Windy City Weekend

Last weekend we went to Chicago.
It felt so good to be in another city and around family
it was also nice to get inspired.
The husband and I both left with a renewed sense of creativity.

We went to Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art,
The National Museum of Mexican Art , and The Garfield Park Conseravatory
and meandered through different neighborhoods, popping into different shops.
We found a few wine shops that were inspiring, a vintage store that made my
dreams come true, and a bookstore that was an overwhelming maze.

We drank cocktails that were artisanally prepared in a kitchen, ate
the best Spanish tapas that we'e ever had, gorged on hot dogs topped
with foie gras, consumed some real Chicago deep dish, and had a
4 course meal prepared for us by Peter and Chelsie.

We started with Beef Carpaccio

















Then had homemade pasta with tomato sauce

















Roasted Salmon

















and a flourless chocolate cake, topped with candles for
the birthday girl.




















It was an awesome weekend, we're already thinking about our next
trip back <3

Green Frustrations.

For the last few years I've been trying to cut out the crap.

Buy less processed food, de-tox my cleaning supplies

as well as my body products, not buy things with 

artificial fragrance, etc.

The process is frustrating.

A lot of products that are labeled "green", "organic", or 

"natural" are just as toxic as everything else. The realization 

of this has made me want to throw things.

There are so many homemade recipes online, for everything

from laundry detergent to mascara.  I feel like I'm falling down the 

rabbit hole of things that I might choose to make instead of buy.

And it almost makes me feel crazy, but it shouldn't because I'm trying

to make the right choices about what I put in and on my body.

I don't want to be the person that knows and does nothing.

This may not make a whole lot of sense, and perhaps it's just the

ramblings of a weird hippie.  But it's something that I'm currently

dealing with and felt the need to vent.

Latest Obsessions

Beating the winter blues.
(I hate this time of year when the sun never shines)

Putting my juicer to work
(kale,apple, ginger, cucumber, carrot)

Finding a $7 quart of organic strawberries
(I never see them for less than $10, I ate
the whole box in 2 days.)

Mission Chinese Food
Go for the food, stay for the Twin Peaks undertones.
I recommend the pig ear terrine. fantastic.

The Amelie Soundtrack
After 10-maybe 11- years I still don't tire of hearing it,
or watching the movie.

Coconut Oil
To cook with and to use as a body moisturizer.
Tons of benefits.

Stocking up on wine
I've been trying to fill the shelves of our new bar area
just to make sure that we always have wine in the house.
Latest additions are Domaine des Roches Neuves
Samur Champigny 2011, and Domaine de la Solitude
Cotes du Rhone 2011.

The Sketchbook Project

I'm sending in my sketchbook today.
Somehow I managed to fill it in just a few weeks,
and it really felt good.  It also gave me a new
drawing obsession, the mussel colony.
The ones that cover and snake along the pages
are what I imagine and underwater overgrowth of mussels
to look like.( I'm currently working on a large size of it)

I love repetitive drawing, there is something very soothing about it.
Lately I've been trying to work on things that are detail oriented so
that it forces me to slow down.  I can sometimes speed through the drawing
process so having meticulous details really helps to put the brakes on.

I had intended to put some collages in, but realized that when it comes to
my collage work I am extremely selfish.  They are the works that I treasure
the most and I hate the idea of parting with them (odd, I know).
Maybe because they are one of a kind, they can never be made in the same
way ever again because they are a combination of images from dozens
of outdated magazines.

I enjoyed doing this project, it got me back into a working mode,
and now the Sketchbook will go on tour and eventually settle in Brooklyn
where maybe, possibly people will take it out and look at it.

Here are a few of my favorite pages:
The dreaded Anglerfish

I did put in some photos that I really liked,
arctic photos, with their deep blues and greens,
are some of my favorites.

These are my mussel colonies, or at least the first
stage of them.

Sloglette

I harvested our first mega mushroom from Slog yesterday,

chopped it up and put it in an omelette
(with caramelized onions and a slice of swiss)
 It was delicious.

Who knew that you could grow mushrooms at home??
Now if only they had logs for chantarelles and porcini..

Latest Obsessions

*Finishing this Sketchbook Project
Due next week and I've got 6 pages to go

*Volumina: A Bawdy Fairytale by Julie Ann Hall
because I wasn't obsessed enough with Julie already.

*Sauternes
I think I'll be ordering a glass whenever I see it-unless
it's an outrageous price...that said...the idea of buying a
375ml of Yquem is still turning in my mind.
(wholesale of course)
(sidenote 2: I'd also need a few people to go in on it.)

*Our fancy new bathroom.
New grout, new caulk, cleared drains, painted cabinet.
It feels like Christmas all over again.
(seriously, I hated our bathroom before)

*Planning the events for the husband's birthday
I've got a few ideas right now...

*Buying some new stationary
Paper Source recently set up shop in Soho
and I've been dying to go back and stock up!

*Finding more vintage National Geographics for collages
I'm starting to exhaust my supply.

A Night Out

Last night we checked out Acme, which we've been meaning
to get to for about a year now.  It's been written up by just about everyone
and always with good reviews. So we had a night out.

Because their menu is so different we had a hard time choosing
what to order.  We decided to throw caution to the wind and order
the 6 things that we had our eyes on.  Our courses went like this:

Mackerel Tart & Shrimp and Bison: These came from the Raw portion
of the menu and were probably my least favorite due to the strong after tastes.
The husband enjoyed them though. I took one bite of each and called it a day.
Maybe if it was a more mild fish I could have hung in there.

I can't remember the name of our second course but
it was a ball of pastry stuffed with duck confit and served with
this delicious pear mustard.  I could have eaten a million of these.

Sunchoke Soup & Whole Grains with Mushrooms: These were our favorites.
Really savory and insanely tasty.  The whole grains was especially mind blowing
because you can't imagine how someone could make this interesting.  But they
succeed admirably.  They used foraged mushrooms and a few kinds of grains as
the base, there was a sauce on the bottom and a foam on top. One of both of these
had aged parmesan in it, and the flavors just blended beautifully.

During dinner I had a glass of their orange wine, which was served (just about)
room temp so you were able to really get all the rich flavors.  The husband started
with a green tomato margarita (which was delicious) and also had a glass of
red from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France.

We finished the night with their Beer & Bread porridge a glass of
my favorite Moscato d'Asti (Bera) and glass of Sauternes-
which is quickly becoming my newest obsession. It is just magical to me
how something so absolutely heavenly came from grapes with noble rot.
So good.

And that was our experience at Acme. The husband's fav was the
Grains and Mushrooms and mine was the Sunchoke Soup.  I'd be interested in
visiting again in the spring/summer when the menu changes again.

A Year in Books

I love books.
They rank extremely high on my list of favorite things.
I'm the person that can spend hours in used book stores
hunting for lost treasures (and Agatha Christie novels).
And the one who can't leave HousingWorks or the Strand
without a huge stack.

Over the years I (and the husband) have amassed a large collection
of books.  They take up space on 3 different bookshelves, and are
stacked and scattered all over our living room as well.
I was staring at our main bookshelf the other day and
began to wonder how many books I read in a year.

So I came up with another fun list.
Which is super nerdy, but I'm all about it.
I'll be keeping track of all the books that I read each month
and posting them on here. And you, dear friend, can do the same.
Write what books you've read in a month in the comments of the post.
It'll be like a book club without actually getting together.

My book count for January is 2 so far, but I have a stack of 4 books in waiting.
I'm excited to see what everyone is reading!
I'll check back in with this on January 31st :)

Latest Obsessions

Nothin' but Time-Cat Power
(can't.stop.listening)

Healthy Hot Chocolate
(via My New Roots. Sounds delicious)

The 13 Clocks by James Thurber
This was a Christmas gift from the husband and I am
thoroughly enjoying it.  In the words of Neil Gaiman
"It's not a fairy tale. It's not a poem. It's not a parable or a
fable or a novel or joke.  Truly, I don't know what
The 13 Clocks is, but whatever it is, it's the only one
that ever was."

Cutting out unnecessary soy
(not that we buy a lot of processed food anyway
but it was in our Kashi cereal and it freaked me out.
I'll also be switching chocolate)

The January Issue of Living
(so many good recipes and organizing ideas.)

Enjoying my day off
(my first in a week)