After graduation, I spent three weeks in Hillsdale and one in Monroe, and was able to eat a lot of good food during that time. The YoungLife team made- nay, created- the most phenomenal pizza that has ever touched my lips. Ham, pineapples, artichokes, pesto, sausage, several kinds of cheese, homemade tomato sauce... a special thanks to the Pi Phi house for unknowingly lending us much of their food. Margaret and I experimented with dishes including fish tacos (a recipe from her future mother-in-law), Thai basil ground chicken (a meal we shared with Hallie, Matt, Tony and Evan), more delicious pizza (I accidentally made about 9 times too much sauce the first time, so we had to use it up), bruschetta, and chili dogs (a great meal memory that includes Hannah, Mike, Julia Westblade, and Zach). Natalie visited for a weekend and we cranked out what was, hands-down, the best day of food I've ever experienced. That may not be true, but it is a delicious and peaceful in my mind. We made chicken tikki masala for lunch and shrimp linguine for dinner, when I may or may not have drank something close to an entire bottle of wine, plus some experimental mojitos, by myself. I think we had a taste (pun intended) that day of the lifestyle had by cultures like the Italian, Spanish and Mexican, who are so good at celebrating food, leisure and family in one fell swoop. Zach made his own concoction, a product of 18 cloves of garlic he chopped up without asking and was refused by Natalie and myself when he tried to add it to our dish. This garlic became what he calls Zach's Whiskey Chicken when combined with the leftover chicken and anything he found around the Von Sydow household (mustard, salt, whiskey... along with garlic, pretty much the staples of his diet), and then it sat and marinated in the fridge for, oh, 4 or 5 days, which probably isn't the most hygenic thing in the world but I figure between the alcohol and the heat, it's alright. The only dish I made that I have the recipe for is my last meal in Hillsdale, baked ziti, listed below. It was a good last meal.

Baked Ziti

1 lb italian sausage
1 lb pasta (ziti noodles)
3 cloves garlic
olive oil
1-2 quarts sauce
1 C grated parmesan
2-3 C mozarella

Brown sausage with oil- add sundried tomatoes and garlic. Add parsley, basil and sauce, and simmer. Cook pasta al dente and strain. Add parmesean and half of the mozarella to sauce. Pour sauce and pasta into a baking dish and toss well, sprinkle the rest of the mozarella on top. Place under broiler until cheese bubbles.