Stuff-your-face-apalooza

A few weeks ago my friend Natalie and her husband, Matt, came in to visit for Lollapalooza.  Mattalie, as they are commonly referred to, are big foodies that reside on the great island of Manhattan.  Knowing they were in for a short weekend, I felt like I had to feed them something delicious and Chicago-y.  Somehow I determined that Hot Doug's would be the place that fit the bill.  I've never been to Hot Doug's, but people at work raved about it and it is heralded as a Chicago institution.  It is notorious for the line wrapped around the block, but everything we read mentioned an hour and a half wait time.  Not totally unreasonable.  We showed up at around 1pm all excited about our mini adventure.

We walked ourselves to the end of the line smiling from ear to ear.  I couldn't figure out why the people we passed didn't seem to think this was as roaring of a good time as we did.  Here's our view from the back;

And then we waited.  We placed bets on where we'd be by the time we got to a certain landmark.  For instance, how long would it take us to get to that first tree in the picture.  I believe it was 40 minutes.  We'd been there for an hour and still thought - aw, what the heck, let's do this.  And then two hours rolled around.  The boys took a walk down the alley and almost bought a telescope off of someone.  Nat and I took a break in the car with the AC on.  A passing car even livened things up by throwing a lit firecracker at us.  By the time we got inside, three hours later, we were hungry and ready to make the trip worth our while.  Thankfully, we didn't document our darkest hours.  You'll see that we're back to being all smiles once inside the joint.

The novelty of this place is that Doug offers some crazy hot dog combinations like Foie Gras and Sauternes Duck Sausage with Truffle Aioli, Foie Gras Mousse and Fleur de Sel or Cognac-Infused Lamb and Pork Sausage with Spinach Raita and Manchego Cheese.  And don't forget the duck fat fries.

Doug takes every order himself and is said to mastermind the waiting process so that by the time your food comes up a table is available.  I would be aok with him moving things along so that we could get our food in under three hours.  I'm just sayin'.

I believe we ordered a total of 11 dogs and two batches of cheese fries, one regular and one duck-fat.  Everything really was delicious and I loved my Saucisson Alsacienne: Bacon Sausage with Creme Fraiche, Caramelized Onions and Tomme de Savoie Cheese.

When we were done mowing our food, we were talking about our favorite dog.  Matt said that far and away his favorite was the Chicago Style Dog.  Ruh Roh.  We could have gotten him a divine Chicago style hot dog at Portillo's in less than 3 minutes.  But what would be the fun in that?  Once fully sated, we headed off to Lolla where we met up with my cousins and brothers.  It was a gorgeous day and it was so fabulous to sit on a blanket and listen to great music.  I was bummed we missed the XXs during our hot dog adventure, but I thought Spoon and The Metric were great.  Halfway through Phoenix, we'd had enough and headed home with the fantastic idea of picking up Lou Malnati's deep dish.   We, very seriously, asked Matt and Natalie if the pizza was as good as we think it is.  (We think it's the perfect food and eat it once a week.  Do you think people in Philly eat cheese steaks once a week?  Or is that gross?  Thereby, making us gross for eating deep dish weekly.)  Anyhooters, they told us they loved it.  And if they were lying - thank you.

After hearing about this "ice-ing" business, Dave had to try it out for himself.  Here's Matt getting iced alongside the 'za.

Not to be overlooked was our breakfast the next morning.  Matt really showed us what he was made of.  In addition to some bizarre combo of breakfast items, he ordered a side of ice cream.  You know what goes really well with ice cream?  Everything.  Pancakes, waffles, corned beef hash.  For real, it was so delicious with my lemon poppy seed waffles.  It was a welcome addition at the breakfast table.  And other non-pregnant people agreed.

It was such a fun weekend and we were so lucky to have them come into town and play with us.  There has been talk of another Midwest trip to see Frank Lloyd Wright's homes in Oak Park and God's country (Wisconsin).  Can't wait to see what we eat then.

Oh Suzani

Since we moved into this house and started tearing down walls and building them back up, I felt I could control the chaos by making lists.  I love lists.  It gets the clutter out of my head and allows me to sleep at night.  For the past seven months, there has been one delinquent item on the list that I could not get rid of.  More accurately, that I could not tackle and complete.  Window treatments.  Those are some sad windows.

HGTV makes it look like you'd have to be a one-armed  drug addict not to be able to "whip" these up.  I didn't think it looked quite so simple.  So I bought fabric and stared at it for a few months.  It was easy to stare at because I love it so.  I got it from Calico Corners, but then found it for a few dollars less at LSFabrics.com.  I love the pattern (the one on the left) and thought it was a good way to break up all of the blue and white.

Then I did what I always do when I have an idea and not a clue how to execute it....I did lots of Internet browsing.  I logged a few hours on YouTube watching the aforementioned confident people creating valance boxes.  Then one day I came home and Dave (surprise, surprise) had whipped some up for me.  Yay!  All I had to do was spray adhesive on the wood, wrap it with batting and then add another layer with the fabric.  Getting the corners to lay flat took some finagling, but it turned out really well.  Oh - and because you can see them outside the house, I had to make sure the inside of the boxes looked perfect, as well.  I made one without documenting it.  Then Dave caught me not working on the second one.  I was tired!

He shamed me into doing the second one.

So much stapling.

We hung them up and they look fabulous. 

I have a ton of extra fabric so I can make pillows for the bay window.   You're probably wondering how I think I'm going to do that.  I bought a sewing machine and I'm taking Sewing 101 next week where we're making a pillow.  My cousin is going to take it with me so it's not quite as daunting.  Blog post to follow!

Nursery Happenings

Over the past few months, we've slowly cleaned out the second bedroom and started in on the nursery.  The first thing that we bought was a dresser from the Land of Nod outlet for $75.  It was white with scuffs everywhere and a cracked base.  I wish I had the before pic, but I couldn't snap one before Dave got his hands on it.  He fixed the base, painted it and put on new hardware.  Here is my handsome handyman;

The color is absolutely perfect.  Picking out paint is harder than it looks and it's been a bumpy road for me.  I went to Buikema's with this color in mind and when they didn't have it, I worked with the paint lady to make a custom color.  She printed out the paint specifications and we crunched numbers (for real) until we came up with the color I liked.  She could not have been nicer about it.  And I must admit that I was/am pretty pleased with myself.  We'll throw a changing pad on it and, voila, we have a functional and pretty piece of furniture.

And then you go and totally redeem yourself!

Dumb and Dumber, anyone?  It's only fair that I follow up the Anti-City post with one about how fabulous New York is.  I went to dinner last night with a good friend from high school at Morandi in the West Village.  The food was delicious, fun atmosphere, and great people watching.  I also got a nice little celebrity sighting there - Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci.  I think it was New York's way of saying "this city still kicks ass and don't you forget it".  Noted, New York.  I'll watch my words.

The Anti City

I'm in New York this week for work and I'm so surprised at how much my feelings for this great city have changed in the last few years.  It's fast-paced and exciting and slightly magical....and so not my speed these days.  I don't think I can make claim that I'm an outdoor enthusiast, either, but these places look like little slices of heaven to me;

Image 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Sweet, Flaky Friday

This is how I started my morning.

Well, not quite, but I did my best to channel a fabulous Friday morning the Parisian way.  My friend, Erin, has recently been spending a lot of time in France for work.  She was regaling us with stories of quiet mornings spent at cafes eating croissants, drinking coffee and people watching.  Listening to her set off all kinds of daydreams about fantastical trips to Paris.  My life being not so glamorous, I took these big daydreams and whittled them down to a little treat for myself.

After searching the world wide web, it turns out there is a French Market in the Ogilvie train station, which is on my way to work.  In this French Market is Vanille Patisserie, which boasts the best croissant in the city.  To be accurate, they don't tout this accolade, but a whole lot of Yelpers do.  I figured I'd spice up my week by swinging by to check this joint out and see if it lived up to the hype.  Despite the pictures and reviews online, I was still shocked to see an actual "market" in the train station.  It's a big, open space with counters for various grocers, bakers, coffee shops, and pasta makers.  Vanille Patisserie is the first counter upon entering, so I got myself a $2.70 croissant and a (very strong) iced latte from Lavazza.  I'm not going to pretend to know anything about food, but I do know that I love all things carbs, salt and butter and that's exactly what this was.  I can honestly say that the croissant was amaze-balls.  Eating at my desk didn't have quite the same joie de vivre, but I still enjoyed every last flaky bit of it.  Someday I'd like to experience the real thing, but until then I'll settle for the "on my way to work" version.  Happy Friday!

Kiss and Make Up

It's been a really long time since I've posted anything.  In fact, it was still cold outside.  You know how I know that?  Because that's when the house and I got into a very serious disagreement and stopping talking (i.e. I stopped blogging).  Our super fancy European tankless water heater broke.  Not only was it a bummer that we had no heat, but we had to pay Tim, the heater guy, $125 to tell us that it was broken and could not be fixed.  It was broken due to one teensy, tiny, faulty part.  The aforementioned super fancy European tankless water heater is no longer being made, nor is anyone in the world servicing this item.  Over the course of a week, we sent emails to several non-English speaking countries and Dave placed a late night phone call to Spain.  I have no idea what his plan was if someone actually picked up the phone.  Our parents were gracious enough to take us  (and our little pooch) in while we tried to track down the part.  I'm pretty sure we found the end of the Internet in the process.  Long story short, we had to buy an entirely new tankless water heater and this one is American.  Damn skippy it is.  So, the house and I have made our amends and we're back in business.  FYI, there is a small child living inside of my stomach for the next few months, so it may not be full steam ahead, but I'll do my best to keep things lively!

Tuesday Muzak: New Citizen Cope

A La Entry

I wrote a post a few months ago about our entry stairs when Dave refinished them.  Apparently, we love spontaneous stair projects.  At our friend's house one night (after several glasses of wine), we helped them rip carpet off of their front hall stairs.  After a few hours of pulling staples, some minor cuts and just a few nicks in the stairs, it looked pretty good.  I'm not sure how thrilled they were the next morning.  Anyhooters, my sister and I painted our foyer and upstairs hallway soon after moved in.  Like most of the palette in this house when we bought it, the foyer was in the depressing brown category.  They left a few hooks that I spray painted black and they look fab.  Before;

 

You can see the dark red paint and original wood trim in the living room to the right.  So many changes!  I also found a bench at a garage sale, spray painted it black and recovered it.  It's still one of my favorite finds.

 

Stairway wall space is intimidating.  We don't have kids school pictures to frame and an entire wall dedicated to Bruno would be a little much.  Dave and I were walking around the Antique Mall and we noticed some sepia-toned, vintage photographs and decided to make a little project out of it.  While we realize that it's a little out there to frame and display pictures of perfect strangers, we figured we can replace these with our children's photographs someday.  Here are some prep pics and the after;

 

  

 

  

  

  

I bought a few rolls of that pink ribbon so that we can carry this idea into the upstairs hallway.  

The Loo

I'm full of pictures and posts this week!  I'm going to break the bathroom update into several posts because it's going to take several weeks...maybe months.  The bathroom was the most updated room in the house, which put it firmly last on our list of to-do's.  Now that we've cruised through most of our house projects, I'm ready to take this beast on.  The former homeowner, let's call him Hank, really gets my proverbial goat.  He should have just left the house the way he found it so that we wouldn't have to go back and fix his nasty choices.  Exhibit A:

 

Hank thought it would be super sweet to frame the mirror with individually laid glass tiles in a variety of sea foam colors.  I admire his creativity, as you all know we're taking creative liberties with our home that we will most definitely regret some day.  Did he have to lay them individually?  Mesh backed tiles weren't invented three years ago?  To repeat myself from yesterday's post, the only thing I know how to do are demo and paint.  So I thought I'd grab a wonderbar and a hammer while Dave was out running errands and get after that tile.  It took me about an hour to get half of the tiles chipped off and it was hard work (for me).

 

At this point, I'm feeling really good about myself.  No pain, no gain...blah blah blah.  Dave comes home just after I snap this picture and asks if he can help.  I thought it would be some great bonding time...until it took him (literally) 45 seconds to demolish the rest of the tiles.

He put the claw part of his hammer at the top of the tile and dragged down bringing every single stinking tile with it.   I knew this was going to happen, too. After watching my dad and uncle tear down our kitchen wall in five minutes with brute force, I figured there had to be a better, albeit messier, way to do this.  I tried hammering the tiles and was afraid I was going to put a hole through the wall.  My mistake.  The good news is that now the tile is done and we have a big mirror from our last place to rest there until it can be filled and patched.  Here is a little preview of the rest of the bathroom;

 

  

We have high hopes for this bathroom...things like Moroccan stencils, gray wainscoting, Anthropologie fixtures and an enclosed linen closet made from our old kitchen cabinets.  So red, hot and green!

Weekend Project

In blog world, I'm led to believe that people knock out demolitions, renovations and furniture construction in one weekend.  I've come to believe that this is a lie.  Dave spearheads most of our projects and it can make me feel a little disconnected from the "fun" of our home improvements.  One fine Sunday about four weeks ago, Dave decided to take a nap in the basement.  This may be the first nap he's taken since we moved into the house.  I took it as my cue to pick up a powerdrill and demo our pantry, which happens to be located at the top of the basement staircase.  We can delve into my motivations to do so at a later date in time.  Here is the before of our pantry.  The previous homeowner had yellow doors with green flowers on it, which we removed within a few weeks of moving in.

 

It's a pretty sorry excuse for a pantry.  Here is mid-demo;

 

The former homeowner had a really sharp eye for color.  I think everyone loves the look of their food products set against lime green.  Mmm.

It's important to note that this took me all of 45 minutes.  After the demo was done, so was I.  The truth of the matter is that the only thing I know how to do is demo and paint.  I'm slowly learning, but the only way to really accomplish that is to take on a project all by myself....with the good and the bad.  But why (and the better question is how) can I do that when Dave can do everything?  So Dave was reluctantly drawn into the pantry project.  He had the genius idea of building boxes on casters for garbage and recycling that can be tucked away so that we don't have to see them.  

 

Here they are before being covered in wallpaper and trimmed out.  In the meantime, we'd each taken a crack at painting the pantry with chalkboard paint.  I've been wanting to paint a room black for awhile and the pantry is the only "room" that I was actually allowed to try it out on.  Here is the glorious after picture of the completed garbage/recycling bins and painted pantry;

 

So you may be wondering how the bins came to be covered in cow print wallpaper.  I'm obsessed with wallpaper...obsessed.  But it's very expensive and very intimidating.   I'm not even worried about the commitment of wallpaper and the nightmare that is removing wallpaper.  I'm afraid I couldn't hang the stuff correctly and that would be one, huge expensive mistake.  So I thought I'd buy a roll and try it out for the pantry project.   If you go to the website and take a look around, you'll notice all sorts of beautiful wallpapers.  I didn't want to pick anything with color because I thought it would clash with the food items on the shelves.  I do realize that choosing an animal print for a nook that houses things that we eat may have been in poor taste.  But I'm a carnivore and make no apologies :)  We went ahead and papered all of the shelves that I cut;

 

(I'm so serious when I'm sawing things.  Please take no notice of the fact that we're doing this in our basement.)

 

Right now you're probably thinking, whoaaaaa.  And not in a good way.  We had the same reaction.  So Dave decided to paint right over them and it's actually pretty cool.  You can see the cow print coming through, but it doesn't assault your sense of sight.  Here are the after shots;

 

 

Bruno is such a camera hog.  I prettied up the top shelf with some cake plates and I may take another picture because now these are really bothering me.  The moral of this story is that it didn't happen in a weekend, or even a month, but in blog world I could probably lie and get away with it. 

t-u-t-o-r

And a new Spelling Bee champ is crowned!  Bridget's triumphant rise to the throne marks the third Boland girl to get her name etched into the majestic St. Raphael School spelling bee plaque.  (I'm pretty sure my brothers dominated the geography bees, but they'll get their own moments in the sun.)   

Here is a quick pic that was snapped of Bridget and Mom enjoying the victory!

Go on girl and get that Regional title!