Rewind: Saturday - Football, Family, Food

I know it's Tuesday but I realize I forgot to post about my Saturday. I had such a good day that I wanted to share it with all of you!

Breakfast

I wanted to try something different than my usual low fat vanilla latte so I chose the Northern Light Turtle latte from Caribou. It was good but tasted too much like dessert for my morning pick me up:



Panera power sandwich: Bread, egg, ham and cheese. This is my favorite "fast food" breakfast sandwich. I can taste all the ingredients individually and when all the flavors mix together it makes an amazing breakfast sandwich.



Lunch

Saturday's in my house are dedicated to college football. This Saturday was fun because we had family over to enjoy the Michigan vs. Indiana game.

Before our guests arrived I put together a veggie tray full off carrots, broccoli, cucumbers and peppers.





To dip the veggies I made some low fat ranch dip:

I think everyone liked the veggies. I know I did!

My plate x 4:

What is a football game without a beer? I drank 2 Magners Irish Cider beers. If you like cider beer and haven't had Magners, you must try it!

Cappy & Solera

The dogs go CRAZY when we have guest over. They get SO excited to have new people to play with! They jump on and bark at our guests to welcome them. Not the most welcoming situation for a lot of people but it's better than being peed on when you walk in the door. I won't mention which dog, Solera, but one of them used to get way to excited and not be able to control his bladder. Thank goodness that phase is over with!

To give our guest a break we gave the dogs their favorite treat, Bully Sticks:

Give the dogs one of these and nothing else in the world exists. It's all about the Bully Stick:

Dinner



After Michigan won the game we ordered some Chinese food from Tamarind.



This place has good food but the Customer Service sucks. After I placed the order for delivery I received a call telling us we ordered to much food so they had to charge us more for delivery. We ordered 3 meals and egg rolls, I don't think that is an excessive amount of food. It wasn't the fact that they charged us more money for delivery (although that didn't make me happy) it was the way they handled the situation that makes me think they need to take a customer service class.



We most likely will not be getting Tamarind food anymore which really stinks because the food is really good!



My plate: I ended up eating half the egg roll, a little bit of noodles and some broccoli dish over rice.

Patrick made me a Jeff Lewis martini to enjoy with my meal. I think one of the reasons I married P was because he can make a great martini:)

I drank half.

Dessert

Leftover s'mores pizza!

Solera sitting by our feet in hopes of catching any bit of food that might fall off our plate:

and Cappy getting depressed as our guests started to leave. He was hoping they would stay all night so he could curl up in their laps and sleep!

Good people, good conversation, good food and happy dogs - Couldn't have asked for a better Saturday!

Question:

How do you like to spend your Saturdays?

Clean Bill of Health and Flo & Santos

I had a very busy Friday morning.

Over the last few months Patrick and I have been finding lumps on Cappy. Not just any lumps but golf ball size lumps that seem to appear overnight and disappear just as fast. On Thursday night I noticed one on his stomach so I took him to the vet first thing Friday morning. Thankfully the vet said they appear to be fatty cysts and nothing to worry about. My furry child has a clean bill of health, well, except for his teeth. He's scheduled for a teeth cleaning in December:)

Breakfast

Due to the Vet visit and work I didn't have time to eat anything. But I made up for it later in the day!

Lunch

Quick and easy whole wheat pasta with Ragu traditional sauce.

After eating my pasta I needed to satisfy my sweet tooth so I snacked on a handful of butterscotch chips.

Dinner

After work P and I walked to a rather new restaurant, Flo & Santos:

This pub and eatery is located in the South Loop neighborhood in Chicago. It's a very cozy and welcoming atmosphere where families are welcome as are those who just want to grab a drink at the bar. I loved the exposed brick and large red booths. Oh, and the 90-inch HD screen would be great to watch a little college football on.

The food is a mix of Polish and Italian classics. My two favorite cuisines, I couldn't wait to dig in!

I sipped on one of the specialty cocktails while P and I looked over the menu.

Bison Grass Vodka with Hard Cider served in a graham cracker rimmed glass:

The cocktail was okay but I most likely will not order it again. It didn't really have that much flavor but I did enjoy the rim on the glass:)

My first dish was the house made chicken & egg noodle soup. Oh my word, I loved this soup. I was so happy to discover it because chicken soup is one of those things that makes me feel comforted.

The broth wasn't too salty, the noodles were the perfect texture and the shredded chicken was perfection. The memory of this soup is making me want to jog over to Flo & Santos right now!

P and I shared the waffle fries for an appetizer. They were good but nothing all that different than other waffle fries I've had. I told Patrick next time I'm going to sneak some Lawry's seasoned salt in to sprinkle it all over the fries. That would be good and P agreed!

The angels sang to me when I read the description for Flo's pizza - polsak Kielbasa, sauerkraut and apple wood smoked bacon. I know many of you are thinking sauerkraut on pizza doesn't sound appetizing at all. But I'm here to set the record straight...It is amazing!!!

I only had a couple slices of Flo's pizza because I needed to save room for dessert.

Dessert

Just two words: S'more Pizza!

Topped with vanilla gelato:

Amazing!

So, so, so amazing!!!

Flo & Santos has the best thin crust pizza I've had in a long time. The interesting toppings they offer give this pizza joint an edge above all the other places in the neighborhood. The food is good and the service is good which means this blogger will be going to this place again!

Question:

What is the craziest topping you've put on your pizza?

Thursday's are Good Days

It's 1 day closer to Friday and it's farmers market day! I love going to the farmers market and looking at buying all the wonderful fresh food. However my wallet usually takes a beating:(

Breakfast

Cup of steel cut oats from Potbelly's topped with peanut butter. These oats always do a great job of keeping me full well into the afternoon.

Lunch

I decided to remove my ass from the chair I sit in more than 8 hours a day and take a walk to the farmers market. It was wonderful. The weather was nice and I was able to talk to a bunch of the vendors about how they grow their products. Learned a lot and picked up some great food!

As I was walking back to work I discovered an interesting tent in the farmers market, Rock n Roll Noodle Company. This place wasn't selling veggies, fruit or cheese they were selling lunch! Different kinds of noodle dishes and a sandwich. Everything looked great but I opted for the veggie pad thai.

Not just any pad thai. The best pad thai I've had in a really long time. The flavor was wonderful and made my taste buds very happy.

Topped with some Sriracha for a bit of spice.

Happy Hour

Patrick made me a Jeff Lewis martini. What, you don't know who Jeff Lewis is? He's the OCD designer star of Flipping out. And he knows his way around a dirty martini!

2 parts vodka, 1 part water, 1 part olive juice and 3 olives. Yummers!

We shared a slice of cheese purchased from the farmers market.

Perfect happy hour in my book!

Dinner

I wanted something simple for dinner so we ordered from my favorite mexican joint, Flaco's Tacos!

I got a couple Picadillo tacos; ground beef & potatoes, cheese and Cholula Hot Sauce wrapped in a corn tortilla.

Dessert

Vanilla Bean Cupcake:

Take a close look at the frosting. Can you see the vanilla bean specks?

This cupcake was simple and full of vanilla flavor. I need to learn to bake using real vanilla bean.

Question:

Have you ever used real vanilla bean? What did you use it in and how did you do it?

Flaming Orange Peel

Yesterday was much better than Tuesday. I still had a ton of stuff to do but I took a more relaxed approach to it and all was good.

This is a pretty long post so if you are only going to read one section I highly recommend the "Happy Hour" section. I'm just so impressed by the bartender!



Breakfast

I was determine to have a good morning so I stopped at Starbucks before I stepped foot in the office.

Can anyone translate the "chicken scratch" on my cup?

(answer: I ordered a grande half pump, skim milk, pumpkin spice latte)

I wasn't sure if the latte itself would start my day on a happy note so I paired it with a Pumpkin Scone. I really enjoy the combination of these two so it's no surprise that it totally hit the spot.




Lunch

Ceres was calling my name. The Wednesday's specials are drool worthy.

Chicken Tortilla Soup: no cilantro, cheddar cheese, crisply tortilla




Loaded Veggie Salad: broccoli, carrots, pea pod, cucumber, celery, cauliflower, red pepper, mixed greens with a raspberry vinaigrette

Happy Hour

I needed to do some shopping at Whole Foods after work. I could spend hours looking at all the goodness Whole Foods has to offer. However, my husband does not have the same enthusiasm when it comes to grocery shopping so I dropped him off at the Bar next door. I look forward to Whole Foods and P looks forward to reading his kindle while having a cocktail. It works for us;)

After I was done with my shopping I met him at the bar, Binny's. We ordered a cheese, almond and bread platter. I can't remember the name of the cheese but it was dreamy. I commented to the husband that it's been along time since we had some really good cheese!



I wasn't sure what to order for my cocktail so I asked the bartender to make me a cocktail of his choice. I knew I didn't have to worry what he would bring me because he is by far the most knowledgeable bartender I've ever met! He not only knows a lot about all kinds of alcohol but he takes pride in the drinks he makes.

He chose a vodka old fashioned using Zubrowka Bison Grass Vodka. Once the drink was completed he brought it over to me and then lite an orange peel on fired and threw it in the drink.

It was so cool and I thought it was just for show until I took my first drink. The fired up orange peel gave the drink a bit of caramelized flavor. Another thing it did was give the cocktail an amazing aroma. This was the first cocktail in my life (and I've had a few;)) that stimulated multiple senses; taste and smell. I'm telling you this bartender is something special when it comes to making cocktails!




On the way home we spotted a TV show, titled Ride Along, being filmed in Manny's Deli.





Dinner

Quick, simple, cheap and tasty just how I like my dinners at home!

Steamed some baby carrots, asparagus and corn. Mixed the veggies in with rice and topped it with soy sauce and Cholula hot sauce.





Dessert

Yet again simple and tasty! Barney butter and Trappist Pomegranate Jelly on a hot dog bun.

I've been dehydrated lately so throughout the night I sipped on my big jar of water. Whenever I drink water out of this glass it reminds me of my dad. When I was little the only glass he would ever drink water out of was a big ball jar:)




Project Food Blog

Just a reminder that voting ends today. Even if you don't want to vote please check out my submission here. I think it sums up me and my blog perfectly!

Question:

Have you ever been really impressed with a bartender? Where were you and how did they impress you?

Brat's, Wine, Steak, Bloggers and Football!

Most people believe the weekend starts on Friday but last weekend mine started on Thursday.

After work Patrick met me at the Berghoff Oktoberfest to grab some tasty food and listen to the band, Sixteen Candles. As you can tell by the name they are an 80's cover band. It was great to hear the 80's tunes again:

The menu:

I opted for the Bratwurst with Kraut and old style mustard:

I'm not a big fan of bratwurst but this was good. Probably because it had a ton of kraut, love the kraut!

Oktoberfest is usually a big beer drinking event. I sorta took part. I had a rootbeer:

Friday night I went to the South Loop Wine Cellar:

They have wine tastings every Friday and the cost is only $5 (unless otherwise specified):

The decor inside the shop is so cool. Exposed brick walls, wine barrel details and lots of happy people sipping away at some delicious wine!

This tasting was all about Italian wines. I loved that the owner hung up pictures of Italy for the event:

I tasted 5 different wines which all cost under $20 a bottle:

Amy Garman, the owner, is very knowledgeable about all things wine. She was very helpful when it came time to buying a bottle (or three;))

Tasted some white wine:

and some red wine:

Yum!

After all the wine we needed to get some food in our stomachs so we stopped at The Chicago Firehouse:

I started with a bowl of Sweet Potato Soup. My first ever sweet potato to pass my lips.

P and I split the Garlic Whipped Potatoes:

and the Macaroni and Cheese:

My entree was the Filet Mignon with a blackened crust:

Verdict: The food was good. Nothing spectacular but my taste buds were happy. The service was fantastic! Our waiter was very personable and he made sure we had everything we needed.

Saturday at 11:00 am I met up with 6 other ladies for the Chicago Blogger Brunch at Yolk. Yolk is a very popular place to brunch it up in Chicago. They are known for their creative twists on traditional breakfast dishes.

Once the food was delivered to our table the blogger photo shoot began. I have many reason why I enjoy dining with food bloggers and one of them is the fact that I will never be the only one taking photos of my meal;)

Everything on the menu looked fantastic but I was able to narrow it down to the perfect dish. Bacon Waffle & Eggs - Crisp bacon mixed throughout the batter and topped with 2 eggs:

Great food with a great group of bloggers!

Back Row L-R: Me, Kelly (blog reader!), Megan and Amy

Front Row L-R: Katie, Katie and Heba

(thanks Amy for the photo)

After leaving Yolk I headed home to watch some Nebraska football. Unfortunately the game was not on TV in Chicago (boo!!!) so I got creative and watched the game on my laptop:)

The boys aren't so interested in football. They would much rather cuddle and sleep.

And give me dirty looks when I jump up to celebrate a touchdown! Go Huskers!!!

I woke up on Sunday to find an entire box of ear plugs gone. The little tan guy (above) decided to make a midnight snack out of them.

Let's just say, walking the dog later in the day wasn't the most pleasant experience.

Project Food Blog

Thanks to everyone who voted for me, it really does mean a lot to me!

Voting ends Thursday, September 23. For those of you who would like to check out my post submission click here!

Question:

Have you ever been to a blogger meet-up?