1.6.08

Final Days, Final Meals!


As the final days in America draw to a close, I'm eating, drinking, and packing. Cover your ears, because what follows is an account of food and drink of epic proportions.

On the Menu: last night, we had tacos and nachos. A delightful meal, with diced tomatoes, jalapeños, black olives, and onions. Today was spend cooking chicken enchiladas - but not yo momma's chicken enchiladas. These are a Lusk specialty, with grilled, shredded chicken, and a sauce made of tomatillas, salsa verde, onions, garlic, and plenty of salt and pepper. The dried-out chicken, when added to the sauce and boiled for an hour, soaks up all of the wonderful flavors of the salsa verde, and re-hydrates. This is then thrown into tortillas, with copious amounts of cheese. The remaining sauce and cheese is slathered generously atop the enchiladas, and the whole dish is baked for half an hour. Tomorrow, when Lauren comes and visits for a final meal, we are grilling steaks and having mashed potatoes! I'm determined to give my nation a proper send-off.

While we have been cooking the enchiladas today, I've been packing for Europe, and enjoying some tasty beverages. Here's a recommendation: If you love champagne, but you love Italy more, try Prosecco. It's more delicious, cheaper, and more... Italian than it's pretentious French cousin. If you want to get really creative, take another Italian invention, Lemoncello (lemon liqueur) and mix the two together: A splash of lemonchello in a glass of prosecco (not too much! That stuff is powerfull!) and you are transported to the rolling valleys of Tuscany (I'll post from the motherland to let you know if the valleys are as rolling as they claim to be.)

So, no driving or operating heavy machinery for me. I assume blogging is safe, though, right? In any case, everyone stay safe while I'm gone, and check back often for daily updates on my travels through Europe. Here are some highlights: Germany from June 4 to July 20. CERN (that's right, I got a private tour date!) on July 3-4. Moldova from July 20 - early August. Italy from early August to August 16.

Cheers,
Jeremy