Foodmomiac

On the Road Again

We are currently en route to Family Camp! Michael has a broadband card for his laptop, so I can blog while sitting shotgun. Multitasking at its finest. Of course, I get carsick, so I can't look while I type.

The house has not gotten any more settled in since my last post. The basement is still a disaster, but I think it's do-able. It better be - we have an au pair arriving in September, and her room is down there. I don't think I've blogged yet about the au pair. I had no intention of getting one, but I was complaining to one of the moms at Dylan's school about how hard it has been to find a reliable nanny to watch her after camp and after school. She pointed out that an au pair would solve all of my problems (well, not the mental ones). It will be half of what I'm paying now for Max's daycare, Dylan's sitter and the doggie daycare. And I will be able to stop my endless schlepping from place to place. It takes me over an hour to get home most days, because I need to pick up both Max and the dog. So, yeah, we are getting an au pair. The applications have just started to come in - it's exciting!

I am very excited about this vacation. After the week I had at work, and the stress of moving, I want nothing more than to sit in the sand, reading a book and drinking a beer while someone else entertains my kids. And, guess what? That's what camp is all about! I also plan to paint some ceramics, make a beaded necklace or two, and perhaps even polish a Petoskey stone.

I'll be back soon! (I plan to blog from camp.)

Trying to settle in

Living Room and Dining Room
Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

I have been stuck in vendor hell (Comcast, I am talking about you. I hate you.), so I don't have the energy to write right now, but I did have the energy to take some photos.

Enjoy!

Phew!

Who said moving isn't easy?
Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

Well, despite my lack of posts, the move went MUCH better than I had anticipated. The movers were absolutely amazing. Our apartment was on the second and third floor of a house with incredibly narrow stairways, and we also had a 10x10 storage unit that was filled from floor to ceiling, but they were champs.

They were also very sweet. I tend to get very stressed in situations when I need to make a lot of decisions, and they did everything they could to make me feel better.

As I was sitting outside the new house directing the movers (and freaking out, because I had no idea where I wanted ANYTHING), one of the movers brought me a packing blanket and laid it out for me as a seat cushion. He also kept reassuring me that everything would eventually come together. He didn't speak much English, but he told me, "One month. In one month, everything perfect." Each time he walked past me, he would smile and say, "one month."

On Saturday morning, I picked up my sister-in-law at O'Hare. If I hadn't done this, I don't know where I'd be right now. Certainly not in my family room, laying on my couch with no boxes in my immediate view (there ARE a couple behind me, but still...). The main floor (living room, kitchen and family room) and second floor (bedrooms) are nearly done. Our basement is still a disaster, but that's OK, because it isn't cluttering our lives, and we can deal with it when we have time, slowly, over the next couple of weeks.

One month.

(Pictures coming later this week)

A letter to my landlord

Dear J. Landlord,

Overall, we are glad that we chose this apartment to live in for our first year in Chicago. The street is amazing, with its very own park, terrific families, and proximity to Dinkel's Bakery and Whole Foods. That said, we are very happy to be leaving.

Have you wondered at all why the tenants in both of your apartments have now vacated the premises? I imagine you think it has nothing to do with you. Well, J. Landlord, let me tell you this; it has nearly EVERYTHING to do with you.

As a parting gift, I thought it would be nice to provide you with a list of all of the things you might want to know moving forward.

1. Common areas are YOUR responsibility. Are you shocked? I think you must be, since you seem to have given no thought to this over the past 10 months. That is why there are still salt crystals in the vestibule. And lint permanently glued to the laundry room floor.
2. Speaking of the laundry room, remember that month when the washer only put out steaming hot water? I do. It ruined my jacket.
3. When a tenant emails you with a list of issues, the proper response is not, "OK, well let me know if any of those start to affect your standard of living."
4. You might want to buy your roommate an ashtray. We did kind of admire the heights to which his cigarette butt sculpture reached this year, but if I want modern art, I'll head to a museum. We noticed the butts disappeared when your dad came to visit. Funny!
5. If you are going to have the gall to tell me to stop my children from running in the apartment, you MIGHT want to consider not standing outside hollering, "DUDE!!" at 2am.
6. OH, here's a good one. Remember when I realized that we had been paying YOUR electric and gas for four months? That was super annoying.

So, thank you J. Landlord. Thank you for the memories. It's been real.

I am so over this.

I'm not even sure what to write, because I don't want to complain. I am very lucky to be moving into such a lovely home. But DAMN, I am so sick of packing.

So, in other news...

Today was Dylie's last day of preschool. Four years of Montessori are behind us! On Monday, she starts day camp. We had orientation tonight. Her group seems very cute. They are all girls, all the same age. Every group has a name. She is a Honey Comb (they are all sugared cereals). She will be taking the bus there, which makes me a bit nervous, but I think she'll have a blast.

What else...

The painting of the new house is going very well. I like our painter. He's actually a handyman, and is a pretty interesting guy. Yesterday he completed the family room. Today he did the master bedroom, and tomorrow he'll do Max's room and then any required touch ups. It's looking really good!

Ok, I'm just pooped. More tomorrow...

Dylan and Max is Stuf

Dylan and Max is Stuf
Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

We still have so much more packing to do, but I'm just pooped. I have a feeling that Thursday is going to be an all-nighter.

Dylan helped us tonight and we had fun letting her label the boxes. This one has some of their toys, a.k.a. their stuf.

We also have a box labeled "kichin food."

links for 2007-06-12

• mmm-yoso!!!
  Great SD food blog to help prepare for our trip - we leave this Saturday!!
  (tags: SanDiego)
• CH1VE * 558 Fourth Avenue * San Diego, CA 92101 * 619.232.4483
  The drinks sound fabulous.
• Big Sweet Tooth: Le Bouchon: Straight Outta Paris
  I can't believe I haven't gone here.
  (tags: Chicago restaurants)
• FamilyFood: Kalbi: Korean Barbecue Beef Ribs
  This is very similar to the marinade recipe I've used previously, but I like the chunkiness of this version.
  (tags: korean kalbi marinade)
• Atlantic Furniture Arizona Bunk Bed Bedroom Set - Arizona Bunk Bedroom Set - Atlantic Furniture Arizona Bunk Bed Bedroom Set - All Childrens Furniture. Kids Beds, Kids Bedroom Sets, Kids Bedding and More!
  might be good for dylie's room.
  (tags: beds)
• The Wednesday Chef: Marian Burros's Farro Salad with Tomatoes and Corn
  So happy to see this! Michael just brought home a bag of farro from Whole Foods.
  (tags: farro recipes)

NOTE: deli.cio.us is obviously very glitchy, as some of these links are from May!!! I went to San Diego in early May. :-) A real post will come in a bit. I'm off to eat dinner (grilled lamb) and then spend all night packing. UGH.

I packed the colander

Baked Spaghetti
Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

Yes, I realize that I didn't blog yesterday. Sorry 'bout that. Let's chalk it up to Soprano's stress. We were very behind, so we watched three episodes Friday night, two episodes Saturday night, and then the finale (which was brilliant - don't try telling me otherwise) last night. All I could think about was Satriale's, and Tony, and Carmela, and how things might end. Six Soprano's episodes in three days is probably a bit much. I got kind of twitchy.

But ANYWAY, we closed on our house today! We are enjoying having an empty house. We went over this afternoon with Dylan and sat on the front stoop drinking beer (she had Dr. Pepper). As of Friday, it will be chock full of our junk, so the emptiness is kind of lovely.

There wasn't time to cook and it was too late to order in or go out once I got home with the kids (we had to go to the paint store and Linens 'n Things), so Michael just made some simple Baked Spaghetti. Red sauce does seem kind of appropriate after my mafia-filled weekend. We used a lovely homemade sauce from the Farmer's Market, and Michael added some chopped pancetta for a little texture. We tossed the spaghetti with the sauce, filled our bowls, and then threw them under the boiler with some mozzarella. It was perfect and comforting. I'm glad he's the one who cooked, though. I packed the colander yesterday, so he had to drain the pot with the lid.

Salad to Go

Salad to Go
Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

Michael has tons of friends, but most of them are from high school and college. While I have been lucky to discover new friends as an adult, it's been harder for Michael. And, though I am very ready to admit that he is high maintenance, I truly don't think that the friend thing has anything to do with him. I think it's a guy thing. Guys are more guarded, aren't they?

That said, Michael has become friendly with one of our colleagues, who I like very much as well, and when he invited us over to his house for dinner, we readily accepted. It was a great evening. I liked his wife very much, and their two boys were very close in age to Dylie and Max. Everyone had a blast.

I didn't want to show up empty handed, so Michael volunteered me for my specialty; Greek salad. I'm pretty good at getting a Greek salad together to take elsewhere. I tear and spin the lettuce. The other veggies (cucumber, radishes and dill) get chopped and placed in a tupperware or ziploc. (I put the tomatoes separately because those shouldn't be refrigerated.) Lemons were halved and placed in their own ziploc, and a clove of garlic was put in a teeny tupperware with some coarse sea salt. I also brought my giant salad bowl, some extra virgin olive oil and our special salad tongs. Oh, and a container of French feta.

It was a lovely and relaxing evening. What have you all been doing this weekend?

Am I Dreaming?

At dinner
Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

The impossible happened tonight. We went out to dinner with both kids and had a lovely time.

Can you believe it?

We walked over to Frasca, our favorite local Italian/pizza joint, and everything went right. The kids were both well behaved and the food was excellent.

To start, we got a plate of warm olives (Dylan is an olive fiend) and a plate of warm calamari. The calamari was remarkable. We've had it before, but this was the best it had ever been. It was cooked to tender perfection, and served in a sauce of roasted tomatoes, white beans, pistachios and mint.

My main dish was Italian crab cakes with roasted artichoke hearts and mushrooms. Michael got halibut. The kids shared a bowl of penne with butter (boring, but they were happy).

We even did dessert! Max had a dish of ice cream. Dylie had a root beer float. Michael and I shared a mascarpone cheesecake with a chocolate cookie crust, whipped cream and raspberry sauce.

I love it when things go well.