The Great Blizzard of 2015

So the weather forecast for Super Bowl Sunday was some snow.  Some snow.  We woke up that morning to a courtyard covered in fresh snow with more coming down.  By mid-morning, a blizzard warning had been issued.  Because "some snow" apparently means 19 inches of snow overnight.  So this is what our neighborhood (well, mainly our courtyard) looks like during and after a blizzard.  Please keep this post in mind when reading the next post.

 The courtyard snow at its highest almost reached my hip.

Stuck in the snow

Michel and Elizabeth Go for Ice Cream and Improv

So it's winter here in Chicago, and when winter arrives, the instinct to hibernate really kicks in.  And we let it.  But over the past few weeks, we've been getting restless and decided that, nature be damned, it was time to leave the apartment and actually do some things.

There is a family story from when my mom was a child about how in the middle of a blizzard, my grandfather took her to get ice cream at Baskin Robbins.  While we did not venture out in a blizzard (yet), I agree that winter is the perfect time for ice cream.  With a plethora of specialty ice cream places to choose from, we headed for Jeni's Ice Creams, located directly under the Southport Brown Line Stop, one evening for an ice cream date.

Jeni's is known for it's crazy flavors including but not limited to brambleberry crisp, queen city cayenne, brown butter almond brittle, pistachio and honey, Riesling poached pear sorbet, and goat cheese with red cherries. 

I got dark chocolate (natch), brioche with butter and apricot jam, and lemon buttermilk tart.  It was all good, but the lemon buttermilk tart is the main reason this place is getting a mention on the blog.  It was AH-mazing!  It tasted exactly like lemon chess pie with almost more of a lemon cream texture than pure ice cream texture.  It was a blast of lemon with a lovely buttery finish and bits of real tart crust in the ice cream.  It's to die for.  If you like lemon.

Michel: I got salty caramel, 7 layer bar, and whiskey and pecans, all three of which were better than the weird lemon ice cream. 

Elizabeth:  False.  The lemon ice cream was the best.

Michel:  Get some lemon Italian ice or a lemon popsicle, and we'll talk.

We're adorable.

Elizabeth: On the last night of January, we ventured over to iO, also known as improv Olympic, training ground of such comedy luminaries as Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Mike Meyers, Chris Farley, Adam McKay, and others.  "Santa" had given Michel tickets to an iO performance in his stocking for Christmas...

Michel:  Why did you put Santa in quotes?  What are you trying to say?

Elizabeth:  Anyway, we decided to take Santa up on his offer and go see The Harold, a long-form type of improve created by iO's founders, Del Close and Charna Halpern.

Michel:  Why are you ignoring me?  What happened to Santa?!
 

 iO has a really nice bar and impressive food menu

Other notable alumni:

 

 Front Row Center Table...which can be a little awkward at an improv show

Elizabeth:  Unfortunately the main Harold show was sold out, so we ended up with tickets to ¡Heraldo!, a show where one of the Harold troupes performs the first half and the Spanish-language Harold troupe performs the second half...in Spanish.  It was absolutely hilarious.  The English-language troupe, Attica, was good and had some really funny moments, but the ¡Heraldo! troupe was a quick-thinking, witty, super funny, well-oiled machine.  

Michel:  I'm not dropping this.  I want answers.  The show, though, was great, and even though it's not the original location, it was cool to be in the spiritual home of so many comedy legends.

Elizabeth:  All in all, a good start to the year.

Michel:  Tell that to Santa.

Our Guide for What to Do When You're Not Feeling the Holidays

Ok, I'll be honest.  This year, Christmas snuck up on me.  And frankly, I wasn't in the mood.  Even watching our annual slate of Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve movies (Muppet Christmas Carol, Love Actually, and Die Hard, natch) while eating Texas Tamale Company (yes, they distribute in Chicago now!) couldn't get me excited for the season.  However, I didn't want to spend December like the Grinch, so I tried to find holiday-themed things to do that would at least be fun.  So here is my guide for surviving a lack of holiday spirit:

1.  Start the holidays off with pie.

Not just any pie, mind you.  Pecan pie.  And not just any pecan pie, mind you.  A Goode Company Pecan Pie, shipped in its own beautiful, wooden box that can also function as a stylish, Texas-themed centerpiece and conversation starter.

This pie is good for what ails you because it is the best gosh-darn pecan pie in the entire world.  And I have had some pretty amazing pecan pie.  Example: Last Christmas, Michel and I were craving "home" food, and so we asked my mom if she would consider replacing her normal (store-bought yet delicious) Christmas pecan pie with one from Goode Company.  She was reluctant, but finally agreed after my brother added his voice to the request.  On Christmas Day, she took one bite of it and said, "I don't know why we've bothered with any other pie."  Case closed.  And be sure to thank the person who sent it to you profusely so that they will continue sending them.  I love you, Mom!

2.  Look for the Holiday Train.

The Holiday Train is an El train decorated for Christmas and carrying Santa.  Yes, a real, live Santa.  One of the cars is always replaced with a flatbed holding Santa, his sleigh, and his fake reindeer.  It's pretty spectacular.  There are a few ways to see this train.  One: search thoroughly for it every time you enter a train platform.  Two: Look up the schedule of the holiday train on the CTA website.  Or three: Have the bejeezus scared out of you as you are staring at your phone, waiting for a train, when the holiday train comes whistling and blowing into your station, causing you to shriek with fear and joy, fumble for your phone camera in the below freezing air, and jump two feet in the air when you realize the fake Santa mechanically waving and yelling ho-ho-ho is actually a real, living, breathing, and probably cold out of his mind person.  I chose the last option.

3.  Bake cookies.

This fall, Charlotte decided that she wanted to make Brennan's pralines.  And so we have attempted to do this twice.  In all honestly, it is a bit like Lucy and Ethel doing anything.  We have yet to master the cooking process, and this last time we just dumped the molten sugar onto the pan in the shape of a giant blob rather than try to spoon out appropriately sized cookies.  If done properly, the pralines will be completely dry and ready to eat in half an hour.  Ours have yet to dry in under a week.

They still taste amazing and perfect, though.  The second time we made them was for the Savory Spice Shop's Second Annual Cookie Exchange.  We also made excellent ginger cookies and peppermint sugar cookies (or, as Charlotte called them, a potential Pinterest fail--again, tasted great).

The cookie exchange was super fun.  So fun that I took no pictures.  But trust me, there were some gorgeous and delicious cookies there.  My favorites were the brown butter dark chocolate chip cookies with sea salt and the rosemary shortbread.  Michel's favorite (of the selection that made it home) was the spicy coconut macaroon.  The cookie exchange really did more than anything to get me in a specifically holiday mood.  I mean, who can feel Grinchy when there are cookies to eat?

4.  Go to Not Specifically Holiday Holiday Parties

Not Specifically Holiday Holiday Parties are sometimes more fun because then it's just about hanging out with good people.  However, a white elephant component is always good, especially if you do well.  Our first party was an ugly sweater and Rum Ham (from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) party.  We were instructed to either wear an ugly sweater or a Hawaiian shirt.  I wore neither, but Michel wore his brand new Aloha shirt proudly, and Ryan, our host, made his own ugly sweater.  The menu was rum-glazed ham.  It was a great evening.

:

I just had to share it, Ryan.  Sorry.

The other Not Specifically Holiday Holiday Party was my office end of year party at 90 Mile Cuban Cafe.  I work with the best people in the world.  They are some of the most dedicated, caring, hardest-working people I have met, and they are also the craziest and most fun.  Plus Cuban food should be a permanent part of the holidays and, really, all days, and the Dreidl Drinking Game is really entertaining.

5.  Go to the Christkindlmarkt

This only works if you live somewhere where there is a Christkindlmarkt (a German Christmas market), but there is nothing like an outdoor market imitating a Bavarian village and selling nutcrackers, hot chocolate, mulled wine, and doughnuts filled with cream to put you in the holiday spirit.  Michel and I took my advisees one Friday, and it was great.

I have the best advisees ever.  I say that one: because they are and two: because the students have found my blogs and may read this.  This class is particularly snoopy.  But really, my advisees are the best.

 One reason is that they were totally excited to take this picture...except for Manny, who's too cool for us. :-)

 The tree was kind of sad, but that's ok.

Fun Fact: Chicago's Christkindlmarkt has been ranked as one of the best Christkindlmarkts in the world, so if you have a chance, definitely visit it next year.

5.  Go to Wine and Cheese Tastings at Your Fancy Grocery Store.

Dear friends who live in the land of HEB and Central Market, you do not know how lucky you are.  Here in Illinois we have a fancy grocery store by the name of Mariano's which has the consistently worst produce I've ever seen.  But what Mariano's does do well is wine and cheese tastings.  90+ Cellars, a really great wine retailer, did an official tasting evening pairing their wines with Sartori cheeses.  And when we say pairing, what we really mean is that they gave us a plate of 3 kinds of cheese and then a whole bunch of wine.

Michel: Hello.  I'm coming into the post for the wine part because I was in the Christmas spirit and needed no coaxing.

Elizabeth:  Yeah, but I ended up doing way more fun Christmas-y things than you.

Michel:  I did everything except the cookie exchange.  And all that means is that I got to eat cookies and not make pralines, so I think I come out ahead there.

Elizabeth:  But the cookie exchange was magical.  You wouldn't understand.  Ok, back to wine and cheese.

Michel:  The fact that 90+ Cellars buys and repackages wines rather than make them made me a little wary as to the quality of the wine we would have.  Happily, I was wrong.  All of the wines were very good.

 Not enough cheese for all that wine.

 We were invited by one of our friends, who also happens to be one of Mariano's main wine sampler people, at the tasting, too.  I don't know what it says about you when the grocery store wine sampler people recognize you and invite you to wine events.

Elizabeth:  It was a very enjoyable evening.  I, at least, ended it telling one of 90+'s head wine buyers that they needed to come to Texas and buy up all the extra wine in the Hill Country.  Because, you know, Texas.

Michel:  Yeah.

Overall, it was a really fun December, and I finally got into the Christmas spirit in time for the actual holiday.  So...a way belated happy holidays to you all!

Michel:  I was born with the Christmas spirit.

Winter Wonderland

This winter has been blessedly warmer than last winter.  We had a nice snow flurry with some sticking in November at the end of my parents' visit, but other than that, the snow hasn't really stuck.  Until today.  We woke up this morning to a beautiful blanket of white, fluffy snow in the courtyard and had pretty significant snowfall all day.  I know I'll be sick of it soon, probably in a few weeks, but I do love the first real snowfalls of the year.  So here you have it: the first Chicago snow of 2015. 

 A few fall colors holding on.

 He looks ready for the snowball fight.

 Lincoln Square

 The coziest-looking of the neighborhood bars.