Raspberry & Brie Panini

I want to make this.

Necklace

I made another necklace.

Top Chef Take That: Pesto Meatballs Spaghetti

Hi... I have no pictures of my own, as I don't have a working camera and laptop, but I made spaghetti with a twist last night and I wanted to share because it was pretty good. I had some leftover pesto from a delicious pesto spinach tomato pasta, and decided to add it to Stephie's mom's meatballs that I love so much. I didn't have much pesto left, so I only added about 2 spoonfuls, but it was enough to add a slight pesto taste to the meatballs. I will do it again for sure, and maybe add 4 spoonfuls to give it a more noticeable pesto kick. I did it with marinara sauce, but I think of the meatballs have enough pesto flavor they would taste good with a light Alfredo sauce or even olive oil and Parmesan. The meatballs had pesto, garlic, shredded Parmesan, egg, and bread crumbs. I also rolled them in breadcrumbs like we do.

As I was making it I remembered the frozen food task on a season of Top Chef. One of the groups made a pesto meatball pasta dish.. the judges thought it was weird to put pesto in a warm dish with meat, but we gracewood fans disagreed. I wanted to try pesto meatballs since watching that show several years ago. Here is a picture of Kasey and Dale discussing their pesto meatball dish.

Chicago

The Final Day.

I decided to post this all by myself. Nobody (Rachael) reminded me to do it. 27 times.



The first morning we started with a more traditional breakfast. Coffee and a bagel, not Thai Curry.



We spent most of the day driving. But we did manage a trip to Greektown. We had cheese that was on fire (I don't remember the fancy name). I didn't get it the first time when our waiter brought ours out so we had to take a picture of our neighbor's appetizers being presented to them.







Pictures of our delicious Greek food.

Chicago!

Day 3



We began our day with leftover Chicago style pizza for breakfast. I have to say it was better than the cold Thai Curry that I had for breakfast the day before. Much better. This picture depicts what happens when you eat too much Chicago style pizza.



We had a photo shoot in front of the bean. This is our best jumping picture :)







More photos from Millennium Park. Rachael makes a pretty convincing dinosaur.




We forgot to take pictures of us in Chinatown and our 5 hour shopping trip. We did however manage to take pictures on the L on the way to Chinatown and shopping.



Fireworks! We didn't make it to Navy Pier but had a pretty good spot.

Chicago Interlude

Look, I made a necklace.

Chicago

Day 2, Part 1 of Chicago

We got up bright and early (going by Estephania's time) and headed to the Art Institute of Chicago. We took some time out from our cultural edification to take goofy pictures in the Modern Wing.





We capped our cultural experience by being materialistic Americans. There was a sale--what can I say?




The awesomeness of this picture probably makes it difficult to read the card. It is a Frontera Grill business card. Rick Bayless' restuarant! I love Rick Bayless. I heard he's a regular reader of this blog. We love you, Rick!




For appetizer, we had queso. It was delicious melted cheese with grilled onions and chorizo. Scrumptious. (It's almost as good as when I melt the Kraft Mexican Blend over Tostitos in the microwave.)




Lindsay and I split an appetizer platter. On the left are two gooey quesadillas. Going clockwise, we have some sort of chicken taco-like thing, chips, guacamole, and ceviche. In the middle is a jicama salad. I loved it all. Lindsay did not care for the ceviche.






Steff got this, but I can't remember the name. Starting at the left, we have scrambled eggs, plantains, and chicken in a mole sauce. It was all so good!

Chicago

Day 1, Part 2 of Chicago

On our way back from Taste, Lindsay tries to take a jumping picture. Fail, Lindsay, fail.

She's better in front of the camera than behind it.

We went to a bar, got drunk (from one, overpriced drink), looked stunned, and snapped a picture. The third blogger wasn't invited, because she stopped blogging. We're punishing her.



Hey, remember how this is a food blog? Well, here's some food! We went to a restaurant in Wicker Park called Thai Lagoon. Steff got the yellow curry, because I asked her nicely. (I wanted the pad thai.) She even got it mild for me. It was yummy, but my mouth was aflame.



I ordered my pad thai "as bland as possible." The waiter kind of sneered and said, "Well, we call it no spice, as bland would suggest no taste." But I forgive him, because he has watched Kate & Allie and didn't act like it was a weird thing to ask of him. My companions hadn't even heard of it.

Chicago

Day 1, Part 1 of Chicago Fun.

The fearless driver.

The stylish passenger. The other passenger was camera shy.

Driving into Chicago.

We got into Chicago at a time that we thought was early. We were meeting Elizabeth & Brian, who had an evening wedding. It turns out that we were lucky that we got in early. It took us a while to find parking, for which we paid an arm, a leg, and an ear. Then we were about a mile and half away, so we hoofed it. Lindsay had a big, fat foot from a bee sting, but she was a trooper. We passed these art trees on the way there and decided to be trees ourselves.

Taste of Chicago. We forgot to take pictures of the actual food, but we had pierogies, tacos, goat, crab rangoon, hamburgers, and something else -- all taste size portions. We also bought a $4 bottle of water, because there were no fountains. Not cool, Taste of Chicago, not cool.

After roaming around the crowds, we took a little breather beneath a tree. Lindsay & Stephanie took a self-portrait. I was asleep.

Apron

Look! One of my favorite people in the world, Rachael, made me this awesome apron! And I posted it because I loved it SO MUCH. Thanks, Rach!