Sunday, February 28, 2010

Gimme' some green.



The days are getting longer, but still I see no green out there. To compensate, my twin and I have been pretty good about keeping things green inside our hobbit home. She deserves most of the credit. She is a very responsible waterer.


Some of our plants are even beginning to flower! I long for the French Quarter and Bywater smell of Night Blooming Jasmine. Jasmine makes for instant romance and is knee buckling in the right quantities. My Jasmine plant is winding up the window, but no blossoms as of yet. Come on spring!



To add to our blossom collection I impulsively bought some dried Lavender from Whole Foods.


And a Pussy Willow plant from Fleur, which has been sprouting like crazy since we brought it home.

I love Fleur. I leave with dreams of having a very elaborate glass nursery and only wearing green.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Adventures in Cooking

This fancy person was in town:
So I went a little crazy with getting recipes together. Behold this and this.

I have always looked at The Jewels of New York recipes with great longing, but lacked the courage to give them a try. With Evan, however, they were a snap. This kid just knows his way around a kitchen.

Here is our Winter Braise:


Our Guinness Braised Short Ribs:


Word to the wise: this took a while so give yourself an afternoon to just let the short ribs cook slowly in the oven.
Well, I think Lauren liked our cooking efforts.


As you can see this was a pretty meattastic week. We also celebrated our anniversary at the latest and greatest Logan Square haunt, Longman and Eagle. We were not messing around. We got Kobe Beef Meatballs, Rabbit Patte, and Veal with beef cheek manicotti. Vegetarians should only go here for desserts and drinks. In fact, we got the chocolate banana bread pudding and it was boss. Needless to say Evan and I crawled home on our bellies.

The ambiance at Longman is very masculine and cool. And seriously I have never been anywhere in Chicago where the staff was so polite and attentive. It was like being in the South. They also gave us pink champagne, which I am a total sucker for.

They have bitchin' posters all over the Logan hood right now. They had me at Mark Twain.