in the Itaki

Walked to the theater again, and sectionals went well. I ate lunch there while everyone else went out (there doesn't seem to be a lot around honestly) and then we rehearsed for a bit more before they asked us to take an early dinner break. When we're rehearsing at the same time as the cast it can be difficult to hear ourselves over each other, if that makes sense.

Walked back to the hotel and grabbed one of our company rental cars, took it to Wegman's because I badly need plastic wrap and was also hoping to find those little silicone pot grips (not full-on oven mitts, these are smaller). I didn't find them but got the plastic wrap and some more veggies anyway.

Scarfed down dinner and tried to plan for tomorrow's meals, then back to rehearsal for a few hours.

When we were done, we helped move the drums downstairs before heading back to the hotel.
I always forget how hectic rehearsals are. Once we're on tour there's a lot of time during the day for exploring or cooking or whatever, but during "tech week" you could have rehearsals all day, or find out an extra rehearsal has been scheduled where you thought you'd be free, etc. The only thing to do is be patient and be as prepared as you can for whatever gets thrown at you.

It takes me some extra time and effort to cook all of my meals, but it means during our one-hour meal breaks I don't have to spend 15 minutes walking to pick up food, or waiting for food to be made, or trying to coordinate a Doordash to magically arrive whenever rehearsal is over.

Tomorrow we rehearse potentially from 9am to 11pm, so I'm bringing both lunch and dinner to the theater.
Salmon, barley, and green beans for lunch.
Lemon rosemary chicken, seeded bread, and avocado for dinner.
Banana, ginger snaps, and protein drink for snacks.

Once rehearsals are over the fun begins, but for now it's time to WERK.

The last few things that I made with the Itaki this morning, before packing it away.

First tried making my oatmeal in it. Chocolate raspberry.

Turned out just fine, though putting the milk in at the beginning caused it to scald a little so next time I'll add it in the last 5-10 minutes along with my fruit. Easy fix.

Next, the most involved thing I'll probably ever do with this thing: steamed Mantou (bao buns w/o filling).
After a bit of trial and error, they actually turned out pretty damn well!
(For video of steamed buns + other Itaki-made foods CLICK HERE)

Getting the timing was tough, and also proofing these was really difficult.
But hey, considering there are no instructions on how to do this in an Itaki, they turned out damn well!
Nice and fluffy, slightly sweet. That gorgeous skin on them from being steamed. I could eat these all day.

So this means that I can make homemade bao if I like!
Of course a real steamer would be more efficient.
But this isn't for "at home", it's for me while I'm living out of hotels.
It's unlikely that I'll have time or ingredients to make bao from scratch on the road; I only did it today for fun, because I wanted to know if it could be done at all. The answer is YES.

Last, I tried soft-boiled eggs. Just two, I don't want to waste eggs here.
(Scroll right in the Instagram video above to see video of egg cutting)

Beautiful! They're a little over for my preference but I was being cautious with the cook time.
Now I know that on tour, I could get a 6-pack of eggs and steam them for the week. Great to have that option!

With that, my Itaki experiments are over until rehearsal starts.

Very glad that Jameson convinced me to pick this up.
It was able to cook everything I threw at it.
As I get used to the timing of the cook, I'll be able to experiment more and make some really nice meals this year.

I never trusted the skillet to cook meat through; now I feel confident to buy raw meat and cook it in the Itaki.
I can make rice, potatoes, or boiled eggs, none of which were feasable in the skillet.
And I can cook multiple parts of a meal at once, hands-off, instead of cooking pasta and THEN meat and THEN vegetables separately.
Thrilled to have this on my journeys, and have nothing but praise for this adorable, incredibly useful appliance!

Thursday was slow as predicted.

I was in a mood so didn't do a lot, just practiced and prepped my clothing and lunch for tomorrow.
Watched two episodes of Sandman with Jameson because they gave us a cliffhanger that we couldn't let slide.
Enjoyed researching recipes for my Itaki, and making an ingredients list, and deciding what to have for dinners.

Whole Paycheck and Sprouts are about halfway home from work, so if I can get ingredients tomorrow after work it'll save me a trip.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday was my last day at court reporting.
I got up early as usual and was there in time to set up my desk and paperwork before the judge arrived.

So I knew, before we started, that none of these claimants were going to show up, and I would essentially not be paid for the day.
(You can tell when a claimant is unlikely to show when they don't have a lawyer.)

The judge was awesome, she walked in and confirmed that the only case she actually expected to show up was the first one, a mom representing her kid. The mom did show, 30 minutes late but she was there. So at least I got paid for one case, and at least she had her case heard.

The rest of the day was basically free time for me.
The judge went back to her office and asked me to message her if anyone showed up.

I got to take two walks around the building, during which time I found a big green June beetle; a hawk couple having a lunch date together; and a patch of fungus that was glowing in a beam of sunlight.

So it was a nice day, if nothing else.
At the end of it I sent my paperwork out for the last time, and turned in my ID badge.

That's it. Job over.

On the way home I stopped at Whole Paycheck for beef bulgogi ingredients, then to Target for a few specific things and Boursin Bites for Jameson. He wants to try them in the air fryer.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday after breakfast I mixed up my bulgogi marinade, chopped up the beautiful (expensive) ribeyes I'd gotten, and got that into the fridge to get all flavorful and juicy throughout the day.

I made sure to practice fairly early on so I wouldn't be making a racket during the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert.
It was streamed live from Wembley around 11:30am, and Jameson wanted to watch.
He has deep emotional connection to certain bands and certain music, and the Foo Fighters/Taylor Hawkins are one of those.
I stayed out of the way so he could have room to be emotional, but also watched as I was putzing around.

I did laundry, folded it, and put the clothes in the spare room for packing.
I gathered other things like nonperishables and tea and packing supplies, and laid out all of my packing cubes.

Around that time the doorbell rang; it was my Itaki!
Of course I wanted to check it out right away!

Look how CUTE. For scale, here is our teapot.

It is very lightweight, maybe two pounds max, so theoretically I should be able to find a place for it in my luggage.
It comes with two metal steaming bowls, a plastic snap-on lid for the larger bowl, a tiny 40ml measuring cup, an egg holder for steaming eggs, a brief instruction manual, and a Japanese fabric carrying bag.

I already knew what I wanted to make first: cake!
I had bought some cake mix and found an Itaki-sized recipe from At Home With Theresa.
Theresa has experimented with her Itaki and these recipes are brilliant, so I'll definitely be referencing her site frequently.

To elevate the cake mix I used butter instead of oil, and coffee and buttermilk instead of water.
The batter:

After steaming in the Itaki for between 40-50 minutes:

On the cooling rack:

While the cake was cooling I whipped up a batch of peanut butter icing.
When the cake was cool I gobbed it on and decorated it with ancient sprinkles that I found in the back of the cupboard.

It turned out pretty good! The texture was a little gummy; I could have overmixed the batter because there was so little of it, or perhaps I cooked it for too long...or maybe steaming a cake makes it gummy. Still, it wasn't "bad". Felt kind of like using an adult EZ Bake oven!

For dinner I made the bulgogi (on the actual stove) and it was a lot of work and a huge mess for a "just ok" dinner, so unsure if I'll do it again.
I did like all the veggies, and the beef was quite good. A fried egg and some gochujang on top (post-photo) brought it all together.

------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday, I bounced out of bed because I was excited to make my breakfast egg in the Itaki!

Interluding fact: I have two breakfasts that I alternate between.
At some point I sat down with myself and asked, "What could you eat for YEARS without getting bored?", and made a list.
From that I decided on two breakfasts that I could alternate, to offer nutritional stability no matter what happened for lunches and dinners.

Breakfast #1: egg whites with misc inclusions, bread/toast, nut butter, fruit.
Breakfast #2: oatmeal with misc inclusions, Greek yogurt, milk and/or flax, fruit.

Today was an Egg Day, so I put a little water in the bottom of the Itaki and mixed up egg whites, dill, black pepper, and two small pieces of Boursin herbed cheese. While that was piping away I gathered the rest of my breakfast, made coffee, and did some stretching. After 15 minutes I checked on the egg.

It was done, and it was GREAT!
It was so delicate and creamy, almost custard-like in texture. The Boursin was a wonderful touch.
Next time I'll make it in the smaller steamer tray to see if it gets taller but keeps the custardy texture.
Huge success! I can't WAIT to take this on tour with me!

In the afternoon I finally started packing while Jameson was at the gym.
It wasn't difficult, but can be a little overwhelming having a load of items in one place and deciding where they should go.
I eventually got a basic Tetris thing going between packing cubes, toiletries, and appliances, keeping in mind the space and weight of the Itaki (which I'm not done playing with just yet). With almost everything I'm at 45 pounds, so there is a little wiggle room and if needed I can lighten things further.

The coolest thing is that I could potentially take both the Itaki AND the electric skillet with me!
Searing AND steaming. Damn, that's high society!

After a quick trip to the grocery I started on my Itaki beef stew and cornbread for lunch.
This time the recipe was from Cool Cucumber Cook, a person who has made lots of excellent recipes and shared them as instructional YouTube videos.

You pretty much just assemble all of the stew ingredients in the large bottom compartment, and the cornbread in the top.
To ensure that everything cooks well (and more quickly), you cut the veggies pretty small...not quite "diced", but I'd say about the size of kibble if you can visualize that, lol. The beef can be larger than that, but still not too large.

To my stew I added beef stock, thyme and rosemary, shallot, celery, and shiitake mushrooms, along with the potatoes, carrots, beef, and spices in the recipe.

The cornbread was tricky because I thought we had cornmeal but no, it was POLENTA. Whoops.
I didn't realize this until after I'd already mixed the batter, and scrambled to compensate by adding cake flour.

Anyway, here are the results.

The beef stew was peppery and delicious. Everything was cooked well through, but if I'd let it go another 20-30 minutes the vegetables would have been softer and the meat more tender (I think). If I do this recipe again, I'll do that and also add a cornstarch slurry near the end of the cook time to thicken it up a bit more. Otherwise the flavors were wonderful.

As for the "polenta bread", it was dry like the desert, but it WAS a cornbread of sorts.
I drizzled it with hot honey to make it good.

That and soaking it in the stew made it edible. I think it would have been lovely if I'd used the correct ingredients.
Overall I was very impressed at how this turned out.
On the road I won't be able to cook something this involved most of the time, because you can't just buy one teaspoon of cornstarch or 1/4 cup of cornmeal, you know? But SOMETIMES, we will be near a Sprouts or a co-op with a bulk section.

And THEN, my friends...some magic will happen :)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Profile

taz_39

June 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Syndicate

Page Summary

My Fair Lady - Salt Lake City Part 1 (cont'd)
Tootsie Yr2: STL part 1
Tootsie Yr2: Cincinnati part 3
Tootsie Yr2: Hartford part 1
Tootsie Yr2: Knoxville Part 1
Tootsie Yr2: Tysons, VA and Thanksgiving
Tootsie Yr2: Syracuse, NY Part 1
Tootsie Yr2: Providence, RI Part 1
Tootsie Yr2: Wilmington, NC to Lexington, KY
Tootsie Yr2: Grand Rapids, MI
Tootsie Yr2: Worcester, MA Part 1
Tootsie Yr2: Rochester, NY and Opening Night
Fruits of Our Labor
Tootsie: The Revival
Itaki Part 2
Yeah I'm Obsessed With This Itaki

Style Credit

Base style: Ciel by carisma_sensei
Theme: Bold Enough by krja

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Jun. 28th, 2025 05:11 pm

goofball on a train

(adventures of a touring musician)

Entries tagged with itaki

My Fair Lady - Salt Lake City Part 1 (cont'd)

Tootsie Yr2: STL part 1

Tootsie Yr2: Cincinnati part 3

Tootsie Yr2: Hartford part 1

Tootsie Yr2: Knoxville Part 1

Tootsie Yr2: Tysons, VA and Thanksgiving

Tootsie Yr2: Syracuse, NY Part 1

Tootsie Yr2: Providence, RI Part 1

Tootsie Yr2: Wilmington, NC to Lexington, KY

Tootsie Yr2: Grand Rapids, MI

Tootsie Yr2: Worcester, MA Part 1

Tootsie Yr2: Rochester, NY and Opening Night

Fruits of Our Labor

Tootsie: The Revival

Itaki Part 2

Yeah I'm Obsessed With This Itaki