Chicago is my kind of town...

       For our third, yes third, anniversary Hace and I took a drive north to the windy city, Chicago.  I had never been to Chicago and was really excited to see this city. Hace had been once with his dad when he was in High School but it had definitely been awhile.  Miraculously, we both got Friday off work so we hit the road early for the five hour trek north.  When we got into town Hace was insistent that we drive in on the famous Lake Shore Drive to get cool views of the City and Lake Michigan.  Well we didn't think about traffic and it was pretty trafficy but totally worth it.  Not only was this my first time to Chicago, this was my first time seeing a great lake and wowzers it was huge! You couldn't even see the other side, it was like looking out over an ocean not a lake! So we drove up to the Lincoln park area where we parked our car at a friend's place for the weekend to avoid the absurdly high parking rate at our hotel. To get to our hotel, we took the El, which is awesome and different from any other public metro/subway I have used because it is all above-ground. I was trying to play it cool and not be such an obvious tourist but also having a mild panic-attack that I left my phone in the car. Good news, I had the phone it was just buried in my purse! So we get downtown and checked into our hotel and head to Michigan Ave aka: Miracle Mile. This is where you can do some FABULOUS shopping. While I didn't have much to spend we had agreed I could get an anniversary gift so naturally I got some fab shoes from Nordstrom. Next we went to the top of the John Hancock building and took some great pics of the city at sunset and also met a European who had seen more of the US than we had, shocker. To end the night we ate delicious deep dish pizza.
        Saturday we woke up and headed to the Art Museum. With clouds in the sky and a chance of rain this was perfect timing for my museum pick.  We saw some great stuff including some cool African art, lots of Monet, and the special exhibit on Leichtenstein.  After the museum we headed over to Millenium Park where we were enchanted by the silver bean and grabbed some lunch at a cool outdoor venue. Sidenote- we sat next to some older women who were slamming bud lights at like noon, oh mid-westerners.  After that we went down to the Buckingham Fountain and then Navy Peir for a ride on the giant ferris wheel. Fun trivia fact, the ferris wheel was first introduced in Chicago when it hosted the World's Fair! For dinner that night we went to a place recommended by our friends who are locals. The restaurant was called Epic and it was, well pretty epic! It had a very cool roof-top bar that we went early to check-out and grab drinks. The food was some of the best I have had in ages and then we went back up to the roof-top bar that, unknown to us, had became a posh night-club complete with a D.J. sketchy ex-braves player and lots of young people looking for love. Hace and I both concluded we would be incredibly awkward singles in that setting.  When we finally left there was a line to get in, not sure when we have felt that cool, haha.
        Sunday we met my dear friend and college roommate Bailey and her fiance Andrew for breakfast at Yolk. Our breakfast dishes were huge but very yummy and with stuffed bellies we headed down to the river for a boat-tour of the city. It was the perfect day to be out on a boat. It was sunny and warm and we got some great views of the city from the river and Lake Michigan.  After the boat-tour we parted ways with friends and headed to Lincoln Park to retrieve our car and find the house where Hace's dad lived during his seminary years in Chicago.  The neighborhood was super cool with tons of boutiques and local restaurants. We grabbed lunch at a sportsbar and walked to streets.  Late in the afternoon we said good-bye to Chicago and headed back to St. Louis.  It was a fabulous city, while it doesn't trump NYC in my book it is still very cool. The lake also gives it a totally different feel and since we went on a mild weekend in late spring I claimed I would totally live there. If I went in winter it might be another story...

Lake Shore Drive

Historic Water Tower

Deep dish

Aslan?

Underneath the silver bean

Silver bean

Buckingham Fountain

On Lake Michigan

   

Georgia Pecans

This weekend Hace and I got to go home for my long weekend off and his small break between Jan-term and Spring semester. The trip was awesome and we got to see a lot of friends and family. Before leaving one of my associates asked if I would bring him back a pecan pie, apparently people don't make those often here?! Sm I mentioned this to my grandmother and sure enough she sends me back with two bags of pecans from her yard. Now I am searching through all my cookbooks for yummy recipes using pecans (besides pie of course!). Today I made a simple but delicious treat, Hello Dolly Bars and I am adding them to a salad called Green Salad Unique. Here are the recipes:

Hello Dolly Bars:
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups finely crushed graham crackers
1 6-oz package chocolate chips
1 16-oz package butterscotch chips
1 1/3 cups coconut flakes
3/4 to 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter. Stir in crushed graham crackers. Put mixture in bottom of an ungreased 9x13-inch dish. Layer ingredients in order listed. Pour condensed milk over top evenly. Bake for 30 min. Cool. Cut into bars.

Greene Salad Unique:
1 pound assorted lettuce
1 pound fresh spinach
2 medium avocados, sliced
1 pint strawberries,halved
1 cantaloupe, cut into balls (I substituted mandarin oranges)
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cucumbers, sliced
8 oz fresh mozerella, sliced
And the dressing...
Poppy seed dressing:
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup tarragon vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbspn poppy seeds
1 Tspn salt
1 tspn dry mustard
1 tspn grated onion
3/4 tspn onion salt
Combine all ingredients in covered jar; shake well. Refrigerate until ready to use (may be prepared ahead). Makes 1 3/4 cups.