zak!

On my trip to Minneapolis I visited my most FAVORITE boutique, Patina. They always have the greatest finds, including this lovely red strainer which is perfect for fruits & veggies that are fresh from the garden.
image from Zak!Designs

handels.

Is delicious! We're a little addicted. So far I've tried peppermint stick, chocolate raspberry truffle, and turtle. Ice cream goes really well with convertable rides on warm summer evenings!

foodie.

My friend Bob is a foodie, and I just spent 2 weeks in "his" city (San Francisco) for work. The goal was to never eat at the same restaurant twice. I nearly succeeded, with a few exceptions during the noon hour. The most interesting cuisine featured an actual sea urchin stew served in the shell-it was purple! (Anchor & Hope)


Here's a list of the places we hit.

1. Anchor and Hope
2. The Daily Grill
3. Wipeout Bar & Grill
4. McCormick & Schmick's
5. The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen
6. O-Zone Thai Restaurant
7. Don Ramon's
8. Maya Restaurant
9. Boudin Bakery
10. Nova Bar & Restaurant
11. Jillian's
12. Local Kitchen
13. My boss' house (does that count?!).

My one regret, I was steps away from the Giant's stadium and we didn't make it to a game. Next time!

st. elmo's.

Last night we enjoyed St Elmo's as part of Devour Downtown. We found out it's the oldest restaurant in the city, and with good reason-it was SO delish! We had:

• shrimp cocktail with fire sauce (pictured below) & house salad with blue cheese dressing
• fillet mignon (AMAZING!) & grilled salmon (so tender)
• creme brulee & cheesecake

We are DEFINITELY going back. I'd venture to say it's the best restaurant we've been to in Indy!


image from wouldibuyitagain.com

look what i found.

It's heavenly!

melt in your mouth.

Admittedly, I've been horrible about documenting my cooking adventures even though I committed to doing so here. I've been cooking, I promise, but I'm lacking in the area of presentation. Perhaps I need to take some more food styling lessons from here. I tell myself I'll do better when I have a home of my own, when there are windows on more than one side of my abode. We face east, so unless I'm making a rockin' breakfast, there's not much light to photograph things later in the day. However, I did manage to make these over the weekend since BIL cam to visit. I got the recipe from here. They're delish and oh-so-easy.

lonely bananas.

Since there's only two of us (husby & I) we can't eat a whole bunch of bananas before they turn brown. Sometimes I break the bunch in half so we only have 3 or 4 bananas to take home. Lately, I've taken to picking out the 'lonely' bananas, or the bananas in the 'orphan' basket. Do you know which ones I'm talking about? The grocer goes through and periodically organizes the produce, and sorts out the lone bananas into a basket in the corner of the display. Since we can't eat a whole bunch anyway, I figure I can bring these misfit bananas home with me so they will feel loved one last time before I eat them. Is that weird?

Do you have any quirky grocery store habits?

image from nazret.com via google image search

the capital grille.

Is delicious. A friend tipped us off to this great place, and we tried it out over the weekend as part of the Devour Downtown. Citrus salmon, creamed spinach, mashed potatoes, lamb chop, creme brulee, and flourless chocolate cate. What's not to love!


image from tripadvisor.com

fever.

I haven't quite caught the Colts 'fever' but it's hard to ignore when this is the first thing you see when you walk into the grocery store.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

what have i been up to?

So you've likely noticed the lack of fresh images on my blog. This is due to:

• Cooking adventures, including 'Ribollita' from 101 Cookbooks and my new Simple Swaps book
• Sewing creations, including the pillow making class I took at JoAnn Fabrics, and the purse I constructed with the help of my sissy
• It's cold outside!

It's just too cold and blah outside for portraits right now, but I'm working on a few different projects that I hope to share soon. In the meantime, you'll have to put up with my dabbling.

image from Amazon.com

tango.

We're going to Tango tonight.

I'll let you know what I think. Afterwards, we're going to the game.

101 cookbooks.

In the last month or so, I've attempted to do more cooking, both for economical reasons, and to find a new outlet for my creativity (photography, music, scrapbooking, card-making, sewing, and book-binding aren't enough). I'm a jack of all trades but I won't pretend to be a master of any of them. But I'm trying...does that count?

Historically, I actually hate cooking. I despise going to the grocery store. I hate paying for the ingredients. I dislike making a mess in my kitchen that has limited counter space. And I don't like cleaning up after myself (just ask husby). To make up for all of this, I've discovered this lovely inspiration, which marries photography AND food. Now there is more motivation besides eating to cook...I can take pretty pictures too!

As a challenge to myself, in the new year, I will be cooking more and documenting my endeavors. If only my kitchen had better lighting...

my vice.

image from oberweis.com

punkin' pie.

Something festive I made this week. Happy Turkey Day!

traders point creamery.

Sweet husby is always on the lookout for originality. He knows I'd rather shop local than hit up the chain restaurants (although you'll catch me at Cheesecake Factory on occasion). Here's a wonderful new place we tried tonight! It's a 'farm to table' restaurant, so everything we ate was harvested and prepared on premise. On the menu were grass fed beef hamburgers (choice of 3 ways), fresh green beans, and home made mac 'n cheese. It was divine. We will be back!

Traders Point Creamery also does a Friday evening farmer's market, and a Saturday morning winter market. We picked up some honey sticks, fresh apples (for apple crisp!), and some peppers for fajitas later this week. Yum!

cupcakes, eggs, and knitting...oh my!

The FM was out of control last week. I can't wait to see what kind of treasures I can find today!


Today is also LLAMA-FEST! This is better than Christmas. Don't be surprised if you see images of goofy looking llamas on the blog later this week.

farmer's market friday: back on track

I've been out of town, so tomorrow is my first Farmer's Market in a MONTH. I'll collect some more goodies for my Friday features. Personally, I'm hoping for some CORN on the COB.

snake creek grill.

For an early birthday celebration on Saturday, husby took me to Snake Creek Grill, a yummy restaurant in H-town that we've never been to, but comes highly recommended. The food was delicious, right down to the strawberry raspberry rhubarb pie a la mode, served straight from the oven.

Disclaimer: Actual pie not pictured...I didn't have the camera handy! This is as close as I could get. But it was SOOOOO much better.

We had a $25-off coupon to SCG from restaurant.com which was even sweeter! Browse for local restaurant deals in your neighborhood!

cinco de mayo.

We got together with some friends this week for Cinco de Mayo. We had some delicious salsa varieties (loved the fruit salsa with cinnamon chips!) and flan shots. We ended the night with Nacho Libre Trivia, complete with the mask...but NO stretchy pants. There were some good lookin' little people there too!

beef. it's what's for dinner.

And breakfast. And lunch. And a midnight snack.

I am the *lucky* receipient of not one, but 2 (!) boxes of authentic Portillo's Italian beef. I have my wonderful boss to thank, who is also from Chicago, and can understand how homesick my tummy gets.

Now...who's going to help me eat it!?

**If you're not sure what 'italian beef' is, it's a hybrid of a philly cheese steak and a french dip...but SOOOOO much better!

See here and here for other taste of home posts.