Evanston Artist Dave Ford Competes in ArtPrize 2012

Today is the first day of ArtPrize, an art contest in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the public awards more than $250,000 worth of prize money to their favorite artists.

My husband Dave Ford is competing this year with his Swing Set Drum Kit an interactive sonic sculpture encouraging kids to build rhythmic sounds with a swing set. The piece will be on display in Calder Plaza from Sept. 19 - Oct. 6.

More than 1,500 artists are competing and the event attracts more than 300,000 visitors to downtown Grand Rapids. You have to be a local to vote but it's worth the day trip to Grand Rapids to check out the art and people watch.

If you could, send good vibes eastward to Dave Ford and his Swing Set Drum Kit starting today through Sept. 30 when the top 10 artists are announced.

I am posting event updates and news on Dave's blog at fordart.wordpress.com and you can learn more about ArtPrize at www.artprize.org/dave-ford.

This sonic sculpture originally showed in the public art festival in El Paso, TX, Chalk the Block where Frederico Villalba shot the image above. Wouldn't it be fantastic to put the Swing Set Drum Kit in the front lawn of the Evanston Art Center? I'll add that to my list of things to do!

On searching for good Mexican food north of the border, why racial profiling should NOT be a part of making new friends and guacamole recipes from El Paso

Who am I to review restaurants? My palette is not so developed that I can decipher the unique flavorings that make up a mole sauce. I am not well versed in the culinary arts and magic of what goes on in a kitchen. And by no means have I eaten at a 5-star establishment more than once. So do I really know food? Or am I just another Yelpie yapping about customer services issues and the font on a menu?

I’ll own it, I’m just another yapper on Yelp joining the great food conversation exploding on the World Wide Web and today I’m writing about guacamole one of the best inventions to come out of Mexico. And specifically, I’d like to talk about the guacamole at Little Mexican Café on Church Street in Evanston. I really like the guacamole there and I’m going to spend this blog post writing about it.

Let’s start with the definition according to Wikipedia, Guacamole: is an avocado-based sauce that originated with the Aztecs in Mexico. In addition to its use in modern Mexican cuisine it has also become part of American cuisine as a dip, condiment and salad ingredient. It is traditionally made by mashing ripe avocados with a molcajete (mortar and pestle) with sea salt. Some recipes call for tomato, onion, lime juice, chili, yogurt and/or additional seasonings.

Now we’re all on the same page, right? Not really. Guacamole is like queso (another fabulous invention from Mexico that varies per household) in that it can be made many, many, many different ways. And thanks to a 10+ year stint living in El Paso (a city that shares a border and much of the population with Mexico) I was introduced to many different types of guacamole. The strangest? Three avocadoes, ½ cup milk, and lime juice in a blender. Strange but delicious!

When my family left El Paso for Evanston, we were all concerned about the pending lack of awesome Mexican food in our futures despite the fact that tons of Mexican Nationals live in Chicagoland. It’s not enough to just go to a Mexican restaurant and buy a dish. For us we would need home cooked Mexican food to fill the gap and for that we would need to make friends from Mexico! That would be hard because racial profiling should not be part of making friends. Not only is it disingenuous but using someone for their cooking potential is wrong and too complicated. What if all that time hanging out and getting to know one another, they finally invite you over for dinner and A. their cooking stinks or B. they cook you Chinese food? It’s too risky!

We would need to shelve looking for new friends from Mexico and we’d just have to eat out at Mexican food restaurants! Oh white people problems!

I would be remiss here not to throw a bone to our good friend Rick Bayless, who needs a bone thrown from Evanston Newbie like Lake Michigan needs water. But Rick has been good to us and we’ve eaten numerous, delicious, authentic Mexican meals at XOCO and we’re grateful. But as you know, I need a place I can walk to and I’m not walking to XOCO from Evanston!

You can imagine my happiness when I discovered Little Mexican Café on Church Street which is NOT very little but is VERY Mexican. The menu is traditional, the food has just the right amount of lard, and everyone who works there is speaking Spanish. The trifecta is working in favor of good Mexican food at Little Mexican Café and we can all walk there.

So besides the margaritas, the main item that I enjoy the most on the menu is the guacamole because it’s made to order in front of you from woman with a cart holding all kinds of ingredients. I can add anything I want to the recipe allowing me to revisit some of the homes of friends in El Paso all the way from Evanston. Granted there’s no blender or milk, I can make it extra spicy with lot of jalapenos or just with limes and tomatoes or really chunky with tons of onions. The avocadoes are always fresh and the serving size is huge. It’s a great deal and with a margarita can actually work as a meal. It’s so yummy that I’ve even eaten it out of the container with a spoon when I’ve run out of chips.

In honor of my old El Paso chums, I collected a few guacamole recipes on Facebook and will continue to update this post with them as they come in, see below.

So far, Little Mexican Café has done a great job filling the Mexican food gap in our lives and we’ve really only just started exploring. My older son loves the tamales from the Tamales Spaceship food truck and my husband liked the tacos from Taco Diablo. I’ll keep you posted of all the places we try but only if they are yummy – I only spread the good word on this blog.

If you’ve got a hankering for some guacamole, take your best recipe over to Little Mexican Café and have it made to order while you sip a margarita. I highly recommend it. And who am I? Just some Yelper yapping about food on the World Wide Web! Buen provecho!

Guacamole recipes from some El Paso friends:
Zac - Avocados, lime, garlic, red onion, tomato, salt, and pepper
Marina - Avocados, lime, garlic, red onion, tomato, jalapeno, salt, and pepper
Heriberto - Avocados, lime, garlic, red onion, tomato, jalapeno, cilantro, salt, and pepper
David - Avocados, lime, garlic, red onion, tomato, jalapeno, cottage cheese, salt, and pepper
Katie - Avocados, lime, salt, and pepper
Barry - 3 avocados, 2 roma tomatoes, juice from 1 lime, cilantro, salt, onion and one recipe called for cayenne pepper (this guy is a very new friend and he is NOT from El Paso, but I felt compelled to include him).

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Thank you for reading my blog "Evanston Newbie", a project that I am using to chronicle my new life in Evanston since moving my family here from El Paso, TX, in 2011. Do you have favorite Evanston bakeries, bike shops, events that you can recommend? Send me an email at thelisadshow@gmail.com and I will post my review on this blog. -Lisa Degliantoni

Eddie Spaghetti the Meatballs are Ready Degliantoni is in the Hizouse!

This is a photo of my father Eddie Spaghetti the Meatballs are Ready Degliantoni in all his gloriousness in my backyard in Evanston. My mother and father are visiting for two weeks and we’re showing them Chicagoland for the first time. They’re from the Bay Area and they’ve never been to the Midwest. Be nice if you see them walking down the street please.

Let’s play a quick round of trivia. What’s in my dad’s glass? Nope, not apple juice, silly! That’s Jack Daniels on the rocks with a splash of water, his favorite drink.

And next to him on the picnic table is a leg of lamb from Costco, only the best. He’s sitting there waiting for the grill to warm up. That’s how I found him yesterday when I came home from work. That man looks happy and healthy for 75 and for being my father.

I am thrilled to have my parents in town so that I can show off my new city and life and apartment. Normally I see them about once or twice a year, for two weeks max. When I turned 18, I moved more than eight hours away and I’ve been moving farther and farther away ever since. My distance from my childhood home has little to do with how much or little I like my parents at the time and everything to do with my gypsy blood.

As I look at this photo I think about me at 75, cue the Beatles tune “When I’m 64”. Will I be in one of my son’s homes cooking them my amazing pasta sauce, sipping Prosseco? What will my relationship with my children look like in 35 years and where in the world will they be living? They better like me and I better have the money to visit them!

Both of my parents think Evanston and the North Shore are gorgeous and cannot believe how pretty it is. The trees! The huge houses! Lake Michigan! I’m so happy they like the area; it’s much more fun to hang with enthusiastic parents vs. worried parents.

When we were leaving El Paso last year, they were sad and nervous about our pending move to Chicago. “What about your great friends and the kid’s fantastic school?” they said. They brought up good questions and legitimate worries but we told them we had done our homework and everything would be just fine.

Yesterday they met several of our new friends (thank you Lori and Kate for being so darn friendly and nice) who gave them the perfect impression of the Midwestern temperament that makes me truly love people from this region. They also got to see the boys’ school and we very impressed by the lovely grounds and new building. All this and a huge scoop of Hartigan’s Ice Cream made them very excited for our new life and new home.

This is a photo of a happy man relaxing on a summer night in the backyard right before he grills a delicious leg of lamb. After this photo my husband, two kids and mom all joined my dad at the table and we had a fantastic dinner, outside in our backyard, in our new city of Evanston. I was way too busy eating Ed’s delicious leg of lamb to waste time taking a photo!

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Thank you for reading my blog "Evanston Newbie", a project that I am using to chronicle my new life in Evanston since moving my family here from El Paso, TX, in 2011. Do you have favorite Evanston bakeries, bike shops, events that you can recommend? Send me an email at thelisadshow@gmail.com and I will post my review on this blog. -Lisa Degliantoni

Sunday Breakfast: 6 boys, 24 pancakes, 3 minutes, 1 HUGE milestone

Warning: For those of you parents reading this who used to attend Pancake Saturdays, you are going to cry big crocodile tears mostly because like never before, you are going to miss ME and those quiet hours on Saturday morning when I would take your children off your hands for several hours and leave you to do laundry, nurse a hangover, make out with your partner, whatever you used to do. Know that I miss YOU too, and am crying with you.

When we lived in El Paso we used to host a Saturday morning social event for neighborhood kids called “Pancake Saturdays”. Adults were invited to drop off their children around 8 a.m. and pick up them up around 11 a.m. (that same day) and were discouraged from coming inside for coffee, as it was a “’kids only” thing. Between 8-11 a.m. (in no particular order) my children hosted up to 8 friends in our home and without any adult supervision (aka micromanaging) they played games, watched cartoons and hosted a pancake breakfast, all I had to do was make 40 pancakes on the skillet in my kitchen in my jammies.

Some of our fondest memories of El Paso are of Pancake Saturdays. Of course now that they don’t take place anymore my children have romanticized the breakfasts talking about the hundreds of children who attended and the buckets of candy I distributed. But the truth is, Pancake Saturdays were always small and totally sweet and catered to the neighborhood.

Our last year in El Paso the breakfasts didn’t occur as often as Saturday mornings got eaten up by organized sports. We talked a lot about having Pancake Saturdays but they just sort of stopped and me and my children missed them and then we moved. Would we ever have them again?

The first thing you need for Pancake Saturdays is a group of friends then you need the space to feed the friends breakfast. Upon arriving in our teeny tiny apartment it was obvious hosting more than 2 children for breakfast was out of the question and we really only had one friend who was a kid and her mom didn’t like her eating the pancakes I made and instead wanted us to try the healthy kind. We decided to table Pancake Saturdays.

And then just last month we moved into an apartment with room to host more than 4 diners in the kitchen or the dining room – my spirit lifted at the chance to host anything! And what did we host first? A pancake breakfast! It was totally on the wrong day (Sunday) and was part of an all-day Axis and Allies tournament that catered to 10-year old boys not necessarily neighbors, but we finally hosted a pancake breakfast and it felt so awesome. As is the case with the most of the milestones we experience in our new life, I find myself over analyzing and obsessing about every detail. I ask myself questions like “How does today’s milestone compare to the one in El Paso?” “How are these children different than the children in El Paso?” “Are my children looking homesick and sad?” “Do these pancakes seem dry?”

And as I sit and obsess, I look at my children for guidance and they seem to be so calm, not at all carrying the burden of overanalyzing every minute. But who knows with children! Sometimes they don’t talk about a thought or feeling for several months or even years. Sitting there eating pancakes at our kitchen table with 6 friends, my children looked calm and didn’t at all seem to be picking up the screaming message in my head that was blaring “THIS IS THE FIRST PANCAKE BREAKFAST WE’VE HOSTED IN OUR NEW CITY, ISN’T THIS INSANE?!?!?!” (Could you for one minute imagine being my child?)

Of course I learned a few things about my children and their new friends despite all the over-analyzing I was doing. Here are just a few things I picked up on;
1. Both of my children are so much more patient than I am when it comes to making friends
2. Boys do talk, they talk so much
3. When left alone, children problem solve with words (I sort of knew that already)
4. Six children can play together for up to six hours without video games. Imagine?!

It feels so great to still be learning so much from our move, I didn’t anticipate that would be such a huge part of it. And it also feels so good to carry over old traditions and make them new and unique to our new city and life. I am grateful to have children who are open and patient, they are both making me that way every day. And who knows, maybe we’ll switch it up and host Pancake Sundays from now on, we had such an amazing first run.

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Thank you for reading my blog "Evanston Newbie", a project that I am using to chronicle my new life in Evanston. Do you have favorite Evanston bakeries, bike shops, events that you can recommend? Send me an email at thelisadshow@gmail.com and I will post my review on this blog. -Lisa Degliantoni

Just like the Jeffersons, we’re moving on up!

One fun fact about El Paso, TX, (my previous hometown) is that Sherman Hemsley from The Jeffersons lives there. Sherman and I used to live in the same town. And like Sherman, my family recently moved on up from a two bedroom to a three bedroom apartment. It’s not every day that you can find things in common with a celebrity! But I digress.

The transition from a house to an apartment was big enough for my family, but for the last year, we have been living in a space ½ the size of our home in El Paso and it has been a challenge. Or should I confess that mainly it was a challenge for me as I couldn’t have anyone over for dinner, also I had to walk around the neighborhood to have private phone calls. Now that I think about it, more walking and less eating socially is probably why I lost 41 pounds in a year.

What our new apartment affords us is space to host guests (comfortably) and the luxury to entertain guests in our dining room! “It’s so nice not to have to eat in the kitchen” said my son during our first dining room meal! And it’s true!

We’ve spent the last year working on being appreciative of our apartment and living space and learning to just be grateful in general (all part of my personal Happiness Project thanks to Gretchen Rubin). How wonderful then to transition to a bigger apartment exactly one year after our arrival in Evanston, one year more grateful and ready to really appreciate a bigger space.

What does this have to do with you? Buy the furniture we no longer want! After making yet another living transition, we’re getting rid of all kinds of furniture and are totally willing to haggle. And because we don’t have a driveway to host a garage sale in, everything is for sale on CraigsList.com!

China Hutch, $500

Desk Lamps, $40

Bathroom Hamper & Shelves, $75

Bathroom Shelves, $50

Bookshelf, $75

Metal Kitchen Shelf, $40

Espresso Machine & accessories, $75

Thank you in advance for your help lightening our load and for reading this blog!

Evanston Newbie Anniversary Series: 40 Lessons Learned Moving from El Paso, TX to Evanston, IL

1. My marriage is the most important relationship in my life.
2. My children are smart, capable and flexible.
3. Jobs come to those who seek them.
4. Milestones are for celebrating and recognizing, even the bad ones.
5. New traditions can be created every day.
6. Children notice and hold onto memories and events that you will find totally strange and alarming.
7. Children want to be part of the decision making process in a family.
8. Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be. (Joseph Campbell knew this before I did.)
9. Living near water is good for my spirit.
10. Lake Michigan looks like the ocean with waves, seagulls and sand – the only thing missing is salt.
11. Being able to walk instead of drive makes you feel more connected to your community.
12. People are open to making new friends after 30.
13. Selling 80% of your possessions on craigslist.com is extremely liberating.
14. Everything you need can be replaced.
15. Everything you want can be found.
16. Everything you dream of doing can be done.
17. Money only buys food and shelter.
18. Living like a tourist is a great way to get to know your environment.
19. No matter how much research you do, being on the ground, experiencing things in real time teaches you everything you need to know.
20. Red foxes eat brown bunnies in large quantities.
21. People project their insecurities onto you. For instance everyone will tell you that you can’t do “it”, but really what they mean is that they don’t think they can do “it”.
22. Abraham Lincoln was NOT born in Illinois.
23. The New Madrid Fault Line is right next to Chicago.
24. Everything and everyone looks better in a new environment.
25. Buying products directly from the farmer is very rewarding.
26. Even women can grow up to be successful architects.
27. Skyscrapers make a city looks successful.
28. Cicadas are so loud.
29. Biting red ants are terrible creatures.
30. Having a reliable public transportation system as an option instead of driving is wonderful.
31. All of Chicago’s mayors are from the same neighborhood, except for Rahm.
32. Having a boss who is smarter than you is essential for career growth.
33. True friends cheer you on, even when you are leaving them behind.
34. Surprising yourself is wonderful for your self esteem.
35. You can do anything!
36. Fun can be had anywhere, even in a Chevron bathroom on the Jersey Turnpike.
37. Happiness is a choice, not the result of how life treats you.
38. Diversity in a population produces lots of yummy restaurants.
39. Life should be lived in chapters, with evaluation periods after a decade closes.
40. There are so many wonderful places to live.

Blog on Blog Love: Evanston Newbie featured on Refuse the Juice

"I used to be a radio talk show host" is a phrase that comes out of my mouth a lot these days (sigh) and one new Evanston friend recently confessed she thought I was "telling a story" when I told her that (thanks for believing in me, Kindon). Well that "story" is true and I used to be a host with a guy by the name of David K, a funny Republican.

Both David K and I left El Paso in 2011 (he moved to Washington DC to dabble in politics, I moved to Evanston to eat my way through Chicago) and sometimes we blog about our old stomping ground El Paso, he focuses on the political scene and I just whine about missing old friends.

Recently we both found ourselves getting snarky about Norma Chavez's blog. Chavez is a former El Paso elected official (a term equivalent to scout troop leader in El Paso as it's pretty easy to get elected to office in a town where less than 6% of the population votes), turned blogger and reading her blog and watching her career transition has been too fun to resist. Most recently David featured a review of Chavez's new blog, offering her tips on how to drive traffic to her site. What did he give me and my blog? Nothing! So I complained and David K finally featured ME and "Evanston Newbie" on his blog! My traffic is going to go through the roof! Thanks old buddy.

Click here to read the post and give yourself ample time to read it as he really gushes!

Mostly I'm grateful to David K for giving me the window in which to write "Blog on Blog Love" as a headline, it pretty much beats out all other phrases I've developed this week to include "website bling".

I miss you David K, but not that way!

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Thank you for reading my blog "Evanston Newbie", a project that I am using to chronicle my new life in Evanston. Do you have favorite Evanston bakeries, bike shops, events, summer camps that you can recommend? Send me an email at thelisadshow@gmail.com and I will post my review on this blog. -Lisa Degliantoni

I miss my friends!!!!!!

One thing I didn't expect at all is just how much I miss my friends in El Paso! This is my fourth move in my adult life, I have friends all over the globe, but this move has me all choked up.

I blame Facebook, which keeps the bonds very strong with old friends, via videos and photos, and old-school photo albums are deadly too.

My friend sent me this photo recently and I just had to share it with you as it's so incredibly cute.

I'm logging off now so I can send some emails and postcards to El Paso, I miss my friends...

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Thank you for reading my blog "Evanston Newbie", a project that I am using to chronicle my new life in Evanston. Do you have favorite Evanston bakeries, bike shops, events that you can recommend? Send me an email at thelisadshow@gmail.com and I will post my review on this blog. -Lisa Degliantoni

Video of a recent public art project by my husband, Dave Ford

Recently I wrote about being married to a visual artist (10.22.11: On marrying a visual artist, staying For Real and communal living in Chicago) and the benefits of choosing a spouse who helps you keep it real. I'd like for my readers to get to know my husband a little better, so that when I pitch the City of Evanston a public art proposal for the "Swing Set Drum Kit", you'll know what I'm talking about and back my idea!

The video above was taken of my husband's "Swing Set Drum Kit" that he was commissioned to create for a public art festival in El Paso, Chalk the Block. The festival is geared toward children, with a variety of chalk drawing activities, performances, etc. Dave's piece was ideal for this festival and there was a long line of children waiting to swing during most of the festival.

Click here for a slide show of images of the event, to include Dave on the cover of the El Paso Times.

Thank you in advance for your support, I totally think this piece would be great for the Evanston Art Center right around spring.

Postcards: Pancho Villa rides into town, Jacques receives his first postcard and the intellect of babies

So now we are going to enter the phase of babies and pets who received my postcard collection. We had Gus pose with Jesus a few weeks ago (click here to see sad Gus) and now I've got several babies and a cat to add to the collection.

The baby photographed here is holding a very vintage, sepia toned, Pancho Villa postcard. In the image Villa is riding a horse with some bandit friends about to attack the town of Columbus, NM, one of the first invasions on American soil. The postcard was sent to a friend in El Paso, also on the Mexico/U.S. border and a Mexican Revolution hang out for Villa and his gang.

This baby has no concept of war, the struggle of the U.S./Mexico border or life as a bandit - all he knows is baby food and possibly the smell of his mother! Wouldn't it be wonderful if for 57 minutes a day, just under an hour, your brain could only think of food and no other cares or worries? That's how amazing it is to be a baby, carefree and focused on food! Don't be jealous of Baby Jacques!

I will post more cute baby and pet photos of the postcards as they become available.

Click here to read more info about my postcard collection and all the exciting plans I have for its distribution.

P.S. I named this baby Jacques on this post in order to protect his identity and the identity of his celebrity parents!

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Thank you for reading my blog "Evanston Newbie", a project that I am using to chronicle my new life in Evanston. Do you have favorite Evanston bakeries, bike shops, events that you can recommend? Send me an email at thelisadshow@gmail.com and I will post my review on this blog. -Lisa Degliantoni

I'm doomed if Halloween night in Evanston doesn't blow my children's minds!

I'm doomed if Halloween night in Evanston doesn't blow my children's minds! This is their first Halloween in their new hometown and you know how kids are, it's all about how the holidays compare and in El Paso, Halloween was a total blast. People had haunted houses in their front yards, one neighbor dressed like a bleeding zombie and chased kids - you get the idea.

So for my children's sake, I hope their first Halloween in Evanston is fun, because if it's not, I will hear about it....and hear about it....and hear about it.

One thing I do know is that Halloween has a designated time in Evanston in that children are allowed to Trick or Treat from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. I'm assuming festivities end at 7 p.m. because the temperature drops to 40 below zero, but maybe it's due to the fact that Halloween falls on a Monday this year and people have to work in the morning.

Either way, Evanstonians seem to be getting in the spirit. I drive by all kinds of houses with loads of decorations and I'll keep a slide show of them right here, so check back.

Any Halloween recommendations for the Chicago area? My children are still too young for haunted houses but they can do corn mazes, costume parades, etc. Send your ideas to thelisadshow@gmail.com.

We Have Arrived!

Our trusty Penske arrived safely on June 10, 2011, outside of our new home in Evanston, IL, from our old home in El Paso, TX. After 7 days on the road we are thrilled to start unpacking and meet our new city.

Thank you everyone who made the transition a good one, we will use this blog to keep you posted of our new life and all the fun discoveries we encounter.