Foodie Lawyer

Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:

When we lived in Dallas, one of our favorite ways to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon was a late lunch of oysters, shrimp cocktail and other appetizers while sitting at the bar at the McCormick & Schmick’s located in the nice mall near our house, then a stroll through the mall for a visit to the Apple Store for Dan and Anthropologie for me.  We were pretty bummed when the Dallas restaurant closed in 2012.  So we were thrilled to discover that our local mall here in Chicagoland has a McCormick & Schmick’s, and we had an amazing lunch there on New Year’s Eve.  We especially enjoyed a new-to-us menu item (with a delightfully quirky name) — Shrimp Kisses.  Broiled shrimp wrapped in bacon with a little pepper jack cheese in the middle, served over corn relish and topped with fried onion strings.  Yes, yes and yes.

Although the mall here is open-air (and therefore not quite ideal for strolling when temps are in the single digits), the Anthropologie is just around the corner from McCormick & Schmick’s, and there is a little warming station / seating area along the way.  It was a little too cold that day to linger long, but I see some Dan-time in one of those chairs in the less-frigid future (June perhaps?) while I get my shop on.

Happily, our local mall also has an Apple Store, where we procured one of the greatest inventions for television addicts like us — the Apple TV device.  It basically allows you to put whatever content that is on your iTunes account onto your television.  So, for example, if you happened to be bored with current TV shows and decided to maybe see what all the prior buzz was about regarding the show “Scandal,” you could just order the first episode on iTunes, then watch it on TV.  And, for instance, if you decided you really liked the show Scandal and wanted to watch more episodes, then you could order the entire first season, possibly binge-watch 5 episodes on New Year’s Day, then go ahead and order season 2 to watch at your leisure, slowing down to savor the episodes until season 3 will be available for purchase on iTunes.  But that’s just one example — there’s lots of other things you can do with Apple TV too.

If you would have told me 3 months ago that I would be wearing (and loving) faux fur-lined boots, I would have thought you were hilarious.  And if you would have told me that I would be wearing them while living in the Chicago area, I would have thought you were hilarious AND possibly deranged.  Yet here we are, embracing our new adventure, fur and all.

Happy New Year to all!  We are excited for all this new year has in store (although we would prefer it not involve any life-altering changes, at least for the first 6 months or so, thankyouverymuch), and we wish you and yours health, prosperity, joy and laughter in 2014.  And warmth.

Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:

We hope everyone’s holiday season has been as happy as ours so far!  One of our favorite parts of Christmas is receiving cards from family and friends with warm wishes and photos showing how their kids have grown over the past year.  We are blessed to have so many loved ones from all parts of the country and time periods of our lives who reach out to us during this very special time of year.

Dan’s mom honored us as our first house condo guest this Christmas, and we had a wonderful visit.  One of the highlights was our Christmas Eve lunch at the top of the Hancock building downtown.  The views were amazing and the food was equally as good.  Just like that, we have a new tradition for the Christmas seasons when we’re in our new Chicagoland home.

Before we ever knew we would end up living here, we used to visit Chicago in the summer and wonder what, if anything, they replaced all the beautiful flowers with in the various planters and flower beds throughout the city during winter.  Turns out that they create lovely and festive arrangements with evergreens all over the streets, in both downtown Chicago and Evanston.  This particular planter is right outside our building, and we enjoy admiring it as we come and go (before it gets covered in a couple feet of snow).

We were fortunate to have large, gorgeous stone fireplaces in both of our prior homes, so the lack of one here in the condo requires some adjustment.  One of the ways we try to cope with our fireplace-less-ness is to score tables as close to restaurant fireplaces as possible when we can be so lucky.  We sat directly in front of this beautiful fireplace at one of our favorite neighborhood joints this week, and it was glorious.

Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:

Instead of turkey leftovers for dinner on the Friday after Thanksgiving, we cooked up a beautiful piece of Alaskan halibut, courtesy of my sweet Uncle K.  Even more special – he caught the fish himself during his summertime RV travels with my Aunt S.  Fish this fresh doesn’t need much help, so we opted for a simple preparation of roasting it with a little mayo (helps keep the fish from drying out), olive oil, garlic, a pinch of red pepper flakes, lemon juice and parsley, similar to this recipe.  My brother and I (neither of us big fans of fish) really liked it, and my mom (who hates any and all fish) even tolerated a bite!  Fish-loving Dan and my dad also really enjoyed it.  Thanks Uncle K!

My most dear and thoughtful Dallas girlfriends gifted me with a gorgeous scarf for our move to the midwest.  It’s the softest, warmest and most chic scarf a girl could have, and it warms my heart as well as my neck when I wrap it around me to brave the Chicago winter.  Turns out, it’s pretty darn cold here.  Who knew?  (Only everyone we ever told that we were moving here.) Thank you, P and L.  I miss you only a tiny bit less every time I wear my scarf.  Good thing the weather will require me to wear it quite often.

One of the great things about our new home city is easy, walkable access to lots of really good restaurants (especially when temps are in the 20s and teens.)  Dixie Kitchen is a 3-5 minute (depending on how cold it is!) walk from our condo.  We went there for breakfast on a previous house-hunting trip and loved the food as well as the atmosphere.  Our dinner there the other night also did not disappoint.  Crawfish (or “crayfish,” as they refer to mudbugs around these parts) etouffee is my go-to Cajun dish, and Dixie’s version was excellent.  We also look forward to trying their po’ boys.

About one block from our condo, the view of downtown Evanston’s Christmas lights (with blue & green tree in the distance) is both pretty and festive.  Assuming we ever finish unpacking and organizing, maybe we’ll put up a Christmas tree and some lights of our own in the condo at some point before Valentines Day.

Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed, and are thankful for, this past week:

Our stash of empty moving boxes in storage has finally grown to outnumber the amount of full boxes in our new condo.  We still have a lot of organizing and decorating to do, but we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel (and through the windows, which are no longer covered up by a wall of boxes.)

We had our first (little) snowfall last week.  It wasn’t much, but enough to accumulate and stick so it counts!  Pretty sure the novelty will wear off by January or so, but snow is still exciting for us Texas transplants.

We hung our first piece of art in the condo.  This wall in our foyer is one of the few “done” parts of our new home, and it’s nice to have a little clarity amidst the chaos and clutter in the rest of the place.

We hope you and yours had as wonderful a Thanksgiving as we did, filled with delicious food, love and fellowship with family and friends and countless blessings.  Life is good and we are grateful!