My friend Becca (alias Lovely Lula) came for a visit this last week.
It is always a joy to have a visit at home with a friend. Bringing together friends and family always brings about some fun and adventure.
I introduced Midwestern Becca to my home town back East. We ate 'real' bagels and she remarked on the hilly landscape and the very tree-ish looks of things here.
We boated in Central Park and took a look at some wonderful turtles, and one odd bird.
We played the Ouija board and tried to determine our futures.
We made this picture of a clock.
All in all we had a spectacular, laid back time. I miss her again, already!
I spent a lovely day luxuriating in the summery weather with friends today. I have been biding my time lately in my apartment, dutifully packing like a droid until I have a compelling enough reason to allow myself a break from the box-filling. Today's reasons took up almost the whole day: First, I had to go out and get some dishwashing soap. Then, I just had to go out and see the new Modern Wing at the Art Institute. These things are necessities!
The walk over to the museum was sunny and cheerful, and I am happy to say the Wing itself did not disappoint, either. I couldn't take pictures, so I stole a few from the web.
I especially loved this view–
I was pleasantly reminded of the stairway in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (Cph, DK).
See the resemblance?
Of course, my inner conflict raged over most of the artwork. But, no matter; a lot of it was fairly stimulating. I do like Gerhard Richter, who had quite a few pieces displayed.
I also enjoyed the Giacometti sculptures (as always), some interesting architectural and design works, and some very large Cy Twombly paintings. However, my friends and I agreed that poor Twombly would do better to decline interviews; what quotes he had made him sound like a colossal idiot. Nonetheless, I love this particular peony painting:
It's a year of loving red, for me.
We ate lunch at the Intelligentsia over on Jackson, and let it be known that their panini sandwiches– fresh from Southport Grocery– are utterly perfect. I am still full from lunch. No joke. And all of this loveliness was topped off by a seasonably early-in-the-day gin and tonic, after which I handed off the remainder of my gin to these friends of mine, said some goodbyes, and proceeded to the packing.
Tonight's box themes? Sewing notions, books, plates and cooking tools, and my lovely set of eight white bowls, in eight of the most necessary sizes.
(To elaborate on that last point, these white bowls give me some kind of unnatural pleasure. I think they are perfect. They are by Gibson "White Elements" and I think everyone in the world should own them. So beautiful. And so nice to only have one of each size, when I am so used to having a set of everything. I never take these eight individuals for granted. They were the only things I enjoyed packing today. Lovingly nesting them in their original box, I really felt rich.)
After all of that, I am exhausted. Tomorrow's goals: managing to keep myself "zenned out" (as my Papa might say) enough not to stress over the boxes fitting in my car this weekend, and finishing most of the food in my fridge and cupboard. Wish me luck!
my brother came in for a whirlwind visit with seven of his buddies, and when they left they also left me a full pot of coffee, undrunk.
so, i saved it all day until i thought of something to do with it.
all of my online recipe searches only yielded the idea to freeze it into coffee cubes (cool, but not intellectually stimulating) or to add it to brownies or frosting. not my style--i don't really like either of those things.
i couldn't stop wondering what would happen if i made rice in coffee.
so i just did it. after i put the coffee and basmati rice i had around into a pot and started it going, i thought about whether i wanted something sweet or savory. after poking my finger in to taste some of the coffee rice, i decided it would be very tasty in a strange stir fry, but that i wasn't in the mood. (i already knew that whatever i was eating for dinner needed to be tasty with my leftover vodka sauce.) i moved on to sweet.
i googled 'basmati rice pudding' until i found a recipe that interested me. i modified it to come up with this: and it's DELICIOUS.
(modified from the recipe for Basmati Rice Pudding in Totally Vegetarian by Toni Flore)
SERVINGS 4 to 6
INGREDIENTS
2 cups leftover coffee 1 cup white basmati rice 4 1/2 cups milk (i drink 2%) 1/2 cup sugar 2 tbsp. flour 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
PREPARATION
1. Combine coffee and rice and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over very low heat 8 to 9 minutes, until most of the coffee is absorbed. Check and stir to avoid stuck rice, which will burn at the bottom of the pot.
2. Add 4 cups milk and the sugar. Continue cooking, now on low heat, for an additional 20 to 25 minutes, OR until the rice is soft and most of the milk absorbed. Remove the rice from the heat.
3. Pour 1/4 cup of the remaining milk into a bowl and whisk in the flour to dissolve. Add the vanilla extract. Add remaining milk and add to the pudding. Serve warm or at room temperature, or even after refrigerating.
delicious. and not too unhealthy.
and the rest of the coffee? in my ice cube tray. :)
i am going to be taking a short hiatus from the internet--having a little holiday with my family this coming weekend!
i thought i would leave off with something fun... a prime exhibit of the monsters-eating-other-monsters game*, a relic of a lovely coffee shop talk with my friend yana. (the more beautiful monsters are hers--a fabulous artist is she.)
hope you have a monstrously fun weekend!!!
-papermoon
* do other people play this game? i know i have at least been playing it since i went to RISD's summer program back in the day...
warning: i don't think i have ever put so many links in one post in my whole life.
hi all!
yesterday didn't allow me to blog-- i had to work on printing out a lot of work, which always leaves me in a pickle--you have to watch and tweak and adjust print settings when you are printing graphics (on nice papers) so it doesn't leave much ability to multi-task. i settled for 7 episodes of little house. i ate a lot of food, too.
in any case, as promised, i am going to get myself caught up and briefly detail leigh's visit.
leigh arrived fresh on the tail of my san fran visit, so she had a real view of my apartment: no fancy clean up job. we started off the early day with a trip over to have some brunch at my favorite little place (maybe my only favorite place?) in streeterville: the cute little café that hugs the ridiculously lovely peninsula hotel. of course, we took a little jaunt through the main floor of that decadent hotel, first. and pretended that we already owned all the fur and diamonds in the little windowboxes in the lobby. the concierge smirked at us. pierrot gourmet (as that cute little café is called) is so calm-- i really like it there. i have a lot of important memories there, in fact: my mother and i sharing a sandwich a while back when she made a visit, while i was still in college... lunch with my whole family the day before my graduation... a sad conversation i had over the phone this fall... and now i have a new memory! brunch with a dear friend of mine. :)
we followed this deliciousness up with a walk down michigan, so she could experience the magnificent mile for the first time. we hit up all the glamorous stores... H&M, Forever XXI...you know the kind. big spending. that night i made rice casserole, which is a highly delicious and very affordable food item... leigh has since made one for sister, i hear. (i will share that recipe in a post to follow.)
we topped it all off with cookies, tea, and watching our long time favorite special--'living dolls'--on youtube. it details the life of some child beauty pageant contestants, namely one Swan Brooner and her TERRIBLE mother, and nothing tops it. i recommend it highly, for the sake of this alone:
the time the two of us have wasted in pursuing this trashy documentary... it's appalling.
the next day was meant for evanston! we took the shuttle after a slow morning and got lunch with a friend of mine who happened to be free, enjoying the deliciousness of unicorn cafe, as a little peek for leigh into my college days. mmmm.... the windfall sandwich. we were so cold that we really elongated that meal--tacking on an amazing cookie. then we hopped across the street to look in at what asinimali and crossroads trading inc. had to offer. (in my case, they had an $8 banana republic sweater wrap and a $7 striped club monaco shirt to offer.) then we got a shuttle home, with plans to make some chicken stir fry.
funnily enough, we ended up being far too lazy to cook! maybe the sandwiches at unicorn are just very filling. we had a bloody mary (how crazy of us!) and some snack foods, and basically played scrabble all night instead of being normal, dinner eating people. very fun. :)
thursday was one of the museum of science and industry's free days, so we hopped into a cab and spent the day playing there. we even saw an IMAX movie about the marine life of south africa. so pretty! and we had a lot of fun with all the exhibits. i especially liked one exhibit about the internet... leigh caught me "swimming through the internet". it's a very special look for me, wouldn't you agree?
that night we had plans to meet up with leigh's uncle who lives in river north. funnily enough, i got us lost because i didn't pay attention to cardinal directions. no matter. we weren't late enough to make it problematic, and we had plenty of time to enjoy her uncle's company/beautiful apartment/delicious h'ors d'ouvres. mmmm spinach artichoke dip. he then treated us to a lovely little dinner at the exceedingly quaint la scarola. i had eggplant parmesan.
we hit the sack early because i was set to teach at galaxie the next morning. i deviated from my norm and taught a simple course this time-- 'secret stories'. i taught the basics of book folding, to enthusiastic reception. i had mostly repeat kids and a small group, so i basically got paid to chat up some nice, smart kids. they had great book ideas, too--my favorite was a girl's book--entitled 'where is the love'-- that had pictures of hearts, kissing couples, and head-over-heels-in-love faces, all of which were followed by the word "EW!!!!" hahahaha. kids are hilarious.
i came home to leigh, who having just woken up, sympathized with my comment that i was STARVING. we cooked up the neglected stir fry and enjoyed it while watching a special on scandalous pageant queens. (can i please remind everyone that is was record level freezing last week? and that i don't usually drain my brain watching people strut around in spangles?) is it bad that i can't remember what we did afterwards? what i do know is that we made tacos for dinner. and they were amazing. and this is coming from a woman who honestly could go without ground beef for the rest of her life. amazing.
saturday was lovely... we had brunch at ann sathers at my suggestion with some of leigh's friends from gwu who live around here now. (they were great fun and i hope to hang out with them again!) it was long and delicious and i had too much coffee. we followed that up with the art institute--happy hooray. i blew leigh's mind with my ranting on about contemporary art (haha) until it was nearly closing time and time for us to go home and nosh on leftovers.
which we did. a lovely combination of stir fry and italian food with some two buck chuck. (yay trader joe's.) then we headed out to hang out with the same girls we had brunch with, which was an EXCELLENT time, spent at their very homey apartment and then at fado irish pub. i sincerely enjoyed myself, partly due to the STRANGEST band ever. we could not stop laughing.
sunday was lazy! we took our time. leigh had moved her tuesday flight to monday due to weather warnings, so we just enjoyed eachother's company for most of the day, before heading off to Mass (sad! my last Mass at Holy Name for a while--there was a fire yesterday!!!) and then out to dinner. we decided to forfeit the superbowl purely so we could have more time for conversation. we had a nice dinner at bistro zinc. another place i have a lot of emotional attachment with. the food was great, the company even better.
we browsed children's books across the street at barnes & noble for a while, and then left, having bought bananagrams--my favorite game of the moment. we played into the night, and i dreaded leigh's departure the next morning!
now she's home in nj and i miss her-but what a week it was!
and as if i couldn't get any luckier with seeing friends... weekend anna is headed out here for valentine's day!!!! just when i thought i was going to have hide in a cave for the whole holiday. i love anna.
isn't that a nice name? becca should name her first daughter that. and her daughter can live on breakfast delights. i for one will send miss rebecca some pancakes instead of flowers when she gives birth to her little lulabecca.
i should explain.
my friend becca and i always go to brunch. it's just what we do. if we are hanging out, brunching is likely to be the thing. it's very fun, and we have very serious patterns. becca orders a savory sandwich, often with something like avocado or chipotle sauce involved, and i pretend to be debating what to order until i get a LOT of coffee and the most immature pancake-like sweet thing on the menu. i usually bring my own benefiber to dump into the drinking water. clever. classy.
today we did something new: LUNCH. it was highly spur of the moment and i think we were both amused that it even came together. we'd both gotten up early and had a good portion of coffee, and i think we both must have been struck by how sunny it was outside. becca texted me right when i was about to melt away and do nothing for hours and not shower at all. (secret: i still didn't shower.) so it was good timing. i threw on some clothes and cleaned up my room before i left for her location of choice: lula cafe in logan square.
it was very chi chi!
but not that expensive, relatively speaking. the decor was simple, done in sage green and burgundy, and we both liked the simple photography and prints on the walls. our table was on a slightly raised platform (think kafein in evanston) and it was made of slate grey marble. the waiters were very coiffed and the company of diners were older than us and a bit art history department looking. the whole bit is organic and quite local and sustainable, which is nice to have in a restaraunt.
i got a BLT (i love bacon oh i do) and becca had a nice grilled up sprouty turkey sandwich. we chatted in the sunlight and then wandered off to our days. i for one didn't accomplish much, but i felt more structured because i left the apartment.
good times.
tomorrow i will post with some backtracking, considering i left off on san francisco after day one. yipe!
the seventeenth thing i am thankful for: brunch. (and becca.)
since i am back on track with making sure to cram my day full of activity, to avoid moping behavior, i had the brilliant thought to contact a dear 'art buddy' who always makes a delightful brunching partner. we chatted about all the various subjects and it was quite lovely.
plus, i got to hit up a spot i have been waiting to try for years: orange, on belmont and clark. i had the 'jelly donut pancakes' purely because of the fun name, and they were decadent and gratifying. we stuck it out for almost 2 hours! very nice. the coffee was good, and it tasted like oranges. it took me a while to notice. and i didn't even make the 'orange' connection until right about now. haha. how funny. we both had excellent fresh squeezed juice (i had apple/carrot/ginger) and i got some bacon! i love bacon. i can't believe i used to hate it.
now i'm in my old college coffee shop, catching up on various internet duties and drinking an almond italian soda. i got a lot of evanston errands done today, some involving holiday and birthday crafting materials...very exciting stuff. i look like i have set up a little nest here in the unicorn cafe, what with my enormous jacket and mutliple cloth bags and my ubiquitious eighteen layers of clothing in various places on the chairs.
ok, i know that extremely recently i said noble tree was my favorite chicago coffee spot, but today i am almost reconsidering. i have been to metropolis before, but today, i like it more than i ever have. i think this slice of pumpkin pie is creating a powerful bias.
the bad coloring of this bad photo does not do it justice.. the pumpkin part is having an awesome effect on my brain: one bite: THANKSGIVING, two bite: CHRISTMAS, three bite: FIRST DAY OF FIFTH GRADE, etc. etc. it is an olfactory/taste trip down memory avenue. (like the way i avoid clichés? new clichés!) the crust is RIDICULOUS. it tastes like a glass of buttermilk. its crunchy and not greasy. it is terrible for me. i am so happy.
plus, i have been trying to detox because my coffee consumption is legitimately out of control, and i am thus trying out an AWESOME tea. it's ginger lime rooibos. i have already had two and a half cups of coffee today, so i guess i'm not really cutting down. but still. this tea is a start and it's gooood. now i am going to do a ton of excel work, while listening to fallish, girly, slightly-feeling-sorry-for-oneself folk music.
nice. very nice.
oh, and some nice people made me feel very good about myself this morning by writing me nice facebook comments. you give me more credit than deserved for fairness, but hey, i'll take it! :)
a president is picked, a race is over, my all day skype fest is done. (cassie, sb, weekend anna all get a shout-out.) i even got my free voter's starbucks coffee... even though i don't like their coffee. i like free things, though.
i really felt like i got to go home today, and my family really helped what i thought would be a distressing day turn into one of my favorites so far since moving downtown. it was nice to eat dinner alone...with so many other people!
my scarf is really coming along.
tomorrow?
a slightly less early wake up time, yoga, noble tree and lots of research, and preparations for my brother's one day visit... not via cyberspace, but physically coming out here to chicago. excitement. and then i'll be off for a wedding break in omaha!
so, after a nice relaxing trip back east, i am back to the grind. not that it's much of a grind, without a job.
in any case, i thought i'd check in and report on a very good coffee shop i am finally camping out in, after months of encouragement from some reputable sources. i took the 146 bus and was immediately glad for the trip. the rain managed to wait for me to get in and settle down with some freshly baked goodies and lots of coffee, so i didn't get soaked on the way and now i get to enjoy the hygglelig coziness of nesting here with my 'work', watching raindrops.
the place is nice, the espresso machine isn't annoyingly loud, and the soundtrack is actually good. not too classical (ahem, peet's), but not too insistently hipster, either. and the volume is good (ahem, unicorn... blaringly loud world music, anyone?)
plus, crazily enough, a friend i thought had moved to alaska popped in for some tea! what nice chance.
so, that's about all i have to say for now. later i will post a picture of some of the poodle-skirt work i did at home with my sister, for halloween, and if i get it done, some evidence of some renovations i'm doing on a pair of corduroys i found among my highschool relics at home. i have been dreaming of skinny brown cords for some time and i'm really psyched!
here' s my little setup, courtesy of my cellphone:
