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something new

Kristin at The Kitchen Sink — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:08:04 +0000

For a bunch of reasons, I don’t talk about work on this site. The biggest reason is that it’s boring. I blog precisely to escape work, to give myself a creative outlet. It’s an outlet that I can desperately need after a day in which my nose has been stuck in a thick stack of cases, rather than in the inspiring pages of, say, a cookbook. When I first started working, back in the fall, it worked out well. I had to scale back on posting a bit, but I still felt like I was managing the lawyer-by-day/blogger-by-night balance. Over the past month or so, though, (and here comes the boring part), I’ve been lawyer-by-day and lawyer-by-night. Which means that I’ve been letting things slip around here lately. I’m still cooking (even lawyers-by-night have to eat, you see), but I’ve had less time to photograph and write. The upshot is that I’m really loving my work, though that’s not much of a silver lining for you all, I suppose.

In the interest of giving myself a little break (and shaking things up (pun intended) a bit too), today’s post offers a glimpse into the past weekend via my phone and the new ShakeIt app I downloaded at Sassy Radish‘s excellent suggestion (warning: it’s incredibly addictive). Most of the photos are food-related, which just goes to show that cooking and eating and such are still making me smile, even if I don’t always have the time to document it here. And it also goes to show that I’m thinking about all you out there, even if I’m not here all the time. Promise.

We start with Friday night, a lovely early summer night—all warm breezes and late light—that we spent at The Publican. We started with some sparkling rose:

And then some of the incredibly delicious bread with a pat of equally delicious butter:

And then I got too distracted by actually eating the excellent food to take many more photos of it. But I did manage to snap a photo of the communal table that stretched down from where we sat:

As good as the food is, a couple other things give the food a run for its money. First, the completely amazing lights—like big white gumballs hanging from the ceiling:

The second is the porcine-themed art that adorns the walls:

Sadly, we were too full to sample anything on the After menu, though I thought about the chocolate buttermilk cake (with a scoop of yogurt sorbet, no less) long and hard:

By the time we got home, we were ready for a night cap on the roof:
.

By candelight:

Saturday morning started with a cup of coffee at home, as Kevin slept …

…followed by Milk & Honey, where I had a thick slice of my beloved banana-walnut bread:

That night, we grilled burgers, even though it was about 50 degrees outside. Needless to say, we ate indoors. Flickery tea lights helped lessen the blow:

Sunday morning began with grocery shopping as usual:

We also visited the Wicker Park Farmers’ Market, on its inaugural Sunday of the summer, where we got that cute little box of strawberries in the first photo up top. The market is just south of this photo:

The rest of the day is the subject of upcoming posts, so come back soon! To close things out, some El tracks:

That’s all!

waited too long

Kristin at The Kitchen Sink — Sat, 09 May 2009 20:50:12 +0000

Oh, baby. The Chicago Green City Market has gone open-air again for the summer and I couldn’t resist a visit this morning: the first Saturday of the season. I woke way too early, with a giddy Christmas-morning-type feeling in my stomach. As Kevin slept on (can you blame him?), I walked east, under a low, grey sky full of dramatic, ominous clouds. By the time I hit Lincoln Park, it felt a lot more like late fall than early spring, but those thoughts were immediately wiped away when I saw the white tents and the splendid produce spilling out beneath them. There were radishes, slim and fushia with white tails and leafy green tops. And there were truckloads of asparagus, some thick and purple, others slender and green. One farmer had stacked his spears so high that he could barely see the patrons over the three-foot stack on his table.

Produce spilled out from yellow bins at the Nichols Farm stand—the same bins that will tote juicy tomatoes in every hue later this summer (though, for now, that almost seems impossible). People milled about excitedly, huddling against each other and gripping cups of hot Intelligentsia coffee to ward off the wind.

One farmer sold stalks of ruby-red rhubarb for a quarter apiece. The woman in front of me in lineheld two armfuls’ worth and was shocked to hear that they would set her back only five dollars. She was murmuring about simmering them in butter and making pies. She seemed like my kind of lady.

People ate and shopped and talked and gawked. The sky starting spitting a half-rain at one point, but no one seemed to mind. We’d waited too long for a few raindrops to ruin the day.

In honor of my first market day, here are some recipes from The Kitchen Sink posts of the past that make great use of spring produce:

Asparagus & Fava Bean Recipes:

Asparagus, Favas & Peas with Basil
Warm Asparagus, Leek & Potato Salad
Spring Farro Risotto

Rhubarb Recipes:

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp
Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam Bars
Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam
Ginger-Rhubarb Bread

Green Garlic, Spring Onion & Ramp Recipes:

Spring Onion Jam
White Bean-Green Garlic Dip
White Cheese Pizza with Ramps

Dinner at Wrigley

Kristin at The Kitchen Sink — Sat, 03 May 2008 13:09:42 +0000

When it comes to grocery shopping and meal planning, I’m a wee bit crazy. I usually lay out the menu for the week on Saturday or Sunday and do all the shopping then. If we make changes here or there, we can run to the great little market down the street, but most nights, we’re all set. Last week, we had—gasp—a change in plans that left us with a menu-less night. We tossed a couple ideas back and forth before Kevin came back with the winner. He got tickets to Wednesday night’s Cubs-Brewers game at Wrigley. How did I feel about hot dogs and beer for our menu-less night, he wondered.

Well, let me tell you: I felt pretty, pretty great about it. We snapped up the tickets, pretended like it wasn’t 40 degrees outside and made our way over to the Friendly Confines. We got there early to snap a couple photos of what has to be the prettiest ball park on earth.

(Click more for the rest of the story and more photos.)

(Top left: these guys are always next to the Harry Caray statue—I kind of want to take them home with me. Top right: the new Ernie Banks statue. Lower left: this would be the part of Wrigley that is reportedly falling down; luckily we didn’t have any “souvenirs” falling on us. Lower right: I told you we got there early.)

After our little photo shoot, we had worked up a good appetite. And let’s not forget thirst now shall we? I’d love to say we opted for the classic Old Style, but it was Bud Light for this Cubs fan.

Once we had ice-cold beers in our (mittened) hands, it was time to move on to the hard stuff. That’s right: the dogs. The dog pictured here, which features grilled onions, Chicago’s signature poppyseed bun, and an unspeakable amount of ketchup, is Kevin’s. If it were my hot dog, you’d see diced tomatoes, a pickle and plenty of mustard. I could barely snap three photos before Kevin went all Kobayashi and practically swallowed the thing whole.

While hot dogs and beers are great and all, it’s not a baseball game to me unless peanuts are involved. That and a scorecard, which I diligently keep up at least until the third inning (or until the beer man visits one too many times; he’s sneaky like that). But about the peanuts: the saltier the better. And there’s something undeniably fun about haphazardly throwing your shells on the ground.

All things considered (the Cubs’ 19 runs, the hot dog, beers, peanuts and photo shoot), it was a great evening. Definitely worth throwing a curve ball (ha!) into my OCD menu-planning ways. I’ll be back next-time with a regular, old recipe post!

(Wrigley’s famously controversial lights.)