Chicago, according to Instagram, iPhoto, and KitCam.

What a fantastic day. We couldn't have asked for better weather or a better day off in one of our favorite cities. I'll let our photos tell the story. 

There's something about Chicago that's so moving, loud, and alive. I really like Shorewood and am happy to be living where we are, but being surrounded by the activity and the pace of a busier city is something that we both found we were missing. That just means we'll have to be out and about a lot when we're home in Minneapolis in a few weeks...let the countdown begin!

This month.

I'm starting a new series on the blog where I note the little (and big) things I'm looking forward to in the upcoming month. There are so many exciting things ahead of us!

What are you looking forward to this month? 

Andrew's birthday.

Andrew's birthday happened to fall the day before I was leaving for Madison to take the bar, but I was definitely not going to let that get in the way of our celebrating his day. You only turn 26 once, right!? 

For his birthday present, I bought this chalkboard that's now hanging in our kitchen (we've wanted one for a long time...and surprisingly, it's really hard to find one that's not "school-room green" in the middle!). He doesn't get to have his real birthday present until April, though, when we'll go to Chicago for dinner at Girl and the Goat (see it on the chalkboard?? Girl + Goat? I was really proud of this, by the way...)! I had been trying to get reservations since November, and finally, before Christmas, I was able to get us in...at the end of April. That was the first Saturday night opening they had! Needless to say, we're really excited, and are so looking forward to a sunny and warm night out in Chicago in about a month. 

And what kind of birthday would it be without a cake? Andrew had requested something special from the Milk cookbook - filled with desserts and baked loveliness from the Momofuku Milk Bar bakeries in New York. These recipes are quite involved - most everything requires several components - but OH MY WORD, these are absolutely the best cakes I've ever had. We made one at Christmastime for my birthday, so we knew that the recipe wouldn't disappoint. Andrew's birthday cake was (are you ready?!?) a pistachio layer cake, made with homemade lemon curd, pistachio frosting, and milk crumbs. Unreal. 

Perfectly nutty (but not overpowering at all) and with just the right hint of  citrus from the lemon curd, this cake was amazing. Apparently it's one of the favorites at Milk Bar, and I'm not surprised. My favorite components of it are the pistachio cake and milk crumbs (powdered milk, sugar, flour, cornstarch, butter and salt baked, then broken up and sprinkled with melted white chocolate). Seriously. Not healthy AT ALL, but who cares. It was worth every calorie. And it looked so pretty, too! 

It complemented our dinner of smoked roast chicken, macaroni and cheese, and green beans perfectly! We FaceTimed with our families and wished they were able to join us, but getting to "see" everyone we love was the next best thing. I hated leaving the next day...but at least there was cake for Andrew to eat while I was gone! 

I love you, Driy!! Hope you had a wonderful birthday!

Chicago for Christmas.

This last Friday, Andrew, my sister, and I took the train down to Chicago to see the Windy City decorated for Christmas. It's so easy to get there from Shorewood, and we thought it'd be a fun way to kick off all our holiday celebrations. Highlights included Xoco for breakfast, a bit of window shopping and day dreaming, a Vince Vaughn sighting at Williams-Sonoma, Sprinkles, the Christkindlmarket, and a fantastic lunch at Publican Quality Meats.

Here are a few pictures from our stops throughout the city...we'll be back soon, I'm sure.

MN Mondays: Happy Christmas Eve.

This morning, MN Mondays comes to you from...Minnesota! We drove home from Milwaukee yesterday, with a packed car (and an extra person, since D. came to WI on Friday morning!) and plenty of excitement. We are so happy to be able to spend this time with our family and friends and will be making the most out of this Christmas season.

Our last weekend in Milwaukee was actually partially spent in Chicago - we took the train for a day trip to the Windy City. It was, unfortunately, cut a bit short because I was silly and sprained my ankle (just wasn't paying attention and stepped on it wrong), but as always, the city was great. I'll post some pictures of our adventures later. Today we're running a few errands at home and looking forward to the start of all our Christmas celebrations, lasting through the middle of January!

Here's wishing all our loved ones a beautiful Christmas Eve!

Christmasgram #4.

Countdown to my sister's flight to MKE: less than 24 hours. 

Countdown to Chicago Christmas fun: 2 days. 

Countdown to driving home for Christmas: 3 days. 

I'm a happy girl. 

One year ago.

Today marks one year of having the best fiancé in the world. 

It was my fall break at law school, and we were taking advantage of the week off to get away to Chicago. While we had talked about getting engaged quite a while before taking this vacation, I didn't expect anything to happen because I knew Andrew doesn't love flying. There's no way, I thought, that he'd want to worry about the plane and the proposal over the same trip. 

We spent our first day wandering Chicago and eating pizza; the next day, after a rainy afternoon at the Chicago History Museum and a Chelsea Champions League game at Fado, we came back to our hotel to get ready for dinner at The Publican. The plan, as far as I knew it, was to have dinner there and then head out to Gilt Bar for fun drinks afterwards. It was awful outside: rainy, blustery, and cold. Since The Publican was a ways from our hotel, we took the bus over; while I didn't know what was going to happen, looking back on it now, I can't imagine how nervous Andrew must have been, as he had the ring in his pocket the whole time! 

After an incredible meal (including duck hearts, maybe the most memorable and delicious dish I've ever had), Andrew had the restaurant call a cab. Apparently, he told the driver of his plan and real destination, but when we got inside the taxi, I just assumed we were going to the bar; not knowing exactly where it was helped keep the surprise up until the very end. 

The cab let us out near the Michigan Avenue Bridge, a place with one of the best views of the city along the river. The rain had calmed down, it was only sprinkling, and we were the only people out on the bridge. At that point, I realized we probably weren't walking to the bar, and started to get really excited. As we walked onto the bridge, I knew what was going to happen. There, with no one out at all but us, Andrew asked me to marry him (and he did get down on one knee, even though it had been raining!). It was perfect, romantic, and made me the happiest I've ever been. We walked to the Wrigley building to step in from the rain, and the wonderful phone calls home began; I learned that everyone already knew, and had kept the secret from me. I'm still impressed that I never found out! 

So much has happened since that rainy night; we're in a new city, Andrew's in his Ph.D. program, I've graduated and passed the bar. I can't think of anyone else I would want to experience this with, and I'm so lucky to be Andrew's fiancée. 

Love you, duzhe, Driy, and I can't wait to marry you! 

Happy weekend, friends! 

A rainy day.

Paris Street, A Rainy Day; Gustave Caillebotte. 

I love this painting; it's on display at the Chicago Art Institute and the photo is from our visit last fall. It reminds me of our weather today: chilly, grey, and wet.

While we're experiencing the not-so-nice side of fall at the moment, this weather makes me crave comfort foods: warm bread out of the oven, hearty stews, and pizza (yes, pizza is the ultimate comfort food!). We're making a deep-dish pizza tonight, with eggplant, pepperoni, and red pepper. Pictures to come later.

Having dinner covered, I was browsing for new ideas for fall breakfasts, and stumbled upon this recipe: baked pumpkin steel-cut oatmeal. I cannot wait to try this, as I love pumpkin-flavored anything; it also reminded me of mornings when I was little and my mom would make us kasha, or oatmeal in Ukrainian. She would stir in dried cherries and maple syrup to make it sweet. It was so, so good!

I'll be trying the pumpkin oats in the next few days, on a crisp fall morning. What are your favorite comfort foods? Is there a fall favorite you'd like to share?

Chicago Day Trip.

Happy Labor Day weekend! It's hard to believe that the unofficial end of summer is already here. We decided to take a short trip to Chicago yesterday - it's so close to Milwaukee! In order to spend as much time in Chicago as possible, we drove to Kenosha to make the 6:50 a.m. train and took that right into downtown. Metra's weekend pass is really reasonable, only $7.00 (and it only costs $2.50 per day to park in Kenosha); this is something we're definitely going to be taking advantage of!

The weather forecast was originally pretty bleak (I had been checking all week), but it turned out to be quite lovely; it sprinkled a bit when we first arrived, but otherwise it was just cloudy and breezy, so we were able to walk around without any trouble.

We went to breakfast at Xoco, one of Rick Bayless' restaurants. We've been to Frontera before, and absolutely loved it, so we were excited (and hungry, as we had been up since 4:30!) for Xoco. It was really good, but we both think it would have been better for lunch. The coffee drinks, though, were amazing. Andrew had a chocolate espresso, and I had a wonderful chocolate cafe con leche: thick, just the right amount of chocolate, and so smooth.

We walked around the city all day, visiting our favorite spots and discovering new ones. We've been to Chicago four times now since we've started dating, and it's the city where we got engaged last October. It's really a special place to us, and we're so excited about how close by it is.  

One of the reasons we love Chicago so much is the fact that there are so many incredible restaurants. On our last trip, we visited Cafe Spiaggia, Q, The Publican, and The Purple Pig, and all were amazing. We knew we only had one day for this trip, so there were certainly fewer meals to plan, but we still made sure we ate well. For lunch, we decided to try Bar Toma, Tony Mantuano's new restaurant. We had guanciale-wrapped sweetbreads with sage and shared the Calabrese pizza, topped with sausage, Calabrian chilies, and mozzarella. The crust on the pizza was the best I've ever had. You could taste the smokiness of the wood from the oven, and it was perfectly soft and crispy at the same time. Amazing. 

We also walked around the Fulton Market District, west of downtown and set in between the highways and the Chicago River. It smells like chocolate, but I'm not sure why. From the outside, it doesn't look like the posh and luxurious neighborhood that's home to some of the country's best restaurants, but famous names like The Publican, Next, Aviary, Blackbird, Avec, and others have found their place and are thriving in the warehouses and brick alleyways of Fulton. During our afternoon walk, we stopped in to Publican Quality Meats, which sells all sorts of local products, from smoked beef heart to artisanal honey (from MN!). Andrew was definitely in his happy place. 

We returned to Fulton for dinner, to a restaurant called g.e.b. The menu had smaller plates to share, which we really like because then we are able to order several dishes and and try more than one. We had calamari with green hummus, oxtail lasagna, a saffron risotto with clams, blueberry cake, and gianduja-filled beignets. Realizing we had some time before our train was to depart, we decided to try RM Champagne Salon, a new champagne lounge we had read about (and which happened to be next door to g.e.b.!). I can't wait to go back! I had a champagne cocktail and Andrew ordered a whiskey with cherry notes; it was the perfect way to end the night. 

We took the train back to Kenosha, and made it back to Shorewood by midnight. We're quite tired today, but already planning the next visit to one of our favorite cities!