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.