Mix-n-Match Photos

(The following photos are not in chronological order.)

My youngest niece, Macaroon (my nickname for her, don't be silly) turned three on Monday. Since B and I moved back, I've been able to spend quality time with her. One of our favorite shared activities is baking. We've made cookies and brownies a couple times. She has plans to come over to our loft to bake a cake and have a tea party (her tea set is glass so I have to be very careful with it). Living out of town for so long, B and I never have celebrated a kid birthday so I didn't know what was expected in the way of gift-giving. I always try and give gifts that represent something from the relationship I share with the person.

I was inspired to sew Macaroon her first apron. She loves 'girly' things and helping in the kitchen. I thought it might be a good match. My favorite aspect of creating/making something for someone else is I think about them the whole time. Every step, stitch, row, or morsel, I've thought about how special the recipient is to me. LR informed me that Macaroon hasn't taken the apron off.

Macaroon loves pink. I'm not sure how much she really knows about Hello Kitty, but she loves almost anything related to the pink items featuring the cute cat. LR did a fantastic job on the cake. The ribbon is bubble tape, the eyes and nose are jelly beans, and the cake is a perfect hue of pink with a subtle flavor of strawberries. Macaroon opened the fridge door to look for Kitty and exclaimed "I love it!"

Spicy Cider Martini garnished with a slice of apple and cinnamon. Master Mixologist in the making...

B and I hosted a dinner party, well, only the dinner part. Our friends were accommodating and allowed us to prepare dinner at their house. We had a great time. I forgot my camera, so no entree pics. Just what was left of one of the best apple pies I've ever made. I'm salivating just looking at that crust!

My latest bag...I'm calling it a Hipster Oversized Bag. If you're interested, let me know. I'm willing to part with this one.

Positives: I used canvas to line the bag. It keeps the bag from flopping all over. I like the beading. Lastly, I like how I was able to adapt and overcome my running out of orange velvet.

Negatives: Yikes. It's huge. The bow might eat my head!

Homemade Ravioli x2

Saturday was my kind of day. Sleep in a little, hit Whole Foods Market, bake while listening to This American Life, and creating a delicious meal (even if it took 7 hours.).

Here we have two recipes combined as I was nervous our guests (soon to be parents M & R). The bottom is a Garlic White Bean Sauce topped with two kinds of homemade ravioli (they're not pretty because I did everything by hand). The orange is a Chili Dough stuffed with Pumpkin, Pecan, & Sage. On the bottom of the picture we have Herbed Dough stuffed with Poricni Mushrooms & Tofu Ricotta. The whole thing is drizzled with a Walnut Pesto. I roasted some red peppers as a garnish. I loved every minute of the day and every bite of the food.

We also had Apple, Fennel, & Squash Soup along with an extremely decadent Le Bete Noir (the little beast-a flourless chocolate cake). I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did. Recipes to follow.

Bears & Birthdays

Turning 30 is a milestone, right? I didn't have a huge party or have a mini-meltdown (or mega-meltdown for that matter). I went to work! Yes, that's right, I landed a job. I'm working as the Conference & Catering Coordinator for a top 4 Accounting Firm. So far, pretty okay. More on that as it develops.

I did however celebrate my birthday over the past three weeks. My parents were in town for my dad's 'milestone' birthday. We toured the Chicago River on an Architectural Tour and had dinner at The Chicago Firehouse.

I also made a delicious birthday dessert of which I have no pictures but I'm sure you'll be alright with a description. Homemade Dark Chocolate Hot Fudge drizzled on top of Coffee Infused Pound Cake with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and freshly whipped Whip Cream. Yeah, it was good, even B loved it, and he's not a sweets fan.


One of Chicago's 'claim to fames' is the used to be tallest building in the world, the Sears Tower. It's literally impossible to convey it's massiveness with a picture. The tower in front, 311 South Wacker, is completely concrete and as you can see from the shadow cast upon the Sears Tower, much shorter. I wish I could remember all the details we were told on our tour...


Boeing, the world's leading aerospace company is housed in this modern building. Most interested fact I remember from the tour: Underneath this monster of a building is Union Station (where all the trains go). Companies could purchase the airspace above the tracks since this is prime real estate in the city. All the buildings in this area are supported by huge columns that straddle the tracks. Boeing's airspace is partly over the main hub of activity and found part of their "air" unusable. Until some engineering genius came up with the idea to hang this part of the building from giant trusses (see the top of the photograph). They put columns underneath the building to keep people from freaking out. I swear, that's what our guide said.


The tower of the Tribune Building. It's very beautiful. Don't you wish we built buildings like this today?

So that was Dad's birthday celebration (with a little bit of mine mixed in).

My sister-in-law, (from now on just know, I have a brother, we'll call him Semaj. the rest of my siblings-in-law will from this point forward be refered to as brothers and sisters. the whole 'in-law' thing gets to be a mouthful.) LR's birthday is two days before mine. We've always wanted to celebrate together, this year being the first of many to come ( I hope). We had a nice dinner at Opera and went out for drinks. Then the best part...we got to sit in the fourth row at the Bears v Lions game! My enjoyment of football has grown over the past five years (that's how long we've been married, can you make a connection?) I would go again in a heartbeat!




Of course, being both such foodies, LR and I had to plan some tailgating food. I made a delicious chili and topped it with onions and chips. It's amazing how perfectly Bloody Mary's, Mimosas, & Chili go together at 7:00 am.








Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting & Berries.....I really shouldn't eat cream cheese anything, but little birthday treat never hurt anyone! Oh, and a little lesson from this one, if a recipe calls for a 10 inch cake pan, don't use an 8 inch, you'll have a nice free form cake on the bottom of your oven. Sorry B!

This was pretty exciting. I'm shocked at how giddy I was (still am) about it.

LR and I decided it would add a nice element to the field if there was a female who did the penalty announcements. She would be fully clothed, nothing obscene or overtly sexy about it, just a female. I'd like to volunteer to be the first one. I'll start at Solider Field. GO BEARS!!!!!









I missed the shot, but Devon Hester did a little flying-kick-move-dance during "Crank That (Soulja Boy)". He's hot.









The boy's seats are up here. LR's husband, E has season tickets. They look like they're not great, but the view is spectacular. Watching the plays unfold from here is better than TV.

I'm in no position to critique sports, but listening to AM radio shows makes me feel like-if all these assistant coaches in the Chicagoland area think they know what they're talking about, maybe I can contribute too. So our defense is not what it should be, at all. What's up with 54? Nice post-game interview buddy. My favorite player is on the end. Peanut Tillman.
Oh, and the offense? Don't even get me started!

We do look like sisters....love you LR!

Ouch! Someone's about to get SACKED!











Seriously, why do Rally Caps only apply to baseball games? The Bears needed some major rallying. Come on, people, don't laugh, join!