NYC: {What We Ate}

As on any vacation, eating was a big focus on our trip to NYC. We didn't even come close to eating everything I wanted to try (no Shake Shack! no Eataly!), so we'll just have to get back soon for more of the good stuff. Here's a few of the highlights, which I've been dreaming about for the last month...

We ended up getting bagels from Bagel Express on 25th and 3rd
three of the four mornings we were there. Yeah, I guess we liked them...
This one was my favorite. Salt bagel with cream cheese and lox.
Always best with a mimosa, of course.

A late night feast at 2nd Avenue Deli.

We had dinner Saturday night at Casa Mono, and it was pretty delicious!
The razor clams and pumpkin and goad cheese croquettes were my favorites.

Breakfast at Union Square Farmer's Market

A feast for dinner at Madison Square Eats.
It was a low key gourmet version of Taste of Chicago.
There were too many amazing sounding things to try!

And the best meal of the trip? It was obviously our lunch at Jean-Georges.
Joe's foie gras appetizer and my flounder and spaghetti squash entree were the standouts, but everything was amazing.
What a fun and memorable meal!

So what do you think? I feel like we made a good effort giving the limited amount of time we had. This 'taste' of the city has me hungry for more :)  Next time, NYC, we'll be back to eat even more!

Happy Birthday Joe!

My handsome husband had a birthday this week, and we celebrated the beginning of the last year of his 20's the only way we saw fit-- with Korean BBQ and a growler of beer!

Have you guys tried Korean BBQ before? It's so tasty, and also a really fun dining experience! First, they bring out literally a million appetizer dishes, ranging from seaweed to kimchi to scallion pancakes. These dishes are typically delicious, and are almost enough food for a whole meal. Then, they bring out plates of raw meat, and a charcoal grill that fits into the middle of the table. The marinated beef short ribs were fantastic, and the pork loin was so tender and flavorful. Joe was a happy camper by the time we finished our meal-- and I was happy we were walking home, because I was stuffed full of Korean food!

Turns out the restaurant we went to was not BYOB, so we had some Kirin with our dinner, then enjoyed a growler on the back porch when we got home. It was a relaxing end to a low-key and enjoyable birthday. Lucky for Joe, we get to keep celebrating, because his birthday gift was tickets to the Minus the Bear concert in October. And , as a MAJOR SUPER AWESOME bonus, the sales girl at The Metro gave me free tickets to Mates of State when I bought Joe's birthday tickets, so we get to go to a concert in September, too! I adore Mates of State, but since we've already seen them live a couple times, Joe's been trying to convince me to use our concert budget to see other bands. Problem solved-- he can't complain if the tickets are FREE!!

Happy birthday Joe! I am lucky to have such a thoughtful, kind, fun husband, and I am thankful for you every day. I know how lucky we are, and I don't take for granted how easy and enjoyable our relationship is. I look forward to celebrating MANY more birthdays together!

What a night!

Some nights, living in Chicago is the same as living anywhere else. I'll go to the gym, cook dinner, maybe run to Target or take a walk around the neighborhood. It's a good life, and I'm quite happy with it. But other nights, I have random, amazing experiences that would only happen living in a large city like this. I'm talking "buy a dress after work, and eat things like lobster with shaved truffles for dinner" kind of amazing. Oh, and also free amazing, even though tickets for other people were $95 a pop.



Check out those shaved truffles!

 Thanks to my wonderful, rewarding, fun job at Whole Foods Market, I got the chance to attend the Taste of the Nation event at Navy Pier last night. Our company was a sponsor of the event, which meant there were a few sets of tickets that became available for us the day of the event. I'm not an important person in the company, and only recently got my own shiny new email address. I was just really lucky, and happened to be sitting at a computer reading emails at the moment when the email offering free tickets was sent. You know I responded to that email approximately one second later. Score! Free tickets for me and the husband!

My job is pretty casual (ok, that might be an understatement!), so I was wearing scruffy jeans and a casual top that day at work. No time to go home, so I hit up some shops on State Street when I got off work. Cute little cinched t-shirt dress, purple cork wedges, and a necklace later, I was ready to party!



The view looking down from the VIP lounge

 The food was amazing, and there were tons of fun drinks, too. We tasted about a million things, ranging from Goat Cheese Soup to short rib tacos. There was seared tuna, rabbit rubens, and lamb meatballs. Great deserts, too, although I waited too long and some of the ones I'd been eying earlier were already gone! Dale and Stephanie from previous Top Chef seasons were there to represent, plus chefs from L2O, Tru, Blackbird, Paris Club, and every other top name in the Chicago food scene.

What an amazing night! Keep an eye out for this event next year, to support a worthy cause and have a delicious night out.

Oh, and there were fireworks! Navy Pier does fireworks all summer, on Wednesday and Saturday nights. We had never seen the show before, since we generally try to avoid Navy Pier, but I have to say that it was quite an impressive show!

Sorry for the crappy pictures. Last minute nights out usually mean having your iphone as the only means of documentation!

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!

Family Weekend Adventures!

I'm finally recovering from my cold... and I have to say that a summer cold is just about the worst thing. We've had some beautiful days lately, and I've been too busy sucking on cough drops and sniffling to really enjoy it. Thankfully, I was still able to have a pretty good weekend, with my parents and little sister in town hanging out with us! We always enjoy slowing down and playing tourist around our city, and it was such a treat to have a whole weekend off from work.

We wandered around downtown Evanston on Friday afternoon, then enjoyed a typical Chicago cookout of brats, potato salad, and baked beans. Plenty of beer and wine went down smoothly with the meal, and we decided to aid our digestion with a nice walk around our neighborhood. We ended up walking past Rod Blagojevich's house right as his wife Patti was walking in with some groceries. She said hello and commented on what a nice night it was for a walk, and as we continued on my mom started talking about how friendly people in Chicago were, as Joe and I tried to contain our laughter until we got far enough away to tell my mom who we had just run into. It was pretty hilarious, maybe more so thanks to the aforementioned drinks with dinner...

Saturday started out with some wonderful sleeping in, and a lazy morning at home.  Then we went over to Mostrose Beach to walk around and have a lunchtime picnic, which was so enjoyable. I love how much people use the beaches and parks in Chicago, since so few people actually have yards of their own.

After the picnic we did a little shopping along Lincoln Avenue, stopping in at Brew Camp, a new homebrew store near our house. The guy was really nice, and we're excited to go back there next time we need supplies.

That night we went to dinner at The Gage, to celebrate my birthday. We had a fantastic meal, and a surprise dessert to top off the celebration. It was so fun to hang out with my family, and to soak up our wonderful city through the eyes of visitors.



Millennium Park with my little sister.

 

Cute parents on Michigan Avenue



Delicious birthday dinner

 My parents timed their trip well, because we were able to celebrate Father's Day with my dad! My family is spread out across the country (the 6 of us are in 4 different states at this point, but we were in 6 different states just a few months ago!), so we don't get to spent too many holidays together. We had a nice breakfast at home with my dad on Sunday morning, before they headed back towards Missouri. It was a nice end to a fun weekend catching up with some of my favorite people!

Quick Catch Up

I initially planned to do all sorts of blogging this morning, since I wasn't going to work until 3:00. Thankfully, one of my coworkers said he'd switch me for an earlier shift today, since I've had closing shifts all week and have only seen Joe when we sleep in the same bed at night! I really don't mind working some closing shifts, and having the whole day to relax and get stuff done, but four days in a row was starting to bum me out. So this is going to be a quick update, and I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow to waste hours looking at all of your wonderful blogs :)

I worked all three days of the past holiday weekend, but still squeezed in plenty of fun time. I caught up with some girlfriends, had a date night out with Joe, and enjoyed a night of grilling and beers to celebrate a friend's birthday. I also decided to be a little lazy, and not take pictures of what we were up to. But it was a fun, relaxing, and busy weekend!

How about a little photo show... here's some of the random pictures I've taken on my phone in the last week! God bless you, iphone, for helping me document my life with so little effort.

I am a really good friend, and was willing to help my friend Christie taste
cupcakes for her wedding. Hard work, but someones gotta do it.
And in case you're wondering, Molly's Cupcakes in Lincoln Park is freaking tasty!

After eating cupcakes, we went to the Meatloaf Bakery down the street.
Tasty little bites, like a spaghetti & meatballs 'loafie' and a vegetarian lentil 'loafie'.
We ended our night with margaritas and chips with guac, to round things out!

I learned how to take a screenshot on my phone!
The weather has been so random lately, but now seems to be
settling in on the warmer side of things.



I love taking Joe's bike out on my days off from work.
 I rode to the lake on Friday, then to Trader Joe's.
It was 9 miles and I actually enjoyed it. I'm playing around with the
idea of getting my own bike, but will probably just keep using his for now!



Joe and I had a date night at Bad Apple on Saturday.
We've had beers at this place about a million times, but hadn't eaten there yet.
The burgers were pretty fantastic, and I'm willing to bet we'll eat there again soon!

  Happy Hump Day! See you guys tomorrow!

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!**

Crossing state lines

This past weekend was busy! It was fun, quiet, sad, and full of family. I was in three different states, and slept in two different hotels. First, on Thursday night I got to see my dad in Milwaukee, and we had a great time! We ate tasty food, enjoyed Wisconsin beers, and spent some quality time catching up. He's living in Arkansas for the moment for work, so I had to take advantage of this quick chance to hang out. It was a quick visit, but I'm so glad I took the chance to drive north and see him!

Friday I headed back to Chicago to pick up Joe, and we directed the car west towards Iowa. Joe's grandmother had passed away a few days earlier, so we took the time to see family and remember her at the wake and funeral. These events are never the most fun, but it was nice to catch up with Joe's family. I was glad we were able to be there for support, and enjoyed learning more about where Joe's mother was raised.

We got back into the city on Saturday night, just in time to meet up with friends. We ended up in Wicker Park, on Division, which is a really fun and stylish area. It's not the first time we've gone straight from Iowa to this neighborhood-- sometimes we just need to get our city fix after being out on the farm! We had a great dinner at Crust, and enjoyed chatting with Nas and Christie over a couple cold beers. After a somber funeral on Saturday morning, it was nice to end the day appreciating our current life in Chicago.

Speaking of beers, any time we leave Chicago, we make sure to get our favorite brews that we can't buy here. Lakefront is our favorite Milwaukee brewery, and I was so excited to find an 8 bottle variety pack at Whole Foods. Can't wait to break this open, post-Lent!  

We also got a sampler pack of Boulevard in Iowa. It's always been one of our favorite KC memories, and we enjoyed a few of these on Friday night while catching up with Joe's family.

Speaking of KC, we're headed back there on Friday for our nephew's baptism. I can't wait to see more family, play with little Liem, and celebrate our friend Kieth's 30th birthday. It's going to be a great mini-vacation!

February Happenings

February is a short month, but we managed to pack a lot into those 28 days! The month started off memorably, with a historic blizzard hitting Chicago on February 1st. I had just started a new job that day, and fully expected to continue my training on the 2nd. I mean, that's why we have trains around here, right? It snowed like crazy that night, but Joe and I both set alarms when we went to bed that night. The next morning there was snow everywhere, and within a couple hours of waking up we heard Joe's office was closed, and my store ended up closing, too! We met up with our friend Henry, and spent the day playing video games, drinking good beer, watching movies, and playing in the snow! By the afternoon, the snow had stopped, and so many people were out and about, either shoveling and recovering, or just exploring the crazy snow covering everything. It ended up being a fun day!

We've never been big Valentine's day celebrators around here, but we still try to take a little time to enjoy each other's company every February 14th. My view has always been that we love each other every day, and do nice things for each other regularly. We give each other sentimental gifts at Christmas time, and in February we tend to be less inclined to spend money on big gifts for each other. I'm thankful to have such a fantastic husband, and such a healthy, loving marriage, and I celebrate that every day! But if you know me at all, you won't be surprised to hear that I used Valentine's day as an excuse to make us a nice dinner :) I had the day off from work, so it was easy to take the time to plan, shop, and cook up a little feast. It was nice to sit down and relax with Joe when he got home from work... and that is the extent of our lovely little Valentine's day.

Honey, Dijon, and rosemary grilled chicken thighs, crash potatoes, and a salad with feta, walnuts, and cranberries. Also a great excuse to use a couple serving dishes from our trips to Mexico!

We ended the month with a little day trip to Oak Park, a beautiful area just west of the city. I had been talking about touring the Frank Lloyd Wright house for a while, and snatched up a groupon that recently showed up in my inbox. It was fascinating to see the inside of his former home and office, and our tour guide did a great job. They focused much more on the architecture than on Mr. Wright's colorful personal life, but I found the details about the house to be almost as interesting!

After the tour we had a fantastic lunch at Marion Street Cheese Market, complete with some excellent beer. Fully satisfied, we explored downtown Oak Park, and found lots of interesting, independent shops. We had a great day, and agreed we would head back that way once the weather warms up.

Now it's March, and spring is right around the corner... right?!