Baltimore Girls Weekend

This last weekend was a reunion with my girlfriends from high school! We started this last year when they all came up to Chicago... this year we decided to all head to Baltimore to visit our friend Jill!

We coordinated our trips extremely well, and Jill picked us all up between 4 and 5 PM at the Baltimore airport. We all piled into the Ford Flex (big square SUV type thing) that she had rented for all of us and headed to her house in the Baltimore suburbs.

That night we had so much fun, looking up stuff on facebook, drinking wine, and laughing. Jill and her husband Chris made tacos with steak and chicken and fresh guacamole and salsa. It was all so yummy! The girls wandered off to bed and Jill and her husband and I stayed out on the deck with a bottle of wine and lots of good conversation.

The next morning we all got up, got showered, and headed to DC. We drove a bit closer in to the city and then parked and rode the Metro. Here are a few pics of us on the train! They were SO much cleaner and nicer than the El!!

Sara, Kacey, Karrie and Erin. Sorry Sara, this was the best one!

Me and Jillybean

First we decided to see some sights....

White House

Playing with that color accent again. As I took this picture some lady turned to her husband and said "You realize that is OUR house, right Clive?"

Washington Monument... by this time I was missing my DSLR... I was tooooooo lazy to pack it!

The Capitol and national Mall area

After walking around seeing sights and the First Ladies exhibit in the Smithsonian, we headed to Georgetown for some QT at Anthropologie, H&M, and Paper Source. I also made everyone duck into Dean & Deluca for some white truffle oil - yum! I got new pajama pants at Anthro (I have one pair from there and wash them every weekend so I can wear them for the upcoming week!), and picked up placecards for my sister's wedding at the Paper Source (green or ivory... couldn't decide so I got both!). After that we took the Metro to Filene's basement where I scored a few fake pairs of Sevens (I like the material and pocket design so I don't really care that they are knockoffs/lookalikes) and a shirtdress that I've been scouring the Earth for. All in all, it was a great shopping trip!

We ended up walking around so much that we had to drive directly to our 9:30 PM dinner reservation at Woodberry Kitchen. We were a bit out of place in our walking-about clothes b.c the place was super-trendy. But oh well. Seriously, if you are EVER in the Baltimore area, try this place. It was AMAZING, one of the best meals I've ever had! A bit hippy dippy (The waitress actually said that their cows are happy and you can taste it) and she gave a bit of bad wine advice to my friend, but the food was amazing.

I started the meal out with a mint julep and every intention to photograph everything I had.
So yeah, I would be a really bad food blogger because the food comes and I don't think "Picture!" I think "OM NOM NOM how can I get this food in my mouth faster?"

Jill and I couldn't decide what to get so we split the heirloom tomato plate (with jalapeno oil and aged balsamic), the crab mac& cheese (omg so good) and the seared tuna with caprese-peach salad (seriously, on the plate it went like this tuna-heirloom tomato-fresh mozzarella-slice of fresh peach-repeat four times... something about the peach in there just made the whole plate)

With dinner I also had a really good glass of Cabernet Franc that I kind of wanted to kiss.

Dessert was a glass of Muscat and a dish of basil ice cream. When you see something that weird you HAVE to order it. And it did NOT disappoint. Now I need to find somewhere in Chicago that serves basil ice cream.

At the end of the dinner, we were all a little punchy. Sara and Erin had bought us candy Grillz (like ring pops, but better... the grill part was plastic and the part you put in your mouth was a sucker) in Georgetown and Sara got hers out and started fooling around.
Jill was none too pleased. "YOU GUYS! I want to come BACK HERE! Behave!"
Once we got back home almost everyone went to bed but me and Jill. We stayed up a little later, hanging out in her office and fooling around on her computer, checking out blogs and home decorating ideas, discussing deep thoughts about life in general.

The next morning we had to get a few shots of our grillz. Yeah yeah, Bosse girls!

Me and Jillz Grillz

So yeah, the weekend was amazing. It was so much fun to see all the girls and to hang out with them - I had such a great time and I am so glad I have these girls in my life. :)

Topolobampo!

I've either been really busy or busy relishing being NOT busy lately - we have a very busy month of September coming up, so I'm trying to drink in all the time I have at home with my puppy on my couch. I'm going to Australia for work from Sept 10-Sept 25 (we have a wicked awesome security system, Internet, don't get any ideas), so I'll be gone for most of September. Bossman wants to go kangaroo-boxing, so I'll be sure to post pics of that if we do it, hahaha...

So, anyways, when Michelle and I went to BlogHer and met Rick Bayless, we immediately made plans to dine at Frontera Grill. Those plans got messed up by the Australia trip, so we rescheduled for October. Then, Rick won Top Chef Masters, and Michelle learned that they were serving some of his winning dishes. She emailed me one day asking if I would like to accompany her and her husband to lunch at Topolobampo to sample some of the grub. OF COURSE I said yes! It worked out quite well because I wanted to try Topolo's cuisine, which is slightly different from Frontera, but Hubs is a picky eater and wouldn't have found anything there to be edible. Thus, we got our Topolo and will save our Frontera experience for a double date in October!
We got to Topolo right at our reservation time, and only had to wait for a few moments as they readied our table. We walked in, put Samantha's carseat on a stand (where she proceeded to snooze the entire hour and a half meal), and sat down. I noticed everyone around us had the guac and definitely wanted to try it too - they brought a bowl of it with some chips to the table, gratis. Excellent! The guac was perfect - mild but tasty, and the chips were the perfect combo of crispy crunchy but not too tough!

We quickly decided to order the black mole dish with mini tamales and seared tuna for an appetizer to share, then set about to decide what to each have for an entree. It was so hard, as the food ALL looked soooo good! Andy and I ended up getting a sort of sampler platter called Cuatro Cositas Oaxaqueas (descriptoin from the website: Oaxacan sampler: empanada with chicken and yellow mole; grilled Oaxacan chorizo; roasted chayote salad with lime and green chile; roasted Maple Creek Farm pork loin with red mole). Michelle got the fish tacos (description from website: Baja-style fish "tacos:" mahimahi two ways (poblano seared, beer-battered), with fresh-made tortillas, homemade lime mayo, Tracey's pea tendril salad, pickled vegetables, avocado-tomatillo salsa, lime-Corona "air.")

I was a little confused when Michelle's dish came and the fish was one big piece of mahi-mahi that she had to break up herself, but it was cooked perfectly and and looked very good. They brought a containter of fresh tortillas to the table and she made some tacos, and we also put some of our pork and other fixings into a taco shell to try that out. All the food was so tasty - the pork was cooked perfectly and had a perfect not-too-spicy but savory sauce.

The best part of the meal for me was far and away the tamales - we had a few tiny ones with our appetizer and a bigger one came on my plate. So amazing. The perfect consistency, not too dry and not too soggy, and the perfect ratio of filling to corn-type-crust-thingy (a very technical term). I will seriously dream about those tamales forever.

At the end we couldn't pass up the chocolate cake someone at the next table had gotten, so we ordered one to share for dessert. Also amazing - chocolate cake layered with chocolate mousse, layered with a shiny chocolate ganache and and a chocolate wafer on top. A scoop of mint ice cream on the side complemented it... it was all so tasty.

OK, now I'm making myself hungry. But seriously, awesome meal!

SHOWER!

And not the kind where you shampoo in the morning.

This weekend is my sister's wedding shower in Evansville, at my parents' house. I sent my mom to the grocery to get some foodstuffs, and she's handling grabbing some flowers. But I am bringing the 6 lbs of broccoli salad and 50-ish cupcakes (I made 48... a couple or three may not have even made it out of the condo... my bad.)

So I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Here's what I've done:

• Scoured ye ol internets for my sister's specific color of wedding green in tissue paper. On the website I found, it's called "Green Tea" but it's like a moss color. I then ordered a package of said paper, not realizing that "package" meant "one hojillion pages." Meh, whatever. I did all this to make tissue paper pom-poms to hang around the party, all whimsical-like. Mom said "I'm not repainting my ceilings, April!!!" So I made sure to get the 3M safe-to-remove sticky hooks. I'm on it, Mom!
• Hit up Target for said sticky hooks and chocolates, and then went to Joann fabrics for string for the pom-poms and tiny little bags to put chocolates in for favors.
• Stuffed all aforementioned tiny bags with chocolates. May have filched a few for myself?
• Hit up the grocery for supplies to make the cupcakes & broccoli salad. Katie also wanted to have mimosas at the party, so I bought a ton of champagne, OJ, pineapple juice, and pomegranete juice (different juices for a twist on the traditional mimosa!)
• Baked 2 dozen yellow cake cupcakes and 2 dozen chocolate cupcakes. The yellow cake guys were from a box (Duncan Hines just does it so much better than I can), but the chocolate cupcakes were from this Pioneer Woman recipe. The recipe makes a sheetcake, so I was a bit anxious about how they were going to turn out, but HOO BOY they are good. Not to toot my own horn, but TOOT TOOT. Ok, maybe I'm tooting Pioneer Woman's horn. That chick knows what she is talking about. I think these are going to be a standard in my arsenal now.
• After the cupcakes were baked, I made Martha's Basic Buttercream to frost the cupcakes with (and so the fondant would stick to the top).
• My friend Stacy came over to help with the cupcake extravaganza, so I put her to work rolling out premade fondant I'd purchased at Michael's. I have to say, I was glad it was her doing the rolling and not me. She did a great job! She cut out round disks and I put them on top of the buttercream, rounding the edges and wiping off any excess frosting. Once we get to Evansville, I'm going to pipe a green DCK monogram on each of them for my sis and her dude's first names and his last name (soon to be hers!). I'll have to take a pic once they're all piped - they look pretty impressive with just the fondant, can't wait to see what they look like all done!!
• I also cut and cleaned 6 lbs of broccoli, made a buttermilk dressing, and mixed it all up with a red onion. This broccoli salad recipe was courtesy of Smitten Kitchen.
• Tonight I went and picked up a couple cases of wine for my Dad, got some more beagle food, worked on some laundry, ran the dishwasher and unloaded it, and cut out the pom-poms and commenced on packing the RAV. Holy cow, I've been busy. All that and I had pulled pork waiting for the husband in the crock pot when he got home. Am I good or am I good?

Showers are fun but they are hard work, dude! Can't wait to get back to when the only thing I'm responsible for is feeding myself and that beagle, and making sure Dog gets her potty breaks!!!

Walking taco

So one of the random swag items I picked up at Blogher was a couple 100 calorie packs of Fritos. "I have been fiending for a walking taco," I told Michelle. "Take more! Take them all!" insisted the poor Frito-Lay dude that got stuck manning the desk. I didn't have to be asked twice - we each took a couple more and put them in our bags. And last night I was having Stacy over for Tacos and to watch the Bachelorette finale (woot! Go Team Ed!).... it was like a perfect storm that said "Make thyself a walking taco and NOW!"

Since I love them so, I thought I would take and post some pics, even though it's like the most ridiculously easy recipe EVAH.

I used to eat these all the time at the Evansville Fall Festival, county fairs, the state fair, etc in Indiana. Since I've been living in Chicago (6 years! eek!) I have been to very few of those kind of events. Sure, we have street fairs but they have fancy food like Chicago Style Pizza or Pad Thai. Therefore this was a long time coming.

First throw the meat in a pan (1 pound). I used ground turkey, because that's what I had. But if you get 95% ground sirloin it's really the same calorie content as turkey. Sure you save some fats with turkey, but not a whole lot (unless you get the 100% white meat... but then it's just not as juicy and the meat is really dry... not as appetizing)
First: get a box, second: cut a hole in the box... wait, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, here is the meat all browned up.
Then pour in 2/3 cup of water
Grab some of this stuff. You can buy the generic stuff or Lawry's. I buy the Old El Paso because I'm pretty sure that's what my Mom bought when I was younger. Plus they have this "less sodium" version which is probably good for me or something.
Pour that junk into the pan and stir it all up
Let the meat simmer until the liquid is pretty much all gone. Somehow I didn't get a pic of the liquid being all gone, but you get my point.
Take out your swag bag and get your bag of Fritos. Cut off the top of that bag, yo.
Put some meat in the bag on top of the Fritos. A random Frito fun fact - they are like the simplest chips ever. If you look at the ingredients list, they only contain whole corn, corn oil, and salt. That must mean they are health food!
Put a dollop of Daisy on it. I think I've been watching too much TV. Anyways, this is the light stuff and it's only like 40 calories for 2 tablespoons. I estimate this to be about 10 calories' worth.
A bit of reduced-fat Mexican shredded cheese comes to the party
A sliced-up cherry tomato, some olives, and green onions add some color
Salsa rounds out the mix. This stuff is Mrs Renfro's Mango Habanero salsa. When I get down to one full jar I get all freaked out and run out and buy more. This stuff makes plain eggwhite omelettes delectable.
Stir it up and eat! Something about the Fritos being in a bag makes this so much better. Maybe because all the toppings staying on the Fritos instead of getting all over a bowl. I don't know and I don't care, I just know that this walking taco had a lifespan of about 10 seconds.
So wrong but it feels so right. Actually, with all the lowfat stuff, this thing only had a bit over 200 calories. Not bad! WAY better than the State Fair version, I'm sure!

Weekend Recap

Another full weekend! That's pretty much the name of the game around here.

Friday included two forays into Chicago Restaurant week. At lunch my friend Andy and I went to Japonais. It was so good. The portions were a bit small, but I think that is kind of how they roll in general. You know, Japanese place, trendy little portions and servings style. I picked lobster spring rolls for an appetizer, cashew encrusted chicken as my entree and chocolate custard with raspberry sauce for dessert. It was all really really good. And look, they had some fancy topiary tree!!
For dinner, Mike and I tried The Chicago Firehouse Restaurant in South Loop. Appetizer was a cup of amazing lobster bisque. The broth was just the right consistency and the soup had big chunks of perfectly-cooked and sweet lobster in it, as well as some sweet corn. It was one of the best I've had (and I consider myself to be a lobster bisque Connoisseur. For an entree, I ordered the 8 oz CFH prime steak. It was OK, a bit more fatty than I am used to with a steak (I always order filets), but very good with a parmesan-peppercorn crust. It didn't include any sides, though, so if Mike hadn't ordered off the regular menu and gotten a family-style side of mashed potatoes I would have had to order a side separately. I thought this was super weird, because the whole point of the Restaurant Week menu is to have a whole meal for $32. A steak on a plate does not a meal make, at least for me. I wish I had tried a different entree; they all looked so good! And then I could have just tried a bite of Mike's steak to see what that was like. The only other complaint I had is that they had changed a few items on their menu from what was posted on the internet as the Restaurant Week Menu. This change meant not only that they bumped the one Mike-acceptable option of beef tips from the appetizer menu (this is why he ended up just ordering a regular steak from the main menu), but also that they weren't serving creme brulee for dessert. BOO. I was a little honked, as creme brulee is my fave. I ended up ordering the chocolate cake for dessert, however, and was not dissappointed. It was a big square piece of chocolate cake that seemed to be dipped in chocolate. It was very rich and very good. Mike and I scarfed the whole dessert down even though we were already pretty full at the end of the meal.

After dinner, Mike and I headed to Bucktown to meet up with another couple we know through an IU friend of mine. We usually only see them when our mutual friend is in town, but always enjoy seeing them so much! So we made it a point to set aside a night to meet up with them. They picked the location of Bluebird. The minute we walked into the place we picked up the hippy vibe... Mike commented that he wasn't trendy enough in a looked-like-he-didn't-try kind of way to be there. The beer menu was about 10 pages long with lots of international microbrews and such. The menu also had a long list of organic wines I had never heard of. I don't drink much hard alcohol and they didn't look to have any beers at all on tap... and I wasn't about to order a Miller Light in such a place. I was a bit at a loss regarding what to order until Mike motioned to the barkeep and said "Can you just give her something that tastes like Stella?" The guy popped open a brew and sat it in front of me in a fancy glass with a smile. At least he was super friendly and didn't mock my lack of interesting-beer knowledge!

Once Trevor and Lizzie got there, we got a table and the waitress was great about recommended brews she thought we would like based on us telling her our preferences. I would definitely go back and try more of the world's brews - but would definitely want a table to get the personalized attention the waitress was able to give us. Everyone there was super nice, and the food looked great (even though we didn't eat! so I don't know if it was actually good or not).

The next day I accomplished all kinds of stuff like going to Trader Joe's, the post office, Jewel, and the dry cleaner before leaving to go visit my friend Melissa in Northern Indiana (Crown Point). Before I left, I tried the mac and cheese I'd picked up at Trader Joe's for lunch. I'd heard it's the best frozen mac around and just had to try it. At first I was a bit disappointed that the tray held two servings, and I shouldn't eat the whole thing. However, after eating half of the tray I was stuffed! And it was SO FREAKING GOOD! I am going to have to head back to stock up on this stuff, for sure.

I tried to stop at the public library on the way out of town, but there were like 10 people in line and I don't even have a library card yet! I couldn't take the wait, and my car was wedged so tightly into a parking space that I was sure to get doored. So I cut my losses and just headed out to Melissa's. I do need to make sure to get back to the library soon... I'm almost out of books to read and I hear that they loan them to you FOR FREE.... haha... Let's just say that Free is definitely in the Budget.

I was so glad I took the time to go visit my friend Melissa... when I first moved to the city she was one of my roommates and we always have such a fun time together! She made tacos and we had wine and lots of good conversation. Plus we teased her dog, Red. When you put your finger in front of her face she crinkles up her nose. It's hilarious.

Why do dogs get green-eye and not red-eye? That is so weird.

On the way home on Sunday, I hit Target and DSW in Merrilville, which was awesome! It was so not crowded and I just wandered around checking out the whole place. I feel like you're constantly tripping over people/getting in people's way at those stores in Chicago so it was a nice change of pace.

Random chores/organizing and church rounded out the rest of the day. And that is my weekend! I swear I cram so much stuff into every weekend, they all fly by. But it's always a good time.

Pulled pork recipe

Tonight I made pulled pork and it was soooooooooooooooo good....

3 pounds boneless pork shoulder roast, well-trimmed or boneless pork loin roast
1 package McCormick® Slow Cookers BBQ Pulled Pork Seasoning
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup cider vinegar

I switched some things up - I used 1.00 pounds of pork roast pieces (not a whole roast) and first browned them in the dutch oven (in about a tablespoon of olive oil). Then I put all the ingredients in the dutch oven and added a half cup of water (in addition) and put it on low heat to simmer for about 2 hours. It was sooooo tender and yummy. I put a couple spoonfuls over a piece of wheat bread, and made a side of coleslaw from the coleslaw cabbage mix and just a teeny bit of low-fat mayo. ;c) It was super good!!!

July 19

Tonight we had the BEST frozen pizza ever. Digiorno 4 cheese on wheat!

June 27

More meatloaf (and my mess of a kitchen....)

June 25

Tonight I made my own chicken pad thai.... I have to say, it was pretty good. I made it from a box called "Ethnic Gourmet" that I have used before. However, this time instead of making just the noodles I did the whole shebang: egg, chicken, sprouts, chili sauce... and it was MUCH better that way.

June 8

Tonight Mike and I, Dora, Rogus, and Chad went to go see the movie "Knocked Up" downtown. I made popcorn in my new Cuisinart popcorn popper and snuck in contraband (healthier!) popcorn. Yum.

June 4

Emmy couldn't make Chad's going-away party on Saturday, so she made us dinner as a goodbye instead.... which I have to say was really really good. Kabobs and strawberry shortcake, Yum-O.

April 15

Seriously? Organic Rice Krispies and Mini Wheats? The funniest thing was is that they were priced much cheaper than the regular version... must not be too popular of an item!

April 4

Meet my new best pal, the 30 calorie plain old popsicle. Yum! What, they are not good for you if you eat 10 of them? Wha?!?

April 3

Today, my friend Beth gave me the new Norah Jones CD. Seems that she purchased two on accident. Yay! Thanks, Beth!

And this is my culinary masterpiece of the day: turkey cutlets, dredged in bread crumbs and cooked in a pan with Olive Oil flavored Pam spray. They were SO good, and super-healthy too. Each piece was only like 90 calories, and plain marinara sauce on top is only about 20.

April 2

Today, the audit team went to Bennigan's for lunch. So good. See Beth hiding behind Brian there? Haha!

A Side NOTE: OK, seriously. If you are a corn dog fan and you want to be a bit healthier than an actual corn dog, you have to get these things. They are only 160 calories and TASTE JUST LIKE A REAL CORN DOG. I am in luuuuurve.

March 31

Some random shots of the day!

The Chicago Olympic logo.... pretty cool

The Boy and I at Duffy's

The Salmon in Lemon Brodetto with Pea Puree that I made Emily on Saturday night

March 27

Tonight my friend Cory was in town for a training (he is learning to communicate effectively! So exciting! haha). So, we went to Joey's Brickhouse, my new favorite restaurant. It's half a block from my house, and the menu is so freaking diverse and good. There really hasn't been anything where I think "This is the best X I have ever had!" but all the food is pretty decent and it's just sooooo close and you can seriously get anything you want. Pizza? Check. Burgers? Check? Healthy salad or grilled chicken and veggies? Check. Homemade pasta? Check. Steak? Check. Anything you feel like, it's there. I haven't repeated a meal once, and I'm not done trying out all the stuff that I want to.

We did the all-you-can-eat salad, pizza, beer, and rice krispie treats deal for $15. Such a great deal! And I got blackened chicken and spinach pizza, which was great. This is a pic of the rice krispie treats, and I used a trick I read about on the internets for the flash. I just held a tissue over the flash to soften the effects of the light, and it worked great. I am considering taping a coffee filter over the flash for good, the picture turned out so differently with the different amounts of light.

The only bad thing about this place is that the service is so-so. The servers are all super-nice and friendly, but they are always just a bit behind the pace on everything. You know, everything takes at least 5 minutes more than you think it will, they tend to forget a lot of things (didn't get bread this time, and glasses get empty without being noticed, etc) and you always have to flag them down to get your check. But they are generally good-natured and attentive.... they just seem a little scatterbrained. So whatever, A for effort.

Also, I a lot of my pics during the week are food! Maybe that will change a bit when the weather gets better outside during the week. Chicagoans do a lot of hibernating in the winter/monsoon months!

March 25

Man what a productive day. Check out that refrigerator full of good, healthy food!
I was so productive this weekend! I did laundry, hung out with my gals, went to the grocery, went for a walk (the breathing is getting better everyday, thankfully), we went and picked out a bike for Mike, cut all the ribbons for the invites.... the list goes on. Now I just need another weekend of chilling the heck out to get caught back up to my rockstar lifestyle of health food and working out :c)

March 20

My boy made me dinner tonight. Soup and grilled cheese, he is QUITE the chef!

March 14

On Wednesday, I came home from work and started in on the cookie/cupcake making and final housecleaning chores that needed to get done before our guests came into town. Because, you know, the DUST BUNNIES, they were growing some massive fangs and had to be conquered.

And then Mike came home and said those magic words, "Want to go out to dinner?" So we went down the street to Joey's Brickhouse (currently becoming our favorite place!) and had a nice little dinner and I had a big Stella and was feelin' so nice.

This is a pic of my leftovers... I would highly recommend the one pound burger stuffed with brie. So freaking good.