Friday, March 28, 2014

Food lately

Slowly, spring is coming and the desire to make big vats of comfort food--mac and cheese, chili, anything the requires the oven--is lessening. Valentine's Day 2014, however, was all about comfort food: cheese and champagne.

Valentine's Day was a Friday night and Stephen and I knew we wanted to be as far away from a restaurant as possible. We like to dine on random weeknights when there are happy hours and unique specials, not on days where reservations reign. And we had a house to see right after work (FYI: no luck on the house search).

When we got back after the long day we popped open the champagne* and I started melting things for fondue. I used a basic recipe of garlic (rub it on the inside of the pan), dry white wine, and a combination of cheeses. I used three cheese: Swiss, Emmental, and Gruyere. 

Melting, melting, melting

When the cheese fondue was ready, we sat down with soft pretzel, green pepper, broccoli, green apple and pear. Delicious, and very filling!

What a pretty table
I don't think I have cooked (if melting is cooking) anything quite so exciting since. Currently, I am trying to add routine into our meals without getting boring. This week I instituted a new policy: a pizza night, a sandwich night, and a salad night. All of these options have to be made at home but toppings etc. can be different. This week I made both a Margherita and a tuna pizza with Trader Joe's crusts (I am hoping to make my own dough and freeze it soon). Later we had smoked salmon sandwiches with cream cheese, capers, and cucumber. Finally, we had our standard salad with greens, feta, and this time with added crab. How do you keep things fresh in the kitchen without being mundane?

* Full disclosure: France, it was actually a Spanish Cava. I apologize. I accept your punishment but please do me a favor and don't work with Italy and Switzerland to change the name of cheeses. I'd be so confused.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Chicago

I must admit to getting upset when I sit down to eat my lunch at work and catch up on others' blogs...and they haven't posted in a while. Unfortunately, this has not made me a more regular blogger--sorry readers about the month-long hiatus.

I just sat down and went through my phone for some recent pictures as a way to remind myself that I have been doing something other than complaining about the cold weather.

So, the first weekend of February we took the train down to Chicago to visit our good friends Mike and Kelly! It was a wonderful, snowy, laughter-filled weekend. I can't believe it was 4 weeks ago already!

We were able to visit our favorite Garrett's for some popcorn (oh, that cheesy and carmely goodness), shop a bit on Michigan Avenue, stuff ourselves at Grand Lux, and even try a few new eating establishments. Most of all, we were able to visit with good friends and enjoy a beautiful view of Navy Pier at night.