Clever greeting cards -from Chicago, now Austin, Tx.

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Check out this site- clever cards and fun!!!

Blue Star Bistro and Wine Bar

Last night we went to the city to catch up with our granddaughter and her mom. We wanted to make it easy and simple so the plan was to meet them at the corner restaurant about 4:30 for something light and simple. Well, we had traffic issues getting to the city ( new to us since we have moved farther away) and finally got to the restaurant about an hour later.  We all had fun passing the baby around. Each of us ordered something and the dishes were all very interesting. Katie brought some baby food for baby Quinn but guess what? She didn't want her baby food- she's almost 9 months old! She wanted anything anyone would put in front of her- now, she doesn't have any teeth just yet so we tried the soup Grandpa had which was tomato basil- omg- she couldn't get enough of it! The other dishes on the table were mac n' cheese with a nice hunk of pork belly on top.

Kyle got the scallops

Katie had the goat cheese balls with a blueberry sauce. I love food presentations so much- I def eat with my eyes!

Chicago favorite Ice Cream Parlors

This is Chicago's favorite Ice Cream Cone!

Other area favorite ice cream parlors recently listed 

are:

Margies Candies

Scoops

Scooters

Gayetys- Lansing Ill.

Petersens- Oak Park

Capannai-Mt.Prospect

Shawn Michelle

Bobtail.

Lick fast in this weather- have fun!

Breakfast Sandwiches!

Today's food section in the Chicago Tribune featured breakfast sandwiches! This image isn't exactly a breakfast sandwich.....it's from Foodgawker. But looks delish!
 I have been looking for new breakfast ideas to take to one of the schools I work in. I am always there, subbing and I would love to contribute either a breakfast casserole or, now I'm thinking, making some small breakfast sandwiches. The following are inspirational for me.
Bakin' & Eggs BLT- stacks of bacon, eggs, aged Cheddar, walnut and basil pesto, field greens and tomato-3120 N.Lincoln Ave.
And, at Chicago Cut's, 300 N. LaSalle, you get something similar with complimentary mini beignets, breakfast potatoes and a broiled tomato, all for $10!
Bodega N. 5's La Ribera- a pork sausage on a bun with egg, bell pepper, caramelized onion and Mahon -638 N. Michigan Ave
Corner Bakery's Anaheim Scrambler- a panini with bacon, mixed with tomatoes, green onions, cheddar and avocado, and scrambled eggs.
Fox and Obel has a similar one.
Jam's at 3057 W. Logan Blvd. has a sandwich with eggs, shredded pork cheek, ricotta salata and tart plum relish.
Other great sandwiches with the egg can be found at M.Henry, 5707 N. Clark; Juicy O's in Naperville and Willowbrook; Honey's Cafe in Glen Ellyn.
Nightwood's at 2119 S. Halstead has a bagel smeared with cream cheese, trout, over-easy egg, thick bacon slices and a dollop of slaw.

Rick Bayless has a great breakfast sandwich though available only briefly ( 7-10 a.m.) offers a slice  of bolillo that is slathered with roasted tomato, a bit of black bean, topped with poached egg which is topped with a dusting housemade queso fresco, green chile and raw onion. $5.

Monday's Mention

Ah, the day after Christmas! Favorite pix from the last few days....


 Lunching at Wave, Chicago

Corn Soups around Chicago

Now, these corn soups are truly upscale! I think I'd rather have these chefs make any one of these than try them myself. I guess it's my mood today--cloudy, chilly, blah.

Corn is piled high on market tables, sweeter than its early summer counterparts. And across the city, chefs are turning to the stockpot to highlight the season's abundance of ears. At The Drawing Room, Nick Lacasse's corn soup ($11) holds a triple corn threat. Lacasse roasts the cobs with fennel, onion and marjoram as a base for stock, which is puréed with raw kernels. The soup is poured tableside over fried kale, tomatoes and bacon-fat-fried potatoes, and topped with corn-spiked mascarpone. James Toland of The Black Sheep infuses his organic white corn soup ($8) with the scent of the grill, burning and grinding husks and sprinkling them like pepper. Blueberries and peppercress color the bowl; their accompaniments, pearls of bourbon and pickled kernels, create sharp, lively bites. Naha's Carrie Nahabedian cooks her sweet yellow corn slowly, until the kernels release their milk. Her corn soup ($13) is studded with Sungold tomatoes and basil and punctuated by an island of corn flan, with a dip-worthy oxtail-and-bandaged-cheddar sandwich on the side. For the simplest iteration ($9), visit Ceres' Table, where Guiseppe Scurato cooks stock with corncobs and thyme, thickening it with corn kernels, cream and onions. In it bob agnolotti for all seasons, rich with ricotta and truffles.

Thursday's thought

In the May issue of Travel+ Leisure, Chicago neighborhood restaurants are featured!

The article spotlights restaurants in areas all over the city (well, at least the North Side), showing that contributing editor Francine Maroukian did her research and hit more neighborhoods than just River North where so many national publications seem to land.
Bristol, Southern, Big Jones, more >>>
At The Bristol, she raves about Chris Pandel's Scotch olives and said if you see the crispy pig ear in a meaty pho-style broth with Vietnamese noodles to "grab it [as] Pandel may never show it to you again."
Up on the Far North Side, Maroukian visited Big Jones and Vincent, two places that haven't slowed since opening. She called Big Jones chef/owner Paul Fehribach "an ever-curious food historian, [who] explores coastal cooking—Low Country, Floribbean, Cajun and Creole cuisines." Vincent, the newest spot in the article, gets props for the moules frites served in five different styles as well as the array of traditional Dutch dishes representing chef/owner Joncarl Lachman's heritage.
Down in Ukrainian Village, she noted that Jam causes a jam when people line up for brunch to get chef Jeff Mauro's custard-soaked brioche French toast. She comments that Mauro rarely looks up from what he's doing in the open kitchen and that "once your food arrives, neither will you." Chef Cary Taylor makes "good on his promise of 'the dirtiest fried chicken north of the Mason-Dixon'" at The Southern. She praises Taylor for straddling "Southern and Midwestern cooking with hybrids such as his Cajun send-up of Canada's beloved poutine, which is topped with Wisconsin cheese curds "solid enough to soften up but still hold their shape."
Big Star, not surprisingly, gets the final hit, saying "no matter how busy the kitchen may get, "Big Star's tortillas always exhibit the hallmark of freshness : supple enough to roll without cracking yet durable enough to withstand [chef Justin] Large's take on authentic tacos." She advises to "bring a big appetite." We think that goes for all the places mentioned.

My Monday Mention

Dinner at Sun - Wah Restaurant in Vietnamese Village, Chicago. Peking ( Beijing) Duck is a must for first time visitor. Also pictured is their Squid. First time I think I have EVER enjoyed squid!

A Night Downtown

We finally made good on a Christmas gift the boys gave us. It was a night at the Drake Hotel in Chicago. We got together with some friends for drinks at the Cape Cod Room. Initially were were going to meet in the Palm Room.






It was crowded so we opted to go downstairs to the Cape Cod Room. We haven't been there in years and it still looked the same. It's on the lower level of the Drake but has an entrance also off of Oak Street. The same maitre d is still there. He knew our friends by name and he was happy to see them as they hadn't been there in a long time. Both of the men ordered The Executive- that's one I never heard of before!It was a cocktail with a small carafe with more liquor served on the side. We had a dinner reservation at a restaurant on Rush called Carmines. The place was packed and we were told we were going to have to wait another 1/2 hour! THEN, a bar table opened up and we made a bee line for that. We were all quite hungry. Two of our sons were having dinner at another restaurant a block away so they came over when they had finished dinner. The 10 of us stayed at Carmines till nearly closing time. We had a brisk walk back to the Drake as it was very windy and cold! But that brisk walk back made sleeping all the more wonderful. Our room was very pretty and it overlooked the Drive. And what a wonderful sleep we had. I had an epidural the day before and was traumatized by the whole thing. So a good night's sleep was just the thing! Great pillows, great mattress, perfect room temp...we slept late. To wake up and not have to rush to go anywhere or do anything except chill ~ aahh! The Hotel serves brunch/breakfast and the brunch was part of our gift. Boy, did we eat!
If you are downtown, I'd really recommend having dinner in the Cape Cod Room. It has a new chef and the oysters, not to mention the rest of the menu, are outstanding.

The Magic of 3

I was trying to figure out a title for today's post and realized something about the number 3~
Three of us decided to go downtown Chicago and our goal was to visit an address: 1447. That's when I realized that 1 from 4 =3; and 4 from 7 = 3.
I don't know what magic there was for the rest of the day as nothing 'different' occurred but I wanted to share some sights with you. Not knowing what to call this post, it's just called the Magic of 3~even though you only see one or two of us( there was no place to hold my mini tripod).
As we started out our adventure on a Chicago "L"........
We quickly took some crazy pics before the L filed up. This one was a tame picture. We got off the L at Clark and Division and walked to our destination. It's a place we haven't been to in.....28 years, maybe?

We saw so many old photos and so many that reminded us of the days when we sat in long, long meetings and I particularly focused on the old photos of past presidents; the first one from 1912- I see another '3 in there! But I did not capture any of the history we reminisced.
Our next stop was to visit a friend who lives 1/2 a block away. Oh mg, what they go through for security! They used to live in the city, moved to the burbs and are back in the city- but the SECURITY~
From there we took a nice long walk past our previous apartment buildings where we lived back in the day....1400....1360....1150...and talked about the 'personality' each building, in between, held.
We were getting quite hungry so stopped for lunch in Water Tower Park- I don't know if that's what it is called but that's what we call it! Never had park benches back in the day but what a wonderful, quiet respite! We talked about how quiet it was in there. I said, it was because there weren't any sirens howling. Uh, oh, we finally got a siren or 3. Oh! 3!!!


And of course, no lunch is complete without a bloody Mary and freshly baked cookies! We had some protein too.




Time to move on~
Our next stop was a clothing store- so rude! One of was dressed to the nines, ok, maybe 2 of us were dressed to the nines. Staff was SO RUDE! ( time to write a letter to management!) Not worth it. But we planned to visit Garrett's Popcorn and Van Cleef where another good ol dear friend works. Our feet were killing us and we needed to head back to the 'L'. We didn't want to take a cab because we didn't want to miss any windows!
And then, had to stop in at Neiman's- poddy time and time to sniff new scents!
But first, we had to check out some of the clothing items on display- they were different. Even for a city person....






On to find the 'L'.....

And what to our wondering eyes did appear, but another beautiful cafe called: Whisper!
The ice creams~ TOO DIE FOR! PRESENTATION! My photos couldn't quite capture the display- and I have a reason~



I spoke to some guy with a waiter's hat and chef coat and apron. Not the originator of the ice creams because this guy introduced me to the young man who created the beautiful presentations. I remarked that I wanted to take a picture of these for my food blog. Well, the creep had me so shaken, the images are not great. He wanted me to pay for the photos I took. I said, puhlease, we are not in Morocco.
If you are visiting Chicago, and are in this neighborhood, please visit this beautiful cafe. It is such a good use of a small strip that was always ugly. It's between Rush ( Street of Dreams) street and State street. It looks triangular. The guy who made all the ice creams- he's a sweetie. Ignore the waiter. Well, if you want to take a picture, ignore him.

What Summer means to me

Regardless of the activity, anything I do in the summer leaves me with a healthy, Summer glow. That's probably why the doctors are always telling everyone to wear spf 50+ so they can't glow! I'm fortunate that I live which is across the street from Lake Michigan. Relaxing by the water, with the calming roll and the rhythmic crash of water and waves has a predictable effect on me....complete relaxation. It reminds me of carefree moments of sun, water, friends and family.










Good food and endless sunsets.
Summer, for me, is the moment to live everything we can't during the rest of the year.
Summer is all about taking advantage of these longer, lighter days with a balance of fun, adventure and relaxation being the ticket! It's about noticing and enjoying the little things....perfumed blooms, warm light pouring in the home, the freedom of going barefoot, door and windows wide open, fresh slices of fruit, light breezy dresses and where the word 'ease' finds it's true meaning.



































I love my Chicago. And I love it any time of the year but Summer is BEST!

The Curse

If you haven't seen or heard about this Chicago restaurant, you can check out this video~ fans in Chicago are really feeling the pain of this season's team. So many hopes were built up. Strong sense of confidence, everywhere. And then, the team has come up with another very bad season.




The restaurant, called The Curse. Menu is creative- that's what I love! Making lemonade out of lemons!

''Opening up in the former Moxie space, TC's playfully giving the nod to infamous sports curses in the form of an upscale sports bar (flagstone walls, loads of flatscreens, Cubbies-blue lights), dotting its menu with pages comfortingly detailing afflictions brought upon other teams past and present, from the Curse of the Bambino to the Hanshin Tigers' Curse of the Colonel (though if they think losing a few baseball games is the worst KFC can do, they're still waiting to get their blood work back). Menu-wise the main attraction's a strong selection of sausages, including The Billy Goat (a blended goat & beef link served brat-style); The Larry Bird, a duck sausage topped with braised asparagus and cranberry-wine reduction; and a caraway-/cardamom-spiced pork sausage topped with swiss, 'shrooms, and garlic aioli called the Chuck Norris, likely the only Texas Ranger Cubs fans will have to worry about this year. Other bites include salt-studded ballpark pretzels w/ housemade bier cheese, chile-spiced shrimp empanadas kicked with salsa verde, and zucchini-thyme fritters served with roasted red peppers and horseradish cream known as "Pan Fried Fast Balls" which, unlike Carlos Zambrano's, aren't battered all day.

Wedding food

No, I didn't do this wedding- not for 400 people! The wedding was held at the Palmer House in Chicago. It was the wedding of one of my many nieces- Caroline. The appetizers and the food were beautiful. The only picture I snapped was of the salad. Ew- gotta change the settings next time!But here is a copy of the menu~
Wild Mushroom Strudel
Mild Garlic Spinach and Red Pepper Gastrique

Cucumber Ribbon Salad
Tomato, Cranberry, Toasted Walnuts

Choice of Entree
Frenched Chicken Breast
Stuffed with Nancy's Camembert and Summer Tarragon
or
Filet Mignon
Pinot Noir Reduction

Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Asparagus, Baby Carrot, Patttpan Squash
Saffron Poached Cauliflower and Red Pepper

Petit Sweets

Wedding Cake
Vanilla Sauce, Raspberry Coulis
Fresh Berry Garnish

Oh, I did get a picture of one of the desserts- mini sundae!

working! And I LOVE SATURDAYS!

Working everyday, leaves me brain dead to blog about anything! It also makes the day fly by so when I get home, it's time for dinner- from ichicks ~so many do this routine day in and day out. It's been a long time since I've had to do it. It's been kinda fun each day- a different school, different classrooms, different attitudes- except among those who are suppose to be my peers. I'm treated as a pariah- they stay away from me. And you'd think, after being in one school, for more than 3 days in a row they'd at least be able to mutter: hello....They have a difficult time acknowledging I'm present. It helps if you know someone else on staff- it's like a connection. Being the Mother to 5 sons, it's funny how I usually gravitate to the little boys- but I just love finding moments throughout the day to be in the company of the little girls. So while can complain about being with my peers, it's not for long periods of time.And while the remaining classroom days are now, really numbered I can look forward to doing what I love: party planning! I've got several events on my plate in the next coming weeks! A graduation party,a cocktail party, a dessert party and a picnic! And of course, Memorial Day activities. So today I'm enjoying playing around with menus, creating table settings and as soon as I have them ready to go, I'll post the images.
A few days ago, I did take a day off from work. One of my friends hosted a birthday outing for herself and 18 friends. It was a tour based on the book the Devil in the White City. It was a 2+ mile walking tour through Jackson Park which is on Chicago's near Southside. I haven't walked through there, ever but it was really beautiful


Hopefully in the next few days, I'll be back blogging my menus.

Spring Break Dinner Destinations

Every day, last week, I felt like that poor kid in a classroom of 20 who is the only one NOT going away for Spring break; all my paddle buddies are going away; most of the teachers I work with will be gone;all surrounding neighbors seem to be going away...
so today I came up with an idea I'm going to offer those on my personal email thingy and those I see on FB- I'm going to offer DINNER DESTINATIONS! They will be mini dinner packages for 4 that will also include recipes, some ingredients and music CD. And, it will only be offered during Spring Break week to those who are not going away.
Yesterday we had beautiful, warm weather. Today, it's snowing. So Chicago!

GREEN FISH?

There's an interest for chefs and cooks to start using n underused species called 'green fish'. Sometimes it's called 'bycatch' because fisherman do not go out specifically looking for them, they just et caught in the process. Some types of green fish are called sheepshead, tripletail, amberjack, wreckfish( that could fit nicely into a themed dinner! ) and scorpion ( could be nice during November!) and even sardines are are getting a makeover. Americans are often open to trying new kinds of fish, they just need the introduction chefs can provide. The consumer still needs to know the reputation of the provider, should do some research and cope with seasonal swings. Some sites good for checking out these fish are: seafoodwatch.org;blueocean.org;www.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishwatch.
In the Chicago area, I often visit a store just to see what's new- they have so many fish varieties, I'm on my way back to check them out as now, the names might be more familiar. Here is a picture of the fish but my camera couldn't capture the ( at least) 32 varieties