happy new ... hair?

self portrait in the bathroom at caffe de luca after getting off the phone with leslie.

ten inches - gone!

i donated it to locks of love.

new year, new hair?

don't worry, it will grow back!

happy new year everyone!

christmas meatballs

before my mom died, she started a cookbook for me and my brother, containing our family traditions.  mom loved to host parties, and had her signature dishes to go along with any holiday. she never finished the compilation, but did get about a dozen recipes (mostly appetizers) down on paper.  dad found the cookbook on the family computer and emailed it to both me and ryan back in 2006.

but it's really hard to read this cookbook - with my few attempts i've choked back tears each time.  not only a tender reminder of my mother, it is also a cruel reflection of the effects of cancer and the deterioration of her health as the quality of her writing also deteriorates throughout the book's progression. there are so many recipes in the table of contents i wish she would have had the chance to get down on paper, but i am certainly grateful to have what she was able to finish, along with the sweet thoughts that went into creating this piece of family history:

DEDICATION

Drawers and cookbooks in our home are scattered with tiny scraps of paper, the writing of which bears resemblance to food recipes. As I unfold the papers some of the recipes have clearly been written decades ago by my mother or a relative. Others bear markings of being slightly more contemporary. Regardless, the recipes unfolded here are ones I grew up on and the ones my children were introduced to as well.

I dedicate this collection of recipes to Devon and Ryan. While you may not remember eating some of these dishes or even liking them, I am almost certain that you tried them at least once. I hope you enjoy some of the short stories and flavors of the recipes that have unfolded here for your own special memories.

With love, mom

***

it wasn't until our friend elaine posed the question one night while talking about her upcoming NYE shindig, "did anyone ever eat meatballs for New Year's Eve?" that i'd given much recent thought to meatballs.  but the question reminded me that my mom used to make cocktail meatballs every Christmas. 

i texted dad to ask if he remembered the recipe, which he did not. then i had a vague recollection that this was written down and i scoured my email, finally happening upon this jewel of a cookbook.  i think it was just too hard to print it at the time, but now i know i must make sure these recipes are saved; even if they are mostly appetizers, they are definitely more than that to me.  here is mom's christmall meatball recipe:

CHRISTMAS MEATBALLS

Holiday time welcomes both planned and impromptu get-togethers in our home. These meatballs are a traditional appetizer at Christmas time and our guests feast on them with merry pleasure.

1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. ground pork
2 eggs
1 package saltine crackers crushed into fine crumbs
4 tablespoons onion flakes
½ cup flat leaf parsley
Salt, pepper, and garlic (fresh or powdered) to taste
2 28 oz. cans tomato sauce (use more sauce if needed to sufficiently cover meatballs)
¼ to ½ cup red wine (optional)

Mix meats together with eggs, cracker crumbs, and onion flakes. Add salt, pepper, and garlic to taste. Mold one or two bite size meatballs and heat in small frying pan until browned and cooked through. Taste for seasoning and texture and adjust mixture accordingly. Round out remainder mixture into bite size meatballs and place on cooking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees, turning to brown. Remove grease from cooking sheet and transfer meatballs to pot with tomato sauce. Cover and simmer for an hour. Serve with cubes of bread, pita, or crackers suitable for mopping up the sauce.

When Devon was about 12 or 13 years old I asked her to help me shape meatballs. Immediately upon putting her hands in the meat mixture she became agitated and repulsed by the texture of the meat on her hands. It was also around this time she virtually stopped eating red meat. To her credit, she does eat a meatball or two at Xmas and always remembers to tell me how delicious they are.

***

i emailed the recipe to elaine in case she still wanted a meatball recipe for NYE, and copied patrick, who was home from work the wednesday before christmas. 

when i came home from work, patrick was making these meatballs for me and my brother, who was coming over that night with wendy for an early christmas celebration (before patrick and I left for upstate new york the next morning).

i love that patrick did this for us --  it was the best christmas gift!
and like my mom said i would, i made sure to taste a few, and as usual, they were delicious. 

devon ate red meat.*
a little Christmas miracle.

* for sure the fact that these little guys are made up halfway of cracker crumbs and parmesan (patrick's touch) and then drenched in sauce helps, but if even i can down a couple of these, you know they're good!

ok, sarah!

sarah pointed out i have forgotten updates on a few things. truth be told, i have forgotten updates on A LOT of things.  so for good measure, here are updates on 11 loose ends.  sarah, your answers are below.

summer package exchange
- i never posted the second package of the exchange (first part posted here)
- i also never organized our own little blog exchange. oops!

from my exchange partner

to my exchange partner:

halloween

- for halloween ... i was gossip girl.  xoxo.  i haven't watched in a few weeks, but that show is totally a guilty pleasure. if you watch it, you might argue that no one knows who gossip girl is.  well, i guess it's me! surprise!

yes that is patrick.

he is a zombie-scarecrow.

ya, like a 5 year old's idea.

a couple 5ks

- october also held my 4th annual bucktown 5k!

- and a new one, pumpkins in the park

the opera

- patrick and i saw gounod's faust at the lyric opera house

                                  photo from flickr

beforehand we went to dinner at publican, which was awesome:

that was seafood stew with orange in the big pot.  i highly recommend.  the place is known for pork, but as we know i'm not a meat kind of girl, i can definitely say there are delicious alternatives!

elaine's birthday and other outings

packing in a backpack to oregon, california, and oklahama

- success!!! yes, i packed for 8 days/7 nights in one backpack!

- i will never do it again. 

boots

- sarah, those boots are unlisted by kenneth cole. i bought them last year, maybe even longer ago, and it looks like they were on overstock.com for only $46.00
http://www.overstock.com/Clothing-Shoes/Unlisted-by-Kenneth-Cole-Hand-Glide-Short-Boots/3053624/product.html

banana shpeel in november

- this cirque du soleil vaudeville inspired show was at the chicago theater.  i love that theater!

 

university of illinois

- we drove down to champaign-urbana to go to an illini game with the bonkos.  christine showed us her old stomping grounds and it was a beautiful weekend on the campus.

 

sadly, the illini lost

 

and who would have guessed the best french toast in illinois would be in champaign?

and at a place called radio maria?

marathon package

- and i also haven't blogged about the post-marathon package sarah sent me!

so that sweatband is for patrick to wear ... i can wear the gold headbands, but also bronze headbands for those days when i just feel like crusin' instead of winning ... tons of shot bloks ... a cars water bottle ... and those awesome armwarmers!  thanks sarah! 

first snow

while i'm posting random stuff ...

thanksgiving

[whoops sorry this is actually two blog posts smooshed together ...
i tried to copy/paste 'the day after thanksgiving' into its own post, but blogger won't let me!!!
and the formatting is just bad. bad. bad. i'm obviously publishing this anyway.]

thanksgiving was just four days after dando gracias, so on the tail of our fiesta, we started planning for our 'real' thanksgiving...

the people.

thanksgiving #2 included my dad, brother, wendy, brent, and bobby.  brent and ryan have been friends since college, so brent is now considered a family friend. and like my brother, he also started law school this year.  he's at harvard (pshaw), and flew in for a quick weekend. and bobby goes to ryan's school now.  he's from norther california.  that's right, california in the house!  we had a total of seven people to feed.

 football + nerd games

along with football blasting all day long, ryan and brent taught patrick how to play one of their super nerdy games.  the more space you need to set up a board game, the geekier it is. for sure. the boys had football and nerd games and i'm pretty sure they were in heaven.

the food.

we picked up an organic turkey from whole foods and reached out to our farm delivery program for fresh local produce. we figured we just work with whatever arrived in wednesday night delivery!! 

farm box contents:
red kuri squash (green acres farm - north judson, indiana)
brussels sprouts (genesis growers - st. anne, illinois)
carrots (genesis growers)
onions (spring valley produce - hillsboro, wisconsin)
potatoes (igl farms - antigo, wisconsin)
celeriac (harmony valley farm - viroqua, wisconsin)
sweet potatoes (genesis growers)
parsnips (harmony valley farm)
black spanish radish (harmony valley farm)
mushrooms (harmony valley farm)

the box arrived wednesday night but we didn't start prepping anything until thanksgiving morning. we used everything except the black radish (which was gorgeous, i'd never seen one before) and the mushrooms too (i forgot to work them into the green bean casserole).

cheeses, champagne, almonds, and figs (which were mislabeled dried plums)
dad went for a walk on thanksgiving morning and brought back all sorts of goodies from our little market for snacking on during football. man, the cheeses were gorgeous. he also brought back these beautiful flowers:

harvest soup
items used: red kuri squash, celeriac (celery root), and onion

my recent trip to holly's inspired the use of the squash ... i was intent on making a squash soup, and the recipe i found also called for celery root and onion - perfect! the allspice and cinnammon made the house smell so good! i also made a black bean soup with the leftover beans from our fiesta, and the two were layered together. this was the first course - we ate it while the turkey was being carved.

i'm so glad my dad got a picture of the final product!

brussels sprouts & carrots

each of these ingredients became their own simple dishes.  but i wish that i had taken a photo of the carrots before we peeled them all!  they were an assortment of orange, white and purple carrots! they were really pretty and i wish we could have preserved the purple-ness.

peeled purple carrot next to brussel sprouts that had just been shaken in a bag

potatoes, sweet potatoes and parsnips

like the carrots and brussels, we just roasted these too! the colors were very fall like ...

roasted veggies!

green bean casserole

i wasn't sure if we'd have enough food, so i made a little green bean casserole and topped it with home-crisped onion

cranberry sauce

i also made some cranberry sauce with cranberries from the store

the turkey, gravy & stuffing

patrick made the turkey.  inside we stuffed it with all the remaining sage from our 'garden' along with onion from the farm. after it was done, dad deglazed the drippings to make the gravy. and ryan made the stuffing (stove top. it's tradition.). then we all enjoyed soup while patrick carved. we were all huddled up around the island for dinner.

 

ready to be seated!

patrick made my dad put an entire turkey leg on his plate.

i think my dad put it back after the photo.

this is us cleaning up after a great dinner!

dessert 

dessert was costco pumpkin pie, which is my absolute favorite!

***

we're thankful we were able to share the holiday with family!
***

the day after thanksgiving

dad trespassing.

the day after thanksgiving, patrick, dad and i took a walk up on the bloomingdale trail.  there used to be a old railroad going right through bucktown, but it is no longer in use.  the abandoned embankment is still owned by a canadian rail company.  now, a non-profit group 'Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail' (visit the link for more) has been working toward the conversion of the unused bloomingdale railroad line into a multi-use, elevated linear park. the remaining rail line stretches three miles, but for now, trespassing is forbidden. 

peering down onto a dog run from the bloomingdale trail

 patrick liked the broken fishing pole he found. 
he wanted to take a photo by the empty beer can.

it is so hard to believe that less than a month ago, there was this much green.

we've had bone chilling temps and snow storms since this photo was taken.

november was uncharacteristically warm, and december has made up for it.

it was 2 degrees when i walked to work last week.

2 degrees.

that's -17 celsius.

oh and it was way sub zero with the windchill.

nonetheless, it was quite chilly that day as well, and we stopped by a place called hot chocolate for a warming cup of just that!

hot chocolate resturant

hot chocolate's
hot chocolate menu
served with  house made marshmallows

light ... white, dark and milk chocolate

*add a shot of Navan liqueur to really warm you up, infused with spices, ginger and molasses

medium...milk chocolate with a touch of dark chocolate and a hint of caramel

dark... 72 percent French chocolate

black and tan... 1/3 hot fudge, 2/3 medium hot chocolate

half and half... 1/2 espresso, 1/2 dark hot chocolate

mexican chocolate... 2/3 dark chocolate, 1/3 milk and fresh cinnamon

affogato...2/3 medium, 1/3 dark with a scoop of coffee cocoa nib ice cream

the chef at hot chocolate specializes in pastry ...

"Chef Segal’s early professional positions placed her in some of the most reputable kitchens in the country.  She refined her craft as pastry chef at such prestigious venues as Spago, Gordon, Charlie Trotter’s and MK."

she won james beards awards for outstanding pastry chef in 2007, 2008 and has been nominated for 2009.

so, you can bet dessert at this place is pretty awesome.

 dad liked the artwork.