I made a long weekend trip to Chicago this last weekend. I stayed with my good friend Renee and her new fiance, Peter. It was a great escape from the daily routine. Saturday I putzed around a small
shopping square not too far from their place and then rode the L into the city a bit further for some more shopping. I noticed a crazy amount of second hand stores - I think Chicago has more second-hand stores per capita then Starbucks in New York. I could tell they have some great buys, but I just don't have the patience to sort through everything. I found a cute little book shop that I bought a knitting book with directions on how to knit little flowers, I'm pumped that you can make them without crochet!! I will now be donning scarves, coffee wraps, baby hats, etc with little cute flowers! I also came across Justin's dream - Gene's sausage shop. This German delicatessen had TONS of selections of, well, sausage, hams, pates, brisquets, cold cuts, you name it. It also had a bunch of other products from Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Finland, and England. I found Justin a book, From Nose to Tail, written by Fergus Henderson. We have been watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, and he hails this guy. Henderson is know for offal,
or use of the parts of animals most through out. Not that I'm excited to try many of these dishes, but Justin enjoys reading about them. He was definitely surprised and pleased with his souvenier when I got back.
Renee and I have a tradition of making funfetti cupcakes whenever we get together. In the past we have always just put funfetti frosting on the top, but since I found this fun cupcake decorating book and gave it to her for Christmas, we decided to put our decorating skills to the test and make our cupcakes look like owls. They were fun to make, and actually didn't take that much effort. All we needed was oreos, M&M's (see note below), chocolate frosting, and chocolate covered sunflower seeds. The ear
s are one half of the orea, the ears are also peice of oreo, then the eyes and nose are the M&M's and sunflower seeds. We initially thought they would be too cute to eat, but then we changed our minds. Yum!
shopping square not too far from their place and then rode the L into the city a bit further for some more shopping. I noticed a crazy amount of second hand stores - I think Chicago has more second-hand stores per capita then Starbucks in New York. I could tell they have some great buys, but I just don't have the patience to sort through everything. I found a cute little book shop that I bought a knitting book with directions on how to knit little flowers, I'm pumped that you can make them without crochet!! I will now be donning scarves, coffee wraps, baby hats, etc with little cute flowers! I also came across Justin's dream - Gene's sausage shop. This German delicatessen had TONS of selections of, well, sausage, hams, pates, brisquets, cold cuts, you name it. It also had a bunch of other products from Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Finland, and England. I found Justin a book, From Nose to Tail, written by Fergus Henderson. We have been watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, and he hails this guy. Henderson is know for offal,
or use of the parts of animals most through out. Not that I'm excited to try many of these dishes, but Justin enjoys reading about them. He was definitely surprised and pleased with his souvenier when I got back.Among some other sites we had to stop at, the famous bean was one of them. After taking a few pics, we rushed across the street to grab some hot lattes and mochas to warm back up. Unfortunately my brain lapsed and I didn't turn off my flash, so the pics didn't turn out. Guess I have to go back!
I finally finished her scarf!! This was a very long-lasting project, but finally came to completion. Next time I will read the pattern the whole way through before committing to it! Here is Renee showing off the final product.
Renee and I have a tradition of making funfetti cupcakes whenever we get together. In the past we have always just put funfetti frosting on the top, but since I found this fun cupcake decorating book and gave it to her for Christmas, we decided to put our decorating skills to the test and make our cupcakes look like owls. They were fun to make, and actually didn't take that much effort. All we needed was oreos, M&M's (see note below), chocolate frosting, and chocolate covered sunflower seeds. The ear
s are one half of the orea, the ears are also peice of oreo, then the eyes and nose are the M&M's and sunflower seeds. We initially thought they would be too cute to eat, but then we changed our minds. Yum!So about the M&M's, the grocery store by their place is primarily hispanic, but also carry a lot of other foreign products. They had M&M's, but they were labeled in a plastic container as "M&M's without the M". Nice.
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