Thanks!

I like to eat, and I ate plenty tonight.

Things I'm thankful for, in no particular order, except the 1st one

My husband, Kyle
Barack Obama
Family
Friends
Wine
Google reader
My camera
My new bra
Sam, Rosie and Tallulah
Lucy
Health insurance
CASA loans
Kyle's guitar
Foie Gras
Calphalon
Down comforters
Coffee
Truffles
Roasted chicken(fine, today I'll say roasted turkey)
The Mail lady
The Shins
Italy
RAW files
Compost bins
Nicolet Island
French fries
The internet
Blogger
Fall leaves
Big (the movie)
The 1st green of spring
Chile Rellenos
The Red Stag
Hardwood floors
The skyline
Curly hair
Bobbi Brown
DVR
Tim Gunn (and his guides to style)
Le Fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain
Babies
Cold milk
Pajamas


Good night... remember what you're thankful for

Blog tour

Kate's response to Erin's Culinary Blog Tour

Friday:

Breakfast at the Egg and I, Uptown location... just because I prefer the atmosphere. Bring your bike and hop on the greenway for a quick ride around the lakes.

Lunch at Kramarczuk's. Try the Ukranian borscht, and head over to St Anthony Main. Walk across the bridge, check out the Guthrie.

Chef's tasting menu with wine pairing for dinner at La Belle Vie. I find 8pm reservations best for a truely empty and hungry stomach

Saturday:

Brunch at The Red Stag Supper Club. I vote for the Chicken Fried Steak. Their inclusion of breakfast inspired amuse bouche gets me every time. They have strong delicious coffee, a great array of recovery drinks from your night before meal at La Belle Vie, and they're LEED certified. Loves it!

$2 apps-taps-and house wine at Figlios. Not my favorite place in town, but definitely my favorite happy hour (if only it weren't in uptown) you'll need something to sustain you before dinner.

Check out the Sculpture Garden, and then hop over to downtown St Paul. Grab a beer flight at the new Lowertown Bulldog

Dinner at I Nonni. This is some of the best authentic Italian food I've ever had outside of Italy, hands down. Get the Carpaccio, it will change your life.

Sunday:

Breakfast at Hell's Kitchen. You pretty much can't go wrong with ANYTHING you order, but try the caramel pecan roll and Mahnomin porridge for true Minnesota fare

On your way back to the airport do a Lightrail pub crawl. There are a LOT of options for this one, but I recommend The Cardinal Bar, and The Fort Snelling club at minimum. Then grab some Walleye in the Airport while waiting for your flight back to whence you came!

Steak bearnaise and allergies

Well, we made this last weekend (and by weekend, I mean Tuesday)


it was perfect. We got a 10oz filet to split between the two of us and made a cauliflower brussels sprout fennel gratin (we added fennel to this recipe because Rainbow didn't have the appropriate number of brussels sprouts for our already halved recipe. And I had to go to rainbow because we didn't plan accordingly enough to buy the stuff at Trader Joe's. The fennel was Kyle's idea... and a brilliant one at that. What a great man.)


And really, I think my picture of the gratin, (with or without fennel) is better than the one they have on the website. Um... maybe Gourmet should hire me to take pictures of their food? HINT HINT!

So back on good ole' Obama day... er, Election day Kyle and I drove down to LaCrosse to get our allergies checked out. We're both VERY sensitive people, and quite honestly, I hate that I get rashes, hives, and all other malady my body gives me on frequent and random occasions (I literally had a customer ask me if I had a hicky the other day... a hicky. I mean, seriously!)

Anyway, 20 pin pricks to the arm and a vile of blood later I am, in decending order of seriousness, allergic to:

Lobster
Crab
Shrimp
Dustmites
Cockroaches
Mice
Grass
Mussels (I am interpreting for this to include all mollusks)
Candida
Egg White
Wheat
Milk



In other words: Just fucking kill me already.

The good news is these are all supposedly treatable. I'm taking 6 doses of sublingual immunotherapy everyday. It tastes like glycerine, which is kinda gross.

I am not going to unincorporate wine (candida is yeast) eggs, wheat or milk from my life, but I do think it will be challenging for me to stop eating coachroaches and mice. Apparently these two creatures shed grossness in places like warehouses.... which oddly enough is where most Tr@der Joe's products are located. Awesome. That means I get exposure to things that make me sick every day that I am at work. And most old homes have history of rodents. Did I mention our house is 112 years old?

didn't hear it

Crash!

But i can certainly hear the helicopters.... in fact, I just kind of realized something must have happened because I kept hearing the helicopters. I have to go run errands and that's my route... maybe I'll be able to update you after the errand running.

Fate, I guess

Right when I got home from work (yes, work. Why Kate, didn't just yesterday you post saying today is the last wedding of the season? Yes, yes I did. And after that wedding I had to head to Tjoe's to work. I'd rather not talk about it) I looked up and this is what I saw. Good timing. I wouldn't have been coming home that hour if I hadn't gone to work, and I wouldn't have had my camera if I hadn't been shooting the wedding. I guess the uh... stars aligned for me on this one. If only I'd been motivated to grab my tri-pod.

A mere 10 days ago...

Remember this day?



It was the last day to hit about 50 this year. I'm certain we won't have another day like it until at least February. How very, very sad.

Leaves from a month ago...

Sigh. It's my last wedding of the season and it's gonna be collllllddd. Thoughts of warmer days

I just can't help myself

A little long, but worth it

Kate and Kyle: On Bikes

Theives

Well, I know I live in NE Minneapolis, and sometimes losing property comes with the territory, but I never thought anyone would take the one thing I actually trusted people not to take.

Someone stole my Obama sign.


They didn't take any of the other 7 signs on my block. Just mine.

:(

Olive oil bread

Another Kyle creation. Fortunately, while I don't have as much time to cook as I'd like, it doesn't take much time to take a couple of pictures. I did actually have a hand in making this though, as Kyle started it before he left for school, I had to kneed and form it a few times.

Hen: day two

Hens

I love taking pictures of food. Love it. I've been doing it with meals I've made since... well High School I guess. When my parents went out of town once, we had a whole week of ethnic food. All I remember are Mexican and Japanese, but I feel like we must have made more. Mexican was at JT's house, and I remember someone trying to make fresh guacamole out of non-ripe avocadoes in the food processer. It was gross. Japanese was at my house and we made sushi, miso, sesame cucumber salad and tempura, all things most other 18 year olds in 1999 would have thought were gross. I've never lost the love I gained for sesame cucumbers that night.





Those pink things are re-usable baking "twine" my parents gave Kyle for Christmas last year. They are TOTALLY awesome. I love kitchen gadgets.

yes, we can!

We did it!