Life and Soba Noodles

Life. Oh man. So crazy!

In the last 4 months I:

Moved
Went to Alaska (hey there bears)
Quit my job
Went to Europe (hey there gelato)
Started an awesome new job

So, yeah. Life! Crazy indeed.

I'm not busy-complaining. (<< Read that!) I am one lucky lady and I know it. Just... makin' excuses for neglecting the blog.

(Seriously, how do you ladies with children and jobs and husbands and pets do this? I bow down. My plant died yesterday, I am hopeless.)

I am DETERMINED to write about Europe because it was beyond awesome and I want a written record of all of the fun details... but until then, I present you with...

A HEALTHY RECIPE.

Lame? Totally, I know. But guys, I gained 5 pounds in Europe, and I can't even call it vacation weight anymore. I made my brother pretzel crust brownies the other day. Then I had to physically drag myself downstairs to give the extras I couldn't fit in the box to the doorman so the little Italian fat kid that now lives inside me wouldn't win and eat them all at once.

So yep, we're getting vegan here.

But I promise, it's good too!

Soba Noodle Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing

Spicy Peanut Dressing

Make this first to marinate for a bit while you're chopping and boiling, and make it to taste! Here's how I did it, but make it spicier/saltier/sweeter to your own preferences. Whisk these ingredients together with a fork until its very smooth, like the consistency of salad dressing:

• 1/2 C peanut butter
• 1/4 C rice wine vinegar
• 2 Tb toasted sesame oil
• 3 Tb reduced sodium soy sauce
• 2 Tb sriracha sauce
• 2 Tb honey
• 1 Tb warm water

Noodles and Vegetable Salad

• 1 cucumber
• 1 red pepper
• 1 orange pepper
• 4 C spinach (roughly!)
• 4 stalks green onion (again... roughly!)
• 1 8 oz package of soba noodles*
• pinch of sesame seeds

1. Wash your veggies! 
2. Julienne cucumber, red and yellow peppers 
3. Dice green onions (the green AND white parts) into very small pieces
4. Put all of your spinach into a colander over the sink
5. Cook your soba noodles - boil them for about 3 minutes and then pour them over the spinach in the colander to flash steam/boil the spinach
6. Shake the spinach and noodles to get rid of all excess water, and then refrigerate for 30 minutes or so until the noodles and spinach are relatively cool
7. Add the chopped vegetables and spicy peanut dressing to the bowl of noodles and spinach and mix everything up really well to combine
8. Sprinkle with sesame seeds (totally unnecessary, just fun!) and enjoy!

*Soba noodles sound really exotic but aren't that hard to find or love. You'll probably find them with the other Asian foods in your local grocery store... I got mine at Dominick's! They're noodles made out of buckwheat flour -- lots of protein, whole grain and a really great nutty flavor. 

Northern Lights Over Teepees in Yellowknife, Canada

I cannot even begin to make sense of the tragedy in Sandy Hook. But really, who will ever be able to do that? I can't stop reading the news, looking at photos, trying to understand. These are heartbreaking days, and my thoughts and prayers are constantly with the families of the 28 that we lost in a senseless act of violence.

My blog-friend Sean wrote this great post with a reminder to reach out to those who might be silently suffering, who might need a little human connection. It just has to stop going this far.

My grandfather sent me these photos in an email this morning. When I saw them, I wondered how something like this could be of the same planet that we live on today.

This blog is typically about lighter things -- food, fun, etc. so this is a bit random, I know, but I thought that the most productive thing I could contribute today would be something this astonishingly, radiantly beautiful.

(I searched for a while to try to find the original source of the images from the email. I am fairly certain they're from Aurora Village, the company that sets up these teepee viewings.)

 

Loving London

As expected, I am totally in love with this city. It’s absolutely stunning – soaring modern architecture against castles and huge expanses of parks. It doesn’t hurt that the weather has been insanely perfect the whole time I’ve been here. There have been a few showers but on the whole, it’s been crisp, sunny fall weather; the perfect backdrop for exploring!

A few things:

• I’ve found it less expensive than I anticipated. I am obviously very lucky to be travelling for work and I do imagine that renting a flat or hotel room would be extremely expensive here; similar to New York, space is at an absolute premium. However, I’ve found that there’s a huge range of both costs and choices when choosing food and shopping -- yes, it would be easy to go crazy and spend a ton, but it’s definitely not impossible to keep it under control, either!


• I’ve noticed a lot of Londoners reading while walking and even reading while running. To borrow a phrase from my new British friends, "wonderful and weird."


• England’s bad rap for their food and cooking is totally undeserved -- I have eaten a ton of great food in my time here. Indian, tapas, pastries, yum. There is a HUGE food culture here too, beyond just the restaurant scene. I went to Borough Market, the city’s biggest and most notable on Saturday and was so glad I did (best “toasted cheese” aka “grilled cheese” OF MY LIFE!!) but that was honestly choosing one from a list of many, many Saturday food markets. I’ll be back for more, London!


• On the toasted-cheese/pastries note… thank goodness London is an incredibly safe and therefore incredibly walkable city. I’ve walked to and from work every day and did a ton of exploring this weekend, walking literally everywhere. It’s not on any type of grid so I’ve relied fairly heavily on Google maps, but thanks to the River, I’ve started to be better able to orient myself when out and about and do feel that I am getting the hang of it!

Dumb American in London moments:

• The River Thames is pronounced “Temms” – please, kill me. No one corrected me for like a week.


• Though my head knows that I should look right first to check for cars coming when crossing the street, it has proven nearly impossible to reverse 28 years of left-right-left checking and I look like a total weirdo at every street corner, shaking my head back and forth at least 10 times. It’s habit fighting logic and I’m just a mess.


• Speaking of things being on opposite sides of what I’m used to, the escalators are also reversed so I have tried to go up the down escalator twice.


• I cannot work my microwave to save my life. I’m not sure if this is a cultural difference or because I’m staying in a high-efficiency green building. Either way, I definitely ate cold curry for dinner tonight.

Apologies for the short (and week late post!) but I've been trying to see and do as much as I can in the non-working hours and am therefore finding myself totally exhausted every night! In tonight's case, I had a stressful (sarcasm) day of tapas, the Tower of London and cold curry... also, Downton Abbey’s on soon and that is serious business here. :)

Cheers from London!



I've been fighting with my wireless here but will be posting lots of pictures when I get home!

NYC in Pictures

One week later, I'm finally ready to wear heels again, the extreme bloating from Cuban food/rose/halal cart/bagels/more rose/the BEST DINNER EVER at Bell Book & Candle/vodka sodas/late night pizza/mimosamimosamimosas has gone down, and I'm safely above water on the work front.

Totally. Worth. It.

I am so very sad it's over.

I am finally posting my pictures from last weekend! Three things I'd like to call out:

1. I should have taken many, many more photos, and preferably with a real camera.

2. It was three thousand degrees and nine million percent humidity - so I have a whopping two pictures that I allowed myself in and only one with Shai, which is particularly sad.

3. If you're looking for a real peak into NYFW, I'm going to point you over to DrunkOnShoes just as soooon as she gets her pictures up. She'll do it much more justice.  She really experienced NYFW as you'd imagine it - the shows, the celebs, etc.

So enjoy, in no particular order. Click to enlarge!

[gallery orderby="rand"]

Randolph Street Market

I think I comfortably speak for both of us when I say that the Randolph Street Market far surpassed our best expectations.  Though it was quite a trek (trains, planes and automobiles…no joke) and possibly one of the hotter days of the year, we spent hours perusing the incredibly diverse stalls and pressing our eager little noses against cases of vintage Chanel and crocodile Temporis watches.  We made a few fun purchases, avoided the luring temptation of crystal chandeliers and walked home happy.  We’re already looking forward to next month.

Monday Motivation

Cityscapes

Heat Wave

Sorry we've been blacking this week.

Oh, what do I mean by that?

Blog slacking, obviously.

I've been really weird about combining words lately. Someone threw two noodles into the lake over the Fourth at Lake Geneva and I screamed, "twodles!" Ali wasted no time informing me that was prettyyyyyyyy lame. I'm pretty sure the heat is getting to me. It recently occurred to me that our world right now is as hot as a Bikram yoga studio, and I don't even like hot yoga!

I know complaining about the heat wave is lame and I've already done it like 16 times, but seriously, all we can do is eat cold food and practice dolphin flips in the pool.

So, today we're heading to Oak Street Beach for a change of scenery. I know you east and west coasters probably think we're nuts going to a lake and calling it The Beach like its Cabo San Lucas, but seriously, Chicago's beaches are incredibly beautiful.

Yep, we import palm trees. Via this great photo gallery.

I stumbled upon this awesome photo gallery from the Chicago Tribune archives when searching for photos to prove it to you. Pretty cool (and maybe a little humbling) to realize that my fellow Chicago residents have been doing the exact same thing Ali and I will be doing today to beat the heat for pretty much ever... just with a lot more Playboy.

Blowing Bubbles

Don't you miss blowing bubbles?

Oh, Weekend.

You are so elusive. You come, you go; you're here, you're not...

Frankly, you're heartbreaking.

But...

You were great while you lasted.

See you soon!

A Blessed Union

So... remember how I mentioned in last week's Humpday Headlines how much I LOVE sharing great things with anyone who will listen? Well, this week everyone within earshot has fallen victim to this annoying character flaw of mine except seriously, this time I'm doing them a huge favor. This is not an article I'm indignant over or some random Diddy meme. (That's coming later, if you're anxiously awaiting my Humpday Headlines.) And now, I do the same for you :)

My friend Anna and I finally, finally tried Union Sushi + BBQ this weekend, and I cannot say enough good things about the experience. I'll try my best, though, you know... since you asked.

There is absolutely nothing like this in Chicago, and for a city that prides itself on lots of restaurants... sometimes it feels more like there's a lot of the same restaurants, you know? (See: Steakhouses) Not Union. The ambiance is insane. Huge graphic murals on the walls, metal mesh netting fixtures hanging from the ceiling and the absolute perfect volume of good music. I'd heard great things, and I was definitely not let down when I walked in the door.

[caption id="attachment_1154" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="Graffiti Wall at Union Sushi + BBQ"][/caption]

From the second they answered the phone to try to accommodate my annoying same-day reservation, there was zero attitude. All of the cool factor, the clout they have right now - none of that came through in their service. Friendly without being phony, cheerful without being annoying, so attentive without being pushy. It was a packed house and the sushi rolls were flying down the line but each one was executed with ridiculous precision, came out looking gorgeous and somehow the chefs and waitstaff did this while chatting with all of the customers, smiling and recommending drinks. Its like everyone that worked there LOVED there job. Novel concept! Even if the food was awful, I'd go back just to hang out and have drinks.

[caption id="attachment_1155" align="alignnone" width="383" caption="Skinny Geishas and Edamame"][/caption]

Speaking of the drinks! They posted the calorie counts of a few of them on the menu, which... how nice, right? I generally forgo the interesting cocktails because while I like to try fun drinks, I feel like if I'm going to have an awesome dinner, I can at least take it easy on the sugary drinks. We tried the Skinny Geisha per the recommendation of our waitress and were not disappointed; Citrus vodka, Hum liquor, Fresca and Yuzu at only 98 calories! The edamame came out as soon as we were seated, perfectly warm and with a light sprinkle of garlic. Now... yes, I could eat garlic on a PB&J sandwich so I may be the teeniest bit biased but I swear it was such a surprisingly great twist on the classic.

[caption id="attachment_1156" align="alignnone" width="383" caption="Mushroom Salad"][/caption]

I started with the mushroom salad: shiitake, oyster mushroom, baby arugula, tomato, onion, pickled onion, garlic-soy vinaigrette. Simple enough, but the crispy fried mushrooms were perfection with the spicy arugula... and the vinaigrette was just ridiculously good. If sushi restaurants had bread baskets, I would have soaked up every drop of that dressing. Instead, I just pushed it around sadly with my chopsticks after every bit of the salad was gone.

[caption id="attachment_1157" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="Sushi Rolls and Entrees"][/caption]

Huge stroke of brilliance: half rolls as an option for all of their sushi. THANK YOU, Union. Sushi is filling and since we knew we wanted to try food from the grill too, it was the perfect way to have our cake and eat it too. We went with the Hokkaido and the Chesapeake Bay, both on the recommendations of our new bestie, the waitress. While we loved both, I'm pretty sure I had a dream about my Chesapeake Bay roll last night. Fried oyster, black rice, red tobiko, green onion, avocado, garlic aoli+ wrapped in collard green. I never again want sushi with white rice or without being wrapped in collard greens.

I chose the Berkshire pork shoulder with mushrooms for my entree and it was fantastic, too. The smoky flavor from their 600 degree robata grill and the sweet coconut peanut sauce... I was genuinely depressed when it was over. I cried a little. Our entrees were off the Restaurant Week menu but they typically do the meats in skewers instead of the larger, more traditional entree-sized portions, which I think would actually be even better because duh - more food! More options, anyway. :)

Ice Cream Flight

Since I was a proud member of the Clean Platers Club for all of the above, I needed dessert like I needed a hole in my head. But hey, it came with the Restaurant Week deal and I'm not one to turn down a deal! We went simple with the ice cream flight - vanilla, red bean and green tea. I've had a long love affair with red bean ice cream so this was another huge win and fairy tale ending to a very happy dining experience.

Whew. So that's it. We had later plans so we couldn't stay to continue the fun upstairs in the cocktail lounge, but that is for sure an upcoming girls night. We left full, happily buzzed on Skinny Geishas and with huge smiles after such a great experience. At this point, I realize I sound like I was either paid by or am sleeping with someone that works there, but I swear - its just that good and I don't want to selfishly keep this discovery to myself! Go, bring friends, bring a date, do whatever you need to do, but just get there soon.

>>View their menu, happy hour specials (!!!), location, etc. here, which is obviously where I got all of the detailed menu descriptions - blame the Skinny Geisha.