Lombardino's with Laura

I'm still playing catch-up from fall. These pics are from a dinner at Lombardino's with Ms. L. For my taste, the tricolore salad would've been better without the bleu cheese, but that makes sense because it's not my favorite. It was grand, however, to have more exotic greens: radicchio, frisée, and escarole.

tricolore salad

Evensong Spa

Laura and I channeled our inner divas and went to the Evensong Spa in Green Lake a few weeks ago.

At breakfast

Sorry for the wretchedly dark photo. The sunny landscape wasn't doing us any photographic favors, but it, plus the bare trees and the snowy lake, made for a lovely view.

Labyrinth

This time, I didn't walk the labyrinth, but L. did. It seems a little cheesy, but it really is very soothing. And the bank of windows affords a lovely view of the surrounding landscape.

Easy Veg Pizza

Phyllo dough has been living in my freezer for way too long, so after many defrostings and refreezings, it finally made its inaugural appearance. I found a simple recipe for veggie pizza using phyllo dough, so I thought I'd try my hand at it. The recipe I used as a guideline is from Good Housekeeping. (Don't judge me. ;)) Instead of pizza, tomatoes, red onion, mozzarella, and parmesan, I topped it with black beans, black olives, tuna, artichoke hearts, and parmesan. I also didn't cut it into rectangles, choosing instead to kept the full sheet intact.

Phyllo dough coated with olive oil

First you have to prepare the phyllo dough by stacking layers of it and oiling the layers in between. Most of the time, people use butter, but I picked the healthier olive oil. (Don't get me wrong. Mama loves her butter, but it's generally reserved for topping popcorn.) You need to bake the shell for about five minutes before adding the toppings, and I cooked the entire pizza for longer than the allotted 3-4 minutes.

Elise's visit

Elise visited from Milwaukee last weekend. She arrived around 10:30am, and we chatted and caught up. Then we made fish tacos (with tuna steaks and grilled, not fried). 

We hit a few garage sales, and since she'd never been, we went to Olbrich Gardens.

Book of Mormon, the El, + Deep-Dish 'Za

On the El train

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting The Windy City to see The Book of Mormon. In the cab on the way to the show, the driver suggested that we take the El* instead of a cab, which was very kind. It saved us money and time since the ride was going to be about an hour and a hour downtown in rush-hour traffic. We made sure to give him a generous tip, so he wasn't being too slighted by offering the suggestion. Plus, it was a special treat for me because I'd never ridden the El before.

For dinner, we stopped at Trattoria No. 10. We had the baby spinach salad with crispy pancetta, radicchio, pears, goat cheese, pistachio, and goat cheese vinaigrette and black--hooray for squid ink--tagliatelle with scallops, shrimp, calamari in a tomato-fennel saffron sauce.

Dinner and a Movie

A few weekends ago, a group of us went to Luigi's Pizza for dinner and then watched The Campaign. Among the four of us, we had an Italian chef salad, a fancy salad, a prosciutto and arugula pizza (after swapping out the white sauce for red sauce), and a fugetaboutit pizza. For dessert, we all split a slice of tiramisu.

This shot was taken in the restaurant's entryway. I wanted to wear this adorable dress one more time before the cold weather set in. I pick it up at Target late this summer, and I adore it.

Milwaukee

In January, I visited some friends in Milwaukee.

Lunch at Lulu's

Soon after arriving, we walked over to Lulu's for lunch. And then we went shopping. At Goldi in Shorewood, I found the lovely Pikolinos boots in the first picture. I also snagged some new Danskos.

That evening, we stayed in, ordered pizza from Mama De Marini's on Wentworth, and cackled away at Eddie Izzard's stand-up.

Baked oatmeal

The next morning, Andy and Elise made baked oatmeal for us. I'm not sure what recipe they used, but here's a similar one from bakedbree.com. I think it originated from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day.

Incognito

Hey, kids. It was Halloween just a moment ago or...um...two months ago. So much for the timeliness of a blog. ;)

Coraline + garden gnome

A group of us ventured out to Mickey's and the Harmony for some incognito fun. Our group consisted of a sorceress, The Great Pumpkin, Frankenstein's monster, a garden gnome, and Coraline.

Frankenstein's monster + Coraline

There was also the eating of pizza and the watching of TV later in the evening, but that remains undocumented by photography.

Garden gnome + The Great Pumpkin

Crazy Birthday Hats

On the Friday of my birthday (in late September), Jason and I went to the Blue Marlin for dinner. He started with the Thai curried crab soup with lemongrass, which he thought had the perfect balance of rich coconut milk and spicy kick. The rockfish special was buttery and yummy.

Dinner at the Blue Marlin

I started with a salad and had the eponymous blue marlin with roasted red pepper risotto, anchovy croutons, and braised chard. The marlin was a bit too dense and somewhat lacking in flavor, but it was moist. It might be that marlin just isn't my favorite fish. I'd love to go back and try something else.They do need to improve their coffee, though; it was pretty bad.

The waitress was attentive and friendly, but not to the point where she was constantly hovering. And I like the intimate atmosphere with low lighting. It made for a special dinner.

Opening presents! The sexy red dress loses something when paired with an afghan, a shawl, and slippers. :)

On Saturday, a group of us went to Nick's for dinner and then onto the Ivory Room for some piano bar wackiness.

I love JD's eyes in this pic. He looks very surprised.

The next week, Abby, Heath, Brenna, Jim, Mike, and I had pizza and salad, followed by a decadent apricot cake with hazelnut buttercream frosting from La Brioche. That cake was so massive that it was shared multiple times with several different people. We had slivers before the Richard Thompson concert at the Stoughton Opera House, and I took it to work, too.

Cooking Up a Storm

I was downloading some photos and realized I hadn't shared some of the dishes I'd made this winter, so here goes.
Cranberry, Honey, and Ginger Biscotti
I made this biscotti for the Partners in Giving (our workplace charitable giving campaign) silent auction and bake sale. Mine contained crystallized ginger, cranberries, and honey, but there are tons of variations on this thrice-baked Italian cookie. 

Aren't they pretty?

When it comes to food, I generally like to keep it simple. (It makes up for other aspects of life that are overly complicated. :)) I will probably never concoct an elaborate old-school French meal, and baking is generally too precise and fussy for me. In that spirit, I use a fusion of basic biscotti recipes and alter it according to my whim:

2 c. flour (For baking, I usually use whole wheat pastry flour instead of bleached white flour. It's not as heavy and drying as regular whole wheat flour, but adds more nutrition than the white.)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. sugar
2-3 eggs (It calls for 2 eggs and 1 egg white, but unless it's absolutely necessary, I don't separate eggs. I hate having leftover egg components because they usually go bad before I can use them.)
1 c. sugar (I use brown, rather than white.)
generous swirl of honey
~ 1 c. Craisins
~ 1 c. finely chopped crystallized ginger

Preheat oven to 350. Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, and then combine together. Mix until smooth, then transfer dough to a baking sheet, and shape into 2 logs, measuring about 12 inches long and 4 inches wide. Bake 25-30 mins. Reduce the oven temperature to 325. Cut the logs into 3/4-inch slices, turn the slices cut side down, and bake for 10 mins. Flip the slices and bake for 10 more mins. The result should be a gloriously crispy, somewhat sweet treat perfect for dunking into your cappuccino.

Spinach, Mushroom, and Feta Pizza with Phyllo Crust
I made this to use up the large box of phyllo dough in my freezer, although some of it still resides in the frozen depths. (It's from the half-successful Nigella's chicken pot pie experiment.) As is generally the case if you have a crust consisting of flaky phyllo lathered with butter, it was decadently yummy. The phyllo was a little destroyed from being defrosted and refrozen too many times, so I layered strips of it in alternating directions, brushing each layer with melted butter, until I had a thick crust. Then I topped it with sliced cremini mushrooms and spinach. I used a recipe from Epicurious.

Spaghetti Carbonara
Jason took the culinary helm on this effort, and I was the kitchen helper. I'd never had this before, but I was blown away by its fantastic flavor. I think this recipe from Amateur Gourmet was the one we used.

Spaghetti carbonara

Sweet Potato Soup with Garlic Chicken Sausage
Here, leftover curried sweet potatoes that I wasn't terribly impressed with in the beginning were transformed into a lovely soup. A spin with the stick blender and the addition of some garlic chicken sausage from Trader Joe's made all the difference.

Sweet potato soup with garlic chicken sausage and a dollop of yogurt

Red Lentil Dal
I've made this dal, originally from Cooking Light, several times now, and it's always satisfying.

The last of the red lentil dal

Ribollita

Ribollita

Ribollita, meaning "reboiled," is a hearty Tuscan stew made with white beans, tomatoes, greens, other veggies, and stale bread (to thicken the soup). The recipe from 101 Cookbooks calls for cavolo nero, which is sometimes labeled lacinato kale, Tuscan kale, or dinosaur kale. Whatever you call it, it's a particular favorite of mine. It has deeply green, curly, striking leaves, and its flavor is more robust than the regular kale favored in southern cooking. Despite that, I used mustard greens because I wanted to use them up. The black olives may seem like an odd touch, but try it. I promise you'll be pleasantly surprised. The salty, briny olives work really well against the buttery cannellini and creaminess of the bread. And sometimes, I feel like the greens overpower the dish, but not so in this case.

While the ribollita cooked, I indulged in smoked gouda on Triscuits
with black olives...and a glass of red wine.