Minnesota State Fair

OH MY GOD YOU GUYS.  I MADE IT.  I MADE IT TO THE MINNESOTA STATE FAIR.  So after about ten years of being with Charlie and unsuccessfully timing our visits to Minnesota, we just so happened to be in town so we went and I ate everything.  Well not everything.  Probably only about 1% of what the fair had to offer, but we did our research and the 1% we did have was absolutely outstanding.  Ready?  Are you ready?  Hold on to your corn husks. 

So we started early.  Like 8:30 early and we bee lined for the bacon wrapped turkey leg from Texas Steak Out.  Words can not describe how delicious this was.  Even though we were diligently trying to pace ourselves, we nearly polished this off.  It was first smoked and then wrapped with bacon and grilled and then kept warm on top of a bed of onions.  I can't even handle it.  

The Corn Roast is famous at the Minnesota State Fair.  They roast super sweet, tender corn in the husks, peel it back, dip it (legit DIP IT) in butter and then let you season it with S&P.  It was amazing. Exactly what you'd expect sweet, in season corn to taste like.

So...those of you that are familiar with the fair know that they serve everything you can imagine on a stick.  Like everything.  I can do without the deep fried Oreo on a stick, or the meatloaf dinner on a stick, but there was no denying that Big Fat Bacon's bacon on a stick was meant for me.  It was cooked PERFECTLY.  Thick cut, salty, crispy, but not too crispy...and they give you chocolate to drizzle on it.  Sounds weird but it wassssssnnnn't.  I die.  For bacon.  I die for bacon a stick.

So these Australian potatoes were not part of the plan.  But we couldn't help ourselves.  They looked so crazy good and different.  They are sliced potatoes, battered and deep fried and topped with cheese or ranch sauce (or both plus bacon if you're me and Charlie).  We also added some dark malt vinegar that was life changing.  I think the camera lens is cloudy from my greasy little finger prints. 

So you guys know that I like sweets but they have to be really over the top crazy special for me to have more than a couple of bites.  Let me put it this way.  I was mowing this - Minneaple Pie's deep fried pumpkin pie with cinnamon ice cream.  This wasn't just good because it was deep fried.  The crust was super duper flaky and the pumpkin filling was sweet but not too sweet and the ICE CREAM. I can't.  If I didn't pack my suitcase to the absolute MAX I would have smuggled three of these home with me.

Yawn. Cheese curds.  Actually...I shouldn't say yawn.  In light of all of the other fantastic and unique food we had, the Minnesota State Fair staple - battered dipped and deep fried cheese curds - were amazing.  I've just had them before.

Sweet Martha's chocolate chip cookies were everything I dreamed of and more.  They were lovingly and magically made and piled high for us to enjoy.  Ok - so funny story.  We were nearing the end of our food tour and I couldn't bare to throw these out but I literally could not eat another bite.  Well not literally because I ordered a Dole Whip after (see below).  Anyway, we wrapped several napkins around the top and then fashioned them with a hair elastic to seal the cookies in the cone.  My hair looked INSANE but I didn't care.

Ah, Dole Whip.  How I love thee.  They ran out of the vanilla swirl, so I was left with just the pineapple portion but I just had to have it.  The only other place I have EVER seen Dole Whip is at Disney next to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. So I had to.  I just had to.

This is a picture of me after the food tour.

Just kidding.  I didn't take a nap.  We visited the animal barns.  The deep enjoyment I got from this sheep is just embarrassing.  I keep looking at this picture and just cracking up.  I mean OBVIOUSLY sheep wear blankets to keep them clean. 

Here I am thoroughly enjoying my first fair visit.  So little time so many places to visit and try.  I'll be back, fair - I'll be back!

Stay hungry! 

Seattle Adventures

Greetings from Sunny Los Angeles!  After spending the weekend in Seattle for the wedding of one of my dearest college friends, I'm down in LA for a few days visiting my friend Jen & her family.  Jesse and Will are holding down the fort at home and while I miss them terribly, I'm enjoying my me-cation.  Mom-cation?  Va-Cai-tion?  Whatever.  I'm sleeping late and finally reading The Goldfinch and spent all weekend having cocktails with my college roommates.  Please forgive the blurry phone pictures - I knew I'd probably lose my nice camera if I brought it but then I spilled a drink on my phone halfway through the weekend (as you can probably tell below).

I think I've mentioned before that Jesse and I lived in Seattle for a few years before we moved to Brooklyn.  He had been promoted and transferred out there and, never having lived anywhere besides the Northeast myself, I was excited to move out there together.  Living in Seattle was one of the greatest adventures of my life - weekend trips to the islands off the coast of Washington, exploring the city on foot (with Fred), trying new foods and meeting new friends and generally adjusting to life together.  To say I was excited to be back in this beautiful city is an understatement (I just wish Jesse had been there!).

After a gorgeous and sunny boat cruise on Friday night and brunch with friends on Saturday morning, I headed out for a long walk around the city.  In three and a half hours of wandering I visited Pike Place Market, some of my favorite old stores, a handful of coffee shops, and the apartment that Jesse and I first lived in together.  I remembered things I'd forgotten about Seattle like how nobody out there jaywalks (SUPER weird) and the mnemonic device for remembering the layout of the downtown Seattle streets ("Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest").  I loved feeling at home in a city that I hadn't been to in six years.  Even without Jesse there, I loved remembering what it was like to finally be living in the same city with only our young, crazy Basset Hound to care for. 

I'll be back later with some pictures from THE AMAZING WEDDING on Saturday night.  

A Minneapolis Food Crawl

Sorry for being so MIA. It's been a busy couple of weeks.  I went to Seattle, then Connecticut, then Minnesota, then Scottsdale and then next week I'm off to Florida!  Worky work, busy bee!  Well it's not all work, there's some play weaved in there. 

The great thing about being in Minnesota for work is that I also got to see my best friend Lauren, who moved there last winter.  Whenever we get together, there is nonstop laughter and ridiculousness.  We didn't really have a plan...just knew there would be lots of food and alcohol involved.  Here are a few shots of our amazing food crawl.  

We started our day off at King's.  This is their Tuscan kale salad with provolone cheese, roasted garlic dressing, croutons and crumbled egg.  I could have eaten this and this alone ALL...DAY.  

This was insane...this was their biscuits with white sausage gravy.  I mean...wow.

This dish was as delicious as it was beautiful.  It was an eggplant cannelloni with pickled eggplant, smoked eggplant and all kinds of other yummy things.

After we stuffed ourselves with brunch and like 14 mimosas, we continued our day at George & The Dragon for some wine.  We grabbed a table and some lumpia which are basically Filipino egg rolls.  So yummy.

After George & The Dragon, we sat outside at Broder's, this perfect little Italian place where we got some cold cuts...

...and some more vino.

Our food crawl ended and Lauren & Zan's house where Lauren made me fresh carrot and grapefruit juice vodka spritzers.  What a day.

As you can imagine, we didn't make it too far into the evening.  We ate, we drank, we laughed, we passed out.  I woke up on the floor next to the fireplace and then I made my way to the guest room bed. Which turned out to be Lauren and Zan's bed.  Man, I am such a treat.  

Stay hungry! 

Poutine Fest

Charlie and I are out of control.  At least twice a week, we take the Chicago foodie scene by storm and do something utterly ridiculous.  On Saturday we had dinner at David Burke's Steakhouse and then rounded the weekend out with Chicago's Poutine Fest.  Yes...POUTINE FEST.  I just woke up from a four hour quick nap because I basically ate myself into a coma.  I'll take you on our tour of our Poutine Fest adventure.  

This is Sunday Dinner's Poutine, made with Schmaltz Gravy, Dill Sour Cream, Homemade Pickles, Cheese Curds, and Ranch Chicken Skin Chips. This was my absolute favorite  It was the first one I had all day and the only one I went back in for seconds. The fact I had seconds is just shameful considering I tried several others and washed it down with three beers.  

So I'm a huge fan of The Gage.  The brought it with Duck Confit, Pickled Red Onion, Wisconsin Cheese Curds, Jalapenos, and Smoke Box Gravy. What I liked about theirs was that they mixed everything together in a skillet before serving so the curds melted down a bit.

This was The Big Cheese's pirogi poutine.  What a cool idea, right?  Charlie really like this one. They also had the best/most fun staff.

The was Troquet Chicago's Duck Confit Poutine with Duck Cognac Gravy.  Giddy up.

The Green Door holds a special place in my heart.  It's one of those neighborhood bars you can go grab a bite and a few beers and call it a day.  It's also one of the oldest bars in Chicago.  They created an awesome Poutine - Chicago Style with Italian Beef, Sausage Gravy, Curds, and Spicy Giardiniera.

Here was Le Bouchon's french bistro twist on Poutine - Duck Confit, Escargot, and Red Wine Gravy. This was a little too busy for me.  I would have preferred if they either did an escargot and garlic butter poutine, or just went with the duck flavor profile.  Otherwise, it was really good.
 

Barrel House Flat had a super unique take with curried pigs head veloute, masala chicharones, and pickled banana peppers.  Loved trying something a little different.

This was soooooo good.  Really.  It was outrageous.  Haymarket Brewing, went cheese curds out with a Braised Beef, Beef Gravy, and Pickled Jalapenos and Red Onions.  YUM to the NOM.

I LOVED the creativity of The Brixton.  This was their version of "breakfast poutine" - complete with biscuits, hot sauce, crispy chicken skin, curds, and white sausage gravy.  RI DIC U LOUS.

Here was Atlas Beer Company's Duck Confit Poutine with Duck Cognac Gravy.  YUMMYYY.  So rich and delish.

Well I can officially say I've had my fill of poutine...at least until next year. 

Stay Hungry! 

Eataly Chicago

Eataly...Eataly...where do I EVEN BEGIN.  Charlie and I have been long awaiting the arrival of this adult Disneyland, that is two complete giant huge floors of imported Italian goodness.  There are 10 restaurants and rows and rows of cheese, meat, bread, fresh made pastas, olive oil, a gelato counter, a nutella counter, etc etc ....oh and wine...wine everywhere.  In fact they encourage you to shop with a glass of wine in your hand!!!!!  I mean, I just can't.  I kept creeping around the corners expecting resurrected Jesus to pop out because I thought for sure I died and went to heaven. 

We've gone two Saturdays in a row (oops), but here are pics from just our first visit. 

We first went to La Pizza, and ordered their Neapolitan style pizza, straight from the brick oven...oh my. 

We also ordered a winter roasted veggie salad that was just RIDICULOUSLY fresh and satisfying (for me at least)... Charlie was even kinda into it...

Charlie and I swung by Eataly's fresh pasta counter while we were waiting for our table at La Pizza. We had no idea that they also served their fresh pastas, so we ordered up the sausage filled pasta that caught our eyeballz.  Ummm YUMMMMM.

Ok for those of you that know me, you know that I have a complete and utter (udder?) problem with gelato. Meaning I can't say no to it.  Charlie and I have gotten into ARGUMENTS about it because I'm so obsessed and demand it like a crazy person.  Let me put it this way:  if I had to choose between my trusty Uggs this Chicago winter weather and real, Italian gelato...well, you know what I'd pick.

For example, it was 10 degrees and snowing in Chicago and I carried both of these home with me, sampling them as I went.  There is pistachio and stracciatella on the left and salted caramel on the right.  CAN'T EVEN HANDLE IT RIGHT NOW.

I will continue to photograph my Eataly escapades because I'm expecting many many more. 

Stay hungry! 

Heirloom Tomato Salad BLT and a Trip to the Farmers Market



I love it when Charlie get's something stuck in his head.  It makes me feel a little less crazy, for like... a second.  He woke up dreaming of an heirloom tomato BLT on Saturday morning so off to the farmers market we went. 

Normally we wonder around the farmers market aimlessly with no real purpose.  We just pop around, sample some goodies, and usually leave with 3 pieces of cheese worth like forty dollars...worth every penny of course.  Not this time though.  WE WERE READY. 

Ok so want to hear something funny?  I actually uploaded this picture thinking these were heirloom tomatoes.  It's been a long week OKAY?!

We were "tired and hungry" from walking around so we decided we needed a snack.  It just so happened to be a grilled pork belly sandwich with coleslaw and spicy red pepper sauce.  OMG yum.



Back to the BLT.  So the best BLTs are the ones with the best ingredients.  It's so simple, that everything must be perfect.  These heirloom tomatoes were just to die for. After slicing into them they burst with the most amazing fragrance. Fresh and gardeny.  You don't get that with a grocery store tomato.  You just don't and it makes me sad.

We picked up some other ingredients as well...one that's missing from the picture is the bacon, obvi.   We got free range, nitrate free, blah blah blah bacon.  All I know is that it was really good.

Can we talk about how perfect this bread is?  I mean oh my.

If you use anything besides Hellman's mayo for your BLT than feel free to walk your face into your fist.  Look how creamy and crunchy and salty and bready and amazing this is.

Stay hungry! 

EYE YI YI

I haven't posted in awhile because I injured my eyeball.  Yes, my eyeball. Oh, and by the way, I can't take credit for the clever title of this post...it was Caitlin's idea.

Anyway, I signed up to do a 10k for this past weekend with my husband's side of the family and I've been consistently training so I wouldn't totally embarrass myself.  Nothing says bad genes like a leg cramp before hitting mile mark numero uno.  As my friend at work says, "I wouldn't even run if my socks were made out of sirloin and there were 4 Rottweilers chasing me."  True that brother.

So...the training.  So I was running in Chicago with my friend Katie last Monday and my eye started really bothering me.  I tried rinsing it out and it didn't feel any better.  I decided it was going to be a glasses kind of day, so before showering for work I removed my contact in my right eye and what felt like half of my right eyeball.  NOT GOOD.

I have scratched my cornea before, so I figured it was just a bad case of that.   I went to CVS and bought 4 different kinds of lubricating eye drops and then scampered off to work with one eye winked shut.  Sitting in my Monday morning  meeting at work was TORTURE.  I couldn't control my eye.  It was watering incessantly and I couldn't bare light.  I called my eye doctor (who isn't in on Mondays) and he advised me to keep it lubricated and to come in the next day.  I can't really tell you awful Monday was.  I couldn't eat.  I couldn't see.  I couldn't even exist.  I was writhing in pain. 

Charlie picked up numerous things from the pharmacy, including prescription antibiotic eye drops and several eye patches.  He put on the "yoga" Pandora station and placed a bowl of Cherry Garcia next to my bed.  I spent most of Tuesday waiting for my eye appointment in the dark cave Charlie turned our bedroom into. 

After some bright lights and some well received numbing eye drops, my doctor informed me that I had a metal shard in my cornea.  Yes.  A metal shard IN MY EYE.

Here are pictures of the little piece of metal.  It's the little Hersey Kiss looking thing...

Here is another shot of the metal...

My eye doctor tried flushing it out, then tried using a Q-tip and then finally scraped out as much as he could with a sharper metal looking object.  I fainted for a second and basically wanted to die/puke/pass out. Luckily, only the passing out happened and it was brief.

I went back on Thursday and there was still a little bit of metal remaining...

The most unfortunate part of my visit was finding out that in addition to a little metal left behind, there is now a rust ring.

I've had to endure a few embarrassing days with an eye patch and no makeup.  Not really my best look.  The pirate jokes are plentiful, including one made by a colleague who asked if my doctor was going to prescribe a parrot or a peg leg on my next visit.  I would defriend him if he wasn't so funny.

I will be back with some exciting new recipes soon enough.  In the meantime, I will leave you with this:

Moral of the story...don't exercise. 

Sonoma: Lauren's 30th Birthday

My bff Lauren (aka L'Ron, L'ronimo, etc) celebrated her 30th birthday this year and we went to Sonoma to party it up.  Lauren, her husband Zan, my husband, and Colleen and her fiance Bill all went.  It was seriously a trip of a lifetime.  We laughed our butts off and drank so much wine we were all hungover for a week.  Here are some of my favorite pics from the trip...

Here is Lauren with her husband Zan at Benzinger Winery.. 

This is what happens when I ask Colleen to hold my camera while I use the restroom.  Clowns.

Here they are at Unti winery...

Here is Mr. Unti himself...

 Oh hello hubby...

This is when the wheels started to fly off the wagon...

Aww... lovebirds.

We pre-ordered a picnic for the ride.  I got the brie and prosciutto sandwich.  It was crazy good.  It was so good it hurt me. I cried a little.

Lauren and I... you know... just taking in the sights.

I loved it at Unti.  It was like being in Tuscany.  Just beautiful.  THE WINE and the wine.  The wine was so good.

The last winery we went to, Bella Vineyards, was frickin sweet.  The winery and the tasting was underground in a cave.

As we were waiting for the gate to open, I came across the most heavenly smell...BACON.  I tracked it down like the little pork hound that I am and found this lady.  Prepping for a big event.  It was SO DELICIOUS.  Thick cut with a hint of brown sugar.

Okay, back to the trip.  Here's Charlie in the entry of the cave.

...here we are inside the cave in the coolest tasting room ever.  It was amazing and such a cool experience.  We felt like royalty.

I absolutely can't wait to go back.  Next adventure...Napa???  Stay drinking hungry!