One of my favorite things about Chicago - Hot Doug's

What a week it has been! I don't write too much about my job here, but wow has it consumed me since I last wrote. All I will say is that I spent the early part of the week annoyed with our government's willingness to save anyone and everyone from financial disaster (or so it seemed) and the end of the week proud to be a taxpayer. The US government made a statement with the AIG deal. It is only going to be a lender of last resort (L+850, secured, + 80% of the business! - woo hoo!) from here on. I hope.

More pride in the USA and lots of work aside, I haven't done that much this week. But Alex and I did decide to treat ourselves, after a stressful week, to a special lunch yesterday. At a special place. Where they make special fries on the weekend. And after which we were especially full.

Directions to happiness; Self-portrait inside the happiest place in Chicago

We went to Hot Doug's, the Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium. Doesn't its full name just sound wonderful?

Walking up to Hot Doug's for the first time, you can't help but notice the impossibly long line. How could anyone wait in a line that long for hot dogs?, you ask. But then you remember my #1 rule for finding wonderful things: if people are willing to wait in an impossibly long line for something, there must be a reason.

(Note: Kathleen's #1 rule for finding wonderful things does not apply to the Social Security Office, the DMV or any other government institution.)

Alex surviving the line, eager for some dogs!

Hot Doug's is owned and operated by Doug Sohn, a culinary school graduate who has made the hot dog and its myriad encased meat friends his life's work. Doug is one of my favorite parts of the Hot Doug's experience. He's friendly. He takes your order. He smiles. He jokes around with you. He collects sausage paraphernalia.


The menu of his fine establishment includes the regulars (hot dog, polish, bratwurst, italian, andouille, thuringer, veggie dogs, chicken sausage, and my personal favorite: the corn dog) and specialty sausages like ribeye steak, Jamaican jerk pork sausage, gyros sausage and the "Game of the week" (this week's was three-chili wild boar sausage with chipotle dijonnaise and cheese-stuffed hot peppers). Most importantly, though, on Fridays and Saturdays the menu includes duck fat fries, in addition to the regular variety.

Yeah, I don't eat so healthy there. Wanna make something of it? :) Alex and I love it. It's our guilty pleasure. My brothers...not so much. But they are dumb. (Sorry guys, you're just wrong on this one.) Click here to read more!

Cubbie break?

I often step away from my desk for a few minutes to run down to the Starbucks in my building. Everyone needs a coffee break every now and then, right? Today, I took a slightly longer, extremely cooler break. I was able to sneak away from my office for a few hours this afternoon and see 5.5 innings of baseball within the friendly confines of Wrigley Field. I couldn't stay too long, because I actually had work to complete this afternoon, but I had a great time all the same.

Ryan Theriot has the coolest last name. Built-in, amazing, ready to go, easy to grasp, totally rad nickname: The Riot.

Anyway, it was a lovely day and everything really started out wonderfully. The Cubs put a run on the board in the bottom of the second - great start. The euphoria didn't last long, though. In the top of the third inning, the Astros (boooo!) scored four runs (booooooooo!). When the third out finally came to end the Astros' at bat, my colleague turned to me and said, "well, that was a terrible inning." And he was right, I mean, look at the scoreboard:

In the bottom left it shows that the Cubs are losing 4 to 1. You may just have to trust me on this one.

But I was feeling optimistic. In a rare showing of prescience, I turned to him and said, "the inning is not over my friend."

And I was right. DeRosa hit a grand slam with 2 outs. That was followed by a Fukudome double, an intentional walk of Soto, an RBI double hit by none other than Marquis (the pitcher!!) and a three-run homer hit by Soriano was the cherry on top.

The aforementioned cherry.

The Cubs scored 8 runs in the bottom of the third.

There, that's much better. (9 to 4)

Unfortunately, I had to leave during the top of the sixth. Fortunately, nothing really happened after the top of the seventh (other than the seventh inning stretch, alas).

Great afternoon. :) Everyone needs a Cubbie break every now and then, right? Click here to read more!

Lazy Sunday... and Saturday... and Friday

Over the past few weeks, I've been green with envy. Alex had "too many" vacation days. And with the end of his company's fiscal year fast approaching, he has been "forced to" take a few days off here and there. Friday was one of those days he "needed to" take off.

Last week was a little slow for me at work, so when Friday came around, I flirted with the idea of taking it off as well. A few trades in my portfolio and some odds and ends prevented me from taking the whole day, but I was able to leave work at lunch time, which was amazing.

Alex and I went to see Dark Knight (great, but a little dark), and then I headed out for a girls night with some friends at Cafe Iberico. And that was pretty much the high point for weekend activity for me.

On Saturday, I woke up not feeling great. I spent much of the day relaxing on the couch (which isn't a terrible way to spend a day off, just not a terribly productive way to spend it), before Alex and I met some friends for dinner at Club Lucky.

On Sunday, I woke up ready to run and redeem myself for my Saturday immobility. Only, I left my running shoes at work. So I channeled my energy into the kitchen.


And to prove that I use more recipe sources than Cook's Illustrated and Smitten Kitchen, I bring you a few new members of my cookbook/recipe source collection: Ellie Krieger, Joy the Baker/Alton Brown and Chuck Williams (and the people who actually write his cookbooks).

First was dinner. After big meals on Friday and Saturday, we decided to eat healthy tonight. We often turn to Ellie Krieger when we want to repent for gastronomical sins (like Club Lucky's 8 Finger Cavatelli). Ellie is the host of Healthy Appetite on the Food Network. She's a nutritionist who does her best to make comfort food healthy. We found her book, The Food You Crave at Costco, our favorite big box retailer, and her oven-baked Crispy Chicken Fingers sounded perfect. Turns out they're an excellent source of folate, iron, niacin, phosphorus, protein, riboflavin, selenium, thiamin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and zinc. And I've been feeling a little low on riboflavin these days, so we set to making them. ;)


Conveniently, I found the recipe here. I've been too busy cooking to write up all these recipes!

The rest of my efforts were dedicated to desserts. Tracy introduced me to Joy the Baker, whose blog I really enjoy. I was fascinated by her four posts (here, here, here and here) on chocolate chip cookies and intrigued by her endorsement of Alton Brown's recipe.

Alton Brown is the host of Iron Chef America and the star of the Food Network's Good Eats, a fascinating show about food, its science and its history and great fun to watch for a nerdy cook like myself. Either of Alton's recipe or Joy's endorsement would entice me to bake something, but the combination meant that I had to bake them immediately. Tonight. Chilling be damned. No time. Must. Have. Cookies. Now.


The recipe is here.

Alex was deeply disappointed that I only baked 4 cookies tonight. See?:
But rationing into small baked batches is the only way I can prevent tummy aches resulting from cookie over-consumption in our house. There are rules. This isn't Vietnam, after all.

But chicken fingers and cookies weren't enough. I had one more item on my list of things I've been meaning to make for a while: vanilla ice cream. I've been looking for a good vanilla ice cream recipe for a while. After making a number of ice cream batches since I picked up my ice cream machine, I've learned that many ice cream recipes (and most of the ones I've tried) are made from some combination of milk, cream, sugar and fillings.

A combination of milk, cream, sugar and fillings is very tasty when it's first frozen, but it freezes to an inedibly hard block after a few hours in the freezer. So I started reading ice cream ingredient labels, like those little kids in the Breyer's commercials. (I don't keep supplies of carrageenan in house, so I read only the straightforward ones.) The difference between haagen dazs and my ice cream? Eggs. Yolks, specifically. So I was on the hunt for a ice cream recipe that started with a custard base and used real vanilla beans. (I had just purchased some at my favorite big box retailer, and I was eager to use them.)

Then, of all places, I found myself in line at TJ Maxx. And I found a misplaced copy of Williams Sonoma Frozen Desserts among the perfume bottles by the registers. And I flipped through and found what I was looking for. So I dropped the $4.99 necessary to purchase the book and am giving it a try tonight. Results tomorrow, if I have time after I make up for not running today...
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One of my favorite things about Chicago - Navy Pier fireworks

Chicago is a great city. A beautiful city. But you already know I feel that way. As much as I brag about it, though, I really only see a small subset of the city on a daily basis: my house, my office, my gym, the track on Chicago Avenue (still surviving!), Costco, a couple restaurants we frequent and the farmers market.

Every year about 30 million people visit Chicago. I'm pretty certain none of them (or at least very few) come to Chicago to see my house, my office, my gym, the track on Chicago Avenue, or Costco. Some might find their way to the restaurants I like or the farmers market (either this or this) because I talk them up so much.

Chicago, circa last night

I always wish we could spend more time enjoying some of the things that bring so many people to Chicago every year. Each summer, I vow that this will be the year I take a day off to be a tourist in Chicago. I never do. But last night, a work event forced me to spend a little bit of time being a tourist in my own city.


One of the banks I work with hosted Alex and I for a cruise on Lake Michigan last night. We had a terrific time and stayed after the cruise to watch the fireworks off Navy Pier. Every Wednesday and Saturday during the summer, there's a fireworks show at Navy Pier. All summer. So cool. When Alex and I were dating, we could watch the show from his apartment, so seeing it again was a fun way to reminisce.


And it was pretty.


And pretty things are fun to watch.

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Wish you were here...

Finally! Captured on film (well on my digital point and shoot on the way to my track workout), the elusive (to me at least) Chicago lakefront sunrise. Can you believe that is Chicago? I truly love this city. I mean, look, it's a beach (!), in the midwest (!), and I am confident that the only nearby jellyfish are in the aquarium (!!!). Jellyfish-free beaches make me happy. :)

And how cool is the sky in this picture! It was mid-day blue in between the clouds above my head and pure sunrise as you looked east over the lake. I'm smitten with Chicago. I'm in deep smit. (Can anyone name that movie?)

I know I won't convince you that palm trees are native to Illinois or that this is the way Chicago always looks, but this is how it rewards me for waking up early and biking to my morning track workouts this summer. What a treat! Click here to read more!

One of my favorite things about Chicago - Ravinia

Last night, Alex and I went to our first Ravinia concert of the season.

Proof of our attendance

We saw the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Joshua Bell on the violin and Leonard Slatkin conducting. It was culture-rific! Every now and then we like to class things up a bit and get our symphony, art or opera on. And in addition to listening to the symphony we were able to enjoy a wonderful night outdoors.

For those who have never been, Ravinia is an outdoor music festival that runs May-September in the North Shore Suburbs of Chicago. It hosts mellow concerts (like Sheryl Crow, Lyle Lovett, the Beach Boys, Tony Bennett and the BoDeans) and the Chicago Symphony all summer long. Like many outdoor music venues, it has a covered pavilion with just over 3000 seats. What makes it a little different from the others is Ravinia has a HUGE lawn.

A very small portion of the HUGE lawn at Ravinia

People come to Ravinia with chairs and tables and tablecloths and candelabras (!). Most of the lawn area doesn't have a view of the performers, but there are speakers throughout the park so everyone can hear. Of course you are free to walk around and get up close to the pavilion to get a better view, but laying under the stars, listening to lovely music is pretty wonderful in and of itself.

Alex and I were being treated by one of my company's law firms, so we classed it up to the extreme and ate a catered meal before the concert and watched the performance from seats in the pavilion. We'll try to go back again and enjoy the lawn before the season is over.

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One of my favorite things about Chicago - More on farmers' markets

I know I already told you about the Green City Market and how much I like it, but more generally, I'm a fan of how much the city of Chicago makes an effort to support local farmers by setting up markets throughout the city. In addition to checking out the Green City Market and the local neighborhood markets, I sometimes like to walk over to Daley Plaza on Thursdays during lunchtime to see what kind of fresh fruits and veggies I can bring home for dinner.


I think I like the Daley Plaza market so much because of the juxtaposition of the Daley Center (the very serious home of the Cook County court system and other Cook County and City of Chicago stuff), the Picasso (I realize this wasn't his only work, but this sculpture is known in Chicago as "the Picasso"), and the asparagus.


The sight of farmers with their wares makes Chicago seem, to me at least, a little less like a huge city and a little more like home. Also, shopping for vegetables in the middle of the day makes me feel like a renaissance chick (cooking, gardening, photography and finance all within the same day!). And I want you to believe I'm a renaissance chick. That's what I'm trying to convince you of.

So yesterday I trudged through the thick mass of humidity that separated my office from Daley Plaza, perused veggies and ogled the gorgeous peonies.

It was the highlight of my day... Much better than that 6am workout that has hobbled me since.

Where my new spearmint plant came from
AND, where I didn't need to buy basil, because I already have some!

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I need a manicure

We had an extremely productive Memorial Day this year: hostas were divided, flowers were purchased and potted, areas in need of mulch were mulched and (in case you're thinking all we did was garden) Patricks were defeated in Wii Tennis. (It is a real shame that Team Tiny Kathleen didn't bring its A-game to the tournament on Saturday - Tiny Kathleen has many lessons to learn about not choking in critical games.)

Choke artist.

The day did involve a fair amount of time in the garden and, as the title suggests my nails are destroyed. It was worth it. See how much prettier our front steps look?

Before and After

We were so fortunate to have Alex's mom here for our gardening extravaganza. We're still novices, to a certain extent, and Maggie is a pro who has seen her skills go unused while (whilst?) living in London. She was happy to join us on our trip to Gethsemane Garden Center - another one of my favorite things about Chicago - to shop for plants.

Gethsemane Garden Center is a much more cheerful place than the name would suggest. It's a massive complex of everything a landscaping enthusiast could want: thousands of perennials, annuals, shrubs, trees, pots, and fountains along with everything else you could think of for your garden. I would find it a bit overwhelming if the people weren't so nice.

So we picked out all kinds of flowers for the front and the back, including some of these lovely gerbera daisies:


Once home, Maggie and I grabbed our trowels and claw-thingies (I'm, like, totally a gardening expert - can you tell?), and set to work making the empty pots on the front steps all pretty like.

Then Patrick and his Tiny Patricks challenged me and the Tiny Kathleens to a Wii Tennis duel. I conclude this post with one word, at the risk of sounding redundant and being viewed as a sore winner, Victoryyyyyyyy!!!
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One of my favorite things about Chicago - The Green City Market

Alex and I were both out of town last week, but I returned first, meaning I had to entertain myself on Saturday morning. I ran a bunch of errands and was lucky enough to find myself with some time to run over to the Green City Market. Like many cities, Chicago has lovely neighborhood farmers' markets throughout the summer, but the Green City Market is the largest and the best, if you can find a parking space (or manage the walk from wherever you live).

This weekend was the first weekend for the Green City Market and the pickings were slim. Next week we'll have more; we sold out of everything at 8am; would you like to buy some plants for your garden?; and try our preserves! were the common refrains.

It was a beautiful day, though, and me and my camera had a grand time.

And I discovered that I'm awesome at parallel parking on the driver's side of the street. My mom must be so proud!

Proof, in case Alex doesn't believe me

This brings to mind one of the things that perplex me: Chicago is the 3rd largest city in the US. Driving in large cities demands parallel parking skills. Chicago is in Illinois. And yet, the Illinois state driving exam does not require that you know how to parallel park and so driving schools in Illinois (at least the ones at public high schools) do not teach parallel parking skills. Why is that???

Other things that perplex me: why the TSA at some airports needs to see your boarding pass after you walk through the metal detector (treating you like a serious threat if you let it go through with your luggage) and, at other airports, the TSA people look at you like you're nuts when you show them your boarding pass - like: who brought little miss show and tell? I don't care where you're going, m'am!

Also, why the Starbucks in my building invested time, money and effort into reorganizing the ordering process using walkie-talkies, a zig-zag amusement-park-esque line setup and at least twice as many employees as before when they forget to make my drink (after I order it from the person who relays it via walkie talkie while I zig and zag, and reorder it at the register) 90% of the time.

And finally, why I still bother going to the Starbucks in my building when I could instead go to Caribou in the building attached to mine, where they never forget to make my drink.
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One of my favorite things about Chicago - Smoque

Have you ever flipped through the channels on TV only to find yourself watching a show you never thought you would because they mentioned the name of your city? Nothing makes my channel-changing stop on a dime like hearing someone say the word Chicago. "Oooh, what are they saying about my city?," I think. "I hope it's something I already know, because then I can totally scoff and say eh, lame, I already knew that, I'm soooo with it." But there's also a secret part of me that hopes I learn something new, so I can tell others about it and impress them with my new knowledge.

A number of months ago, Alex and I were flipping past my favorite network, the Food Network, when Guy Fieri (who I would normally flip past) was talking about our city. On Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, the Food Network host, who hasn't realized the 90s are so totally over (Now That's What I Call a Haircut, 1996 Edition!!!), introduced us to something new - Smoque - a fantastic little barbecue joint in Chicago that Alex and I have fallen in love with. We tell everyone about it so they think we are cool and soooo with it.

Excellent brisket, pulled pork, St. Louis ribs, baked beans, mac 'n cheese, cornbread, etc. all prepared by a friendly staff with the five owners floating about making sure everyone is happy - that's Smoque in a nutshell. Oh, and it's BYOB (what's not to love?). So who's coming to Chicago for ribs?
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