I am about to turn thirty. That means that this last decade was a third of my life, and it was the first decade I had control over. I made my own plans. I had some successes and some spectacular failures.

I spent the first half of this decade crashing and burning; and the second half of the decade making it up to myself.

I am truly blessed to not only know the woman I want to be, but to have the supportive people in my life to be that woman.

Never in my wildest dreams could I have predicted, at the start of this decade, that I'd be married to a wonderful man and living in Chicago at the end of it. And while sometimes the living in Chicago part makes me a little sad, the married to a wonderful man part makes it more than worth it.

Right now, today, I'm exactly where I want to be.

I am absolutely crazy about this 'E' marquee I made for the kitchen.

I fell hard for Urban Outfitters marquees, but for $178? They've got to be out of their damn minds.

They got me thinking though, and one day when browsing Jo-Ann I came across these big cardboard letters, and I figured I'd try my hand at making my own.

I picked an E (the national letter of Eisenbergia) and got to work.

1. Cut panels out of the back of the (3-D) letter. The more you cut off the easier it will be to put in the lights, but you don't want to sacrifice stability.


2. Randomly scatter holes across the front surface of the letter, I started each hole with a nail, and found that a number 8 knitting needle makes the perfect sized hole to snugly hold the lights.


3. Paint the letter as neatly as you want- or not. I wanted sort of a rough, worn look, so I painted the sides and front outside edges yellow, and finished the front with orange paint.


4. Once dry, push the lights through from back to front and tuck the cording into the letter.

Total cost of my marquee letter? $18.

There are a lot of little things around our house that I love. This warm vignette in the kitchen is one of them.

I love the things that have found a home in this little corner; a few "out-takes" from our wedding, a Rothko print I've had since college, favorite pictures of Josh and me (a few from our first date), a couple of mustaches (in case the mood strikes), and now this light up marquee I made.

For a how to (and a ridiculous price comparison) Continue Reading Marquee

This month's EBcO recipe is Cheesy Zucchini and Red Onion Flatbread from Bon Appétit .

This super simple recipe was the perfect thing to make for my mom on the last night of her visit earlier this month. After a weekends worth of especially indulgent dining out, light pizza and a green salad were just right.

I forewent the store bought pizza dough and tried my hand at the homemade stuff. Once upon a time I found yeast breads intimidating, but now that I've conquered pie crust, nothing seems out of my reach.

I went to the bread expert- well, my bread expert, Beth at A Bread A Day, and searched her archives for a pizza dough recipe, she swears by this one, adapted from Pizzeria Bianco (Phoenix, AZ) and now I do too.

The dough was great, easy as pie (pizza pie...) and with a light touch I was able to stretch it out into a passable- but not perfect- pizza round.

I also opted not to line the zucchini and onions up into dainty rows, I wanted every bite to be a perfect bite with a little bit of everything. The pizza was fantastic, I'm sure it will find a way into our regular rotation, my husband loved it.

I am feeling the holiday spirit. I snagged this Meme from Miss Ris because, well, I felt like it.

Eggnog or hot chocolate?
I'm no fan of Eggnog, Hot Chocolate is fine, but I am a cider girl. I'm also a fan of any and all hot cocktails when it's snowing out. Mulled Wine, Hot Buttered Rum, Ginger Toddy... You can't say you're surprised I managed to turn this topic to cocktails.

Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree?
Everything is wrapped. I have to tell you that I sort of miss Santa. Even after I grew up I had to thank Santa for presents on Christmas morning or my mom would get upset. Mack upset maybe, but I can play along to make her happy. Now I'm Santa. For me, Santa is all about stuffing stockings. Nothing special, snacks, a tire gauge, maybe a CD. Well, that was my stocking when I was 16 years old and CD's were still a thing, but you get it. Josh doesn't really get the stocking thing- not that you can blame him, he's a pretty good sport about Christmas considering he's Jewish and this is all my tradition... but an empty stocking on Christmas morning is sort of depressing. However, I have it on good authority that this year Santa will be visiting our house and stuffing both our stockings.

Colored lights on a tree or white?
I always forget that I have 2 strands of colored lights and one strand of white lights, so I start at the bottom with colored lights, and wrap my way up to the top where- we have all white lights. Because I forgot to mix them in better. Again. I try my best to shuffle things around at the end, but you can tell.

Do you hang mistletoe?
No.

When do you put your decorations up?
Whenever we feel like it. Usually the tree goes up and lights go on at the beginning of December. Than one night when I've made some mulled wine I'll trim the tree with ornaments and listen to carols. Usually. This year we just threw it all up so we could put the decorations box back in the basement.

What is your favorite holiday dish?
Growing up we had the same thing every year, and now that I get to make the plans I make something new and special every year. Last year we had cassoulet and depending on who you ask it was either marvelous (me) or you know, fine (Josh). This year I'm still deciding but I'm leaning toward a nice acidic salad and some cheese fondue. Nothing earth shattering, but damn, doesn't cheese fondue sound good now that you're thinking about it?

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Nope. But now we do exchange gifts during Hanukkah, and that's pretty fun.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
My tree growing up was always a big mish-mash of junk. As I got older, and the tree got smaller we sort of whittled it down to a select few sentimental ornaments. Now we have a pretty modest tree and just a few ornaments. Each year it seems like we add one or two to the mix, and I suppose that's how traditions like that are formed.

Snow: love it or hate it?
Beautiful! Cold! Beautiful! Cold! Beautiful! Cold! Beautiful! Cold! I love it on the weekend and loathe it on the weekday.

Can you ice skate?
I can, I can even go backwards. A Little.

What is your favorite holiday dessert?
Hot buttered rum? Toddy's?

What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Getting drunk and writing my cards. Shushing Josh during White Christmas (he likes to ruin it for me with unpleasant trivia). Mimosa's and stockings on Christmas morning. Receiving a big box of Wolferman's English muffing and tart cherry preserves from my mom, she sends enough preserves to get me through the entire year.

Candy canes: yes or no?
Maybe one. They certainly aren't compelling, but I like them I guess.

Favorite Christmas show?
White Christmas. I love it, unpleasant trivia notwithstanding.

Another thing that helped put me in the Holiday Spirit? A little holiday baking.

Continue Reading Holiday Cookies With Royal Icing

December's EBcO recipe was for decorated sugar cookies. I went with a different recipe that I'd had my eye on. I'm not a huge cookie person, but I've wanted to try decorating with royal icing for ages, and I found just what I was looking for over at Annie's Eats.

This is such a production that it really makes sense to bake a whole lot of cookies, so I made three batches of sugar cookie dough. I only used one, and it made 4 dozen cookies, so I threw the other two balls in the freezer to use at a later date. Maybe Valentines Day?

There isn't much new to be said about baking and decorating sugar cookies. It just took forever, but they came out beautifully, and the things I did to try and streamline the process led directly to what I don't love about them.

1. I didn't want to switch out too many pastry bags of icing, so I piped all the cookies in white, if I'd done it right and piped the cookies with the color I was planning on filling them with, they would have looked much neater.
2. I didn't want to buy a new pastry tip, but I think a smaller piping tip would have also made for neater edges and detail.

That's it. Everything else about these cookies is great. They are fun to decorate once you get the hang of flooding the icing, they have a great texture once the icing is dry and the flavor is absolutely compelling. These are some addictive little cookies.

In fact...

And I'm a little ashamed to admit this...

But Josh and I ate all of them. The angels didn't even last long enough to be photographed.

All 4 dozen cookies. I will admit that they are small cookies, but still... 4 dozen!

This weekend while participating in a creativity exercise I came to the question "What are you afraid of?"

I suppose if I'd thought about it I'd have known it was coming, but I was trying to answer quickly, and from the hip. I'd answered all the previous questions that way, sometimes the answers surprised me, the point of the exercise in fact, but I got stuck on this question. I thought for a minute then scribbled down a sort of half answer- and moved on.

But last night I dreamt of college, or rather of revisiting college now and when I awoke I had a better answer for that question.

I am afraid of rejection.

Not rejection by strangers, or potential romantic interests. I am afraid of being rejected by friends, family. I used to spend a lot of time waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Rejection when dating is easy. Some one doesn't like you; you go out with someone else. Rejection professionally is a little harder but; not a good fit? Keep looking.

Rejection by a friend is another beast. I am sure that you have had to dump a friend sometime in your life or perhaps you've been dumped. You can't shrug something like that off by saying "well they never gave me a chance... they don't even know me... this surely is about them, not me..." Because well, it is about you.

They have gotten to know you, the real you, and decided that you don't measure up, that you are unworthy. It is a bitter pill to swallow, and one that is not so easily dismissed.

Maybe it's easier for other people. People whose biggest fears are clowns or financial ruin or spending their lives alone. Perhaps with a different childhood and different fears being dumped by a friend would be a much more insignificant event, but for me, it is defining.

And yet. There's nothing to be done about it. This, in a way, mitigates the fear itself. If you can't change it, and you can't stop if, if you can't even anticipate it... why worry about it.

Happy Hanukkah!

Josh and I aren't religious, but we both enjoy tradition- especially the traditions associated with the holidays.

Last year Christmas and Hanukkah came at the same time. This year they were far enough apart that we've been celebrating something almost all month.

We both try to buy in to each other's holiday celebrations, and this year was a bigger success than last year- I think because we better knew what to expect.

We sang, we lit, and we fried. Hanukkah was lovely.

We certainly have a tongue-in-cheek attitude about Chrismukkah here in Eisenbergia- perfectly illustrated by one of my Hanukkah presents this year.

A menorah Christmas tree ornament.

Inspired by Gwen Bell's Best of '09 Prompts

December 11 The best place. A coffee shop? A pub? A retreat center? A cubicle? A nook?

Best place? So easy, our new apartment. My whole world changed once we moved, and I am in love. I am so happy and actually enjoying being a young married woman in Chicago- now that we live on the south side.

December 12 New food. You're now in love with Lebanese food and you didn't even know what it was in January of this year.

This one is much harder. I began baking this year after joining the EBcO baking group, but baked goods themselves aren't new to me... Got it! Homemade mayonnaise. Amazing, easy, delicious, CHEAP, and potentially life changing.

December 13 What's the best change you made to the place you live?
Me moved it. just about everyone I know balked at our decision to move to Chicago's South Side, but I am so happy we did.

December 14 Rush. When did you get your best rush of the year?
I'll just answer this one with a picture:

December 15 Best packaging. Did your headphones come in a sweet case? See a bottle of tea in another country that stood off the shelves?
Gosh, I wouldn't even have noticed.

December 16 Tea of the year. I can taste my favorite tea right now. What's yours?
Celestial Seasons Tension Tamer. it's a lifesaver at work- try it.

December 17 Word or phrase. A word that encapsulates your year. "2009 was _____."
The best year of my life. I'm looking forward to 2010.

I've been writing my Holiday cards and a few phrases I find myself repeating (other than the trite but appropriate Seasons Greetings) are:

I miss you...
Can't wait to see you...
I wish we could have been there...

And I've just had this big wave of acceptance wash over me this week. Last year was all exciting and new but this year is my second Christmas in Chicago; my second thanksgiving, New Year, and birthday. I live here. And I'm not going back to Denver any time soon. I'd been resisting it, but I finally accept that I live in Chicago now, and the plan is to stay in Chicago for a very long time.

I'll forever be missing you, waiting to see you, wishing I could be there.

My favorite thing about Hanukkah has got the be the food.  And the presents.  And the fact that there are 8 days of food and presents.

I love the stories behind traditional foods- and the nice thing about Hanukkah is that several recipes are fried in oil to symbolize the burning oil lamps that should have only lasted one day, but miraculously lasted eight days. 

Alas, even I can't eat fried food eight days in a row. 

We did, however celebrate this weekend with latkes and sufganiyot.

The jelly donuts were surprisingly easy to make, and I was thrilled that mine looked just like real donuts.

I used Martha Stewart's recipe.  That bitch knows her holidays- all of them.

Filling the donuts was really easy with the pastry bag, but I've heard it's even easier with a turkey flavor syringe.  I don't have one of those, so pastry bag it is.

 

Always taste testing. 

The donuts puffed right up for easy filling.

 

I do love a cheesey photo.

I also love sufganiyot.

What?

Jelly Donuts

Continue Reading Sufganiyot- Jelly Donuts

Was good. Hung out, cooked a lot. Celebrated Hanukkah with some presents, latkes and jelly donuts. Had a date with a blogger and her boyfriend. Got drunk and fell asleep on the bus. Had two asthma attacks. Watched some movies and Jersey Shore. Dexter season finale (shocking twist!). Spilled a beer on the couch.

I have to tell you, I'm bushed. My mother in law invited me to a lovely party in honor of her 60th birthday last night and I'm afraid I was up past my bedtime.

Nonetheless, I thought I'd share my weekend plans with you.

Josh and I have plans to have dinner with some blog-friends this weekend in Hyde Park, and then we're spending the weekend on the couch.

Wii! Holiday cookies! A shared bottle of Chimay! Bagna Cauda! A few crafts! Drinking wine and then writing holiday cards!

Have a happy weekend; I hope you have fun or relaxing plans.

Inspired by Gwen Bell's Best of '09 Prompts

Book. What book - fiction or non - touched you? Where were you when you read it? Have you bought and given away multiple copies?

I've really been trying to read less. I know that just sounds stupid, but Ill get immersed in a book and completely ignore my husband. He hates it. I start a good book and I cant do anything else until I finish it, not even sleep. Drives Joshy nuts. So I try to read less. Thats not to say I dont read at all; I was really excited about Audrey Niffeneggers sophomore novel Her Fearful Symmetry- it was completely different from her first book, and I love that about it. It was weird and compelling and completely sucked me in. I wouldnt say it moved me- but it was highly anticipated and thoroughly enjoyed.

Night out. Did you have a night out with friends or a loved one that rocked your world? Who was there? What was the highlight of the night?
The most amazing night this year set the bar really, really high. The night before I got married I had dinner with my parents, my best buddy and the love of my life. After dinner we met all of my other friends (well, almost all of my friends) for martinis and best of all at the end of the night I was able to catch a cab home and sleep in my own bed. Thats saying something since I usually have my own bed or my friends. Not both.

Workshop or conference. Was there a conference or workshop you attended that was especially beneficial? Where was it? What did you learn?
Im going to just answer this one with a big old [redacted]. All my conferences and workshops are work related, and I dont talk about work here, full stop.

Blog find of the year. That gem of a blog you can't believe you didn't know about until this year.
Yes and Yes! I love her positive attitude, her zest and zeal, and her beautifully written posts.

Moment of peace. An hour or a day or a week of solitude. What was the quality of your breath? The state of your mind? How did you get there?
I'm a tumultuous sleeper, so I go out of my way to create peace at bed time every night. Josh and I have a bedtime ritual that's actually kind of private, but trust me, peaceful.

Challenge. Something that really made you grow this year. That made you go to your edge and then some. What made it the best challenge of the year for you?
Wow. First year of marriage? Every bit as challenging as people say. Challenging and frustrating but also incredibly rewarding. Being married, actively choosing us over me, is tough. Especially for a selfish girl like me. But meet Josh and tell me it's not worth it.

Album of the year. What's rocking your world?
Am I embarrassed to admit I haven't bought a new album in 10 years? Maybe a little. How about if I expand on that confession and add that I also never buy songs from i-tunes? Either I already have an album (and most likely it's from the '70's) or I don't listen to it. But. I will add that lately, Lady Gaga is rocking my world in a major way, and I have to thank Josh for going out of his way to download the new album for me.

Ugh, that title is a really bad inside joke. Not funny. Moving right along.

It's a pretty major outing to trek from our apartment in the ghetto to any neighborhood with a sushi restaurant- let alone a good one. But that doesn't stop me from getting a hankering for some, sushi is really easy to make, just a matter of getting your hands on some nice fresh fish and rolling it up, even easier? Making hand rolls.

Continue Reading Hand Rolls

Easy and delicious, hand rolls are maki's low maintenance cousins.

You can start with any mayo you like, you know I like to make my own, it's quick, easy, flavorful and cheap. Add as much or as little spice as you like with sriracha or any other chili sauce.

Roughly chop your fish- we have some tuna and some salmon, and slice a few green onions.

Give 'em a mix.

Spread some sushi rice (rice, rice wine vinegar and mirin) on a sheet of toasted seaweed and top with your spicy tuna or salmon mix.

Roll it up. That's it.

Sushi is expensive and pretty intimidating when you eat out, but really, so easy to make at home. Give it a go!

Sometimes I end up with a little collection of photos that have not so much to do with one another. This is one such collection.

Step One, you put your cat in a box...

Just kidding, she put herself in that box. Cats love boxes.

This is Henry. On the back of the couch like a cat. And I'm allowing it, which sort of makes it all my fault in the end.

Josh and my mom making the exact same face cracks me up!

Again... now it's a bit creepy.

We got all dressed up and took this one and only picture. My dress under that coat is super cute. Promise.

Snow!

Snow!

Snow!

** This is a post only about the food we ate and the restaurants at which we ate said food. You've been warned.**

This weekend was an over-the-top indulgent weekend on the dining front.

Friday we had lunch at Xoco - the line wasn't as long as I'd expected and the food was more than worth the 20-minute wait.

We had:
House made chips and Guac- good and totally standard.

Ahodaga: Golden pork carnitas, black beans, tomato broth, spicy arbol chile sauce, pickled onions. This was my favorite of the two sandwiches we ordered. I love my food wet and the tomato broth mentioned here was a served in a bowl, and the sandwich was served in the broth- it was perfect for dipping! The sauce was lip-burning spicy, but not so much so that the flavor was obscured, in fact the heat focused the flavors, and the pickled onions provided the perfect amount of relief and contrast to the spicy sauce.

Pepito: Braised Tallgrass shortribs, caramelized onion, artisan Jack cheese, black beans, pickled jalapenos. We almost didn't order this sandwich because I'd made short-ribs for the dinner the night before, but I'm glad we did. This was my mom's favorite, while she found the ahogada a bit too spicy, this was perfect for her. Moist and tender- the cheese really held the sandwich together- both physically and with respect to flavor.

Normally neither of us would order dessert at lunch, but something about "vacation" makes you just go for it. We shared a sweet, rich and slightly spicy Aztec chocolate and an order of churros. Definitely worth the calories.

We had a few hours to digest and relax before our 7 pm dinner reservation. Josh joined us and we headed north to The Drawing Room. This restaurant is so cool; it is primarily a cocktail bar- they specialize in prohibition-era cocktails and freshfreshfresh ingredients. The cocktails are almost indescribable- unlike anything you can find elsewhere made with liqueurs and spirits that aren't widespread, and prepared tableside with a history lesson.

We had a long, slow dinner- the food at this place is just superb.

We started with the oysters- ok, I started with the oysters, served with a gardiniera mignonette, Josh was a good sport and tried one but I had the rest all to myself.

Our first course also included the yellow tail poke- avocado, sesame, quail egg, and, something I can't remember, some sort of emulsion came together to create an incredibly balanced dish.

Second course was the Sweetbreads and the fish and chips.

The sweetbreads were lovely, served with pineapple, pomegranate, artichoke and pancetta brittle- each bite was perfect. The fish and chips would be better described as "fish and chips"- creative, fun salt cod croquettes served with aioli, American chips and malt vinegar powder.

Our third course was rich, meaty and decadent. Josh and my mom loved the wagyu cheeks- the meat braised and so tender that it melted if you looked at it funny and served with an addictively salty truffle oil and frisee panzanella. My favorite was what they called bacon squared. Perfectly cooked pork belly wrapped in crispy bacon served with smoky eggplant puree- this might have just ruined pork belly for me forever- it's absolutely amazing. I definitely ate more than my fair share of this rich little dish.

For dessert we ordered the flight- perfect pistachio gelato, some sort of praline tart, an amazing curry spiced apple crisp, and peanut butter crème brule. I never would have ordered peanut butter crème brulee, and thinking about it I'd never think the flavors would work, but it was really, really good.

The cocktails here can't be glossed over. I wholly recommend everyone order a drink called an Aviation, not on the menu, it's still the most popular drink they serve. It's a really subtle introduction to the type of old-fashioned cocktails they serve. All together we tried six or seven different cocktails, and the remarkable thing is; it doesn't seem to matter if you don't like gin/tequila/bourbon/whatever, the drinks are so balanced and the ingredients so fresh that you will completely change your mind by the end of the evening.

Can you believe that all that is just the food we had on Friday?

On Saturday we had breakfast at home- fruit and a Dutch Baby late in the day. Saturday night's dinner was going to be big, and we wanted to be ready.

Josh took my car out to the suburbs so my mom and I braved the Metra to get us up to the city. Because of train schedules we were about an hour early for our reservation at Graham Elliot. oThis worked to our advantage as it gave us a chance to enjoy a few cocktails at the bar.

My mom sipped prosecco and I sampled two different cocktails. The second was a quite refreshing rather dry cocktail called a London Calling; Plymouth, Pimm's, ginger, apple... It was very refreshing, but that hardly matters because I can't stop thinking about the first cocktail I had. It was a lovely warm toddy-type of concoction that erased the chill from my bones, and I wish I'd written down the name or the ingredients because it would be the perfect warm tipple to sip on a cold Saturday afternoon after walking the dog. It had rum and cloves and... see, I'll have to live with that regret. But now I will begin in earnest my search for a rum based hot-cocktail recipe. Good, I needed a new project.

So we sat for an hour and discussed the important issue at hand. What to order. Surely we wanted to try as many different things as possible, and yes they have a tasting menu, but we kept eyeing the full "experience" menu. Surely that would be too much; too much food, too much money, too much decadence. Well that vacation spirit took over again, and we decided to go for it. We ordered the "Experience," the full tasting menu.

Wow. Before I get into details let me say, we began dinner at 7:30. We paid the bill at 11. It was an experience indeed.

So. Here we go.

Signature Caesar Salad
Delightful- lovely dressing, crisp lettuce, salty anchovy, theatrical parmesan fluff and brioche "twinkie"- a perfect start to the kind of semi-deconstructed and creative new-twist-on-an-old-classic meal we were expecting.

Deconstructed Italian Beef
This was maybe my favorite part of the whole meal (I'll actually say that about five times about five different things). The fondue, the aioli and the giardiniera really captured the idea of an Italian beef sandwich- but the meltingly delicious beef tartar went in a completely different direction and I wish I could have one everyday.

Chestnut Bisque with quince jam and Maple Marshmallow
I found this cloying while we were eating it, but I was surprised to find myself thinking of it first thing the next morning. I guess it just needed a little time to grow on me, but it turns out I loved it. (Does that ever happen to you?)
I don't know what happened; maybe I was dreaming good things about it.

Wisconsin Cheddar Risotto
According to my mother, who is the expert in this situation, Graham Elliot prepared this risotto on Top Chef Masters and claims it is his specialty. She really liked it, but I have to say that every bite- save the one that contained green apple - was far too salty. I mean, faaaaaar too salty. I think I drank an entire glass of water with this tiny dish alone. Yowza.

Arctic Char Fillet
I thought this was a little salty, but it might have been residual salty from the risotto. The mustard caviar was fun to eat- little bursts of mustard flavor with each bite.

Pan Roasted Scallops
With lentils, raisins, almond, cauliflower. The woman seated next to us ordered it as her entrée, three scallops and after eating our tasting sized portion of one scallop I wonder how she did it. This was a lovely two bite dish, but anymore would have been too much.

Glazed Pork Belly
Sadly, the pork belly really suffered in comparison to the pork belly at The Drawing Room. Any other night I'd have been able to judge it on its own merits, and I would have been able to point out that the sweet root beer bbq sauce and the bitter collard greens really set up a balanced dish but... Well I just couldn't separate the two. Compare to the perfect pork belly the night before this seemed almost tough and chewy.

** Let's take a little interlude here, shall we? So something happened with our server between the char and the pork belly courses. I think he got in the weeds a bit and, well frankly I think he forgot about us. We were cool, because we had a great bottle of wine, and we were slowly but surely getting stuffed, but after a while it was pretty noticeable that the course wasn't just taking a little while. He finally remembered us, apologized profusely and sent over the manager. Like I said, we were fine, we were enjoying ourselves, but I shudder to think what would have happened if he forgot about another table. One less relaxed, one less prepared to enjoy a leisurely meal might be upset by the server forgetting about us half way through our $300 meal. He seemed relieved when I assured him we were fine (duh, I'd be relieved too).**

Wagyu Beef Stroganoff
Holy wow. This was just... the most perfect dish and by far my favorite (see, I knew I'd end up saying it again). The beef was cooked perfectly, seared crispy and hot on the outside, the inside tender and almost rare. The dill-crème fraiche stroganoff sauce and the peppered spaetzle were the perfect accompaniments, but the beef was the real star of the dish.

Foie-lipops
As if we weren't already bursting at the seams, the manager sent us an extra course as an apology for, you know, forgetting about us. Fortunately our designated driver showed up just in time to help us finish up the last few courses- and just in time. My mom refuses to eat foie gras- no ethical concerns; she just thinks it sounds gross. Crazy, huh? Well, more for us. The foie-lipops were lollipops shaped discs of foie rolled in poprocks on a stick. And they were... awesome. No big surprise there, they were just lovely of course. Paired with a couple of gratis glasses of Muscat they were quite delicious.

Alright, dessert, the homestretch; did I mention that dinner lasted almost 4 hours?

Orange Dreamsicle
This might have been my favorite dish of the evening (yeah, yeah, yeah...) the juxtaposition of flavors and the perfect melding of flavors made this a real masterpiece. And I'm not even a big dessert person. I can already tell you that in the future whenever we have dinner downtown I'll be popping over to GE for a nightcap and dessert just to taste this- or something like it- again.

Flourless Chocolate Cake
For me this was sort of a meh. But for my mother, chocoholic extraordinaire, this was the prefect end to a perfect meal.

To wrap up, a few last comments. I mentioned that they kind of forgot about us, but otherwise the service was amazing. We gave our waiter pretty much carte blanche on wine selection, and he passed that little test with flying colors, I really appreciate that our waiter had the chance to pad the bill and didn't. Not only did our wine open up and pair differently with each course it was a really delicious wine at a really reasonable price. Also! You don't have to have a few hundred dollars in your pocket to have a beautiful dinner here. The stroganoff dish I had was probably about $30 as an entrée, and it paired perfectly with the $11 cab our waiter recommended to go with it. That would be a totally reasonable dinner (by Chicago standards)- thought I definitely suggest the "experience" if you ever get the chance.

I had an overwhelmingly awesome weekend. My mom came to visit for three days and though I'd originally planned to work on Friday I ended up taking to day off and I'm so glad. Josh was pretty busy this weekend with work and some family commitments (we sort of had to split up family stuff this weekend and he covered his side and I covered my side), so my mom and I were on our own a lot, and it was really fun. Despite the myriad of cultural options Chicago provides, we spent most of the weekend eating, digesting and preparing to eat again. I had three of the best meals of my life this weekend, and I'll recap them all here, but fair warning; I'm doing that for my own pleasure, and I can't imagine it would be even remotely interesting for you to read about where we went and what we ate.

Shockingly the weather really cooperated, and though it was cold it was sunny and dry, just about the best you could ask for considering we're talking December in Chicago.

This morning I woke up and was actually pleased to see the dusting of snow that greeted us. I've enjoyed the remarkably mild winter we've had so far, but it didn't feel like winter until just today, and I'm grateful for it- but I reserve the right to change my mind in a few weeks when the novelty wears off and I'm tired of freezing my ass off in the steel mill.

Inspired by Gwen Bell's Best of '09 Prompts

Best Trip of 2009

Just about every trip I went on in 2009 involved me throwing up for some reason. Altitude sickness, car sickness, or booze sickness, I pretty much always ended up with my head in a toilet at some point. That said, every trip was fun because I got to see friends, but I think my favorite trip was in October to see my Grandma. Josh came with me, and we met my parents in Maryland for my cousin's wedding. We slept in a rock hard twin bed but that was a small price to pay to see my Grandma. She's pretty rad.

Best Restaurant Experience of 2009

This one is too easy! January 23, 2009 Bin Café in Wicker Park. It was the night before our wedding, and it was sort of our version of a rehearsal dinner, just all dinner and no rehearsal. My parents, Josh's parents, Josh's brother Micah and my best bud Jilly gathered at one of my favorite restaurants. We had wine and cheese and bubbly wine and dessert cheese and I was so blissfully happy that I don't really remember it, but I do remember what my dad said that night that summed it up perfectly. He leaned over and told my buddy Jill that I "looked like I couldn't be happier if I found out I'd been accepted to Hogwarts!" Too true.

Best Article of 2009

This one is easy too. I first heard this on NPR during my morning commute to work. You can find it online here: The Nation: 10 Things You Can Do To Stimulate A New Economy

It is all about stimulating the local economy and small businesses during a recession. I think the reason I found it so compelling is because I am in a very fortunate position; while I am by no means wealthy, I do have a job that allows me a little bit of disposable income. My partner owns a small business, and his portion of our families income comes directly from local businesses choosing to spend their dollars on his local services instead of some large national design firm. As such I feel we have a responsibility to spend wisely.

Now I'm not hard core about his, but I try to do my best. At the very least, I buy local when and if I can, and I urge you to do the same.

I was doing so well at not shopping; in fact I didn't buy anything new from January 2008 until September 2009 but... I fell off the wagon. In October we had a trip to Maryland for my cousin's wedding and I did what so many of us do- a little pre-trip shopping. I have since bought a pair of rain boots, a cozy cardigan and a shiny new ring, two sweaters for work and 4 new dresses.

And that's all in the last three months! Do you know how often I have occasion to wear a dress? I would be fine with one dress to wear and that's it. But I got a little bit loose with my hard earned dough. And then I got a little crazy with the Christmas shopping. And now, I'm having some buyer's remorse.

I miss my money. I miss how good it felt to be free of the shackles of consumerism... OK, that's a little much, but I want to get back to living without obsessing over material possessions.

I was saving up to buy a new camera, but I lost track and I miss seeing my little slush fund getting bigger and bigger.

So. With renewed vigor I am recommitting to the shopping ban until March 27, 2010. At which time I probably won't be able to buy anything at all because my money on that date is destined for a very expensive dinner in celebration of successfully completing my third decade. It's not a very significant deadline, just one I can remember and stick to (hopefully).

(Unless I end up buying that camera, which is on the pre-existing to buy list anyway.)

Josh and I have a pretty unique living situation. We live in a two flat above our landlords (landladies?). They are nice, and very pet friendly.

They love Murph, they love Kitty, and we love their two cats. We also have sort of an open door policy. That is, we normally keep our back door open and they do too. We have an indoor stairwell in the back of the house, so "open" really only means open to each other, not the neighborhood, but more importantly it means open to the animals.

Phil, out landladies' cat likes our apartment best, so he comes upstairs every night and makes himself at home in front of our big bay windows.

Murph is absolutely in love with the women downstairs, so he spends a lot of his free time following them around and wagging his tail in their living room.

Even Kitty, the most skittish cat in the world, has come out of her shell in this apartment and now walks around upstairs, downstairs and even occasionally in the back yard.

I have to tell you, we could net be luckier to have such a wonderful place to live.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, our landladies brought home the most awesome (second most awesome?) dog I've ever met.

This is Henry.

He is the most fearless, sweet, happy dog I've ever seen.

And cute right?!

Even notoriously pro-human and anti-dog Murphy has started playing chase with him, and behaving himself when out on walks.

(Did I mention our landlord takes Murph out for walks when we're not home? Yeah, amazing.)

Unfortunately, not everybody is thrilled to have Henry in residence. Eventually I think she'll get used to him.