And the Livin' is Easy

Well, it's finally fall, even though it's been ludicrously hot in Chicago for almost a week now. This summer was been super eventful, and it was such a nice change of pace from the first several months of the year! First, my mom came to visit, and after spending one of the nicest weekends I've had all year with her, I had two days of Trashy Diva meetups the very next weekend. I went to Vintage Garage Chicago for the first time and scored some sweet new dresses and an epic suitcase, and Jeff and I had a lovely babymoon around Chicago.

Babymoon: the Adler Planetarium

Calling all space/astronomy nerds! There's a big event coming on August 21: a total solar eclipse! For the first time in quite a while, the path of the eclipse will cut from coast to coast of the United States, and I'm actually going to get a pretty good view in Chicago at midday. I've already planned my entire day around getting to Chicago's Adler Planetarium for the eclipse, though I still need to assemble a kit for safe viewing.

Babymoon: Lincoln Park Zoo

Every once in a while, I realize that for all my efforts to see major landmarks and local attractions, I've been missing out on a major one. (This is why I went to the Bronx Zoo for the first time at twenty years old, despite living forty-five minutes away, and why I still haven't seen the Statue of Liberty up close.) Recently, our Chicago staycation adventures took us to one of the most glorious places I've yet seen out here: Lincoln Park and its famous zoo!

Pirate Treasure

What does my favorite neighborhood mural have to do with a pirate-print Trashy Diva dress? Well...nothing, unless 'both things make me happy' counts.

Restaurant Review: Cafe El Tapatio

First things first: YOU GUYS THE CUBS WON THE WORLD SERIES! It was the most excruciatingly thrilling baseball game I've ever watched and I almost couldn't handle the tension, but they WON and life is good. I liveblogged the agony and the ecstasy on my Insta and stayed up way too late after the game ended.

Anyway. It is a truth universally acknowledged that the Mexican food in Southern California is damn near perfect, and after living in LA for eight years, my standards for Mexican food are ludicrously high. Alas, our new life in Chicago affords us far too few opportunities to have a proper taco and/or chile relleno. Before last week, I think I must've gone something like three months since my last proper taco. To clarify: a proper taco is a soft taco on a small tortilla, filled with nothing but meat and topped with onions, cilantro, and salsa.

Thankfully, as I discovered last Thursday, there's good Mexican food to be had in Chicago. I honestly don't remember how Jeff heard about Cafe El Tapatio, but I'm glad he put it on our ever-growing list of restaurants to try, because it was absolutely epic.

The Witching Hour

October certainly has been a red-letter month for hanging out with blogger friends in real life. Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to spend some time with two of the most awesome petite bloggers in Chicago: Devinne of Mox and Socks, and Mariam of the Petite Bijou, and let me tell you, these ladies are awesome!

Pretty in Plaid

Far and away, the best part of blogging is the new friends I've made. Immersing myself in a community of fabulous, supportive fellow clotheshorses has brought so much positivity and happiness to my life, and reading blogs helped me to get out of that new-city funk when I first moved to Chicago. A little over a week ago, I got to meet one of the very bloggers that I've admired since the early days of Thoroughly Modern Emily: Devinne from Mox and Socks! Her blog is one of my favorites around because of her incredible photo skills, fantastic style, uniquely thoughtful perspective, and creative hair tutorials, and since we've also gotten to know each other over Instagram, I was over the moon when we finally got to meet in person!

Weekend Warrior

After getting home from my recent trip to England, the past week or so has been a total whirlwind. Between going straight back to work the next day and having an amazing weekend of celebrating Jeff's birthday and shooting with the wonderful Devinne of Mox and Socks, it's been a little hard to find the time to write up a post or two about my Cambridge adventure. I had such an incredible time visiting England for the first time that I want these posts to be perfect, which (for me) makes it harder to get started.

On the Road

At this point, I probably don't even need to tell you how much I love the Kelly dress from Bernie Dexter. It may or may not be impossible for me to blog about this style without waxing poetic, but I'll try to keep a lid on my fulsome praise today, and instead focus on the important business: food!

One Year in Chicago

One year ago today, Jeff and I arrived in Chicago. Over the past few days, I've spent quite a bit of time marveling over how much difference a year makes. When we left LA, I was terrified. All my earthly possessions (save the ones I jammed in Jeff's car) were on a truck, my parents had taken my car to New York to live with them indefinitely, I was moving to an entirely new city with no job and no firm plans, and after eight years on the academic track, I was preparing for a major career change. Seeing as I'm a major creature of habit, this move to the Midwest was a massive leap of faith.

Green Kimono Lena

During Honeymoon Part 1: Staycation Edition, I finally got to go to the Shedd Aquarium, and of course, I dressed for a completely different occasion. I have to wonder if the part of my brain that recognizes (and more importantly, cares) that I'm not dressed appropriately for an occasion was irreparably damaged by my years in grad school. I certainly wouldn't be the only casualty!

Birthday Shenanigans 2016

Summer birthdays are a mixed bag. On one hand, I've never had to go to school or take an exam on my birthday, which is a significant plus, and I share my birthday with one of my favorite historical events. On the other hand, it is always approximately eight thousand degrees on my birthday, and generally pretty humid to boot.

This year's birthday was no exception to the rule. It was too hot to dress to the nines (i.e. in a full skirt with epic petticoat underneath, and properly styled hair), but on the bright side, it didn't thunder or rain on me! I'm calling that a win.

A Taste of Chicago

Well, I still have a *slight* backlog of potential posts in both the Restorative Recipes and Stuff We Did categories. In case you couldn't tell, I'm not the world's most linear person, so I'm not necessarily going to post these things in the order they happened. Honestly, this is mostly because I'm trying to convince Jeff to release me from the no-photos-of-him-on-the-blog promise for a post on our wedding, but it's also because I'm a little spontaneous when it comes to deciding what to write about.

All of this is a roundabout way of saying 'don't worry that today's post is all about the most recent fun thing I did, because I haven't forgotten about all the other stuff!'

Dinner Avec Friends

It's been a while since I posted about food, which is surprising because I have so many food-related posts in mind. A couple of weeks ago, Jeff and I tried a new place in the West Loop with some new friends of ours. Our last culinary expedition to the West Loop was a smashing success, so we had high expectations, but Avec managed to meet those expectations handily!

It was a nice warmish day, at least when we left our apartment, so I wore a new-to-me mint-green dress that I got for a song. This purse is one of my favorites, but because of the move, it's spent far too long stashed in my closet, so I was glad to have a reason to bust it out! This dress was definitely the right call for a big meal, too, as it has an elastic waistband.

Avec is one of those restaurants with an ever-so-fashionable small-plates menu, which was great as it meant we got to try a ton of amazing things. We got there quite early on a Sunday, because we'd heard that it gets quite busy, and sure enough, by around 5:30 or so, the place had completely filled up around us. They have a pretty big wine list and a small selection of fancy cocktails, which we all ordered. I went for a 'Pear Today, Gone Amaro,' and quite liked it. After a little bit, the first of our food arrived:

Bacon-wrapped, chorizo-stuffed dates.

Calamari with hummus and watermelon radishes.

The appetizers all looked amazing, but we settled on the bacon-wrapped dates and the calamari, both of which were excellent. I don't know what was in their hummus that made it so much better than normal hummus, but I wholeheartedly approve. I am still having flashbacks to how good the bacon-wrapped stuffed dates were, too!

For entrees, we went for a duck-egg (!!!) pizza, paella, and a cauliflower tagine (not pictured, because I dug in before remembering to take a photo!), all of which were amazing. I think my favorite of the entrees was the pizza, because the egg made a delicious sauce and went so well with the peppers, greens, and cheese.

Paella

 

Duck-egg pizza

I'm not often up for dessert, since I'm usually too stuffed to eat anything else, but for once, I was totally set on getting dessert, so we got two of the chocolate olive oil cake with hazelnut gelato and each couple split one. This was a great/terrible decision: great because the cake and gelato were out of this world, but terrible because I only had half of one. I probably could've eaten both all by myself.

Dessert: chocolate cake with espresso labneh and hazelnut gelato. YES.

Avec was a lovely place and I would definitely love to go back and try some of the dishes that we didn't get this time. I liked the atmosphere (bright, airy, and relaxed) and loved having so many different dishes in one meal.

By the time we got home, I'd ditched the belt long ago (when will I learn?!?), but my collar clips were still firmly attached, so I'm calling the evening a total victory.

Dress: Forever 21, secondhand

Shoes: Gap

Collar clips: Femme De Bloom

Earrings: Atomic Lucite

Bag: Betseyville

How do you feel about small-plates/tapas menus?

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Baton Rouge Birdie at Navy Pier

It's been a while since my last Chicago adventure post, but to make up for the long wait, today's post is a real doozy, in the best possible way! Jeff and I took a day during his spring break and visited Navy Pier. We'd been there once before, during our apartment-hunting trip to Chicago last August, but we were eager to go back and explore it without the stress of finding a place to live looming like a housing-related sword of Damocles over our heads. So we did!

The Best Burger of My Life

Last week was Jeff's spring break, so we did more than the usual amount of Chicago adventuring. We went back to Navy Pier (post coming soon!), tried out a Chinese restaurant I'd been interested in for a while, went out for dinner in our neighborhood, and had the best burgers I've ever had in my entire life. I'm a hyperbole-prone person, but for once, this is not an exaggeration.

I'll get to the food in a minute, but first, here's what I wore:

The Apple of my Eye

Greetings from the great state of New York! I'm here for a visit because today is my mother's birthday. It's really so much nicer to come East from Chicago, as there's no real jet lag from a one-hour time difference. The flight is only a little longer than the drive from the airport to my parents' house, too! I'm looking forward to sharing my New York doings with all of you, but today's post is a tale of Chicago-based gluttony and amazing food!

My cousin introduced me to Red Apple Polish buffet a few years back, when he and his partner were living in Logan Square and I was in town for a conference. It was so amazing that I dreamed of going back for years. When Jeff and I moved to Chicago and started making our list of restaurants to try, Red Apple was my sole solo contribution. We went there shortly after the move, but back then, this blog didn't exist. However, we recently went back for round two. It was just as good as the previous two times, and I can't wait to go again!

Since Red Apple is a buffet, I picked my outfit with extra care: I needed something especially forgiving and comfortable, but still cute enough to make me happy!

Sometimes my photographer takes photos while I'm getting my hair out of my face and they come out better than the ones I posed for properly.

#DumpTrump Dinner: Make Cauliflower Gratin Again!

Credit where credit is due: I stole the pun from my cousin. He is peerlessly punny.

I've been super busy since last Thursday, doing all sorts of fun stuff. It's a nice change of pace from my adjunct days, when "super busy" meant "prepping classes, teaching, and grading until 10pm every day." Jeff and I had an amazing Chicago adventure this weekend (post coming soon! Well, soonish. I have too many outfits to post first!), and my cousin was in town visiting his girlfriend, so I had a fun evening with them and some of their friends.

Friday was the world's longest day, because I inexplicably woke at 4am and couldn't get back to sleep. But since all 22 hours I spent awake were pretty awesome, and I liked my outfit, it was a major success! I met my cousin and his girlfriend at their friends' place, and we cooked an epic dinner and watched old episodes of Top Chef and Samantha Bee's new show.

Bacon Bacchanalia

Today's post was supposed to be my review of the Girl and the Goat, a restaurant that the entire Chicago world seems to be freaking out over, but it's apparently so popular that you have to make reservations a month in advance. Luckily, Jeff called to ask them about a reservation before we left the apartment, or else the sum total of the post would have been "we trekked out there and it was too busy, and then I cried."

Instead, we decided to go back to Paddy Long's and eat All the Bacon Ever. I've talked about this place on my blog before, but it was just as awesome the second time, so I'll talk about it again.

First, though: a photo of the Perfect Dress for Eating Everything!

Adventure Time: Chicago Brauhaus Edition

Happy day-after-Valentine's-Day, everyone! Today's post is brought to you by the letters W-A-Y A-F-T-E-R T-H-E and F-A-C-T. I'm running about a week behind on tales of my Adventures in Chicago Restaurants, but there are just too many things to write about each week. Jeff and I continue to make progress through our list, though. About a week and a half ago, we decided it was time to load up on meat and potatoes, so we headed up to Chicago Brauhaus in Lincoln Square.

Even though everyone is telling me that this has been a mild winter, I'm still VERY ready for spring, so I dressed in seasonally-inappropriate pastels and gingham. 

I do what I want!!

It took about an hour to get there, during which time I pored over the menu online, told Jeff how excited I was over and over, and reveled in the city skyline.

Look, it's the Art Institvte of Chicago!

It was impossible to get a good photo of this archway without standing in the middle of the road, so here is a mediocre photo.

It may be Febraury, but this little promenade outside the restaurant still had lovely lights on their trees!

I'm a sucker for Tudor-style architectural details and brick buildings. Oddly specific, but true.

The inside of the restaurant was just as cute as the exterior, with red chandeliers and rainbow stained-glass windows out in front. We ordered more food than was wise, strictly speaking: a giant Bavarian pretzel and potato pancakes to share, beef Rouladen for me, and the Brauhaus special for Jeff.

Carbs for the win!

Beef Rouladen with Spätzle.

All the meat for Jeff.

Everything was super delicious! The potato pancakes had an herb that I couldn't quite place in them, and it made them stand out from all the latkes we've had at various delis. The smoked pork loin that Jeff got with his meal was approximately a zillion times better than normal pork loin/any pork loin I've ever made, and the gravy on mine was very good and made a nice sauce for the spätzle. On a side note, I'm so proud that I still remember how to do the keyboard shortcut for an umlaut.

We also got boots full of beer, because I'm a total sucker for novelty packaging, including novelty food presentation.

Jeff's reaction to our beer boots was classic Homer: "well, it's pretty big… I guess…"

When we were about halfway through our dinner, something very exciting happened: live music auf Deutsch! I didn't expect this at all, but apparently the regulars there did, because some of them had  rather emphatic requests for the band. They played "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music, which is probably the best part of the entire movie, and I was utterly charmed.

Was I ready to explode by the time I finished eating? Yes. Are we planning to go back? Yes. I highly recommend this place if you want to 1) eat delicious things and 2) be serenaded in German.

I'm very glad I wore this dress, as it's a bit loose in the waist. I got this dress during the Black Friday  sales for a song, but it's quite well made, with a lovely full skirt, a fully lined bodice, and adjustable straps (!!!). Ordinarily, I'd've thrown on a black cardigan and called it a day, but I've been making a concerted effort to wear more colors, so I paired it with my mint cropped cardigan, blush pink petticoat, and pink sparkly heart brooch. The most exciting thing about this brooch (other than the fact that it's a pink sparkly heart, which is exciting in itself) is that it perfectly matches a pair of heart earrings I got in Japan in 2005. What are the odds?

Dress: Lucky Thirteen from Pinup Girl Clothing (currently sold out in most sizes)

Petticoat: Malco Modes Jennifer in Dusty Rose

Sweater: Le Bomb Shop

Boots: Rieker (oldies but goodies!)

Brooch: Medium sparkle heart from the Sparkle Bakery

What's your favorite type of food to pig out on?