Adventures in the Kitchen

Since my current job description is house wife, I have been spending my days cooking, cleaning and eating bon-bons.

Since I have the time, I've tried out a few new recipes...and my live-in food critic gave a few reviews along the way.  So, here they are...give them a try if you're hungry!

Potatoes Gratin with Goat Cheese & Tomatoes
The original recipe  called for olives too, but we made it without them since Amir's not the biggest fan.  It turned out really good, and the left overs were just as delicious as the day of servings!

putting together Potatoes Gratin a la Faye

 We paired it with spicy barbecue pot roast and a broccoli-apple-yogurt salad.  The pot roast is a recipe I made up a while back, and the salad was a spur of the moment invention.  It turned out okay, but could use some tweaking.  Amir wasn't a huge fan, but agreed that with some changes it could has potential

Delicious Dinner

 White Cheddar Mac & Cheese with Broccoli
Tonight I tried this recipe, which I discovered on Pinterest, but is originally from Craving Chronicles.  I paired it with herb chicken and the whole meal was quite delicious.  Amir wasn't a huge fan of the white cheddar, so maybe we'll try the mac&cheese with another kind of cheese in the future!

White Cheddar Mac n Cheese!

delish!

 I also made Cookies n' Cream cupcakes for dessert...no pictures though...I'm too busy eating them!

...and they lived happily ever after!

 I love a good wedding...actually, I love all weddings!  Weddings get bonus points when I love the people in them.  Let's just say that Colin & Yifan are pretty freakin' awesome in my book, so the wedding was bound to be a success!

The ceremony and reception were held at The Narnia Estate in Lemont, IL.  It was a gorgeous afternoon (luckily the thunderstorms cleared) and they were able to have the ceremony outside.

Vows

Mr. & Mrs. Clarke!!

 The reception was held in a tent alongside the building!  Tall centerpieces at tables of 8 with gold table clothes and sage green accents...absolutely beautiful!

Kim & Amir gettin' the dance on!

CK Alumni

Chi-town!

Last weekend, we took a trip to Chicago!  I had not visited the windy city since the age of 10ish (when my dad took me to the American Girl store/tea) and Amir had never been outside of O'Hare.  So, our beloved friend Abby showed us the town!  So, here are the top 10 things we loved about Chicago (according to Faye)

#1: Delicious Pastries 
Abby took us to Bonjour Cafe in Hyde Park to get the best pastries in the area.  We walked from the cafe to the banks of Lake Michigan to enjoy the food and the view!  

 ...and of course Amir addressed the city of Chicago...

 #2: The Bean
While visiting the bean, Abby informed us that it was supposed to look like water or a raindrop or something...I had no idea, and still only see a bean.  Anyway, it was super cool and we all had fun taking reflection pictures (which is pretty much the whole purpose of the bean)

#3: Crazy Face Fountains
Just next to The Bean in Millennium Park is a crazy water fountain.  Since it was pretty hot in Chicago, we took our shoes off and splashed around with a bunch of kids.  Part way through our break from the heat, we realized that there were giant faces on the side of the fountains...they moved, blinked, smiled and even occasionally spit out water!  Crazy!

#4: Strolling down Michigan Avenue
In the heart of downtown Chicago is Michigan Ave and the Magnificent Mile.  Essentially it is a lot of stores, a lot of people with shopping bags and the occasional statues (like Marilyn Monroe with her skirt blowing up)

#5: Benito Juarez
Of course Amir spotted Benito from several blocks away!  For those of you who don't know, Benito scored naming rights for Ciudad Juarez, and served as President of Mexico from 1858-1872.  He was also the first full-blooded indigenous national to be President of Mexico.  Obviously, Amir was stoked to find a bit of Mexico in the north!

 #6 Hanging out with Rick Bayless
No, we didn't really get to hang out with him, but Fontera Grill & Topolobambo was pretty phenomenal!  For those of you not obsessed with the food network, cook books and Bravo-lebreties like we are, Rick Bayless is a famous chef, winner of Top Chef Masters, and a super white dude who loves Mexico.  We ate ceviche, tostadas and mole between Amir and I, and it was all super delicious! (obviously)

#8: Drinks atop of the City
So, the Sears Willis Tower charges a lot of money to go up to the top and simply look out over the city.  Instead, our savvy local took us to the Hancock Tower, which not only provides a free 360 degree view from the lounge, but also has adult beverages to make the view even more beautiful!  We ended up sitting next to owner of Mr. B's in Royal Oak, MI (small world)...with a couple rounds of drinks and the state capitals game (which Amir & John both believe they won) a great time was had by all!  The first photo is from where we were sitting next to the bar; the second photo is the view from the floor-to-ceiling windows in the lady's room...good thing we were 96 floors up so that no one could see in! 

#9: Pizza
For those of you who know me, I'm not one to turn down some delicious food (in fact, 1/3 of this blog post is about food).  Per the recommendation of our friend Seth, we headed to Giordano's Pizza for some Chicago-style pizza.  We didn't have quite enough time before meeting up with friends to order the deep dish, but the regular pizza was still pretty delicious!  Next time we're in Chicago, I think we'll schedule an hour and a half for dinner so that we can afford to wait!

#10: Memory Lane

As sappy as it may be, this last item goes out to my Dad!  When I was still playing with dolls, I LOVED American Girl!  So, one year for our "daddy-daughter date" my dad took me to Afternoon Tea at American Girl Place in Chicago.  I remembered that it was downtown, but I could tell we were getting closer and closer to the store by the increasing number of parents carrying the red bags for their daughters.  I think that it had recently opened in Chicago when I went as a tween, and I think my dad was one of the only men at high tea, but all the red bags brought back some really special memories!  (For those of you without American Girl experience, a big red bag from American Girl to a child is like a little blue bag from Tiffany to an adult)

Essentially, Chicago was an awesome trip!  The weather was beautiful throughout the weekend, and the trip even convinced Amir to move there with me someday! :)  More about the Clarke-Zhang wedding to come!

The newest member of our family...LAW SCHOOL

Amir started Law School yesterday! This is his pile of books for this semester and he's already completed at least 7 hours of homework...its only Tuesday of the first week...yikes.  So far, I have understood less than a third of what he says about the cases he is reading, but at least he gets it!

Amir, you are awesome!

Livin' la Vida: Houston

There are many great/interesting things about being a Houstonian (Houstinite?  Houstiganian? H-towner?).  I just wanted to share a few of our experiences from our first month in H-town:

H-town lacks zoning regulations.  Essentially, this means everything is sprawled, commercial and residential buildings come and go as they please wherever they please, and out where we live sometimes you see two kids riding home from the local Blockbuster to their horse farm

Statue/fountain at Rothko Chapel

Houston has an awesome culture scene.  On one of our first days in Houston, we visited the Rothko Chapel (which was a bit over rated, in this blogger's personal opinion).  We have also visited the Houston Museum of Fine Art which had some pretty nice artwork.  We commented on the Monets, Rembrandts and Picassos in our obnoxious "Tiffany voices" and overall it was an awesome way to get out of the heat for an afternoon.  I will say with a breath of pride that MFA-Houston  is no Rivera Mural in the DIA, but not everyone can be quite as cool as Deeeetroit!
Another bit of culture we enjoyed in Houston was the theater scene.  The parents of a good friend of ours took us all to see the Screwtape Letters at Wortham Center downtown.  The play was essentially an hour and a half monologue, and the actor who played Screwtape was phenomenal!  We had an awesome outing and a great dinner with Mr. & Mrs. C, and Eric afterward!

Not the type of Flea Market I expected.  Remember when I wanted to add a side table to finish off our living room?  Well, I thought it would be fun to go to a flea market and buy something unique, local and reasonably priced.  Amir agreed to venture with me and we ended up at King's Best Market one weekend and Sunny Flea Market the next.  Both had multiple "5 star" google reviews and we went with high hopes.  Sadly, neither place had the atmosphere or vendors we were looking for...although I did enjoy both as Houston cultural experiences :)

Update: Pinterest Summer Challenge

Almost a month ago I enlisted myself for YoungHouseLove's Pinterest Challenge...remember?

Well, here is how far I've made it (which is not very far at all)

The White Photo Wall: I purchased several frames off of craigslist from a super cool lady who was selling all of her possessions to bike from Texas to South America with her husband.  They were all different sizes and textures so I took them home, primed them and spray painted them white. 

Now, this doesn't sound like a a big deal, right?  Well, both the primer and spray paint have warnings not to use above 90 degrees and/or 80% humidity.  Oddly enough, that hasn't happened in Houston since we moved here a month ago so the actual painting process was a bit of a challenge...I also may have nearly suffocated Amir a few times because I kept dragging the recently spray-painted frames inside where it wasn't 100 degrees out!  [There was also a warning about painting in a well ventilated area...as you can see, I'm not one for warnings...]  I don't have anything to put in the frames just yet, but they are dry and just waiting to be hung!

Lake Jackson: City of Enchantment

My friend from UT, Jess, has accepted a position as a school counselor in China.  Before flying across the Pacific, she's hanging out in Lake Jackson, TX...for those of you unsure of your Texas geography, Lake Jackson is a 40 minute drive from Houston and there's a beach in the next town over.

A few fabulous (and lesser known) facts about Lake Jackson: there is a giant statue of Stephen F. Austin in the middle of the field and it kinda looks like the statue from LOST; Lake Jackson has "This Way", "That Way" and "Any Way" streets

 Anyway, Jess took us to ocean, and it was AWESOME!  We stood in the surf and watched clams dig out of  their holes in the sand.  All in all, it was a great afternoon and a fun farewell for Jess!

Stuck in the Shreve

Only one thing could make our fabulous weekend in Shreveport even better: a True Blood tour!

Yes, I LOVE me some True Blood and some scenes are filmed in Downtown Shreveport! SCORE!

So, Amir obliged and we took off for downtown before leaving the Shreve.  Our first stop was Vampire Nest from Season 1.  While searching for it, a we hit a curb a vampire punched our car and this happened:

Also notice how the tire is way closer to the front of the wheel well?  Yeah, we didn't either.  So, Amir changed the tire after I loosed all of the lug nuts for him (ha ha...not really...I just watched).  

After waiting for the Goodyear people to put on a new tire for 45 minutes (!!), they asked if we hit something...sigh...flashbacks of the repairs we just did on Amir's car came flooding back.  They had to order the part from the dealer, who was supposed to get it the following morning.   So, Austin was stuck with us one more night!  Luckily, while we were driving around, I saw Lucky Liquor, the two white houses, and the Victorian House from the credits---and we eventually drove past what I believe was the Vampire Nest!  No photos, but I saw it nonetheless! 

The next day at 3:30pm--about an hour before they told us we should be heading out the day before--they update us that the dealer never got the part and that its in Dallas. awesome.  More hanging out and at 4:30 the following day, we finally got our car back and headed back to Houston 3 days late.

But, being stuck in the Shreve wasn't all bad!  We had some delicious food at Blind Tiger,  Johnny's Pizza and Raising Cane's.  I also got some fabulous purple aviators at Zoe's in the Louisiana Boardwalk in Bossier City!  Despite all the car drama, we haven't seen the last of the Shreve...we'll be back! 

A Troll Among Stars

When brainstorming a new blog name, I had several suggestions:
1. Just drop the last name off of the livin' la vida blog
2. Do something about where you're from
3. Do something about where you're living
4. Think of something entirely different and witty

Suggestion #1: Boring...sorry Amir.  

Suggestion #2: I'm from Michigan...the lower peninsula, to be exact.  Therefore, I grew up below the Macinac Bridge.

Q: What do you call a creature that lives below a bridge (and the colloquial name for people from the Lower Peninsula of MI)?

A: A TROLL!!

Suggestion #3: I live in Texas...and probably will for a long time.

Q: Texas is best known as the Lone ______ State (fill in the blank)

A: STAR!!

Suggestion #4: the witty and creative combination is therefore:

A Troll Among Stars

A weekend in the Port City

For those of you who have been following our blog for a while, you know that we have never left on time for a single road trip.  Typically, its an early morning sleepy thing.  This time, it was a smelly garbage thing.
FLASHBACK 5 WEEKS AGO: Amir volunteers to take the trash out, puts it in his trunk to drive it to the dumpster, and forgets about it.  Later, Amir drops his car off at Flamingo and it stays there for about a month, in the sun.  We picked it up and it smelled kinda funny, but figured it was because of the heat.  So, the morning of our road trip, we are making sure everything out of Amir's car...lo and behold, a big bag of five-week-old smelly stinky trash! Awesome.  Anyway, our 8:00 9:15 departure led us to the great town of Shreveport a bit later than expected.

Since we met Dr. Lash, he's told us how fabulous Shreveport, LA is...we had a few weeks of summer left and the good doctor was able to arrange a weekend off, we headed for the Port City!

After a 4ish hour journey, we met Austin & Aubrey at the most super fabulous lake house in Shreveport. We spent the rest of the day floating in the lake and cruising on the boats.  The coolest part of the day, obviously, was that I got to go Wake Surfing!  Austin provided a brief tutorial and helpful coaching along the way...I got up on the board a couple times, but took a couple pretty awesome wipe-outs too.

 We concluded the evening with a fabulous boat ride.  Watching the sunset on the lake was absolutely beautiful, as you can see:

Basically, we did the whole thing all over again the next day, which made an awesome weekend even more spectacular!  So here's to our to our fabulous hosts and our wonderful friends!