Chidita-WHAT!?

This past weekend Peter, me, and a few friends competed in a mobile food drive and shopping cart race. This event has been going on for nearly a decade here in Chicago and since it is held on the same day as the Iditarod (a dog sled race held in Alaska) it has been deemed the Chiditarod. Basically a bunch of teams raise money and collect canned goods to donate to the Greater Chicago Food Depository and then at the end of our fundraising time we have a shopping cart race down the neighborhood streets of Chicago's west town area. This year over $30,000 and 26,000 lbs of food were collected making it the most food and money raised since the inception of the race. I was so glad and proud to participate in such an event and I want to say thank you to all those who donated their time and/or money!

This is our team. Yes we are dressed as ourselves. The team name was The Dead Ringers. It is a little self involved but honestly we wanted to be able to dress warmly and still be "in costume" plus it's pretty freaking hilarious. Some of the best costumes I saw were the PacMan team. Their cart was decorated like a giant PacMan head and inside the mouth was a TV screen where you could actually play PacMan with a controller and everything! I few more stand outs were The Chubby Stewardesses, all men dressed in skimpy flight attendant uniforms with a giant plane shopping cart that they were serving booze from. I'm not sure of the name of the team but one team was dressed as tourists and had decorated their cart like the city of Chicago. Next year we will hopefully have more time to be more creative with our costumes of course we did get a personal award from a volunteer for being the most surreal team.

V-DAY

I'm sure the statute of limitations for talking about your valentine's day clearly runs out at the end of Feb. But I'm going for it anyway. Peter and I spent the most EPIC v day ever in NOLA. We woke up and had brunch at the best place to get bloody marys in the city. Funny after three bloody marys (the waiter refused to serve us any less forcing us to take  one to go which we did not finish) with brunch I don't remember what it was called. Then I had to make a stop off and call cupid and wish him a happy V DAY and extend my thanks of course. You may notice in the photo I'm using a pay phone as ethereal calling rates are outrageous with my plan. Fortunately you can call any realm with a pay phone as they are quite simple machines.

Next Peter and I sauntered over to the Insectarium. Yep folks you heard me right, a museum for insects. I love bugs; they are fascinating. This particular museum is where I first discovered my favorite bug the mole cricket a few years ago. After museum exploits we headed to Bourbon St. to see if any valentine crazies were about. For those of you who have never been to the big easy this is the street where all the action happens. And by all the action I mean the lewd conduct and vomiting. Unfortunately or fortunately, however you wish to see things, we were not witness to any expelature of bodily fluids but we did see two young ladies walking around topless with hearts painted over their boobies. A very happy valentine's day was being had by the older gentleman(?) that was having his picture taken with them. We wandered down to Jackson Square to see if anything fun was happening down that way and met a nice magician from Winnipeg Canada. Holler back all you Pegians! Peter lived in Winnipeg for a time, right after college and before coming to Chicago, so we had a nice chat with that cavalier from the great white north. Then it was onward to our dinner reservations. As we were a bit delinquent in making our appointment for our day of love the reso was for 4 p.m. Yes we were the youngest people in the restaurant by a significant margin but it was still a fantastic meal. We spent the remainder of the evening wandering through the quarter listening to really great music. I was allowed to sit in on the washboard with one group. 

It was an amazing time and I look forward to many more memorable Valentine's Days with my fantastic husband!

Post New Orleans Blues

The week before last Peter and I went down to New Orleans to celebrate my parent's 25th wedding anniversary! Way to go parental units!

Here is the happy couple. Their anniversary is actually the end of July but that time of year in the south is pretty unbearable. I appreciate them thinking of us Northern dwellers and realizing extreme heat is not our ideal environment.

We saw some really incredible bands and I cut a rug a time or two.

The woman I'm dancing with in this video is 78 years young and still gots it!

We also played mini golf in City Park which is the 6th largest and 7th most visited park in all of the United States. See those short sleeves? Yeah that happened!

Needless to say it was hard to come home to single digit temperatures and 11 hour work days but what's been more difficult is I have for the first time in my life contracted seasonal depression. I'm an outdoorsy kind of woman and I need my natural time in the elements to maintain proper sanity and happiness. Let's hope this weather breaks soon. Perhaps I'll head back to NOLA for one of these bad boys!

A few more shots of our wonderful adventures and then I'm off to the races. 

What races? You may ask. Why the Chiditarod http://www.chiditarod.org/ is Saturday and Peter, I, and some friends are participating. Please come cheer us on and help me chase off these deep winter doldrums.

Pre Vacation, Vacation

This past weekend Peter and I, along with some friends went to visit Jason in Detroit. As always, the old boy did not disappoint. We attended a winter festival with a two story snow slide, which of course I forgot to take pictures of, and enjoyed some delicious eats at a few local hang outs in the downtown area.

Peter, I believe, said it best. Downtown Detroit has a lot of holes. If I had infinite amounts of money and time I would create a building fund for D-town. It has the potential to be built back up into basically anything. I was thinking it could be a technological hub considering their really isn't one in the center of the country. Aside from the mountains of pension obligations the city is responsible for and the $15 billion in debt that Detroit owes from borrowing too much I think the biggest problem is that everyone moved away. Detroit used to be the 4th largest city in the country and now it has over 100,000 empty lots and buildings. The location of the city is ideal for import and export to Canada and also very close to lake Erie. Basically I'm saying that hopefully someone will come along that can help Detroit become the promising city it once was.

Return of THE POLAR VORTEX

Tomorrow is supposed to be -15...ick. Send all your warm thoughts to Chicago. Unfortunately I'm not manly enough to brave riding my bike in weather that cold. Mostly because I don't have the correct gear for it. I've been enjoying the chilly weather but I do feel for people who may be experiencing their first Chicago winter this season. Namely the two little ones I care for. They will be far to young to remember but this winter is definitely one of the coldest Chicago has ever seen.

Peter and I went sledding this past weekend and we walked on the frozen pond in Humboldt Park. I wanted to ice skate on it but it freezes all weird and craggy (I'm told by my Canadian husband that's not fun for ice skating) and therefore we were only able to walk across. Perhaps this weekend will be nice enough temps to get down town for some Millennium Park Adventures. I've only been ice skating once this season and that is NOT enough.

For those of you in warmer climates enjoy the out of doors with me in mind and I'll try to channel those fuzzy feelings.

Everyone's a winner here!

So we did not place in the mac and cheese competition this weekend. Mostly I think it's because I went too traditional. Everyone else had foie gras and pork belly and truffle oil in their mac and cheese. Many were not even mac and cheese. They contained noodles and cheese but so many other ingredients I believe they were more casserole like than anything else. It was a fun event though and getting to try to many different things in one day was very exciting. Here is our recipe below in case you want to make it at home.

Sexy Mac

You velveeta lovers don’t know how to mac.

A sensual medley of rugged, bold, and provocative flavors will tantalize your taste buds. Unlike the dairy deviant from Philadelphia, our brand of pasteurized pleasure will leave you melting for more.

This is a spicy, saucy, classic. None of your foie gras or truffle oil shenanigans. Sometimes it’s best to just keep things simple and direct. Like naked jumping jacks.

We used a blend of two high quality sharp cheddar cheeses and a goat gouda from Holland. If you don’t have access to high caliber goat gouda or a nice sturdy cheddar, whatever is leftover from your latest Boggle party will have to suffice.

The sexy supplies you will need are as follows:

1.5 pounds macaroni
1 medium sized onion (grated)
2 cloves garlic (grated)
½ pint of whipping cream
1 lb sharp cheddar cheese
½ lb goat gouda
½ cup milk
½ cup chicken stock
1 tsp grey poupon
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 stick of butter
about one cup of flour
salt n pepa to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Bring a large stockpot of water to a boil. Salty like the briny sea. Once it’s boiling add your wee little noodles to the pot. Cook to al dente. If you don’t know what al dente is please see the sexy couple making out in the corner. Drain and place in your baking vessel.

While the noodles are cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Add the flour until you get a nice paste consistency. Once you have cooked the flour to a nice golden brown you may add the garlic, onion, chicken stock, milk, whipping cream, and crushed red pepper. (You may need to add more later depending on how much your wooer enjoys the spice ;-)

Apply gentle heat to bring said ingredients to a dainty simmer; much like you would caress your lover’s nipples upon a Sunday afternoon.

Once rolling gently in anticipation, start to gradually add your heaving mounds of cheese while whisking at a lavish pace. The rugged and mature cheddar, like a seasoned lumberjack, will melt slowly within your vivacious heat. High atop a Dutch mountain, the goat that produced your lustrous gouda, will yodel with delight when the aromatic, intoxicating flavors cross her nostrils.

At this appetizing point you may want to taste your sauce, as you should, because honestly you and your sweet derriere have earned it. Add the salt and pepper you feel that your honey and you would enjoy.

Pour your lush liquid over your pasta, mix, and bake for 15 minutes covered and 15 minutes uncovered to brown the top.

You have concluded your experiment in cooking cuteness now sit back and enjoy the culinary comeuppance.

After the thaw

As I'm sure most of the country now knows we were experiencing what is referred to as the polar vortex. Peter and I made it through and here are some photos of our backyard.

After all was said and done we had about 4 feet of snow piled high back there. I did at one point try to shovel it but I gave up after about a foot more dropped. Prior to this freak of climate change we celebrated the new year. A friend of ours had a lovely 20s themed New Year's party and Peter and I easily had the best costumes there. You can view those beauties on Facebook. Life is pretty sweet in the chilly midwest if I do say so myself. 

Now that my fingers are thawed I have entered a Mac and Cheese cooking contest this weekend. Held at 1pm at Emporium Arcade Bar in Chicago. If you are in the area please stop by and cheer me on. Peter and my team name is "We're bringing Sexy Mac."