March Happenings

With the advent of March in Chicago comes the slow roll toward the summer festival season, starting with St. Patrick's Day and the Macy's Flower Show.  We've written about both of these events before, but each year is slightly unique. 

Michel: Imagine, if you will, taking in this view while standing in front of the dumbest family in America.  The mom of this family was convinced that each plane in a very normal flight path toward O'Hare was on the verge of 9/11-ing Trump Tower.  

 This gentleman was getting a lot of attention.

 Notre Dame Pipe and Drum Band

 And, of course, the dying of the river

Elizabeth:  We did a better job this year and actually made it to the part of the river that is dyed much earlier in the morning, though we still missed the actual dying.  It's always fun, but honestly, I think 2 years is probably enough for this Chicagoiest of traditions.

Michel: We may have covered this last year, but I can't be bothered to go check.  Either way, it bears repeating.  Chicago becomes the sloppiest, drunkest place in the entire world on St. Patrick's Day.  We are fairly certain we saw a guy in his last moments on earth due to severe alcohol poisoning.*  Luckily, his friend pulled an ad off the train wall so that he might vomit into it.

Elizabeth:  The above underlines why we may be done with this tradition.  But it was definitely worth doing at least once!  On to the Flower Show.  This year's theme was artists through time.  While last year had a really great Dali section, this year each section represented a different artist from Michelangelo to Mondrian.  I didn't like it quite as much as last year, but it's still pretty cool what they can create from flowers and greenery.

Michel:  I don't know that the Flower Show was actually better last year, but after last winter, I think we needed it more.

 Lichtenstein

 This looked a little like the chocolate room in Willy Wonka

 Van Gogh

 Michelangelo 

(Different floral patterns were projected on the statue of David)

 Picasso

(This frame is actually a hole in the wall looking into the rest of the Picasso section)

 More Picasso 

(The real baboon sculpture is installed in Daley Plaza here in Chicago)

Mondrian

Elizabeth: But March was not all pre-gaming for the the summer festival season.  We did indulge our inner Julia Childs...

Michel: Or "Julias Child".

Elizabeth: ...Julia Childs and take a knife skills class.  You know that scene in the movie Julie and Julia where Julia Child is learning how to chop onions, and, after a Rudy-esque montage, she finally masters it and chops a huge pile of onions really fast?  

Michel:  Nope.

Elizabeth:  Yeah, that's not us.  But at least now we know how to chop better and what we are doing wrong, even if we're still not very good at chopping. 

Michel:  I'm very good at chopping.

Elizabeth:  Sure.  

 The class was at The Chopping Block in Lincoln Square and was part of my Christmas present for Michel.

 It was an early Sunday morning class, so they gave us a little biscuit as a snack to start.

 We got to use all of the different types of super nice and super expensive knives The Chopping Block sells.

We have very good taste in knives now.

 Michel:  I chopped these onions with my bare hands.  No knife needed.

Elizabeth:  I don't even have to look when I chop.

Michel:  All totaled, only six people lost fingers, although a seventh lost an entire hand.

Elizabeth:  And the best part was we got to keep all of our chopped veggies, so we made soup that week.  It was better than usual because the vegetables were all properly chopped.  

Michel:  I don't chop with the speed of a TV chef or anything, but I do feel like this class made me a much more competent knifesman. 

Elizabeth:  Agreed.  Our chopping may not be perfect, but it definitely goes a lot more quickly now, which makes cooking dinner a more enjoyable experience.  I guess we'll just have to go back for the advanced knife skills class!

*We don't think that guy on the train actually died.  But we bet he was hurting the next morning.

Adventures in Anniversary-ing

It's been a busy couple of months with not a lot of time to keep up with the blog, but we have been having fun in addition to working hard.  We're starting off our round of catch-up blog posts with our anniversary post. 

Michel:  Did you know that the fourth anniversary is the flowers and fruit anniversary?  Well, that and appliances.

Elizabeth:  Hence my beautiful tulips and orange?

Michel:  Yes.  But alas, neither the produce nor flower departments had any appliances.

Elizabeth:  That's ok.  I'll get over it. 

Elizabeth:  We have had some success finding good anniversary deals online in the past.  If you recall last year's post, we found an absolutely ridiculous deal for Fish Bar, which has become one of our very favorite restaurants here in Chicago.  This time, we found a not-quite-as-ridiculously-awesome-but-still-delicious-and-pretty-great deal for Two, a cool new restaurant on the near west side of Chicago. 

Michel:  It came down to a choice between Two and another restaurant, and I think we chose wisely.

 
Elizabeth:  Two is very interesting.  It's a cool, loft-inspired space with the wait staff dressed in sneakers, jeans, and matching t-shirts.  Yet the food is creative and the level of service is akin to the best steakhouses in the city.   

Michel:  Our special included 5 chefs-choice shared plates and a whole bottle of wine.  We chose a Cabernet from Nicklaus Vineyards in Napa, and it was very good.  Full-bodied, jammy, and economically sound.

Elizabeth:  Due to some technological glitches, I no longer have pictures of each course.  I know you are all extremely disappointed not to have an image-by-image tour of our dinner, but in the grand scheme of things, it's probably ok.

Michel:  Is it, though?

Elizabeth:  I hope so.  Our first course was a fairly straightfoward salad with the most amazing ricotta croutons ever.  Think a little fried ball of melty ricotta.  Because that's what they were.  Our second course was the only quail the restaurant got that day, grilled with sweet leeks, pepper pesto, and the most amazing polenta puree thing ever.  Our third course was grilled salmon with chanterelle mushrooms and the most amazing parsnip puree ever.  Yes, that is two most amazing _________ purees ever in a row.  They do purees well at Two.

Michel:  If they were really bold, they'd have served us quail puree.  Instead, we had to do all the chewing ourselves.  Rest assured, the chef heard of my displeasure.

Elizabeth:  Yeah, but the waitress didn't judge when we scraped the parsnip puree off the plate.  

Michel:  She might have a little when we picked it up and started licking the plate directly.

Elizabeth:  Shhh, don't tell them about that!

Elizabeth:  Our fourth course was a bacon, corn, and fried sage risotto.  It is the only risotto I've ever had that comes close to Mancuso's in Houston.  It was delicious.  And our last course was banana bread pudding with homemade caramel ice cream and caramel sauce.  Amazing.

Michel:  Two was really great.  While not the crazy deal we got last year at Fish Bar, it was still was a lot of really great food and wine for a relatively low price.  

Elizabeth:  A few weeks later, we headed to the Bank of America Theatre to see The Book of Mormon, for which I had gotten Michel tickets for our anniversary. 

Michel:  Despite its focus on heavy topics like religion, AIDS, and female circumcision, The Book of Mormon is effervescent and brilliantly funny.  It works both as a comedy and as a classic example of musical theatre.  It's great.  See it whenever you get a chance.

Good view of the stage!

Elizabeth:  I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the show: it was well-constructed, and the cast was great.  We had an awesome time, and it was a perfect way to wrap up our anniversary celebration!

Michel:  It was a great celebration of a pretty great four years.  I suppose we can stick this out for another four anyway.

Elizabeth:  Yeah, probably.  I like you, too.  :-)

The Gordon Biersch Experience: A Valentine's Story

So remember our last blog post about the Great Chicago Blizzard of 2015?  Well, we decided we'd had enough.  On Friday the 13th, we packed our bags and headed south to Phoenix, land of sun, warm temperatures, roadrunners, Saguaro cactus, and Kathleen and Mark.  Neither one of us having ever been to Phoenix and Arizona not showing terribly favorably in the national news, we didn't quite know what to expect. 

Michel:  Shockingly, despite being the son of an immigrant, no one asked to see my papers.

Elizabeth:  Perhaps the sheriff was otherwise occupied.  Anyways, we were delighted to learn that Phoenix is a beautiful, well-kept, and vibrant city with tons of great food and amazing things to do.  But even if none of that were true, Kathleen and Mark are there, and that's really all that matters.

Michel:  Also, it's warm there.

Elizabeth:  Perfectly so at the moment.  The happiness I felt at being able to walk outside into the sun in shorts or a sundress was near overwhelming.  I was seriously bummed on Monday, coming back to single digit temps in the arctic tundra of Chicago.  Anyway, Kathleen and Mark had a packed weekend planned, so here are some of the highlights.

HIKING!!!

Elizabeth:  Because Kathleen and Mark live right next to a giant park thing with small mountains/large hills, man-made lakes (a.k.a "Community Fishing Water"), and the Phoenix Zoo.  It's pretty awesome.  So on our first morning, we embarked on what Mark said was about a 6 mile hike through their "backyard".

 Weird Arizona Thing #1: Sandra Day O'Connor's childhood home was relocated to this park.  It is not open to the public but is available for events.

 Roadrunner!

 The rare and elusive Dos Equis in its natural habitat.

 The Palo Verde is the state tree of Arizona.

 Weird Arizona Thing #2: Arizona's first governor is buried in this pyramid along with his family members.  It is appropriately named Hunt's Tomb.

 Phoenix Zoo

Michel: The hike culminated with a climb up to a rock formation called Hole in the Rock.  Elizabeth and Kathleen were content to hike no higher than the level of the eponymous hole.  Mark and I, however, decided to climb even farther, resulting in roughly an Everest-esque free climb.

Elizabeth: At great peril to your lives, which Kathleen did not hesitate to point out multiple times.

Michel:  We saw no fewer than six other climbers fall to their deaths attempting the same climb as us.

Elizabeth:  Yet the most successful climbers tended to be children under the age of 10.

Michel:  Those were Sherpas.

 

Michel on top of the Hole in the Rock

 Mere seconds before this photo, I was spread eagle, clinging to the sheer rock face and fearing for my life as Kathleen pulled and Michel pushed.  Unfortunately Mark did not take a picture or there would be photographic evidence of my near-death experience and success in scaling the rock to this extremely high ledge.

 Saguaros (pronounced sa-WAH-ros) are everywhere and basically serve as apartment buildings for birds and other small desert animals.

 Weird Arizona Thing #3: We don't actually know what this is, so we named it Stonehenge West.

Elizabeth:  Our second morning, we hiked in the other direction, heading over toward Arizona State University and the ASU mountain.  It was another gorgeous day for a hike, and we headed off through the park in another direction, starting with the horse tunnel, crossing under the highway and across the man-made lake (which now boasts "water-front" property) to ASU and Mill Street, ASU's main drag. 

Michel:  This hike featured far fewer people falling to their deaths than the hike the day before.  We did, however, encounter a giant iguana-like lizard that had failed to procure a sufficient water source. 

 Rule of Thumb:  It's probably not a great idea to step inside a random ceremonial rock circle thing you stumble across while hiking.  Fortunately Mark has not been struck by lightning or turned blue...yet...

 We did actually discover some never-before-excavated Native American ruins that dated from around 1100 or so.  They consisted of several houses and a kitchen area and clearly have not been excavated by ASU archaeology students.  You should expect our report of our exciting new findings in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.

 Natural land bridge across a natural lake

 The mill for which Mill Street is named.

 ASU Mountain.  Upon discovering we were a bit short on time as we still had to see the Musical Instruments Museum, we decided to forgo climbing ASU Mountain and just explore Mill Street a bit instead.

 Mills Street is lovely and absolutely delightful.

 Obligatory SRD picture: this building used to host Masonic meetings.

Elizabeth:  At the end of our wanderings we decided to stop into Gordon Biersch, a charming-looking brew pub and the namesake of this post, for a quick refreshments.

Michel:  Based on the inviting exterior and the use of the word "brewery", we expected to be in for a delightful beer drinking experience.  Alas.

Elizabeth:  Kathleen and I opted for the peach and raspberry ice teas.  It was at this point the experience began to go downhill.  I watched in open-mouthed horror as our very nice waiter filled our glasses a third of the way each with thick, unnaturally colored peach and raspberry syrups and then poured regular iced tea on top.  My fear was confirmed when I tasted the most disgusting peach-adjacent iced tea ever.  However, the sun was shining, the environment inviting, and the company excellent.  Not all was lost.

Michel:  Around this time, about three quarters of the way through my okay pale ale, Elizabeth looked over and said, "There's lipstick on your glass."  Sure enough, I was drinking beer out of a dirty glass.

Elizabeth:  The lipstick was hot pink and sparkly, in case you were wondering.  We decided that was the end of our Gordon Biersch experience.  Our shocked waiter kindly comped our iced teas, and we all headed off to better food and beverage experiences.  Which brings us to:

FOOD!!!

Kathleen and Mark pulled out all the stops in sharing the amazing food of Phoenix with us.  Friday night, we had pizza and dessert at their favorite (and very Austin-y) pizza place, La Grande Orange.  It was delicious, and corn and goat cheese should be on all pizzas!  Brunch on Saturday was at The Henry, a gorgeous loft-meets-colonial-British-pub style restaurant with a perfect patio and excellent cocktails.  Mark definitely won brunch with his chicken fried chicken, but we all were super happy with our tasty choices!

Our final dinner before heading to the airport was at The Vig (Best slogan ever: Let's just go to The Vig).  The food and cocktails were, again, delicious, but what made this super fun was the great patio with live music and games on the tables.  It was a perfect way to end our visit!

However, my favorite meals were probably the ones at home.  Mark made us fabulous baked omelets for breakfast (a Barefoot Contessa recipe, natch), and Saturday we had Spanish dinner, a tradition in Kathleen's family that she introduced me to in college and is now a favorite of all of ours.  Honestly, there's nothing better than eating good food with great friends!


Awesome Places to Visit!

Our first big "sightseeing" stop was on Saturday afternoon when we went to the Desert Botanical Gardens.  It is gorgeous!  It's no wonder there were at least 10 weddings there that evening.  (Ok, maybe 5.)  The garden is set up with several different paths that take you through different desert environments and themes.  There's even a Quail Trail path where quail actually run.  The only path we didn't visit was the wildflower path, which will be blooming later in the spring. 

 A saguaro

 I think these are called snake cacti because they look like caterpillars. 

Elizabeth: My favorite succulent.  I don't know what it's called, but I now have a baby one on my desk at work.  I did not get it here, though.  Apparently, my office now has a "succulent lady" who covers all of our desk garden needs.

Michel: It's called a Giant Asparachoke.  It's a hybrid-plant designed for health-conscious giants.

Elizabeth:  My new goal in life is to have a succulent garden, the centerpiece of which is a Giant Asparachoke.  Mainly because I don't think I can kill anything cactus related.

Michel:  I believe in you.

Elizabeth:  Thanks.  That means a lot.

 We're adorable.

 These weren't even the tallest saguaro there.

 The barrel cacti are Kathleen's favorite.  This one fell over.

 Mark and the barrel cactus have just given up.

A saguaro skeleton.

On one of the paths, they had examples of traditional dwellings of various Native American groups who lived in the area hundreds of years ago.  One dwelling group had a grinding stone set up.  Kathleen decided it would be fun to see who could grind the most seeds the fastest.

 Mark said my smile at this moment wasn't very genuine.  I can't imagine why.

 Kathleen won.

Michel:  Not pictured-me absolutely killing it in the milling competition.

Elizabeth:  Not true.

 Mark and Michel had fun playing with the panoramic setting on my phone camera.

 Michel: Also vacationing in Phoenix, the Golden Age Michel from Earth-2.

The Chihuly pieces left from last year's exhibit 

And our other major site-seeing stop was at the Musical Instruments Museum on Sunday afternoon.  Fun fact:  According to Trip Advisor, this is the number one thing to do in Phoenix.  I can see why.  I have no hesitation saying that this is one of the best museums that I have ever been to.  Kathleen had described it as "this musical instruments museum?  We don't really know much about it, but we thought y'all would like it."  It's incredible.

Michel:  It's the type of museum where you could spend days and not really take everything in.  Just about every country and people is represented.  

Elizabeth:  Unfortunately we only had a few hours.  Each country exhibit showcased traditional instruments, costumes, and other musical paraphernalia along with a television screen that played examples of that country's music, which we listened to through headsets. We were able to spend quite a bit of time in the Africa, Middle East, Europe, and North America rooms.  We sped through Latin America and Oceania and just walked through Asia.  We were disappointed not to have left more time for the museum, but it's just another reason to go back to visit!

Michel:  6 out of the 7 continents were very well represented.  The museum dropped the ball a little on Antarctica.

 

 

Indonesian Gamalan

 Bolivian pipes

 Opera singer Joan Sutherland was represented in the Australia exhibit...as she should be.

 The first Steinway piano.  Mark was nerding out.

One of Ella Fitzgerald's costumes

There was even an "Experience Room", where you could play different instruments.  I found the giant gong very satisfying to play.

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend.  Phoenix far surpassed our expectations, but the best part was spending it with great friends!  We can't wait to visit again!