Eating my way through Chicago

Ahh, food. I decided that after my vacation, I would go on a diet. A major, zero carb diet. I know it's not the healthiest diet to be on, but I just want something to jumpstart my weightloss which has been at a plateau for a couple months. I figure I'll do the low-carb thing for a little while and slowly add in the complex carbs.

Oh, thai noodles, how I'll miss thee.

And Garrett's popcornsicle ... I'll have to put you on hold ...

Serrano ham-wrapped asparagus, I think I'm allowed to keep you ...

Sushi, my love. Ahh, sushi ...

I don't know if I can give you up. Maybe I'll save you for a special occasion.

Holy Cow! Chips ... I wonder if I can duplicate you with turnips?

Holy Cow! burger ... I can eat you without a bun. I could eat two (okay, that's stretching it).

I never thought I would miss pizza. But Chicago pizza, how I'll miss thee. I'll just have to dream about you instead.

In the meantime, on vacation I enjoyed myself. We didn't go anywhere especially ... special, but we had some damn good meals. The Grill, 1492 Tapas, Timothy O'Toole's, Harry Carey's, Salude (wine bar), Gino's East, Cindy's Pizza, Garrett's Popcorn, Silver Spoon Thai, Hot Woks Cool Sushi, all the food at Taste of Chicago .... ahh, good stuff. I think I might be okay with my memories of carbs for now ... :) Excuse me, I need to hunt down some meat.

I'm back!

We got back in late Monday night, and while I had a wonderful time I'm thrilled to be home. I slept so wonderfully last night, in my own bed, until 8:30 this morning! And it's good to see my baby boy. I'm sure there are photos and blog posts to come from me, but for now I just wanted to say hi and leave you with this!

B-R-B

My bags are packed, I'm ready to go ...

Okay, well that's a lie. But Spencer's packed and ready to spend 5 (!!!!) days with Grandma and Grandpa, and everything's set for my brother to dog/housesit (frozen pizzas, ramen and pepsi are sufficiantly stocked), and, well, I'll pack after Spencer goes to bed. But in 12 hours, I'll be on a plane to Chicago to spend my 29th birthday in style ...

Toodles!

What a ham!

Little man loves making faces. He makes this face constantly.

It is usually accompanied by shaking and laughing. And hubby laughing so hard that it's hard to take video.

Here it is again -- such a ham! No surprise his favorite meat is pork.

Video game widow

This is probably a hypocritical post for me to write, but this is a sight I see ... often.

Maybe I'm just jealous because I want to play and instead I'm making breakfast, and cleaning, and watching the babe?

wanted: natural lighting for my food

I didn't know what to call this post. On the one hand, I made this delicious pasta with leeks, bacon and lemon. On the other hand, my gripe is that I have no real natural lighting in my house, and so any time I want decent pictures of food, it's carried outside to take on a flat surface.

Today's picture was taken on top of the doghouse.

Prior to today, I was a leek virgin. I've seen them used in recipes, I've seen them in the store but I've never had the guts to use them in anything or even order them in restaurants.

This ends now.

I made this pasta, and I am in love with the leek. I have popped my leek cherry. It was a memorable experience.
Leek Pasta

• 1 lb pasta (I used campanelle)


• 5 slices of raw bacon, chopped


• 3-4 leeks, well rinsed and cut in disks (just the white and light green parts)


• 1 tbs minced garlic


• salt and pepper


• the zest and juice of one lemon


• freshly grated or shaved Parmesan cheese

Bring salted water to a boil. Cook pasta to your preference (mine is slightly more done than al dente, personally). While pasta is cooking, in a large pan on medium high heat, add olive oil, leeks, bacon and a little salt. Stir to coat leeks, and cover. Stir occasionally. When bacon is almost fully cooked, add garlic.

When pasta is done, save 1/2 cup of the pasta water and drain. Add pasta to leek mixture (once it's done to your taste, of course), along with the lemon juice and zest and pasta water. mix fully and serve hot , topped with cheese.

honey, you have mustard on your face

Spencer decided at 16 months that he liked to dip his chicken nuggets in anything he could reach. A few times it was sour cream and salsa, and then we decided to give him a container of honey mustard dressing to make his dips. He loved it. However, afterward he ended up with this on his face:

What the heck? I did a bunch of research -- was he allergic to honey? But this was more of a contact rash - it was only around his face where the honey mustard touched. All my research said that honey was used to get rid of rashes, not cause them. So it had to have been the mustard. Any ideas? It wasn't a homemade dressing, but a Beef O Brady's pre-packaged container. And it didn't bother him and went away after about an hour.