B&K Excellent Adventures: Chicago-style

Ah, my excellent adventures with Katrina continue.
It began on the boards at 2Peas.
It continued at CHA in July 2007.
And, again at CHA in July 2008.
I visited VT in July 2009.
We went to CA this July.
And, we met up in Chicago last week.

Our adventures involved (no big surprise here) plenty of wine. Katrina planned to drink 10 bottles from a specific list. We tried hard to find these bottles and had no success, so we tried another list. Between the two of us, we found 9 of the 10 bottles. We picked up the tenth bottle at a Whole Foods between the airport and our downtown condo.

There aren't any pictures of this, yet, but we made tasting notes about each of the bottles.

 Kendall Jackson Meritage. Egh.

Fleur Pinot Noir. Such a pretty bottle.

These two bottles snuck in. They weren't on the list.

 We had to be resourceful. Washi tape made great glass markers.

We ate a lot.

We ate in. That was one of the main reasons we rented a condo, actually. We wanted to cook on vacation.

 Dinner: Thursday night. Cacio e Pepe and Grilled Kale Salad with Gorgonzola.

Dinner: Saturday Night. Risotto with Pear and Gorgonzola. Broccollini with Lemon and Parm.

We still ate out, though.

Lunch on Saturday was Le Colonial. I haven't been there for more than two years, but it was just as delicious as I remembered.

Breakfast on Saturday was Yolk where we were forced to order three entrees because just couldn't choose.

 

 

 And, yes. Those last two pictures are red velvet french toast. And, yes. It was delicious.

We ate at XOCO on Saturday afternoon between lunch and dinner. I was underwhelmed. If I went again, I would just have coffee and dessert.

 

And, we didn't just eat in and out. We ate cupcakes.


We ate cupcakes from More.

And cupcakes from Molly's. See the Cake Batter cupcake? AH-MAZING. I'm usually a chocolate girl, but I was crazy about this vanilla, Fun-fetti-esque, blue frosted lovely.

 

We shopped at Anthropology.

We acted like tourists.

We took a Segway tour - which was so much fun!

We walked around the city and took pictures.

We took an Untouchables Tour to learn about Chicago during prohibition.

We snuggled babies.

Henry was a real ladies' man at the condo Saturday night.

And, Em and I met Lauren on Sunday.

And, excellent adventures with Katrina don't just involve wine, food, cupcakes, touring, and baby snuggling. They also involve lipgloss.

 See all that Mineral Fusion? The best lipgloss I have ever tried. Really. You can get some of your own here.

I'm so lucky to have a friend that makes me laugh, a friend that gets me, a friend that encourages and partakes in crazy schemes, a friend that introduces me to her incredible friends (like Angela and Kristi and Christine). Thanks for another excellent adventure, Katrina!

Chicago Adventure: One Week Later

My mom and I spent a couple of days in Chicago last week.

Mainly, we were going to see White Christmas. My mom's love of the movie and my desire to see the show were the impetus for the trip. And, the show was fabulous in an old-school Broadway, tap-dancing, lots of singing sort of way. I really enjoyed it.

I also really enjoyed dinner beforehand. I picked Vivere. We went with the tasting menu. The chef did a great job asking about what we liked and creating things that were great for us. We had whole wheat gnocchi with spinach, brown butter, and lobster. We had amazing mushroom risotto. We had incredible steak with Parmesan potatoes and asparagus. And, we had incredible dessert - creme brulee, chocolate mousse, creme fraiche, and a chocolate from Sweden.

After dinner and the show, we crashed in our incredible hotel, Hotel Allegro.

Friday morning held a trip to the French Market for macarons and a little shopping. Turns out, Michigan Avenue is not very pleasant in the pouring rain.

 

I introduced my mom to Fox and Obel. She loved it! I get at least some of my love of food and craving for really great ingredients from her.

We finished the great trip with lunch with Em. We went to Sweetwater Tavern and Grille. How lucky am I to have a friend that will brave the rain and the downtown New Years Eve tourists to have lunch with my mom and me?

It was a great way to end 2010. Who knows. Maybe it will even become a little Mother - Daughter tradition.