Epic Noms Night

So this is turning out to be a cooking blog.

So I finished up with work this afternoon around 4:30, ran to the store, and started cooking at 5:30. I just now finished everything at 9. Yeah, cooking marathon!!!

So here are the results of my endeavors:

I've been obsessed with beets for a while now, so I decided to roast my own and make some good old fashioned borscht. This traditional European beet stew always makes your kitchen look like a murder scene (note my splattered bowl). But thanks to a handy-dandy stick blender, this soup turned out really well.
What's that garnish, you ask? Apples, dill and sour cream.

I also happened to have a bunch of bananas going pretty spotty and complete mush, so what better use for them than banana bread? So I made three loaves, and I have breakfast for weeks. :) So "healthy" too. Yeah right.

But I can't just have one kind of banana bread! I made two different batters:

1) Spiced banana bread with walnuts and ginger beer
2) Sweet banana bread with pie cherries, orange zest and vanilla

Then, just for fun, I mixed them together for the third loaf (best one).

Breakfast of overweight Southern champions. Add more butter. 

Tune in next time for adventures with fennel! 

Cheers,

Claire

Dishes and Noms: Weekend 2

Why hello there,

This is my record of the start of my second weekend in Chicago (and a lot of prepositional phrases). Tonight's topic: cooking!

Chicken Yum. 

So when I first moved in, I got a whole chicken and my mother proclaimed "You'll never cook that. Do you really want it?" Well, just to prove her wrong....

Om

Nom

Nom.

Yes, that would be an oven roasted chicken with baby red potatoes, stuffed with celery and shallots and drizzled with a red wine-gizzards reduction. 

And after I attacked that thing, I made this soup, from scratch, stock included, from the carcass (gross word, still) with shiitake mushrooms, celery, carrots, bacon and udon noodles. 

I have two servings left over in the fridge (in addition to leftover potatoes), and five servings of soup in the freezer. 

Yeah, I'll never cook that thing. 

Cheers,

Claire

p.s. I also cleaned my apartment today, including ALL of the dishes from the cooking marathon.

p.s.s. Check up here tomorrow for information on my very brief excursion to the Chicago Loop and Millennium Park, as well as an account of how my night on the town goes tonight. 

Unpacked. Let the messiness begin!

Good evening, dear readers!

I am proud to present.... my FINISHED (enough) apartment!

TA-DA!!!!!!!! This is the cleanest it will ever be. 

Art corner! My Wi-Fi isn't working quite as well as I'd like, so this is a no-work office at the moment.

Reading nook/movie area

Doorway to the kitchen

Here's the main closet, obviously. It's quite a bit longer than the doors show—all of the summer clothes are back there.

 So? What do you think? I LOVE it. I would have had this up a bit earlier, but I'm a conscientious neighbor and decided not to hang my 80-pound mirror at 11:00 p.m. Aren't I nice?

I also want to give some shout-outs to everyone who has sent me a housewarming gift!

First of all, thank you Gretchen for getting me all of my adorable dishes, including this super cute creamer pitcher. I couldn't find any daisies, so African roses from Trader Joe's will have to do!

 Thank you, Aunt Judy, for sending me this awesome little bouquet! It was such a surprise. And so useful too! That coffee mug is fit for a party.

And thanks, Mom, for sending me a very confusing drawing of SpongeBob. I was not aware that Mr. SquarePants was so inspirational, but I'm following his advice anyway...

"Soak it all in." 

Now, for a post-unpacking celebration! Time for some beet and romaine salad with bleu cheese and red wine reduction... and some more wine on the side!

Cheers,

Claire

p.s. If you click on the Comments section below this post, you can leave me a message and tell me what you think!

The Working Girl's Bulletin Board

So, as my sad excuse for a blog post today, here's a few pictures of the latest additions to my apartment.

The editor/single girl's bulletin board.

With corrections.

More to come this weekend.

Cheers,

Claire

If he's been on the moon, how has man not invented a cure for the common cold?

Evening classy blog readers,

I would shake you warmly by the hand, but A) this is the Internet and B) there isn't enough Purel in the world to make that a sanitary option. For, you see, I have caught the most spectacular head cold from my little brother on moving day. So I am looking like a zombie, sounding like a Wookie and sipping hot ginger peach tea while wrapped in a blanket like a 95-year-old cat lady. Joy! That first day of work tomorrow is going to go so well.

Anywho, update on the soon-to-be-fancy apartment.

Today's completed projects include — kitchen with DIY corkboard and battery LEDs from Lowes.

Ignore that pile of boxes in the corner! Still filtering through the recycling to see if I want to keep any boxes for the next move, whenever it might be (hopefully no time soon! I'm too tired!).

The other project for this evening was probably the easiest room in the apartment — the bathroom. The biggest issue was figuring out where to keep all of my random girly bathroom stuff (so much lotion!). Repurposing my bedside table as a bathroom shelf worked fantastically, but now I can't really get to the radiator next to it... Oh well, this winter's almost over, right? 

Luckily the water pressure here is phenomenal, so the bathroom, although a bit cramped, it totally worth it. I just need to find more light... maybe more stick-on LEDs?

Anywho, having issues with the Internet lately. I have the Wi-Fi router, but it's giving me some serious problems. So although my beloved iPad can pick up the waves wherever (no idea why), the laptop needs to be anchored to the kitchen. Boo. Luckily, I have a useful little table here that works quite nicely. Less luckily, this also means that I'm always around food, especially when I'm sorting through menus for my freelance job. "Om nom nom"is thoroughly inevitable! Oh no. 

Check in tomorrow for an update on the apartment, the job and my introduction to city commutes!

Cheers,

Claire

Breakfast nook—ACTIVATE!

Hey,

Two updates in one day? Wow! Amazing! Everybody freak out and then pop some Valium, or, in my case, NyQuil (getting my little brother's cold).

I just wanted to share my progress on the apartment, room by room.

Here are some pictures of the newly tidied and somewhat decorated eating nook/dining area.

So this is the nook. It's 7'x7'6"-ish, and features a superbly constructed (by my father, no thanks to Target who manufactured it with ill-fitting screws and non-flush chair seats) table. If you're a long-term follower of my facebook page (two of you might be... tops), you may recall the painting mosaic/collection on the back wall, with a few glittery additions. 

 

And this was the crafty project for the evening, which involved me thumb-tacking bright and cheery fabric (which reminds me of Halloween in this photo, and definitely not so much in person... those are foxes and trees on the purple, not candy corn) to the inside of my built-in cabinetry.  This adds some pizazz to my plain white dishes while they're actually clean, and not with a colorful pile of food (pasta) on them. 

And how do I keep my tables and countertops tidy around the place? Well, I don't. But, I can keep watermarks off of them with these handy-dandy... 

COASTERS!
Did I painstakingly paint those baroque floral patterns, you may ask? Why, no! Of course not. My flowers always turn into fireworks, because I just end up throwing the watercolor at the page in frustration. Did I buy them from Urban Outfitters? No. One might have a bird, but it's not an ironic bird that costs $45.

This was a pre-move DIY project inspired by Pinterest, and was actually pretty easy! Just dash on down to Home Depot or Lowes, and pick up the cheapest 4"x4" tiles that they have. One recommendation—go for white enamel more than black or blue. The darker colors tend to darken your paper when the coasters are done. All-in-all, this project cost me $10 for 10 coasters, all supplies included.

Cut out squares of your favorite scrapbook paper to fit, going just a little smaller than the tile so nothing hangs over the edge.

Sand the tops of the tile a bit, and then use glue or Mod Podge to glue the paper down. Then, when dry, take them OUTSIDE and begin the task of spraying them with a clear spray paint (yes, it does exist). You may have to do a dozen thin coats or so, depending on the absorbency of your paper, but keep going until the top of the tile is shiny, even and not tacky to the touch. Don't stack them, though, because those layers need overnight to dry completely.

Then, cut out 4x4 pieces of felt and adhere to the bottom of the tile using spray adhesive (outside) or a hot glue gun (inside). When you're absolutely sure the tiles are dry (can you smell the paint when you bring them in? Yes? They're not done.), place them throughout your dwelling and throw them at people who don't use coasters. And admire them fully.

More to come tomorrow. I'm off to explore Lincoln Square.

Cheers,

Claire

p.s. Target cart escalator! (second to the right) This was the one time when it had no carts. Quite disappointing.

Moving Day

Hello all,

I am officially writing you from Chicago, IL, in my lovely little residence in North/Albany Park. This has to be the quietest part of Chicago, except for the person who seems to be trying to play the drums on the fire escape porch on the floor above mine. How urban? Hm.

So yesterday my wonderful parents (yes, I know you're both reading this) took the time and care to drive all of my junk up to Chicago. I absolutely adore them both! Five million trips up the fire escape later, all of my junk was in my own, private apartment (until I cave in and get a pet. Possibly one of the squirrels that scamper along my back porch).

It's a bit (just a bit) intimidating, you know, moving to a city 10 times the size of St. Louis (check out the skyline comparison below!). But, up here in my almost-suburb, it's not too bad.

St. Louis

Chicago! Too big for one picture.

So my new place is, I believe, some form of 1920-40s architectural hot mess. It's a U-shaped building, divided into five addresses, each of which has another six or seven residences inside of that. How postal workers ever deliver anything, I have no idea. I have a set of five keys for a total of seven locks throughout the building, and thank God they came on a key ring or I'd be locked out of everything except the mailbox on a regular basis. 

 New apartment! I'm a big girl now.

Much to the surprise of my new landlord fellow, my mother, friends and random acquaintances, we did actually manage to fit the contents of my car, my dad's 16-passenger van and a U-Haul trailer into my apartment, and in some semblance of a sensible floor plan! What do you know. 

I am currently working on the logistics of my kitchen, which has minimal counter space, a mini-stove (gas, not electric) and mini-er cabinets. Hm. Luckily, my pretty, new table comes with a drawer that I can stash all kinds of things in. Like pet squirrels. And purple umbrellas. Anywho. I start work on Wednesday, and hopefully my apartment is nice and tidy by then. 

Have any of you visited Chicago? Where should I go and explore? Comment or email! 

Well, now for something completely different.

My mind was BLOWN today by a Target with a lower-level parking garage and a shopping cart escalator! Had to share. 

Pictures are forthcoming. I'll post as soon as I have something worth photographing. 

Cheers from Chicago,

Claire

p.s. For being so close to true Caribou (Coffee) Country, I find it exceedingly difficult to get my Dark Chocolate Mint Condition. Boo.