Jay's Home - Chicago Trip!

Jay arrived home from work on January 25th! It has been wonderful having him here and we are really enjoying our time together!!

After a week of getting over jet lag, we headed to Chicago for our friend's wedding reception. We decided to get there a little early so we could enjoy the city and are glad we made it in ok after the "Storm of the Century"! We flew into Midway with no problems & took the train downtown. After walking a few blocks in the freezing temps on the barely cleared sidewalks, we were happy to warm up in our first hotel of the trip. We stayed at the Affinia Chicago - a great hotel that we really enjoyed (and another great deal from TravelZoo). Here is a quick little tour of our room:

After dropping off our bags and layering up, we got back on the train and headed to Kuma's Corner. I found this gem from the list here of Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives &  was not disappointed!! The funny thing is that we walked about 10 blocks on the not-cleared sidewalks from the metro to the restaurant! It was such a fun adventure climbing on piles of snow & watching people still digging out from the storm. We finally made it & our bellies were ready!!

WHERE IS MY BURGER???? (BTW - he's an operator)

Happy to be inside & warm!!!

Our first course was this delicious bowl of homemade macaroni & cheese with prosciutto & peas.

Then came the burgers which were all named after heavy metal bands. Coordinating music was pumping in the restaurant the whole time as well. Jay had the "High on Fire" which included Siracha Hot Chili Sauce, Prosciutto, Roasted Red Pepper, Grilled Pineapple & Chili Paste:

Please note the ketchup. This was not your everyday ketchup - it was amped up with Giardiniera. Jay and I just LOVED it.

I had the "Brujeria"which included Cheddar Cheese, Charred Tomato Salsa, and Cream Cheese & Chorizo stuffed Jalapeno Poppers on top. OMG LOOK AT THIS THING.

THEN guess what we did? We took the easy way to the train (bus) and made it back to our hotel for a 4 HOUR NAP. And when we woke up? We were still full. Our plan was for Gino's pizza for dinner, but the place closed at 9pm that night (and we were too full for that anyway), so instead around 10ish we went downstairs to C-House (with head chef/co-owner being Marcus Samuelsson from Top Chef Masters) for dessert & a drink. I got this absolutely delicious hot cocoa with homemade marshmallows:

And one of my most memorable dishes of the weekend - this homemade coconut donut. It was topped with coconut mint ice cream & a cajeta (caramel) sauce. It was sooooo good.

Jay got the Salted Sage Flan - with brown butter pears, hazelnuts & maple/pear sorbet:

Let's just say all we did on Thursday was travel & eat. My kind of a day!

Friday morning we got up to a beautiful day. Jay being the amazing husband he is got up & braved the cold to get me coffee & breakfast from the bakery down the street. Another delicious treat - this cinnamon crunch muffin. Divine.

Then we showered & hit the Magnificent Mile for some shopping. It was cold outside, but we worked up a sweat! After some time in the shops, we looked forward to heading outside for some fresh air!!

Jay got a shirt & tie to wear for the wedding & I got a top. We were both pretty good!!

And then it was time for Gino's East. One of the famous deep dish pizza joints in the city happened to be conveniently located next door to our hotel, so we stopped in for some pizza. I had worked up such an appetite shopping/walking that we got some meatballs & breadsticks to start!

You should see this place. It's COVERED in graffiti. So of course I added our own little touch:

(writing on white-out type substance wasn't easy)

And then the pizza arrived & we scarfed it down. Delicious!

Guess what? After that? It was nap time. Are you surprised? We enjoyed some time in the room & after a recommendation from our Gino's watier & some other research, went to Old Town Social for dinner (via cab which was nice!). This restaurant features their own homemade pork/meat products from their own butcher shop on site. I restrained myself from taking pictures of all our food (it was dark & never comes out right in that lighting), but here is what we enjoyed:

*Apple & Parmesan Salad (with Arugula & Lemon Vinaigrette)
*Selection of homemade meats: Summer Sausage, Cotto Salami, Pate de Campagne, Toscano Salami, *Selection of delicious cheese: Grafton, VT Cheddar & Wisconsin Grueyere.
*Milk Braised Pork Shoulder with Creamy Polenta & Brussels Sprout Leaves
*Homemade Paparadelle Pasta with Butternut Squash, Roasted Chicken, Escarole & Peccorino
*Brussels Sprouts side dish made with homemade Pancetta
*Homemade Donuts with Cinnamon Sugar and a Marscapone Sabayon Sauce
(had to take a picture of the donuts seeing as it was the 2nd night in a row with one of my favorite treats):

I promise we didn't just eat this day but pictures of us shopping isn't nearly as fun as seeing our yummy treats is it? 

One more Chicago post to come - stay tuned!!

Coming Soon...

This little bundle of joy will be joining us early August!! We are thrilled!

Date Night: Posh

We have made it a tradition of going out for a nice dinner before Jay goes back to work. We were going to go back to Coup des Tartes (see post here) but decided to try something new.

I was flipping through Phoenix Magazine and reading out ideas to see what peaked Jay's interest. After reading this...

"Unique in the Valley, this sleek restaurant serves up 'improvisational cuisine.' There's no menu; just tell Chef Joshua Hebert what you like and don't like, and he'll invent knock-your-socks-off dishes like uni panna cotta or popcorn soup." 

...we were intrigued...so Posh it was.

They start by giving you a "menu" that is a list of all the available proteins for the night. Everything from NY Strip to Halibut to Frogs Legs. You cross off anything you absolutely do not want them to serve you. You also decide here how many courses you want. We decided to go big & picked 7. Jay added the wine pairing to his list as well. Then, there are a few lines where you can write things that you are allergic to or that you really like so the chef can get a taste for what you like. I wrote in that I was allergic to nuts & soy and didn't like mushrooms, mayonnaise, mustard and bleu cheese. I don't think Jay wrote in anything!

Here are the main components of our dinner - at least what we could remember after all those courses:

Amuse-Bouche

Cinnamon Caviar with fried taro root

1st Course

Amie: Salad with red onion, radish and tatsoi

Jay: Salad with chicken liver, sherry dressing

2nd Course

Amie: Raw tuna, cucumber caviar

Jay: Fluke (aka flounder), mushrooms, bok choy

3rd Course

Amie: Monkfish, cucumber

Jay: Breem, mushrooms, parsnip puree

4th Course

Amie & Jay: Bruleed foie gras, fig, pomegranate seeds, mango puree, apricot chutney

5th Course

Amie: Duck, carrot/ginger puree, beets

Jay: Frog legs with horseradish

6th Course:

Amie: Venison, chick peas

Jay: NY Strip, cauliflower puree

7th Course: 

Amie: Deconstructed s'more, espresso beans, edible flowers

Jay: Panna cotta

Everything was really delicious. My favorite course was the 5th and Jay's favorite was the 4th. We had a really fun time guessing what was next and the service was very good!

More importantly, we had a wonderful night together. And in my attempt to make it even more perfect for Jay, we checked the Husker's score a few times on my phone & I resisted from "always taking pictures everytime we go out" - hence the lack of a photo. Next time, I'm having the waitress get paparazzi on us when he's not paying attention :)

Weekend Update: Friends Visit!

Last weekend Tori came in town for a quick visit. She came specifically to get Adam's (surprise) Christmas present, and we were lucky enough to spend some QT with her while doing so :) In order to preserve the nature of the surprise, I'm not going to mention any details of Friday, but let's just say we had a fun time!

Saturday morning Tori found that her flight home got cancelled, so after dropping Jay off at Sun Devil Stadium for some good ol' fashioned tailgating, we headed to one of my favorite places in Scottsdale - Kierland Commons - for some shopping. We had a great lunch, caught up on everything in our lives, and of course, shopped! I found some great sweaters in Anthropologie (best store ever - I think we spent 2 hours in there alone) & thanks to a birthday gift card from my dad, I bought two! 

Later that afternoon Ryan flew in, so Tori & I picked him up from the airport (very handsome in his uniform I might add) and then headed to ASU to pick up Jay. We all had a great night. Ryan's mom was in town on vacation as well, so the 5 of us went to Crust for dinner & drinks. Tori & I shared the Arugula & Prosciutto pizza that was so amazing we couldn't stop gushing about it! Anne, Jay & Ryan shared the Chicken Bruschetta pizza which was yummy as well. 

Anne & the boys:

 Westwinders Unite!!

Guess what? I'm now caught up with my blog posts! One more weekend update to go and then it's Thanksgiving! What are YOU thankful for???

Weekend Update: Family Visit

Jay's parents came to visit the second weekend we were home & we had a great time! 

This is what a good chunk of the weekend looked like - comfy on the couch watching football - specifically Nebraska beat Missouri:

Saturday night we went to the Roaring Fork for a delicious dinner! It was soooooo good. We started with their famous kettle of green chili pork with hot buttered tortillas...yum! Then for dinner I had the Sugar Cured Duck Breast with onion jam, sour cherry mustard and little cabbages. Jay had the RF Mixed Grill which included baby back ribs, rotisserie chicken, shrimp and sausage.

 Ed had issues with the chair. Memorable moment...

Saturday before heading out to dinner, I started working on Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls. I had wanted to try the recipe for a long time and decided this weekend was the time to go for it! It wasn't until I started mixing the ingredients that I re-read her blog post & realized that the recipe made 7 pans!!! Yikes! 

 

As you can see they did turn out quite delicious & I had enough to share with my friends at work and even freeze 2 pans for later!

After we stuffed our faces with doughy deliciousness, we headed over to Desert Botanical Garden for a little walk. It was a gorgeous fall day & perfect weather to explore. I had been telling Karen & Ed about the Chihuly exhibit that I sadly missed out on a year or two ago & I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had one installation left. Here you can see the beautiful "Desert Towers" project that the garden is raising money for so it can be a permanent fixture. Can you believe it's glass??

 Awww. Happy to have my husband home!

 I loved this particular cacti. Can't remember its name, but it had the word "button" in it. Super cute polka dots :)

With it being Halloween, there was a big Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration going on. This lovely skeleton drinking a beer greeted us.

 Pretty flowers that remind me of home for some reason:

 Gorgeous sundial that had flowers/plants set just right to tell the time (and it was accurate!):

 Handsome husband among the Saguaro:

 Who says the desert isn't green??

Thanks Karen & Ed for a great visit! We really enjoyed seeing you!!

Weekend Update: 2 Weekends Ago...(part 2)

Friday night we ate dinner at the hotel - Jay got a panini and I had a sandwich of some sort. I can't remember the exact details because we shared a side of macaroni & cheese and omgitwassogoooood.

There was a wedding going on at the pool outside of our room, so while we talked ourselves out of crashing it, we watched movies and I danced around the room and the patio to the tunes. 

Saturday was my birthday & we got up very early thanks to my alarm on my phone (and forgetting that it was MONDAY, not Sunday). Not my favorite part of the day, but I did enjoy putting on some long sleeves since it was a cloudy & chilly morning, and heading over to Koffi across the street for some pastry & coffee. We sat there & watched the old people reading their newspapers and the M-F workers grab their cuppa Joe before work. I always love that reminder of being on vacation - these other people are going to work & I am not. 

It was now time for our massage! Jay suggested a couples massage which was a nice treat! Afterwards we enjoyed the sauna for a bit before heading back to the pool. Even though it was still a little cloudy, I think we got the best part of our tans on this day. It was a great time to read & people watch...but soon enough we were hungry again & I was craving a burger! 

We found this place online called Tyler's (can't find their website but this blog post explains it pretty well) and set out to downtown Palm Springs to find it. After a few wrong-turns, we finally found this cute little place in the middle of a parking lot. I got sliders (delicious!), Jay got a cheeseburger and we shared a basket of fries. The lemonade was homemade and hit the spot. I loved the patio seating and the casual location.

We were so full we decided to take a walk. The downtown was super cute. Described by Jay as "Spanish Revival...1920s & 1930s..."(don't act like you aren't impressed...). I liked the Walk of Stars - just like in Hollywood...names like Elvis Presley & Bob Hope lined the streets. There were old photos of Rock Hudson & other celebrities enjoying the area from several decades ago. Palm Springs definitely prides itself on  its history which was really nice!

We got back to the hotel around mid-afternoon & had a coffee break at the hotel's casual restaurant. 

It was very diner-like and I liked it! Plus, how cute are the creamer & sugar containers? And these stools?

I started feeling artsy. I need to learn bokeh on my camera. I want to really bad. Maybe my friend Joe will help me?

Heading back to the room, Jay actually smiled for the picture but all I got was this...

Room 531. You walked through this wooden door to our patio & then into our room. I loved the door. 

Aren't the fixtures cute? Rustic. I like that too. 

And then it was time for dinner! I was so excited because the place we selected - Castelli's - was highly recommended to us by the CFO at my work. She goes every year and gave it rave reviews. We were definitely not disappointed! We shared the Fried Artichoke Hearts to start and then for the main course we each had one of their specialties. I had the Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken and Jay had the Osso Bucco. Both were delicious! 

And the wine. Ahhhh the wine. It deserves it's own paragraph. We splurged on a bottle of Bolla Amarone and I was in heaven. It was absolutely delicious. Yummy. Just thinking of it is making me salivate. 

                                                

It made Jay feel sexy...

                                                

And why do I love my husband so much? Because he isn't afraid to splurge on the finer things in life and he makes me laugh. A lot. 

For dessert Jay had the Creme Brulee (of course) and I had attempted eating a slice of cheesecake. We shared two different glasses of port wine and some coffee before calling it a night. Our fabulous waiter gave us a tour of the restaurant (I was ready for a mobster to walk out of the shadows at any minute) and then handed us a check along with a shot each (including himself!) of Sambucca. What a night!

Thanks hun for a wonderful birthday!!!

Weekend Update: 2 Weekends Ago...(part 1)

Two weekends ago, my husband came home!! It had been a long, LONG time, so it was so nice to see the countdown on my phone get closer and closer to the big day :) Also interesting to note: Scottsdale had rain on 10/21?! 

Jay came home Friday afternoon & we enjoyed a nice little late night dinner at Crust. Saturday I had acupuncture & then Jay went to yoga with me! Of course, after watching some Nebraska football!

Sunday morning we got up, packed, and got on the road. It was a nice slightly overcast morning and the drive to Palm Springs just flew by. Ok, it really didn't. It sucked. It felt like it took forever. 

But we made it! We had gotten a great deal via TravelZoo (have you ever tried it? We got a great deal for our Montreal trip here too) at the Ace Hotel & Swim Club.

The hotel is an old-school motel that has been renovated into a funky retro hotel. We had a patio room that felt very "surfer" to me...

I loved that we had our own private patio to enjoy...

And can you tell that it's a party hotel? They had quite the stash available to us...

Once we checked in, we immediately got into our bathing suits to lay out by the pool. They have a pool party on Sundays with a DJ, so we laid out a bit and Jay got us come cocktails. The drink menu had some interesting items on it so Jay started us off with a drink called a Figa. It's made with house-infused fig vodka, earl grey tea & honey tangerine. Um. It was gross. So guess what? Jay drank both of them. 

Then, he ordered me a Caphirina (cachaca muddled with lime & kiwi) and I didn't like that one either. So...Jay drank it! I thought it was pretty funny: 

(I'm wearing a beautiful shirt that Jay brought home for me! I look super fat in it here, but it's real cute in real life!)

And THEN, I ordered a margarita (below) and was happy! Jay, on the other hand...was drunk :)

Lesson learned: Order the margarita.