A bed for FurFur

I had all these grand plans to repurpose a few old pillows and to sew together sheets into a cover, but we finally caved and bought a proper doggie bed. It's still FurFur's second choice to the large guest bed, of course...

{ FurFur, enjoying her new doggie bed }

The weekend, succinctly

Food and friends, that's what this weekend was all about. We had pals visiting from Pittsburgh and Indianapolis. It began with a tapas night at Ba Ba Reeba on Friday...

{ a full table of half-eaten plates, groan! }

Then my favorite meal ever, a.k.a. brunch, at Birchwood Kitchen, where I had the most innovative Bacon Bread Pudding. It was savory and moist, a cross between a french toast and bread pudding. Also, a lemon tart, banana chocolate chip bread, raspberry pound cake, and fruit salad.

Followed by a run over to Water Tower to pick up a dozen Wow Bao, steamed Asian dumplings stuffed with savory or sweet fillings. I was selected as a finalist in the RedEye's "How would you put the WOW in Wow Bao?" contest, and must submit my entry in a digital or electronic form, such as a YouTube video, song, etc. I wanted to play up the Wow Bao brand and tagline "Hot Asian Buns" in a series of kitschy, playful photos with myself (I'm Asian, get it?) and the Wow Baos in a variety of settings around Chicago. Stay tuned for postings of my Wow Bao photo shoot from this weekend...

A Korean BBQ night out at San Soo Gab Son. Think lots of kim chee, seaweed, bean sprouts, tofu, amongst a whole slew of other seriously tasty "stuff" I couldn't identify...

* Not pictured: "Urban Anniversary Photo Shoot" with Haseeb + a La Pasadita break.

Stupid games, take 2

John and Karolina were in town this weekend, so of course, we had to commence "Stupid Games" at brunch.

{ bloated }

{ crack whore – come on, I have a bit of wild eye, this totally screams crack whore! }

{ constipated }

{ sex bomb }

{ Blago }

 { I don't think this pic was actually part of the game,
but John always makes a "stupid face" for the camera }

Ba Ba Reeba + Spanish tapas

It was an incredibly fun night with old friends at Ba Ba Reeba, an authentic Spanish tapas restaurant with a trendy Lincoln Park scene. John and Karolina, who moved to the City of Bridges, came back to town for the weekend only, so we got together a small group and chowed down on tapas and white peach and red sangria until our bellies were so full and we couldn't sit up straight. We watched a group of sorority girls celebrating a birthday do a chant and circle-dance around the table; reminisced about the 80s and the others couldn't believe that Karolina and I haven't seen most of the classics; discovered that Karolina thought Helen Keller was Marlee Matlin; and learned some new jokes, courtesy of Eliya and John; "these two peanuts walked into a bar, got into a fight. One left assaulted." (Get it? A salted!)  

All in all, a great night!

{ John + Karolina / Ken + Barbie }

{ ... what happens when John gets control of the camera }

{ the Spanish bull! }

{ toasting to friendship with bacon-wrapped dates }

{ assorted meats platter }

{ pulpo }

{ smoked sausages }

{ fried padron peppers with salt }

{ braised short ribs and mashed potatoes }

{ braised lamb, uh-MAZ-ing! }

{ spinach + manchego stuffed mushrooms }

But there's always room for dessert...

{ dessert platter }

{ satisfied smiles }

{ head to toe: Anthropologie blouse, skinny black jeans and leather belt from our trip to Spain,
Steve Madden heels, vintage locket }

Cabbage and sausage casserole

Cabbage and Sausage Casserole, a product of my weekend cooking marathon...

Served with a slice of toasted sourdough bread and farmers market green beans from Michigan... this is dinner. God bless leftovers! 

Ingredients:
2 lbs Napa, savoy, or green cabbage
2 lbs Italian sausage (hot or sweet)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tbsp prepared horseradish or mustard
Kosher salt and pepper, to taste

- Heat oven to 400 degrees. Slice the cabbage 1/2 inch thick. Place 1/3 of the cabbage in a Dutch oven or casserole. 
- From each sausage, trim 1 end, and starting at the other end, squeeze to remove the meat from the casing.
- Arrange half the sausage on top of the cabbage. Press firmly. Top with half the remaining cabbage, sprinkle salt and pepper, and all the remaining sausage and press again. Spread the remaining cabbage over the sausage. Sprinkle salt and pepper. 
- Cover with foil and bake until the cabbage is tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Remove from the oven.
- Let stand for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the sour cream and mustard. Slice the casserole into wedges and serve with the sour cream mixture.

(Recipe adapted from Real Simple)

The weekend, succinctly

The weekend was all about cutting back and cost-savings, both for the immediate-term and long-term. It included an attempt to have a stoop/sidewalk sale which washed out after the first hour because of a heavy storm. I made a whopping $4.50. Rather than go through all that work of setting up again if it cleared up, The Fella and I decided to donate to Goodwill whatever we couldn't sell/trade to used clothing and DVD stores in the neighborhood, or on Craigslist/eBay. It ended up being a very resourceful day despite the initial setback – probably more profitable than holding a garage sale – we'll get tax deductions for the donations, plus I made out with a very on-trend, leopard-print blazer by trade!

We recently received coupons for $5 off $15 purchases at ALDI supermarkets, which are said to be beyond cheap. That makes me ask the question, WHY, AND WHAT'S WRONG?? But, we decided to give it a chance on a small, fairly basic grocery list this week. True to my expectations, ALDI is incredulously cheaper than even my local Jewel supermarket, and is just fine for buying non-produce items, so we'll be back again. It's a small store with only the basics and they mostly carry only generic brands. If you're looking for anything more exotic than a staple, like shallots or fresh Parmesan cheese, you'd better look next door to funky Trader Joe's, another grocery store we had also never checked out until this weekend. They have almond butter!

With all this money-saving, we didn't feel guilty about ordering Chinese/Japanese take-out, while jumping on an *incredible* travel deal and negotiating additional cost savings for our vacation in January (the whereabouts to remain a secret until then!)...

... or indulging in a friend's 30th birthday party on a trolley that zipped us through the city for three hours, making pit stops at random bars along the way...

{ head to toe, White House/Black Market leopard-print blazer, Uniqlo layering top,
black miniskirt handed down from my aunt, camel-colored suede booties from Modcloth.com }

{ The Fella and I, enjoying a wild trolley ride around Chicago }

{ the view from the trolley window as we head down
Milwaukee Ave. to Salud Tequila Lounge }

And a classic finish to the weekend... discovered Sunday night that my car's front windshield was smashed in a seemingly random attack, and now we're going to be out several hundred bucks. Good thing we found some money-saving techniques this weekend.

Sunday dinner: Lamb ragout + stuffed squash blossoms

I've been enamoured with the idea of lamb over the last year for its foodie street credibility. Its gamey flavor is something I used to shy away from because it always tasted too strong and overpowering for my liking. But, when done well with the right blend of spices and herbs to augment its flavor, I've discovered that lamb can be uh-MAZ-ing. And since living in the Midwest, practically the capital of all things meat, I've found quite a few options for perfectly delicious lamb entrees, including Market, David Burke's Primehouse, and even an Indian restaurant. Boneless leg of lamb, rack of lamb, curried lamb, you name it, we've got it and it's almost always very well done anywhere I've ordered it in Chicago. That's Midwest love (of food), baby!

Today I decided to do one of my weekend cooking marathons. In the spirit of fall, I made comfort foods like Lamb Ragout, Stuffed Squash Blossoms, Late Summer Mirai Corn, and a Cabbage and Sausage Casserole. The Fella and I invited over a new neighbor for dinner, and he claimed my cooking was as good as his mom's, so that's flattering! I've never experimented with squash blossoms before, but they turned out delicious when quickly floured and fried. They might very well be my new favorite food obsession.

{ prepping for Lamb Ragout, shallots, garlic, carrots, rosemary, thyme }

{ New Zealand ground lamb from Whole Foods }

{ fresh-picked squash blossoms }

{ the finished product, Squash Blossoms stuffed with fresh ricotta cheese,
minced garlic, lemon-thyme, and kosher salt and pepper }

{ the finished product, Lamb Ragout with Rigatoni, served with Sweet Mirai Corn }

Here's the recipe for Lamb Ragout, courtesy of A Chow Life–

2 small shallots, diced finely
1 medium carrot, finely shredded
2 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp fresh chopped thyme
1/2 tsp fresh chopped rosemary
3 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1 lb. ground lamb
1 can (28 oz) diced organic tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp unsalted butter
sea salt, freshly ground pepper to taste
1 lb rigatoni or other pasta of your choice

In a large pan, heat the garlic and olive oil over medium heat until just fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the shallots, carrots, thyme, red pepper flakes, and rosemary and cook until wilted and soft, about 5 minutes. Add the lamb meat and cook until brown with no remaining pink parts of the meat, about 10-15 minutes. Add the tomatoes and tomato paste.

Simmer the mixture over low heat for about 15 minutes to help combine the flavors.

In the meantime, boil the noodles in a large pot of well-salted water until al dente. Drain the pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water.

Add the cooking water to the lamb ragout along with the pat of butter. Stir. Season with salt and pepper. Serve over warm pasta.

Garden vegetables

I just had a life-changing epiphany yesterday. Raw garden vegetables are uh-MAZ-ing! 

You can really taste the freshness and full flavor of garden veggies when you eat them raw or lightly cooked. Then there's that satisfying crunch of crispness on the tip of your teeth when you bite in. I've never had a veggie garden and try not to get into the habit of buying much from farmer's markets, which I feel tend to be a bit pricey especially when compared to Stanley's by my house. But yesterday–– and I realize this will sound ghetto, because it is!–– we had picked up a few zucchini that had fallen off the vine from that random garden right across the street.

The Fella had prepped the zucchini for cooking – sliced into 1/4" rounds, a light sprinkling of lemon pepper and kosher salt, and tossed with extra virgin olive oil and fresh lemon-thyme from our herb buckets. It was all sitting prettily in a large saute pan on the stove, ready for us to cook up when we got back from walking the dog. Being as famished as I was, I snuck a few slices from the pan to tide me over, not expecting much from a raw veggie. *Epiphany!*

The zucchini was bursting with the flavor of late summer, a bright "green" taste that was perfectly complemented by the lemon-thyme. It was sweet and crunchy. In fact, when The Fella finally sauteed it, I found myself still preferring the raw version.

Fall-inspired dish: Roasted chicken in beer and apple cider

It's 11:00pm and I just finished slaving away in the kitchen, tending to a hearty fall-inspired dish: Roasted Chicken with Beer, Apple Cider, Cinnamon and Cloves. Tender meat falling off the bones, infused with a savoury, rich broth with layered, complementary notes of fall. Almost 2 1/2 hours later, and it was well worth it...

Ingredients:
A 3 1/2 to 4lb whole chicken*
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 medium onions, quartered
2 large carrots, peeled and halved lengthwise
2 fresh sage leaves*
4 whole cloves*
1 whole cinnamon stick
1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups flavorful beer
1 cup apple cider

Directions:
:: Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
:: Season chicken with 1 teaspoon of salt, inside and out
:: In a large Dutch oven or deep pot, scatter the onions, carrots, sage, cloves, and cinnamon in the pot. Sprinkle the remaining salt over this. Set chicken on top of the vegetables.
:: Bring pot to a simmer over medium heat. Cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
:: Transfer the pot to the oven, and roast for 30 minutes, basting with the pan juices a few times. Cover chicken loosely with aluminum foil to prevent overbrowning, and roast another 30 minutes. Remove foil, and roast another 30 minutes, basting frequently if needed. 
:: Remove the chicken to a warm serving platter and surround with vegetables. Bring the pan juices to a boil on the stove, and cook until reduced by half. Carve chicken at the table and spoon some pan juice over it.

* I used several chicken drumsticks and legs with bone in/skin on, instead of a whole chicken, because that's just what I had available. I also substituted three dried bay leaves and a few dashes of ground cloves.

The weekend, succinctly

Yeaaa bitches, I'm back!

That pretty much sums up a fun and socially-packed weekend following two previous weekends of feeling "blah", anti-social, and just generally being in a bad way.

There was a fundraiser for juvenile myositis, for which The Fella was an invited guest speaker to present his business idea about creating a Northwestern Memorial Hospital Transition Clinic, in collaboration with Children's Memorial Hospital, which would provide a dedicated facility to seamlessly transition pediatric care patients to adult care.

{ head to toe, Anthropologie eyelet blouse, khaki pants circa 2001,
vintage locket, leather purse from Spain } 

A joyous Indian wedding celebration...

{ Woman's Club of Evanston }

A visit to Chicago's finest, to file a report after an accident on the expressway headed back into the city during Friday rush hour (some Italian princess, a la Snookie from Jersey Shore, in a fancy BMW 328x1 hit me from behind while changing lanes, threatened to call her lawyer – seriously? WTF? – refused to give me her insurance info for 45 minutes because "she had never heard of this exchange of information thing" – again, WTF?? – said it was somehow my fault, fought with me every second, fought/flirted with the Emergency Patrol guy, etc). The *best* part was when she decided not to acknowledge me anymore, and referred to me as "this leee-tle girl". It took everything to restrain myself from pushing her into traffic, but I wanted to keep it klassy, you know? And to top things off, I missed all the Fashion's Night Out events and parties downtown!

Reconnected with an old high school friend who found me on Facebook after 11 years! It turns out that she lives in the city, too, so we met up for the Renegade Arts & Crafts Fair on Division Street, which I look forward to all year long! It was great to see a familiar face out here...

 

{ monster hoodie! }

{ felted crafts are very big here! }

{ other random scenes from the fair }