Chicago: Day 3 in the Clouds

After another leisurely start to the day, we wandered over to the Illinois Institute of Technology to check out Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's buildings. This guy is a famous architect that pioneered modern building designs. For his 126th birthday, the building pictured above was a google doodle. If you missed it, check out the link. Even cooler, Martin's college friend's wife was instrumental in getting the doodle to happen! Even cooler, she gave us a tour of the other Mies buildings on campus for our third day in Chicago! Score!

There are a ton of Mies buildings on campus, but the campus center building was built by a rival of Mies. In the building, there is this orange honeycomb-like wall that looks out onto another Mies building. Because orange is a color that strips emotion away, when you look through the wall you see the Mies building, supposedly without emotion. Regardless, it makes for a pretty cool picture.

After our totally awesome tour, we headed to Nana's for the best meal we've had since we arrived. Everything is local and organic which is an added bonus to the fantastically tasting food! 

Martin got the Huevos Rancheros with soy chorizo. The over-easy eggs were cooked to runny egg perfection. The corn tortilla was deep fried (yum!) and the green sauce was a fantastic poblano cream, topped with queso fresco. Seriously, delicious.

My dish was equally fantastic! I ordered the Veggie Pot Pie. This one is more difficult to describe because it doesn't sound all that great, but every ingredient in this dish was seasoned to perfection. The base was a pile of mashed potatoes, which was surrounded by a puree of root vegetables. Brussels sprouts, kale, parsnips and soy chorizo topped the soft food, which was then topped with puff pastry. Everything was slathered in mushroom gravy. I seriously licked my plate clean. The perfect meal for a chilly, rainy day.

Afterwards, we headed downtown to visit the famous Shedd Aquarium. We heard great things about the aquarium, but when we arrived, the line was too long! The aquarium was to close in 2 hours; we wanted to spend all that time inside, not waiting to stand outside.

Additionally, we were exhausted from walking around most of the day, so we decided to take a break by watching the new 21 Jump Street movie. Surprisingly entertaining and funny. Well worth it. Plus, we felt restored. :)

It was a very cloudy day in Chicago.

So, we thought we would spend the rest of the afternoon in the clouds! We walked over to the John Hancock tower to take a peak at what we could see from high above the clouds. There is an open air observatory on the top 97th floor that costs nearly $20 to go to. Instead, we took the elevator to the 96th floor and had some cocktails and cheese in the Signature Room lounge. Not much of a view on a cloudy day!

Eventually, the clouds cleared slightly for a peak at the amazing view.

We played it low key in the evening. We stopped at Trader Joe's and picked up some goodies to share when we arrived back at our hosts' house. We enjoyed a delightful Malbec, a fresh baguette with olive oil, grapes, and dark chocolate covered almonds with sea salt and turbinado sugar. The best goodie, however, was some brie cheese Martin found on the steps of the John Hancock tower, which was aptly named "John Hancock" cheese. :) Delicious.

Another cold day is upon us in Chicago, so the boat tour is out. :( It's our last full day in Chicago, so I'm sure we'll find something fun and exciting to do! 

Chicago: Day 2 Adventures!

I am loving this short, little trip to Chicago! We have no agenda and simply go wherever the wind takes us. Since it is pretty windy here, that can be quite far! :)

On our second day in Chicago, we spent the morning exploring Evanston, which is a suburb north of Chicago and home to Northwestern University. 

We walked down to the beach and saw another view of magnificient Lake Michigan. Clearly, this was not a good day for the beach as we were literally the only ones there (except for a couple of birds and a tree...)

The weather was actually quite average for this time of year, but since the temperatures in Chicago have been quite above average for most of Spring it felt downright cold! It was in the 40s but I wished I had my winter jacket on all day. Or at least some gloves.

We did find this strange place that seemed like it was hovering between a hockey rink in the winter (with a tree in the middle?!?) and a pond in the summer. Right now, it was just a little awkward.

I fell in love with these little lilac twigs! I’ve never seen these flowers before. They look just like lilacs and smelled like lilacs but weren’t a bush. I need to convince my mother to add these to her garden. They’re wonderful!

For lunch, we had a low calorie, high nutrient meal of stuffed cheese pizza at Giordano’s. Delicious.

Afterwards, I was still chilled, so we went to Argo Tea for something warm to drink. Strangely, their tea looks like ice cold beer...

In the afternoon, we grabbed our luggage and headed into downtown Chicago where we saw this remarkable parking ramp!

We’ve been taking the train most places, and it is quite handy. However, our train ride back into the city from Evanston was horrible. The driver would speed up to 40 mph and then immediately slow down to 10 mph only to speed up to 40 mps again. It was so bad, we got off about 10 stops early just to walk and shake off the motion sickness. I get motion sick pretty easily and so I’m usually prepared with my common preventions. None of those worked on this driver. I was so happy to not be on that train. We took the train again in the evening and it was smooth as silk. :)

After a long walk with our bags through downtown Chicago, we arrived at the Art Institute of Chicago and spent the rest of the afternoon there.

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat

Water Lilies by Claude Monet

American Gothic by Grant Wood

I'd love to have a funky chair like this for our dining table!

For dinner, we headed to Quartino, an Italian tapas restaurant. This place was fun and lively! A tapas restaurant serves small plates that are intended to be shared with the other people at your table. So, how does that work with a vegetarian and a meat eater? We usually order a majority of vegetarian dishes and then Martin orders 1-2 meat dishes. Since he has a bigger appetite than I do, it works out just fine.

This cheese was fantastic! It was hard and salty, which went well with our dry red wine. I could have eaten the apricot butter with a spoon it was so good. Plus, the little cast iron pan was so adorable, I almost took it home with me!

Everything deep fried is better, right? Martin thought so. He loved those polenta fries and he doesn’t really like polenta. I love polenta and thought its flavor and texture was hidden too much by the thick breading. Still, I had no trouble eating every bite!

Martin said the chicken was good. I’ll take his word for it.

I was super excited about homemade gnocchi. I know how much work it is to make good gnocchi. Unfortunately, it was disappointing. The gnocchi tasted like raw flour. Plus, the sauce was not seasoned correctly. Typically, the sauce is made with pork, but I requested it without it and the cook didn’t make any adjustments to the dish at all. :( Thus, a bland and uninteresting dish.

We hooked up with our couch surfing hosts in the evening. They are fun and have an adorable dog and very cuddly cat. Who knows what tomorrow will bring! :)

Windy City Vacation!

Hello Chicago! 

My husband and I usually take a vacation every March. Typically, we go to Florida, but for a variety of reasons that didn't work out this year. So, instead we decided to visit Chicago!

We took the Megabus because it was ridiculously cheap and then we didn't have to worry about having a car here. The Megabus was surprisingly not too bad. It took about 8 hours to arrive in the double decker coach bus. It was fairly clean, quiet, and smooth.

Once we arrived, we checked into our bed and breakfast: Margarita European Inn. 

This place is simply adorable! 

This morning we are enjoying its free breakfast in the parlor. I'm sad we will only be spending a night here.

After we had freshened up from our long bus ride, we needed some coffee before heading back to the city center. So, we stopped at this adorable coffee shop on Davis Street. It was celebrating its grand opening by giving away croissants! Score!

We spent the rest of the afternoon just walking around exploring the city. It is safe to say that Spring has sprung in Chicago and its suburbs.

Don't you just love this bench?! My designer famously said that "leopard print goes with everything." I took that to mean animal print goes with everything. :) Maybe this bench has my name on it!

We also walked around Millennium Park, which is along Lake Michigan.

In the evening, we met up with one of Martin's friends from college. He was a fantastic tour guide! He showed us some really cool neighborhoods in Chicago. We drove to a town called Cicero (yes, like the Latin poet/philosopher!) that had this super fun place called Klas. It is a Czech/Bohemian restaurant and bar. The restaurant portion was closed when we arrived, so we had some beers at the bar and headed out. Supposedly, Al Capone frequented the place back in the day. 

We ended up in Wicker Park eating at Sultan's Palace, which is a delicious Mediterranean deli with the best falafel I've ever had. 

This is the first major trip we've taken since our trip to France last fall. This trip has been so much easier than that trip was! Everything is in English, and we have our smart phones with easy (free) access to fast internet. We don't really know what we will end up doing today! We have a list of things we want to do; we'll see which ones end up grabbing our attention the most. We also plan to couch surf the rest of our time in Chicago, so we are excited to meet our hosts this evening!

Citrus Explosion

Happy Spring! I love Spring for a plethora of reasons. I live in Minnesota and have for most of my life. Maybe this phenomenon happens in other parts of the country too, but here Spring always feels like we suddenly are able to come out of hibernation and get reacquainted with friends, neighbors, and hobbies. Sometimes the winter feels so long that I forget that I like to go for walks outside because I forget that going outside can feel pleasant instead of painful. 

This is the first time I can remember the first day of Spring actually feeling like Spring. Well, actually, it's been feeling a little more like late June lately. I hardly know what to do with myself! The temperature has been in the 60s and 70s for the last week or so. It's MARCH! I don't get it. I love it, but I don't get it.

It was so warm this past weekend, that I had a picnic outside when visiting my parents.

And we were WARM! What?!

My dad - the Grill Master.

I made the pasta and the salad from the Valentine's Day meal. It was fantastic. My parents also enjoyed some grilled chicken. 

My mom - having a good time.

Maybe it's the warm weather that has me craving citrus foods lately. I was flipping through my new cookbook Fast, Fresh, and Green by Susie Middleton and ended up making Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Orange Butter Sauce and Braised Carrots with Blood Orange Pan Sauce. (I took pictures of both, but the pictures were abysmal!) I enjoyed the carrots more than the brussels sprouts. 

But, my citrus craving was not satisfied.

I needed grapefruit. Florida grapefruit.

Maybe it was because we missed our annual trip to Florida this year, but I can't seem to get enough grapefruit. Grapefruit - like other citrus fruit - is high in Vitamin A and extremely high in Vitamin C, which not only boosts immune systems but also fights inflammation. 

So, when I saw the recipe for Citrus Beet Salad with Creamy Avocado Lime Dressing on Oh She Glows,  I knew I had to try it!

This salad is like all my favorite things in one dish! I normally don't like mixing things very often, but I LOVE this salad! I made a few alterations to the recipe. 

1. I used just one kind of beet instead of multiple varieties. The store I was at only had one kind this time of year. I'm sure other varieties would be fantastic.
2. I used milk instead of coconut cream. I realized at the last minute that I was out of coconut milk. I'm excited to try this again with coconut milk; however, it was just as good with dairy milk. Just keep in mind the flavors you enjoy and the consistency you like. Add more milk for a thinner dressing, less for a thicker dressing.
3. I ended up using a whole avocado instead of a half of one since I prefer a stronger avocado flavor. Like with any dressing, taste as you go and adjust for your preferences.
4. I used romaine lettuce for the bed of greens, but any greens will work here.
5. I didn't top the salad with any nuts, seeds or grains as recommended in the recipe. These would be good, but I love the salad just as it is.

Do you have a citrus recipe that you love? Share it with me! I'd love to try it!