How NOT to make a frittata

Disclaimer: I do realize this is my first post in over four months. I just don't have time at this particular moment to explain and apologize, and I'm feeling inspired by events that transpired in my kitchen approximately five minutes ago. Suffice it to say that working full-time with a new baby is as hard as everyone says, and this blog is not abandoned.

This is not my usual type of recipe. This, dear reader, is a brief recipe for confusion, slight embarrassment, and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Read on for my guide to making dinner when you're living in the point where laziness, tiredness, and incompetence intersect.

How not to make a frittata:

The (Other) Love of My Life

I'll be honest with you: I'd envisioned my Valentine's Day post a bit differently. This time last year, I was enjoying the #7ShadesofRed challenge and plotting an epic feast involving large quantities of cheese. This year, I spent most of the past week in pajamas, propped up in my bed next to a large mug of tea. It doesn't do to dwell on what might have been, so let's just hope that next year, we'll see my planned post about ways to avoid the morass of cheap sentiment and commodified conceptions of love that plagues V-Day.

Instead, I'm going to tell you a bit about the love of my life that isn't Jeff, or dresses, or Star Wars.

Chicago Christkindlmarket

One of my favorite discoveries since moving to Chicago is the annual Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza. It's an open-air German market with tons of little shops selling cute traditional ornaments and gifts, amazing/carby/meaty German food vendors, and two biergarten-like tents. Last year, Jeff and I waited to go until right before we left to visit our respective families for the holidays, but this year, I was ready to go on Day 1.

Review: Nando's

In honor of our brand-new baby niece and her London-loving mama Tiffany, I'm finally reviewing a restaurant that Tiffany recommended to us. Tiffany loved spent a year studying abroad in London, so when she heard we were going to England, she had tons of advice, recommendations, and tips for us. I think she was most excited for us to try Nando's, a restaurant that she'd really loved. Once Jeff started planning our trip, he discovered that there's a Nando's right here in Chicago, so off we went to check it out!

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!'

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.

Restorative Recipes: Healthy Pasta Salad

I've noticed two running themes in my food-related posts: they're either super healthy or beyond unhealthy. My recipes fall into the 'healthy' category, while my food-related excursions around Chicago tend to be laughably bad for my arteries. To make up for the bacon-fest that was Tuesday's post, I'm posting one of my favorite recipes: a supremely nutritious pasta salad! This recipe is easy, doesn't involve much cleanup (a pot, a colander, and a mixing bowl), and can easily be made vegetarian or vegan by leaving out the salmon and/or the feta. I know it's a successful recipe because whenever I make it, Jeff doesn't even look up from his bowl for the first few servings. It's also great the next day for lunch!

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?

Cake Day!

When I lived in LA, Sundays were 'Cake Day.' In case you couldn't tell from the name, Cake Day was the one day each week that I'd get myself a piece of cake. As a rule, I don't make desserts at home, nor do I typically order them in restaurants. But on Cake Day, I'd go all out: chocolate cheesecake from the French bakery in Westwood Village, a slice of something delightful from Sweet Lady Jane, or an assortment of pastries from the Persian bakery near our apartment. Each week, I'd start looking forward to Cake Day around Tuesday or so.

Since we moved to Chicago, Cake Day has fallen by the wayside. There just aren't any exciting cake bakeries in our neighborhood, and Jeff and I are both trying to eat more vegetables and less junk. But a few weeks ago, Cake Day made a surprise weekday reappearance! Let me start at the beginning…

This particular tale of cake actually starts with hot dogs. One of the places on Jeff's restaurant list is Max's Take Out in the Loop, and on this particular windy, drizzly day, we'd decided to go there. First, I made Jeff take a few pictures of me while we were waiting for the bus.

I decided to take my Pinup Girl Clothing Heidi dress out for a spin (...sorry not sorry), and paired it with a red petticoat and shrug, because red and leopard print is possibly the best thing ever. I even wore heels! This dress is super fabulous. I've found that the Heidi dresses from PUG tend to run a bit bigger than some of the other styles I've tried, and I was actually able to size down to a medium. I don't typically want my petticoat to stick out the bottom of the dress, but because my tea-length red petticoat and shrug match perfectly, I wanted that little hint of ruffle showing at the bottom. 

My outfit made a valiant effort to absorb Jeff into the layers of fluff and skirt on the bus, but he survived.

Bacon Blackout

Yesterday, Jeff and I had a super exciting adventure! Like most of our adventures, this one involved food, the North Side, and public transit. But like the very best of our adventures, this one also involved BACON!

Restorative Recipes: Roasted Veggie and Wheatberry Salad

Since Jeff and I moved to Chicago last September, I’ve been consciously trying to make healthy meals nearly every night. Chicago is a meat-and-beer kind of town (seriously, the beer lists here rival the wine lists in Southern California for breadth and general awesomeness!), and while we want to explore everything the city has to offer, we like our arteries reasonably un-clogged. Moderation in all things ;).

The first recipe in my Restorative Recipes series is one of my go-to healthy meals: roasted veggie and wheatberry salad. The version I make most often is vegetarian, but you can make it vegan simply by leaving out the feta. I also often make this with quinoa in place of wheatberries, particularly if I get a late start on dinner, since wheatberries take at least an hour to cook.