indian food

adam and i got invited to a dinner party by a yoga mat neighbor tonight. he is cooking indian food. i'm going to attempt to make a dish. i'm worried about the socializing part. i'm so awkward! wish me luck!



photo via

project #2

working on project #2. any logo pop out to you?

sharpie pencil

a sharpie pencil that turns into sharpie ink in a few days? love it.

pasta cacio e pepe

tonight i made cacio e pepe pasta. it was so delicious! the ingredients are cheese, olive oil, pasta water, and lot's of ground pepper. pecorino romano is the cheese normally used but i only had parmesan and asiago so i used that instead. i grilled some chicken from the coop on the side. it was pretty tasty if i say so myself.

weekend

Adam wanted to buy some snacks for his students tomorrow. I suggested Tim Horton's (a coffeshop known for their coffee and donuts)for some apple cider donuts. I've never heard of a Tim Horton's before moving here but they are a huge chain from Canada. In Canada, TH's surpasses McDonalds (from wikipedia).
We dropped into a Tim Horton's to test out the donut's. I wanted the crueller and the apple cider and sour cream donut (Adam wanted to try the pumpkin spice) so we went home with four donuts. I ate two whole donuts and I am regretting it now.. I feel so sick.
My workspace at home. I'm working on project #2 for graphic design. We are supposed to design a logo for a subway system using illustrator. I like illustrator but my logo's are pretty crappy....

i love jcrew

quiche

i made quiche for breakfast this morning. it turned out really well. not at all salty, cheesy or too eggy... adam wondered if my cooking chops are better than his now. :)i cheated a little with a pre-made pie crust. next time i will tackle a crust made from scratch.

covet: boat shoe

thinking about getting these shoes....

curry

i made curry from scratch today. in japan, everyone uses the box rue. adam doesn't like the taste of instant curry, he says it tastes salty and artificial. hathe sturdy le creuset oven
supplies from the coop
curry. to tell you the truth i prefer the box.. just like i like my pillsbury croissants and green onion casserole (from the can).



post edit: did you know japanese curry had tomato sauce in it? weird...

lightning, thunder and hail

we got some crazy lightning tonight in mount pleasant. it lit up the whole sky. it was pretty beautiful. i was the weirdo taking pictures on the front porch. i've never seen anything like it. adam says it is a mid-western thing?

weekend

made a full english breakfast on saturday morning. the beans are curry flavored...
this is what i did friday night and saturday morning.. stamping, labeling, and addressing.
more stamping...
we had some friends over to watch greenberg (which was pretty awful) and i made a cheese plate. i guess serving doesn't equal to made? oh well.

boyfriend shorts

garance shares clothes with her boyfriend too! does that make me fashionable? i'm going to pretend the answer is yes. she's french and she rolls her shorts just like me.

pan-chedder

last night i made carbonara for dinner. funny story... i went to the market to purchase supplies for dinner. i can't find pancetta.
me to the guy in the meats area: "excuse me, do you carry pancetta here?"

him: "cheddar should be in the cheese section."

me: "not cheddar, i am looking for pancetta."

him: "cheddar is where the cheeses are."

me: "i'm looking for pancetta, similar to bacon."

him: "it's a meat? like bacon? it used to be by the sliced deli meats but we must not carry it anymore."


liar. okay, maybe it isn't so funny..

photo via

today

it is getting a little chillier in mount pleasant. i can see the leaves rustling outside my window and i am drinking a lot more hot tea. your rustic blog post and the cool weather here inspired me to buy some wood at the gas station. i carried the wood inside to pay and the attendant said, "you don't have to carry that thing in here, it's heavy." the customer's behind me chuckled. i don't know these things(there was a barcode), i'm from the city?

today is kind of a anniversary. i moved to mount pleasant exactly one year ago today. my mom dropped me off at the airport and i had to hold back my tears (when did i turn into such a crybaby?). a baby was waving to someone near me when i realized the baby was waving to my mom who was waving goodbye to me. sometimes i wish california was closer...

Project #1

Thanks for all your help guys. Hopefully I will get an okay grade on it. Wishful thinking?

post edit: the kids in my class liked my project, they said it was, "professional." yaay!

roasting..

cauliflower.. topped it with parmesan cheese. delicious!
rosemary potato medley

Rosemary pork tenderloin.. I always forget there are only two of us so we should cut portions.

Yesterday I ran into my neighbors while shopping and invited them to dinner one day in the future.. they are super nice. They brought Adam lettuce when he first moved to Mount Pleasant. I'll need to add servings when that happens, they have three really adorable kids.

dinner party

Adam's colleague invited us to a gourmet dinner party this weekend. The host calls out a theme and each couple prepares a dish for the party. The theme of the evening was Cuban food. Adam made plantains and rice pudding. It was a nice way to meet new people in Mount Pleasant. We actually talked to a couple who are history teachers at CMU and got their doctorates at UC Irvine. The wife is a native Californian. exciting.


photo via

help! favors

what are your favorite wedding favors? i like chocolate, poppers (for the paper crown), soap. i've gotten a few frames.. but they are the cheap and not really useful kind. my favorite la maison du chocolate has chocolate favor's for $5 a box. expensive!


image via ny mag

superdawg

I bought Adam the 1000 things to do before you die book for his birthday. It lists places to visit, eat, etc. I thought it would be fun book to have especially since we have been fortunate to travel the past few years. One of the things to do in Chicago is to visit Superdawg. It has been a Chicago institution since 1948 and one of the last original drive-in's left in the US.Mascot's of Superdawg..Maurie and Flaurie.
Retro containers..
my whoopskidawg
Adam's superdawg with all the fixin's



It was fun. Can't wait to do it again!

lou malnati's

lunch on day two was at lou malnati's. lou malnati's is credited for the chicago deep dish pizza. Chicago style has a pie crust, a thick later of cheese, homemade sausage, tomato sauce and topped with cheese. Maybe I will try to make it one day. It takes about 40 minutes to make the pizza.

I told Adam that I have never had a great New York pizza. I also asked Adam which type of pizza he preferred New York v. Chicago. He prefers New York style.

MK

Our first reservation in chicago was at MK. I just realized that I was pretty hungry and didn't take any photo's of the first part of the meal. Adam ordered the summer tasting menu. The first course was a cucumber gazpacho. I had the octopus as a starter and Adam's dad ordered kumamoto oysters.
This is Adam's second course, the "surf and turf." It's a crudo of sockeye salmon, kinnikinnick farm radish charred carpaccio of filet mignon.

Heirloom tomato's
Adam's dad ordered the market fish which was the red snapper..
I ordered the special Halibut. So delicious.
Mediteranean fish...
My dessert is called two bananas walk into a bar. It is a banana souffle cake, toasted marshmallow fluff, macadamia nut crumble, dark chocolate sauce and malted banana ice cream. delish!

M K Restaurant

868 North Franklin Street

Chicago, IL 60610-3114




MK was by far the best restaurant we ate at during our trip in Chicago. Everything we ordered was excellent.

Chi-town

made it to chicago. i drove and arrived in chicago in four hours. being the driver is less tiring i thought. plus i drive faster and crazier than adam so we arrived at our destination ahead of schedule and got to pick up adam's dad at the airport. chicago has been pretty fun so far. maybe one day we can have a chicago girls trip or something. i think it would be fun.
oh yeah, chicago is really the windy city...

chicago!

i mopped the floor, broomed, dehumidified, cleaned like crazy for six hours today. my feet hurt so bad. we also had plans to go see the cmu football game tonight with Adam's pal's.


the reason for the big clean up is because we are heading to Chicago tomorrow afternoon! well, we are meeting Adam's dad in Chicago, hanging out there for a few days and then driving back to Mount Pleasant to show him around. He is staying with us so that is the reason for the cleaning. i haven't worked this hard in a while. i'm exhausted.

I can't wait for the food (reservations made), the architectural boat tour, chicago dog + pizza and the art institute of Chicago.