Can you name this city?



How about now?



Now?



That’s right — it’s Chicago!! Erik and I decided sort of last minute to go out to Chicago for the long Presidents Day weekend to visit his brother, and of course, do some sightseeing.



I had never been to Chicago before, so first stop was the Observatory at the top of the Hancock Building.



One of my favorite things to do in any new city is to find the most touristy destination possible with the highest altitude possible. I LOVE the Empire State Building Observatory, and I’ve lived in NYC for 10 years!

Anyway, the Hancock was brilliant! Admission came with an interactive audio tour, so I learned (and promptly forgot) all about the city as I admired the view from every angle:

I spent some time contemplating the meaning of life:

And washing windows on the 94th floor:

Then, lucky us, the sun began its descent!



And we decided to partake in a completely unnecessary delight:



Pistachio gelato topped with toasted candied almonds and fresh whipped cream!



And a dazzling espresso creation with wayyyy too many ingredients to remember:



Is this not the most beautiful sight ever??



The sun fully set while we were nibbling …



… and provided us with some of the most beautiful views I have ever seen!



After passing a couple blissful hours in the observatory, we took a stroll through downtown.



Seriously, who knew Chicago was so gorgeous?!! More to come soon …

What is your favorite US city?

A couple weeks ago, I brought some sort of quinoa + the kitchen sink lunch to work, and my coworker Beryl got very excited about it because she liked how it tasted and had only had bad experiences with quinoa in the past. The next day, I arrived to find this box on my desk, courtesy of Ms. Beryl herself!

Of course, this box contained quinoa flakes (probably the reason that Beryl thought she had texture complaints with quinoa) and was potentially purchased pre-millennium, but I decided nevertheless to see what I could do with it.



My first venture was to use the qunioa flakes as instructed: in hot cereal form.



I cooked it with apples, milk, and cinnamon and topped it with yogurt …



… and I could see why Beryl hadn’t been a fan! Do yourself a favor and do not decide you need to try quinoa flakes ASAP.

Obviously, despite the breakfast cereal failure, I was not about to throw good nutrition away! I broke out some other inedible and/or undesirable items I’d been saving for a rainy day: stale apple cinnamon cookies, 1/2 dozen corn muffins from a donation my office received, honey that has never tasted quite right to me …



… caramel nut brownie mini-luna bars …



… Omega-3 peanut butter that tastes like fish oil (ewwwwwww) …



… and blended it all in a bowl with eggs, ground flax, a ton of shredded carrots, a bag of shredded sweetened coconut, and voila!



I made 12 mini muffins that Erik devoured in approximately 30 seconds, six regular-sized muffins …



… and one loaf that I brought to work on my assigned “bring breakfast to the meeting” day:



It was the perfect, hearty, filling, comforting breakfast for a conveniently chilly winter morning!

Hi everyone! Sarah is currently in an undisclosed location in preparation for an as yet unknown event (or maybe she’s just doing homework), so for this post I will be taking over the blog narrative. My name is Erik and you may recognize me from previous posts with food in my mouth…and not much is going to change here either. At some point during the previous week, the inspiration came to embark on making a Shepherd’s Pie. Here we loosely followed this recipe for Turkey Shepherd’s Pie with Mashed Sweet Potatoes.



I have no idea where the idea to make Shepherd’s Pie came from, but I was glad it came to fruition and even more delighted with the end result.





In it were peas, corn, ground turkey, carrots and to top it all off, sweet potatoes! I have never really had sweet potatoes outside of Thanksgiving, but it is a flexible food that complements well. I have no idea how to write about food, but nevertheless I cannot recommend sweet potatoes enough! Perfect for a Shepherd’s Pie. Just look at it!!



So good it made me smile …



… do the mouth strut …



… exhibit unrestrained bliss just thinking about the next bite …



… and just take some good hearty bites:



Later that week, Sarah and I decided it would be nice to get out and enjoy some sushi. Actually, I suggested it because I never eat sushi. We found a place called Migita in downtown Brooklyn that totally impressed me. This place absolutely changed my outlook on sushi! First we had to enjoy some green tea …



… followed by the Chirashi platter:



It included shrimp, tuna, caviar, salmon, yellowtail among other palate pleasers. It was heaped on a pile of delicious brown rice, apparently a rarity out in sushiland.



Then came the delicious Dragonroll!! Eel and avocado also served with brown rice:



Mmmmmm…



Here is the whole meal for your viewing pleasure:



And on to dessert!



I’ve never heard of red bean ice cream before, but those were some good iced red beans! If they even are beans. Who cares! The ice cream was great and came with fried bananas. Nothing can beat fried bananas! (except, perhaps, for sweet potatoes).





This is proof that we couldn’t get enough:



Thanks for letting me visit! I’ll “see” you around 🙂

After three long months of (cough) diligent (cough) practice, I finally took my yellow belt karate test on Friday.

Before the test, I was pretty sure I would fail. In fact, I pronounced on several occasions that I would be happier staying a white belt forever.



Once Friday night came around, however, I got super nervous and REALLY wanted to pass! I demonstrated my (shaky) proficiency with basic moves:

I sparred:

Watch out for crazy red-eyed possessed Sarah and her laughing pleasedonotpunchme move.



Yes, I smile and laugh the whole time I am supposed to be fighting.

I had to break a board in half with my side kick:



Somehow, I did it!



Yay for color!!



Since I was so successful on Friday night, I let myself be coerced into hitting up brook-vin with Erik on Saturday before we had to go to a friend’s good-bye party.



I looooooooooove this bar.

We started off with the best-ever mulled wine:



And then got really excited about the house-infused liquors:



We ordered the pumpkin spiced Manhattan:



It was tasty, but it got way too strong for me after a few sips. Erik had to take one for the team. The candied ginger on top was my favorite part, of course.

To soak up the alchy, we got in on some bacon mac & cheese action:



This was really Erik’s dinner because I had been nibbling all day, as usual. I certainly managed a few (aka many) crispy cheesy bites, though:



Cheers!



What is your favorite hot drink?

Helloooooo!!! I’ve been living such an exciting food life the past couple of weeks, but hardly any of it managed to get on my camera 😦 Here’s what I managed …

A giant, serving bowl-sized Greek salad (all for me!) with romaine, cucumber, red pepper, grape tomatoes, feta, homemade toasted pumpkin seeds, and oregano:

Dinner at Duke’s with Amanda, Willie, Ali, and Danny, complete with a basket full of cornbread, biscuits, and gravy:



I ordered an unremarkable salad but had a glorious bite of Willie’s chicken-fried steak:



And a glorious 30 bites of Amanda’s macaroni and cheese:



A few nights later, I saw Amanda again (along with Meghan!) when I went to their apartment for our book club meeting. Meghan made balsamic-glazed pork chops this time!



Mmmmmmm, can’t you just smell it right through the computer screen?



While dinner was cooking, we nibbled (inhaled) French bread with brie and fig jam:



Bread + spreads = nothing better.

First course was butternut squash soup:



Followed by the main attraction, of course: balsamic-glazed pork chops with broccoli:



I rounded out the meal with dessert: leftover cake from work (where else?!) and Stonyfield nonfat chocolate frozen yogurt:



Later in the weekend, Wes came over to watch the playoffs with the new roommates (Clare AND Erik!), so I made chili … the leftovers of which I obviously ate for lunch all week:



It was perfect for all the freeeeeeeezing days we had. The chili was a random mix of beans, onions, garlic, carrots, meatless meat, and probably much more stuff, topped with shredded cheddar, nonfat sour cream, and blue corn chips:



To cap it off, Jessica shared the delicious bakery-fresh cookies that she received courtesy of a certain secret admirer.



The lemon icing was so refreshing and delicious that I wanted to eat 50 of these cookies, but supplies were limited and I only managed to get my hands on one. Thanks for sharing the love, Jessica 😛

To ice or not to ice?