Taqueria Throwdown: Big Star

If there's one thing we know here at the Handfelt Hacienda, it's pancakes, as evidenced by the critically acclaimed, ratings juggernaut Hotcake Showdown ("The single greatest thing to happen to the Internet since Al Gore and Mafia Wars" - Anonymous, for good reason). If there's a second area of expertise that we can lay claim to (a dubious claim at best), it's tacos.

Granted, both Katy may be white, almost dangerously so, but we know a good taco/torta/tostada when it comes out of nowhere and kisses us on the mouth. Seriously, back in high school, when I had a mullet, I would go to Rudy's Tacos at least twice a week and order the large taco salad and an order of french fries...and then proceed to put the french fries on top of the taco salad. LOL WUT?

Sure, this may have added 15 pounds to my delicate and already doughy frame, but it also made me a bit of an expert in the field. How so? Listen, that's neither here nor there, and I don't like the tone of your questioning. Just trust fatty.

So, in the name of gluttony, mullets and soggy french fries, we bring you a brand new HHH feature, the Taqueria Throwdown*, wherein we will sample the area's finest and greasiest Mexican cuisine and let you know if it's worthy of your cash (not you debit card, since many of these places are cash only). No place is too divey, no place too pretentious. I'm looking for a place that will reduce me to a blubbering mass of Caucasian envy, shaking my fist at my heritage and wishing that I would have made good on my vow to change my name to "Julio Franco" as an ambitious 10-year old.

Tacos will be judged on a scale of 1-5 orders of fries. 5 orders of fries clearly being the best, duh.

*This is the family friendly version of the original name I came up, with Taco D*#@ Punch*. This was in no way endorsed by Katy. Nay, it was strongly advised against.

Round 1: Big Star, 1531 N. Damen, Chicago, IL

Background: Big Star is a relatively new, yet insanely popular taco joint/bar in our old haunts, Wicker Park. Located in the space formerly occupied by Pontiac Cafe (known for it's 'big in summertime' outdoor patio), it attracts hipsters near and far, who come in drunken droves for chef Paul Kahan's (Blackbird - overrated, Publican - rated correctly) Mexican street food and extensive whiskey list. The best part is clearly the take-out window...that way you can have your taco while managing to avoid Johnny and the Skinny Jeans ashing on you with his rogue Lucky Strike.

Tacos: We sampled 3 of their trendy (yet cheap) tacos from the takeout window. Let's see who won the knife fight.

Taco Al Pastor: Pork shoulder, grilled pineapple, grilled onion, cilantro. If you want a dog in this fight (not condoning dog fighting), this is your guy. Wow. I could probably eat a solid dozen of these. I wept openly and at one point thought I saw Jesus. 5 orders of fries.

Taco De Borrego: Lamb shoulder, radish, roasted scallion, queso fresco. Almost as good as the Al Pastor. I almost liked it just as much, but Katy's leanings made Al Pastor the winner. Still a solid chest bump and likely to make you drop some elbows on the dance floor. 4 orders of fries.

Taco De Rojas: Poblano peppers, onions, oregano, crema, queso de freir. This one was really a hot mess, quite literally. For some reason I thought this had fish in it. No? Very well then. It was soggier than Lily's diaper after sleeping through the night, and just about as appetizing. Stay away. 1.5 orders of fries.

So there you have it your. The battle has been won, but the taco war has just begun. To be continued...

The contenders: (starting at top, clockwise) Pastor, Rojas, Borrego

And on the 7th Day, the Lord said, "Today I'm just gonna chill and have a Al Pastor taco if it's all the same to you."

Writer's Block (or something like that)

I have to give credit where credit's due and thank Ben for keeping the blog on life support for the last several months. As I'm sure it is with everyone, there's just not enough time in the day to do everything! As Lily gets older, she's getting more fun. And while she's sleeping more these days (goodbye 10pm, 2am, and 5am feeding sessions!), we're now moving on and have bigger and better fish to fry - we're rolling around wrestling on the floor, reading board books, eating three "real food" meals a day. Babies sure are labor intensive, but it's all good - better than I ever imagined (see yesterday's video of Lily laughing)! And now for some highlights of late from the Handfelt Hacienda...

Speaking of wrestling, Lily's preferred wrestling move is to sit on your neck while you're laying on your back and do a combo thang of bouncing up and down and drooling on your face. It's wonderful. She also enjoys being held upside down for a sec and getting her underarms tickled (but probably not both at once). Good times.

The Hammer in action, pinning Dad down

Her nicknames have evolved to focus on the letter "T": Toonces (yes, like the Driving Cat), Tootie, Toots, Tootsie...and the old fave of Beans gets tossed around a lot too. Miss Linnette, our daycare provider, prefers the more conventional Lily Belle.

Beans has a boyfriend at school named Liam...with a young whipper-snapper named Henry also fighting for her affections. They all get VERY excited when they see each other. It continues to crack me up/amaze me that the babies can become attached to one another like that at such a young age! In any case, she is already far more social, outgoing, and popular than either of her parents ever were!

Since the beginning of June, we started slowly giving Lily pureed and mashed foods. We've now worked up to servings of cereal, veggies, and fruit a day. I'm making about 60% of it homemade myself and the other 40% comes from prepared baby food. It's really quite easy and I'm enjoying the process of making it for her and seeing what she likes or doesn't like. So far we're a big fan of vegetables (sweet potatoes and peas, in particular) and not so much of the fruit. Apparently, like her father, she's "not a big sweets guy [gal]." (Which reminds me of the time when Ben ate the top layer of our wedding cake and tried to hide it from me...but that's another story, for a WHOLE other post. The tale gets people cracking up. If you haven't heard it, you're missin' out.)

A re-creation of the wedding cake in question

Ben and I have been trying to make it a priority to get out occasionally, just the two of us. Last weekend we actually played hooky (legitimately) from work on Friday and spent the day eating good food, seeing a movie (just like old days), and wandering hand-in-hand through the Art Institute, especially spending plenty of time checking out the new Modern Wing of the museum. We also came across Transformers 3 being filmed downtown. Then on Saturday we had an adults-only afternoon in the bleachers at Wrigley. I, of course, filled Ben's ears with my color commentary of the game. It was SO hot and steamy that after the game, we were forced to grab some "refreshments" at Gingerman and then fill our tummies with grub from Wrigleyville Dogs. Read all about our discovery of W. Dogs here. As you can imagine, they don't serve sweet potato puree at this fine establishment!

Other than that, it's just work, Lily, and sleep...repeat. While I'm enjoying my job and loving the challenge and responsibility, I wonder why the working world can't be a bit more life-friendly. In today's society and with current technology, how hard would it be to allow more flexible options in the workplace? As in, we possibly get home before 6pm? Is this just city life? Now, I'm not oblivious and know I'm not the first person, man or woman, to ever say this stuff. Obviously. But after talking to others about it, there's clearly a demand, a want...an actual need. Work is great and interesting and a very important aspect of who I am (which I couldn't do without, BTW), but it's not my life. It's not who I am as a whole. Maybe I'll get flamed for saying that. But my thought is that maybe if more people pushed for these "benefits," we could change the face of the workplace.

Now that we have Lily, I just feel a need to slow down and focus on the most important and most basic of things. A return to simplicity. Doesn't everyone feel this way to a certain extent? Anyways, having Lily just makes me want to be better, make the world better for her, and for myself to be a more well-rounded human being. (See: making homemade baby food, visiting museums, etc.) Ah, I just read over what I wrote and suppose this makes me sound a little granola-y Earth Mother-esque (Think: Maggie Gyllenhaal's character from the movie "Away We Go"). Oh well. Anyways, if anyone has any thoughts, leave them in the comments! I'm generally much more guarded in telling people my thoughts and feelings, but in this case, I'm trying to be more open and am interested in hearing what you have to say. This has been a hot topic between a few of my coworkers and I lately, so I'd like to hear other perspectives as well.

Along with our conversations, some of my coworkers and I have taken a self-assessment test included in a book called StrengthFinders 2.0. The purpose of the quiz was to discover our true inner strengths. The book claims that to improve yourself, you should focus your efforts on what you are naturally good at, rather than try to cultivate the areas in which you are less talented (which is what most people try to do). For example, a very talented baseball player can succeed far more with less practice than someone who's skills don't come so easily, but is highly motivated and puts a lot of time into practicing. Does that make sense? I had never thought of strengths and weaknesses in that way before and found it quite interesting. Hey, maybe by uncovering my true talents and brainstorming with others, I can come up with a creative idea to how to develop my own line of work that would fit my value system, satisfy my personal interests, AND allow me to spend more time with my daughter. Oh, the working mom's wish...

We'd like to spend more time at the beach, thanks.

How could anyone say "no" to this face?

LMTAO (the T is for Tiny)

Cuter than a basket full of newborn puppies. Click on the video to go to YouTube and watch in all of it's HD hilarity.

Life's A Beach

Lily Bryn & Co. hit up Hollywood Beach in Andersonville and turned heads (well, at least one of us did).

"Let's get this party started! I only have one rule. Absolutely no speedos."

"Screw a pony, will you make an offer on one of those boats?"

"Is that a scorpion in the grass? LOL, just kidding!"

"Sure, I suppose I can ratchet up the cute factor for this one."

Parks and Rec

"This rubber staircase is burning my chubby legs!"

"Dad is too scared to slide down this thing. C'mon Pop, it's like 3 feet high. Seriously, are you crying? No, they don't have a kiddie slide. This IS the kiddie slide. You know what, I'll just go down myself. Set me down, post haste. You're an embarrassment. But I still love you."

"This swing changed my life."

Gooooooooooolllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some soccer newbie from Bosnia enjoys The Beautiful Game alongside Shane Smith, aka Tommy Buzanis.

Over the past month or so, I was stricken with an illness. It long went undiagnosed and it's symptoms included waking up ridiculously early, wearing garish color combinations and randomly bursting into cheer after long bouts of silence. Yes, that's right, I caught a small, albeit deadly bout of World Cup Fever. Thankfully I made it through alive, but it got dicey there for a while.

I had always thought soccer was too boring, too English, and too pretentious for my tastes, but over the course of the Cup, I began to revel in the small details of the game that most fans relish and most haters ignore. The different strategies, the art of the perfect pass, the absence of commercial breaks and most of all, the build up and anticipation as a team makes it's way towards a shot on goal. Plus, it gave me an excuse to drink lots of coffee chased with Bloody Marys.

The high point probably came when I went with my buddy Shane (and his whole family) to Cagney's bar, to watch the US take on Ghana. Watching soccer in a communal atmosphere makes all the difference in the world, and would likely even make Glenn Beck seem like less of a d*#k.

Alas, the outcome was not what was hoped for, but I continued to watch the Cup all the way through to the finals (Go Netherlands...uh, I mean Spain?). All the better, it probably saved me from frittering away $60 on a US soccer jersey that I wouldn't break out for another 4 years. I'm beginning to run out of bandwagons to jump on...

Yes. Yes it is.

Things We Like - Peaquod's Pizza

The ground beef and mushroom 'pan crust' pizza at Peaquod's Pizza, 2207 N. Clybourn Ave. Despite calling The Windy City home for over seven years now, we've always been of the school of thought that deep dish, a Chicago tradition, is generally hugely overrated and best left to the tourists and those with faster metabolisms than ours.

That is, until we discovered Pequod's famous 'pan crust' pizza...deep enough to be considered deep dish, but eschewing the deep dish name so that we can still keep our contrarian street cred. The restaurant itself is pretty refreshing too, as far as pizza joints go. Forgoing the traditional checkered table cloth and red booths, it goes for a comfy, corner dive bar feel and succeeds with room to spare. This pizza will make you cry tomato sauce tears of joy and make you feel better about venturing into Lincoln Park.