two b-b-ques in one...

this is the short and uneventful story of two bbq's combined into one. the stories, not the bbq's. anyway, the first one was the weekend before last, and was just me and patrick. that bbq is what the photos are from. we had:

• parseley-onion turkey burgers with chipotle cheese
• farmer's market multi-colored peppers stuffed with cheese and corn (peppers were varying shades of green and purple)
• farmer's market fingerling potatoes (pink, gold, and purple)
  
• farmer's market squash and halved grilled peaches (peaches were inspired by holly, merci)

the second was this last weekend, with nikki and eric. eric and patrick played video games ALL NIGHT. we had pretty much the same food, but i changed it up a little. i didn't make a farmer's market trip, either:

• boys had spicy turkey patties with cheddar
• girls had mild turkey patties with a very rich bleu cheese
  (i get it all the time and can't remember what it is now!)
• i made caramelized onions for the first time. is it true, the flatter the onion, the more sweet it is? because i believe it...
  
• the larkin-nunes had poblano peppers, while the silverman-butts had bell peppers, stuffed with chicken sausage, corn, and cheddar cheese
  (is it bad to mix bleu and cheddar cheeses in one meal? tasted good to me...)
• then i added a pineapple and peach kebab in place of the grilled stonefruit halves
• plus they brought an awesome southwestern salad
• and i made fresh strawberry ice cream!

i look completely awkward at the grill

here is food from the first round. it was way too much with two stuffed peppers per person. i learned for the second bbq. photo is blurry because it was dark out thus needed the shutter to stay open.

harvest

this is a photo of my first tomato harvest, inspired by

lo & brad's post. it looks nice, but look at how its buddies turned out.

my thumb is not so green after all.

livin on the edge

patrick and i were headed out for drinks last friday night, when we saw our neighbor david doing something weird to his door. as his dog "addy" ran up to me, i asked him what he was doing.

he said that he got locked out while taking the dog for a walk. his girlfriend even locked the bottom lock on her way out (think weird low, shin-level, lock), and he has never had a key for that lock because the previous owners never gave it to him and he never had one made. he told us this while half sitting on the floor wriggling what looked like a business card in the door.

of course once patrick heard this, being a male, it became his personal mission to help solve this problem. the boys tried everything. every card in patrick's wallet, every spot on the door jam near the two locks. and of course, poor david was late to meet a friend, while his phone, wallet, and keys were all inside. and he didn't know the phone number by heart.

as for me, i just sat with "addy" (turns out her name is really atticus, so her name is really "atty").

side note: leslie and i (well, let me start over, i should speak only for myself) --- i used to lock myself out of our house in sacramento all the time. the nice thing was that all one needed to do to break back in was to go next door to the coffee shop and get a plastic knife. unfortunately the doors here don't respond as well to plastic cutlery. yes, i tried.

after about at least 20 minutes, david started talking about possibly going for the "drop." meaning, hanging from the roof and dropping to his balcony. then patrick told the story of his friend pete daring another friend, named "the lil' guy," to "hang-drop" from an interior hallway to an open living room below. the lil' guy said he'd do it if pete did it, too. so, the lil' guy did it. and was in writhing pain afterwards. as turns out, he broke both heels. nonetheless, he called up to pete and said that pete had to do it too. keeping his word, pete dropped, also landing in agony. turns out pete only sprained both ankles. at this point in the discussion, i added that a kid named james olsen in middle school jumped off his garage, breaking both heels and had to use a wheel chair for two months.

david was adequately discouraged. so then he started asking if we had any sheets he could throw off the roof to climb down onto his patio rapunzel style. that's when we decided we could go get our ladder out of storage, which brother tom used when he painted our place. for painting, we used it in the shape of an upside-down v, if that makes sense. but apparently the ladder can be configured to become one long ladder. (and you know what, it better do a whole lot of other "transformer" sh**, because that stupid ladder cost enough).

we grabbed our keys to storage, which is in the next building over, went to the basement, and realized we forgot to bring the lock code. annoying. the second time around, we managed to bring the ladder back.

up on the roof, the boys did their thing. but of course once david was down on the landing, there was no way of knowing whether the sliding glass door to his place would be unlocked. he said he was more nervous opening the slider than he was climbing down the flexible, wobbling, ladder.

needless to say, he did get in. patrick and i opted for the stairs back down to his place vs. attempting the ladder method. he invited us in for a beer, and he checked his ten new voicemail messages, "uhh, where are you, man?"

then patrick and david talked about how that is indeed david's ducati in the garage. blah, blah.

david was on his way, and i needed to get my purse out of our place, since i put it back inside when we decided to go get the ladder. only, i didn't have the keys. patrick didn't have the keys. i left them on the roof. two sets of keys. my house/work set. PLUS our trash, storage, roof top set. which of course we would need to actually get back up to the roof. i guess i thought it was so much fun being locked out, that i wanted to try it too. luckily one of the doors to the roof was unlocked and patrick was able to retrieve our keys. all he could do was shake his head at me.

when patrick and i got home later, there was a thank you note and a bottle of pouilly fume waiting for us at our door. how nice!!



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let's figure out this poll, people

holly's poll is actually giving her some direction. mine is haywire. maybe that's what i get for leaving it open-ended ... nothing in the clear lead. i wonder how to portray brutus.

july wine night

back in december, andi invited me to do "wine club," a monthly all-female get together to taste grape juice of different varieties and origin. i have been to several of these gatherings now.

july was at rachel's place ... greek themed.

top two on left: andi & lauren

bottom two on left: emily & rachel

remaining, left to right: amber, me, amanda, sarah,

and i forget, i forget.

poll, people

For example, at a beach wedding couples might elect to use a sand dollar or a starfish as a recurring image on invitations, etc. (Laura Ritter-Shiflett had a beach chair in the sand on hers; I just ran across her save the date card and invitation. I save everything).

So, if (and I am stressing "if" here) we decide to use this kind of icon, any simple (and, yes, now i am stressing "simple" here) ideas for something to match an end of winter and the beginning of spring wedding date? (And for the record, I'm not doing, umm, Shamrocks or, worse, Leprechauns. Scary!)

I moreso think a survey is just fun than anything else. And I started composing this post before Blogger came out with their own polling to add to blogs. So I'm just going to keep with the one I am using here.

But, you never know, maybe we will end up using your idea...just enter it in the box above, and hit vote.

a naked chef...? adventures in wedding planning?

the title is probably the most interesting part of this text-heavy post:

i am sure at least one of you is a devoted daily candy reader, like i am. well, my daily dose served me well when the dc posted a caterer for me, right after i was talking about wedding food with one of my co-workers. the naked chef. cute story. true story.

i quite like the idea of a smaller catering co., so i emailed the available link. chef jon wrote back directly. he and his wife mai offered to meet with me near my office after work one evening. i suggested the corner bakery on, well, the corner. when they called the following week to confirm our meeting, i informed them that i had found out that the corner bakery closes before 7:00, our planned meeting time. they said they would just pick me up and we would go somewhere.

and i said ok?

i don't know what i was thinking, hopping into a van with strangers. turns out it was fine. they took me to dinner at bistrot zinc, near rush and state streets. first we made small talk. then we talked 'wedding.' all the while, i stuffed crepes into my face.

it all rather caught me off guard, spending an evening with complete strangers. i was expecting a quick meeting over coffee, not a dinner "out on the town." patrick was in pittsburgh for work, thus i was all by myself! afterwards, they then offered to drive me home (i guess they know where i live now, too), and left me with the biggest binder you've ever seen full of linen samples. i'm not too big on linens.

in fact, i'm not too big on spending hours researching vendors. who has time for this? i barely have time to do my own laundry or pay my own bills. or devote more time to other committments, like the whs class of 97 reunion or my charity work with the meals on wheels celebrity chef ball auction committee. i have even reverted back to a cleaning service at home (how lazy do i feel, our place is like 800 sq. ft. -- i'm time-pressed, i swear), so that i have time to do other important things (you know, like blogging?).

so, the jon chef and the mai lady seemed perfectly easy to work with, the sample/proposal menus they sent to me based on our meeting demonstrate an understanding of what i am looking for, and well, that's good enough for me! although i have yet to taste their food. and if patrick and i are not going to run around tasting ten catering companies' food, i suppose we should AT LEAST taste the naked chef's. though that's not the actual name. and you really don't want to think about this guy with his clothes off!

so i guess i should schedule the tasting. and as long as the food is good, i think deciding on a caterer is taken care of. then there will be the actual menu planning back and forth, blah blah, to follow...

mai and jon said their phones have been ringing non-stop since daily candy ran their story. and they also just recently won a contract with the broadway theater in chicago. and they are opening up a small restaurant in the fall (j'ai). at the same time their kitchen is expanding into the space next door. i hope these are good signs.

japonais is fun to say

patrick told me to run home when i stepped off the train after work on my birthday...

... he just meant i should hustle. when i walked in the door he showered me with beautiful flowers and a perfect card, but we had to go, go, go! he went downstairs and unlocked our bikes, while upstairs i tried to put some make-up on and force a pair of heels into my purse. i hurried downstairs and we hopped on our bikes because we HAD to get to "the place" because the "guy" was supposed to call him earlier and now the "guy" is keeping "the place" open until we get there, and it had already closed fifteen minutes ago at seven o'clock.

i am so in love with these flowers.

we sped over to damen avenue and stopped in front of a t-shirt screening store. a t-shirt store? were we there for a t-shirt? not quite. (photo to come):

patrick points out that he smartly picked army font. and he liked that he chose to run the text across the butt-side. oh boy. this is what we were in such a fuss over! it was hilarious because "the guy" handed them to me practically "hot off the press," so to speak.

patrick also had more gifts waiting for me at home after dinner, which was way, way, too much, but made me feel so loved. we're in negotiations over whether i should keep them or not. i say i don't need and he argues. how wonderful is that? anyway. back to the t-shirt shop...

***

we locked up our transportation means #1, and leaped into means #2, a cab.

we headed to japonais along the chicago river for our eight o'clock reservations. japonais is a chic asian-french fusion spot in the city with a "see-and-be-seen" reputation. we had never made the time to go. it's always hard to gauge what a restaurant regarded as "ultra hip" will truly hold, especially when you practically have to wade through all the hype just to get there. we were about to dine on a tuesday night, particularly the night of fourth of july (-eve) fireworks at the lake, so figured we would not be fighting the usual type of crowd.

after our evening at japonais i can now see why it's earned such favorable reputation, offering both a truly unique and quite luxurious dining experience. the high ceilings, draping sheer metallic fabric and elaborate arrangements beckon guests at the door. intimate two-tops as well as larger group tables, flanked by pillow-adorned booths, peppered the eastern dining room. abundant people watching. a place to enjoy an evening of dining. we ate for two hours...

but what truly sets japonais apart from other trendy locations serving at least well-respected cuisine, is that the service was impeccable. it was what you would expect of a high end french restaurant, without the pretense. this made the evening. it was wonderful. it was the kind of place that knew what you needed before you needed it. the second your last bite was finished, the plate disappeared.

but in case you are still wondering about the food, which ranges from sushi to surf and turf, i will walk you through our own food selections for the evening:

we started with melt-in-your-mouth hamachi sashimi. i ordered the "rouge" off the cocktail list...a lychee liquer with strawberries, strasberi vodka and orchid petals. i was surprised at it's presentation in an almost awkwardly large fish-bowl-esque glass, the same with the japanese margarita patrick ordered, but mine offered a hint of fruit without being too sweet and was chilled perfectly for the summer, thus i revised my first impression while actually imbibing.

we followed the hamachi with marinated baby tuna, sliced sashimi-style, with arugula, shaved daikon and a citrus vinaigrette. it was delicious. the olive oil was beautiful and light, drizzling over the fish giving it a citrus accent. the citrus combined with the spiciness of the arugula, made for a delicious plate.

baby tuna in a citrus vinaigrette

next we ordered a roll of salmon tartare topped with sliced tuna, avocado sauce and a tobiko wasabi sauce. perfectly delicate fish, but underwhelming compared to the other plates of the evening.

the salmon was followed by a softshell crab dish that was expertly crisped, and tasted of tender crab and most definitely not of crunchy bottom-feeder (my most common complaint when ordering softshell crab).

by this point, we'd eaten plenty of fish and downed two rolls. instead of ordering entrees, we kept with the smaller plates. this is when the stars of the evening came...

the ahi ceviche with fried shallots and english peas was an incredible dish. the rich tuna was amazing of course, but the fun came in the juxtaposition of the slightly fried shallots, citrus flavors and aromatic cilantro against the occasional, plump, english pea. this was such a delight.

the ahi ceviche with toasted shallots and english peas

while i finished up the ceviche, "the rock" arrived. a big hot river rock accompanied by a side of raw, paper-thin, new york strip steak. the instant one of those slices hit the rock, sizzling, the table was suffused with the aroma of its peppery marinade. it was actually undeniable. even with 15 years of an aversion to meat, i HAD to taste this. it reminded me nothing of steak in its traditional sense, and with its almost translucent thinness yet abounding flavor, it was a savory bite and i wanted another. after two bites, i was done. but because of this dish, i can see why people dig on red meat.

somewhere in there i moved on to a pear martini, patrick had some sake, and we were handed a dessert menu, although already feeling "full." nonetheless we forged on, and ordered the apple pie toban yaki - sliced michigan apples and ginger oatmeal clusters served in a clay pot. this came with a scoop of vanilla honey ice cream, and was just enough to keep the heat off of the baked apples. i don't know that cinnamon and butter infused apples necessarily pair well with sushi (supposing this more appropriately follows the kobe steak dinner), but the fruit was more appealing than a cliche creme brulee or a heavy dark chocolate marscapone cake, and i wasn't feeling the watermelon soup with tropical fruit, coconut ice cream, and mango sorbet served in a coconut shell (although that sounds damn good right now). the apples were delicious and there were sparklers involved. you just can't beat sparklers on your birthday.

in this photo, i am wearing the top leslie gave me last year for my birthday...a necklace my dad brought back from korea last month, and the christmas ring patrick gave me during our first christmas together. i decked myself out in gifts!

they say it's my birthday...

...so i am taking cupcakes from the lovely bake shop to the office before anyone from work has a chance to sneak out to moonstruck chocolate cafe across the street and buy slices of cake (as per the usual office birthday ritual):