Easter Trip to DC (Recap)

I spent my Easter weekend in DC with my cousin Cheryl this year. She's the amazing food genius behind The Neurotic Baker blog. I have the pleasure of helping her with a few of her creations and being the live-in taste tester for a weekend. I swear I almost moved in with her after she made the vanilla whoopie pies below. Enjoy the recap...

Brunch at DGS Delicatessen... The Potato Latkes and Crispy Pastrami were TO DIE FOR. The bottom pic is the DGS Reuben, which was good, but I wished I had ordered the pastrami sandwich because I just couldn't get enough of it!

Then we took a trip to Horace and Dickies... after seeing a line down the street everytime we passed by this Man vs Food approved spot, we couldn't take it anymore. The fish was AWESOME and the "atmosphere" was as memorable as they come. We took our "sandwich" - four filets and 2 pieces of white bread - and camped out next door at the Hookah lounge's outdoor seating area.

H & Pizza was my first DC meal, and the pizza I chose was the Farmer's Daughter. The egg yolk was a great touch!

FARMER'S DAUGHTER -

Spicy Tomato, Housemade Mozzarella, Hot Sausage,

Farm Eggs, Spinach, Parmesan Reggiano, Red Pepper Chili Oil

Breakfast at The Diner was prety good... except the "grits". They called it grits on the menu but it was weird, thick grains, and super creamy. The creamy part was fine but the big grains was a little awkward. Either way, the food was overall pretty good. We tried to get mimosas, but the waiter reminded us that it was only 8:30 AM and drinks don't start until 10. Hey. I was on vacation! No judgement.

A couple of scenic shots from the city and the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial that I finally got to visit at the National Mall!

My cousin Cheryl is also the MASTERMIND behind Edith and Ethel - home of the most AWESOME oatmeal raisin cookies in the world!! Her blog http://neuroticbaker.com/ is where I now go for most of my "impress your man" recipes... so far its working too! LOL! We spent most of the day on Sunday baking - whoopie pies, cupcakes, a cake, oatmeal raisin cookies... it was a post-Lent dream!! Everything was tasty but my favorite, hands down, were the Vanilla Whoopie Pies with rhubard filling or lemon-ginger filling.

Waiting for Spring...

The weather is warming up!!! I'm so excited to break out my Spring investment piece - this adorable City Nylon Rain Coat from Cole Haan! I was lucky enough to find it during the huge sale this month so I saved a lot of money on it!!

http://www.colehaan.com/colehaan/catalog/product.jsp?catId=100&productId=741574&productGroup=741573

Sent from my BlackBerry®

Skype offers free airport WiFi for the holidays | TG Daily

Skype offers free airport WiFi for the holidays | TG Daily



I absolutely LOVE free wi-fi deals around the holidays so this is very cool for me, especially since part of my holiday will be spent in an airport! Last year, Google made a similar (but even better) offer for free wi-fi that included in-flight connections. on AirTran, Delta and Virgin American. That was the greatest!

Guy on D train - Random Mobile Pic

This guy spent the whole ride sniffing little bottles he kept pulling out of his bag, about 5 minutes per bottle... I wanted to ask what he was sniffing, but figures I wouldn't disturb his flow. 

Christmas Wish List 2010

Yes people, its that time again… all the things I want but won’t get this Christmas. You know the drill and if not, you can check years 2006 and 2008. So here goes….

For this years Work Holiday Party, it would be great to show up in something as un-engineer-like as possible… you know, really cater to my inner fashionista. The Sunbird silk-gazar dress by ROKSANDA ILINCIC is something I would never get up the courage to buy, but can easily imagine myself walking into a crowded room draped in it. The fluorescent yellow is very unexpected. I love it.

For the vacationing girls’ night out, we usually tend to relive our college days through our attire, and this Jenny stretch-cotton mini dress dress by Preen Line is the perfect balance of the “young me” and the classy grown up me. My girls would love it.

This year I because a fan of TOUS jewelry, especially the teddy bears pendants. While I like many of the options available, I definitely have to include the black diamond Bubble Bear pendant on my wish list!

After my canopy zip-line experience in Mexico, I’m ready to take it a step further and hit the rainforest in Coast Rica. The Rincon de La Vieja Adventure  is right up my alley… of course, that includes getting to Costa Rica, which is a minor major obstacle.

 

In one of the recent episodes of Giuliana and Bill (one of my fav reality couples) Bill went to Martin Katz to buy Giuliana a nice band… it was gorgeous and inspired me to check out the website. Turns out they have a huge collection of stackable diamond microbands. I’d love a few of these in various colors…. and maybe a couple in the black diamond to match my TOUS bubble bear!

My current HP laptop is holding out very well, but like any gadget geek, I am always ready to upgrade. The new HP ENVY 15 laptop is right up my alley! The HP store only shows the 14 inch (too small) and the 17 inch (a little on the heavy side) so I’m not even sure if the 15” is still an option… but for the right features (i.e. Beats by Dr Dre limited edition 14” or the 3D enhanced 17") I’d be willing to settle in either direction.

 

For years I’ve said I would love to take cooking classes. Ideally I’d like to take a few months worth of classes in Italy, Spain and/or Mexico!!!!! But until then, the good ol Chicago Metro Area will work just fine. Rest assured, I will still keep my eye open for the specials that occasionally pop up on Jetsetter.com…. and hopefully I’ll no longer be scared of turkeys (see pic below from Thanksgiving 2008). The Chopping Block

Flav’our Cooking School

Chez Madelaine

Cooking Fools

For about 5 years now I have been obsessed with this gold Roberto Cavalli snake watch. It has seemingly NEVER gone on sale (yes, I check a few times each year) but someday I may have to just go for it. I can already picture it on my wrist….

…and while we’re talking watches, the new Movado Bold watches are a great fun take on the classic style! I love the black and white styles equally!

While in Nassau recently, I caught a glimpse of the “Mad Summer” yacht, docked near the cruise ships. I don’t really need a yacht of my own, but I’d love a year, or even a week, on this one – with my family along, of course! See it in all its glory here: http://www.moranyachts.com/Article/?ID=69

Saving the best wish for last…

…my greatest wish would be the health and safety of all of my loved ones as we go into 2011!

A break from real life…

This fall I had the chance, TWICE, to get away from the work world for a few days and enjoy some sun, water, warm weather and good food! I will spare you to hundreds of photos and share a few that stand out from each trip. Up first – My stepmom planned a girls’ trip to Nassau… The islands were not ready, heck, neither was I?? See below for my photo headings and pictures… 

Dinner on Night #1 was at Twin Brothers (recommended by a LOT of the locals we talked to) included conch salad (being prepared in the center photo below) along with cracked lobster (MY FAV), cracked shrimp, rice and peas, and plantains.

We found a bar that was having a Karaoke night so my cousin and I did a world class performance of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”.

Me hanging out with the captain of the Booze Cruise… The girls were lining up to take pictures with this guy… and  will say, he was pretty HOT!

Our booze cruise advertised a portion of the day spent on a" “secluded island”… which was actually a small, deserted, dangerous, rocky piece of land. One of the highlights was the starfish in the pic…. I was so fascinated by it. The semi-shelter in the second pic became a prop for a few folks who decided it was a great place for some drunken, not-so-sexy photo shoots… pure comedy!

We stayed at the world class Atlantis resort…. In the center of the pic on the left you can see an archway which contains the “Bridge Suite” also referred to as the “Michael Jackson Suite”. All yours for somewhere between $25,000-$34,000 per night (4 night minimum). We would have stayed there but it wasn’t available the week we were there

We had a great time!!!

For the item of the day, I saw this BCBG RUNWAY GEOMETRIC WRAP DRESS in Macy’s the other day. Its not on sale in the store (Orig. $348), but it is discounted at BCBG.com ($208.80). Its absolutely BEAUTIFUL and the flowy silk is extremely soft!!! I love the belt shown in the runway pic below, although it is sold separately.

Chicago Food… on the other blog

Great times at Zocalo, Café Iberico and La Fonda del Gusto this weekend! Rather than posting twice, I’ll just direct you to ChiLanta Foodies where you can check out the pics and review….

http://chilantafoodies.blogspot.com/

Also check out my previous post on “A Taste of Brazil” in Oak Park, IL.

Girls Trip to Orlando

Anyone who has followed this blog knows I absolutely LOVE my girlfriends and even more I LOVE to travel with them!!! Last month 9 of my lovely line sisters and soror-friends decided to terrorize the city of Orlando like no other girls can do! We got an awesome deal from Thursday-Sunday at the Mystic Dunes Resort in Kissimmee/Celebration, FL area. For the 9 of us, we rented the Three Bedroom Lockoff with gave us a 3-bed, 3-bath, 2-kitchen space with lots of room and a great balcony. The rates were VERY affordable and when split among the group we spent nearly half of the cost we paid for admission to Universal Studios! We also rented 2 cars for the weekend which was a great idea that provided for plenty of flexibility for the group. (Although in this pic below I was sitting on the floor of the backseat because an extra person jumped in the "mall" car at the last minute and there wasn't enough space for 6 in a Ford Focus! Long - and funny - story short, it was NOT a comfortable ride!!!)

While some of the girls ventured to Cocoa Beach (it was still a bit too chilly for me) the second car spent the WHOLE day at the outlet malls! I am OBSESSED with Orlando's Premium and Prime outlet malls and found so many great items and great deals. I brought Rob back a couple of shirts from the Thomas PINK outlet store (priced at $59 each, versus the normal $180+) and grabbed myself a new pair of black and white Pumas to replace the ones I've had for about 5 years by now. I saw many other great deals and was a little upset that I didn't snatch up the gray Chelsea skinny jeans at the Joe's Jeans outlet store or the blue fitted blazer at Off Fifth.

All in all, we had a great time!!! There is nothing like getting away to celebrate with good friends. Check out some of our fun times:

Fresh off the plane and in an alley somewhere trying to find trouble...

It was 2AM and we were looking for something to get into

The guys at Panchero's moved the tables so we could have a dance competition

The BEST pop in the world - The Coke in the bottle from Mexico made with SUGAR and not that high fructose stuff

Trying out the pedicab at Universal Studios

Peer Pressure - Emily trying to convince Candice to ride one of the rides

Head to head Dance Dance Revolution competition!

Posing for the camera right before Kiana KILLED me at Guitar Hero in the arcade... it was my first time playing but it was fun!

I went to the doghouse looking for Bobby but he wasn't there so I was sad...

Cap'n Joe from Big Toho Airboat Tours - our tour guide on the alligator swamp ride. He stopped in the middle of the swamp to collect payment and he had a credit card machine in his pocket... just in case. LOL

Gator coming towards us and the front row huddling and screaming!

The family gator, we all got to take pics with him... he was pretty nice!

The trip ended with a FUN and FILLING dinner at Benihana followed by what else???? A SLEEPOVER!!! LOL!!! 

What a weekend!!!!! I can't leave you without an item of the day, so here it is..... After a year of speculation it has been announced that the disgustingly crazy "sandwich" offered by KFC, which replaces the typical two pieces of bread with two chicken patties and keeps the rest of the goodies in the middle, will be released this month. You do have the option of grilled or fried, because we all know, two grilled patties is way better... right? This just grosses me out!! Is anyone planning to try it??? The KFC website Nutrition Guide lists the health content near the bottom of page 1 which is summed up as: 

Original Recipe Double Down - 540 calories, 32g of fat,1380mg of sodium

Grilled Double Down - 460 calories, 23g of fat,1430mg of sodium.