Happy 30th Birthday, Joe!

We started Joe's birthday celebration in South Dakota, with his fancy DQ race car cake. But that was just the beginning, because this wasn't just any old birthday. It was the big 3-0! This meant I made Joe feel celebrated and important for WEEKS on end, with a fancy birthday celebration on his actual birthday, and a party with our friends a few weeks later. Would you like to hear about it? Good!

We started the celebration with drinks on the 13th floor of Trump Tower.
It was quite fancy, and we did some great people watching.

The drinks were quite fancy, and pretty darn tasty. Not your normal weeknight drinks!

We took some lovely tourist pictures. It was a pretty captivating view!

We went to Avec for a delicious dinner.
Photo Source

And we ended the night at Monk's Pub, celebrating the arrival of Oskar Blues beers.

But remember, since this wasn't just any birthday, we had to have a party as well! We had our friends over this weekend for the official fete, and did a pretty good job ushering in a new decade of Joe's life.

After we sang "Happy Birthday", Joe decided they should shotgun some beers.
A desperate attempt to hold on to his youth? I think so.

Still smiling, and feeling a bit proud of the shotgunning.
I'm kind of surprised this didn't lead to flip cup or some other nonsense :)

Singing!

Happy Birthday Joe!

Thanks for coming everyone! We had a great time celebrating Joe's birthday. We're so lucky to have such awesome friends to celebrate with. And now, only 9 more months until my big 30th blowout!

Fall is in the Air!

I was reluctant to get overly excited about fall while it was still warm outside... I am seriously a lover of summer! I think being born in California made me that way, no matter where else i have lived. And summer in Chicago is SO FUN, which makes me want to savor every minute of it.

The past few days have been different, though, and have reminded me that fall isn't too bad a time of year. My plants have been sending me a strong message for the last couple days, as they react to the sudden change of temperature.

 

These plants were lush and so alive just a couple weeks ago! I actually got a decent number of tomatoes and peppers from my "garden", plus lots of herbs. The hanging plants were great this year, too. Instead of being sad they're dying, I'm going to look ahead to what I can attempt to grow indoors during the colder months :)

Other signs of fall...

Brewing pumpkin ale a couple weeks ago.
It's happily fermenting now, and we'll be enjoying it in a few more weeks!

Pumpkin beer in the fridge, canned pumpkin in the pantry. Can't fight it.

Chili for dinner. It was this spicy vegetarian recipe... healthy and delish!

This weekend we're headed to a wine tasting event down at Buckingham Fountain, and to the Wells Street Fall Festival. It's supposed to warm up a bit, too, so we can enjoy some more time outside. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

California Highlights: Part 2

I'm going to keep this one to mostly pictures, with captions. Joe and I have a dinner date tonight, and I accidentally wasted too much of today doing pretty much nothing, which doesn't leave a lot of time for blogging! I will say it was a lovely, relaxing day off... and that I get soooo much more done in my life when I'm busy :) Here are the rest of the highlights from our trip, or at least the highlights we remembered to take pictures of!



Natalie, my cousin Emily's daughter, was so darn cute! She's super smart,
and will talk your ear off if you let her. Here she is in her ballerina swimsuit
and melon smile :)

Emily and Natalie live in Arizona, but they decided to seek refuge from
the dessert heat by coming home for a weekend. Emily and my aunt, Anne,
 made a fantastic dinner on Saturday night.

 

Sunday we were going to hit up Hollywood for a swank and stylish dinner,
but we ended up enjoying our time in Manhattan Beach too much.
We decided instead of rushing home to change for dinner,
we'd enjoy dinner near the beach, and spend a little more time in this
great little beach town!

 

We at at Manhattan Beach Brewing Company, and enjoyed the simple but tasty food.
Since we were on vacation, we had to have beer flights with our meal!

 

This visit we decided to try Malibu Seafood, after a rave review from my cousin.
It was BYOB, beautiful ocean views, and great seafood.  I love the crazy biker
atmosphere of Neptune's Net, but think Malibu Seafood has them beat in the end.



It's not a trip to Southern California without some fish tacos, right? YUM!

Another obvious requirement of this trip... In-N-Out!

Eating too much, exploring all over, and plenty of time in the waves made for a great vacation. It was so refreshing to just enjoy five days together, away from work, bills, and taking care of regular life. We loved catching up with family, and roaming around town without a care in the world!

Thanks especially to Sarah & Sanjin, my cousin and her husband, for loaning us your house and car. We hated being in L.A. and not seeing you and your adorable boys... but we sure are glad you suggested we take over your house while you were gone!

Escape from Reality

Ok, it's been five days, and I think I'm finally recovered enough to post about our wonderful Southern California vacation.  We had a fantastic time relaxing with each other, just enjoying the feeling of minimal obligations and plenty of ocean air. I didn't take nearly enough pictures, but I don't really mind, because we were so 'in the moment' that stopping for the camera would have felt too much like work.

Some highlights of the trip...

 Spending time with much-loved relatives! Delicious food, lively conversation, drinks for everyone. It was wonderful to hang out and catch up with everyone. Thanks to Anne and Ron for hosting our little party!

Soaking up the different scenery. Ocean waves and palm trees are such novelties to us! We drove all over LA exploring, cruising famous streets like Sunset or Santa Monica Boulevards. From West Hollywood to Manhattan Beach, we got to know the city pretty well. Not going to lie, though, I love living in a city where I don't have to drive as much!

Hiking in Runyon Canyon was a great suggestion I got from my hairdresser, who lived in LA for a while. We spent a morning getting a workout while climbing around the hills, people watching and soaking up the views. It was beautiful, and seemed like such a stereotypical California thing to do... right down to the yoga class in the park! We kept up this healthy mentality through lunch, eating tasty vegan sandwiches at Veggie Grill. Then it was off to the beach, which we made a daily priority :)

One day we make the trek down towards San Diego, to visit the much loved Stone Brewery. It was fun to see the brewery, and we had an entertaining and welcoming tour guide. We loved seeing their operations, and didn't mind the tasting that occurred at the end of the tour. They have GREAT beer!

I've just made an official decision that this trip is going to get TWO posts worth of recap. We'll call this post Part One (With Picture Collages).  Part Two will involve iphone pictures, more food and beer, and some silly beach pictures. Midwesterners can be SUCH dorks when we go to the beach! Although I'm not a Midwesterner, for the record, because I was born in Northern California and have lived too many places to really lump myself in with one of them. Just so you know.

For now, I'll go make some dinner, while continuing to dream of living near the beach. It could happen. Right?!

Extended Weekend Adventures

This weekend felt like the real kickoff to summer! I only had to work on Sunday morning, and had all day Friday, Saturday, and Monday off. This meant lots of relaxing time, plus hours of outdoor entertainment! There was a beach picnic, some kickball, outdoor drinks, a park picnic, an escape to an air-conditioned movie theatre, and other very summer like activities. Basically, it was a kick-ass weekend! I got to bond with some Whole Foods people while playing kickball, and even caught a pop fly (if that's what you would call it in kickball!). We explored a really nice beach in Wilmette, a fancy suburb just north of Chicago, and reveled in the soft sand and seemingly cleaner water. There were drinks in front of open bar windows, and out on our back porch. And last night we heard a free Iron & Wine concert at Millennium Park, although it was too crowded to actually see the show. A near-perfect summer weekend! 

What's that you say? You want photo evidence of such fun activities?  I suppose I could indulge you....

Beers at The Hopleaf, plus amazing frites for dinner!

Practicing his new hobby

My tomato plant is growing like crazy!



White sangria with peaches and grapes.
Quite tasty, but also leads to a terrible hangover if you're not careful!

 

Monday night picnic at Millennium Park, with Iron and Wine concert sounds from across the street.

I had fun beach pictures, but they're on Joe's phone. Maybe if you're lucky, I'll save them for a post dedicated to a lovely beach picnic ;)  Hope you're enjoying some summer fun of your own!

Goose Island Brewed for Food

Goose Island and Time Out Chicago have paired up this summer to offer a series of dinners featuring intricate food paired with their collection of vintage ales. Every other week they're hosting a dinner at a different restaurant, and this Tuesday we had a chance to go to Three Aces for a fantastic dining experience.

Our friends Angela and Pedro found the website to buy tickets, even though it's supposed to be by invite only. But we're all total foodies and beer fanatics, so we fit in perfectly with the small group that had gathered. There were about 30 people at the dinner, which was small enough to allow the chefs and a Goose Island brewer to talk to us between each course. We loved hearing their insights into each pairing, and I was so pleased with the quality of food that was presented over the course of the evening.

I could write a few wordy paragraphs about the delicious food, but I'll try to spare you. In short, we started with a fresh tasting spring pea soup, and then had light and flavorful ricotta gnocchi. Next was a simple arugula salad with a nice slice of aged soft goat cheese. The fourth course was farrow with house cured bacon, and the meal was topped off with a hazelnut mousse. Each beer paired well with the food, although my favorite was probably the Fleur or Sophie. Goose Island's vintage brews are complex and flavorful, and represent strong examples of some of my favorite European style beers.

Hearing the chefs and brewer talk about the meal was really interesting, and I loved seeing how well planned the collaboration was.

It was a great night out, and we're looking forward to catching another one of these dinners before the end of summer! We all agreed it would be interesting to see how another chef created a different menu for the same collection of brews. Thanks Goose Island and Time Out! And if you live in Chicago, check out Three Aces. They made special food for our dinner, but their regular menu looks really tasty and very affordable.

** I wish I could take pictures that looked this nice, but that is not the case. These pictures were all taken by a photographer who was helping to run the event, and I took them off the Goose Island Facebook page. You should be a fan, too, so you see what other fun events are coming up!**

Latest Happenings...

It's hard to justify a weekend recap that doesn't happen until Wednesday. Therefore, I'll just say this is a post about some stuff we've done lately. It's starting to feel like spring here, and life is really good. I love feeling so happy with where I am in my life!

 Green City Market on Saturday morning. Amazing breakfast thanks to Floriole.

Pretty spring flowers!

Farmer's market goodies...

Dietzler Farms beef, fresh asparagus, Spicy Cheddar Boule from Crumb.

Catching up with friends at the DIY fair. We got great tips on gardening,

baking sourdough bread, brewing, making yogurt, and other crafty endeavors.

Joe cooked dinner on Saturday. 

I am so spoiled by this guy!

Quinoa with Zucchini, Beans, and Cumin.

Amazing bread on the side, thanks to the market!

Hanging out with the girls on Sunday, while the guys brewed some beer.

I'd like to say we helped... but mostly we just chatted and ate waaaay to much!

It was a great weekend, even though I had to work at 5 am on Sunday. 

Fun friends, good food & beer, time with the husband... pretty much all I need to be happy!