Lou Malnati's

So the holiday season didn't start too well for me.... "They" say that bad things tend to happen in 3's, and while I perhaps half-believe that saying, I did not think it would apply to me. Well, it came true. Just a couples weeks prior, two of my friends both lost relatives suddenly -- I sympathized for them and helped them out any way I could, but I didn't believe in any way that I was next..... well, I was...

My grandfather died unexpectedly -- he was 89, but when I say unexpectedly, we got a call from his caretaker that he was sick, and it would be a matter of days... I had no idea that he was that sick. That was on a Saturday. Sunday night he passed. Here's the really crappy kicker of it all. My dad was supposed to have flown to Chicago to see him that weekend, but there was a bad snowstorm, and he couldn't fly up.

Sooo, at the beginning of December, my whole family flies in to Chicago to my Polish relatives for the first time in 8 years. Unfortunately the last time I saw everyone was at my grandfather's funeral. And to make matters worse, the weather's terrible and it takes us almost 4 hours to get into Indiana (normally less than an hour commute).

But I'm not going to recount the big Polish Catholic funeral -- I spare you and myself the details. It was sad. And I said goodbye.

The reason I give this background story is to tell of the one bright spot out of this whole trip. We stayed with my cousins (who are my parents' age) -- I think they still kind of thought of my sister and me as girls. They were delighted to find out that the minute we walked in the door, we wanted a stiff drink. My cousin Ken and I got into a discussion about beer, and you'd think I just gave him a million dollars when I knew of Warsteiner beer!

After quite a few of those stiff drinks, we're getting ready to stumble off to bed, but are discussing plans for the viewing and funeral All Ken wants to discuss is that we're going to have beer and true Chicago stuffed pizza. Believe me, the prospect of that was enough to get me through the next day. We get back to the house, the beer is there, the pizza boxes are there. I immediately go up the pizza box to get a look at this Chicago stuffed pizza, the pizza Ken claims is the only kind to eat. I look in, and all I see is what I think is a very large Hot Pocket. That can't be right, right? Ken, is that how they make Chicago stuffed pizza?

Everyone starts laughing -- Ken looks sheepish, and no one lets him live it down, the entire evening. He'd said stuffed pizza when ordering, but apparently they gave him calzones (which were still highly delicious by the way....). The Texans in the room certainly didn't care -- I had my Pacifico (Ken managed to track some down, God love him!) and some junk food, so I was content.

Fast forward to the weekend before Christmas. I come home from work, cursing under my breath because two of the Christmas gifts I ordered weeks and weeks ago still haven't conveniently been delivered, and what do I see by my front door? Two packages! I go to retrieve them, but one large white box is marked "perishable" -- of course, the first thought through my mind is, "What the hell did I order?"

It's addressed to me, so I rip open the package, and pull out....yes, you guessed it:

A genuine, LOU MALNATI's Chicago-style deep dish pizza. I think I laughed out loud for a solid 10 minutes. I immediately called my parents, who'd also received one, as well as my sister. My cousin just couldn't accept that he'd mis-ordered the pizza and deprived us of one of Chicago's best dishes! I haven't eaten it yet - it's definitely something you share with more than one person -- but I'm so looking forward to it!

I wanted to post this only because I wanted to remember that little bit of joy and laughter that came during a dark time and a really unpleasant situation. It made me love my family even more...those crazy Polaks!