birthday girls

Happy 1st Birthday to our beautiful, comical daughter, Claire... the light of our lives.

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Happy 1st Birthday (+25) to my talented sister, Jessica...the designer behind this and so many, many more creative things.

Happy Birthday, Dave!

Happy Birthday to a great husband and a terrific father!

I blame this dress...

...for inspiring a crazy woman to start cataloging ideas for Claire's 1st Birthday already.

And yes, if you are keeping track, she turns just 3 months old this week :-)

And yes, the crazy woman is me.

Isn't it adorable though? It was a great deal today on zulily.

For the record, I do not want this year to rush by whatsoever. In fact, I wish I could press pause and freeze time with her with each passing day, but you never know when & where inspiration will strike and today there was no denying it. The colors, patterns and textures from the dress are perfect for a future Claire Celebration.

So if you are interested in my proactive party-planning ideas, check them out on this pinterest board. And if you have any ideas that fit the vibe, please share! I have nothing but 9 more months of time.

Knights to Remember

This weekend we celebrated my 30th birthday, planned thoroughly & thoughtfully by my loving husband, Dave. On Friday, he surprised me with dinner reservations at Table Fifty-Two along with two extra dinner guests, both of my sisters Jill & Jessica.

The company was great and the feast was scrumptious including southern specialties such as goat cheese biscuits, deviled eggs, fried green tomatoes, mac n cheese and collard greens... and those were just the sides!

If you are not familiar with Table Fifty-Two, Co-owner & Chef Art Smith is the personal chef to Oprah and he was also featured on the first season of Top Chef Masters. Reservations generally need to be made months in advance so I was blown away by this thoughtful dinner :-)

The next "knight" we had a truly unique experience where about 15 of us headed out to Medieval Times for dinner and a tournament. We took a limo just to "class" it up a bit and dined (with our hands) on dragon blood soup (tomato bisque), baby dragon (roasted chicken), dragon ribs (spare rib) and potatoes. I also had the largest glass chalice of virgin daiquiri on earth.

Sadly, our Blue Knight lost his duel...

...but the night was definitely a winner!

Happy 30th Birthday, Dave!

July has sure flown by, and without a blog post at that! But what better reason to come out of cyber-hiding than to wish my wonderful, charming husband a HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY!

Happy big 3-0, Dave! I love you and am so glad to have known you for almost half of your life and even prouder to be called your wife. Cheers to many more!

Holy Mole, Rick Bayless!

I know I promised a review of my dinner at Topolobampo and luckily it was all it was cracked up to be!

Dave took me here a week or so ago for my birthday dinner, after making reservations months in advance, and we were not disappointed. The drink menu is to-die-for and I had a very unique Autumn Margarita which included ingredients such as cinnamon giving it a warmer feeling than it's limey, summery sister cocktail.

For dinner, I opted for the whole mole tasting menu (it was my birthday after all) and it was amazing! It included five mole dishes...

Tamal estilo Misantla, Mole Verde Oaxaqueno (Creamy polenta-style corn masa tamal with herby Oaxacan green mole):

Conejo Almendrado (Roasted rack of Gunthorp rabbit and almond milk-braised leg in Oaxacan estofado almendrado -- my FIRST rabbit experience):

Pescado en Mole Amarillo (Brown butter-poached Lake Superior walleye in Oaxacan yellow mole infused with hoja santa):

Puerco en Clemole (Roasted "Pata Negra" pork in old-fashioned clemole castellano -- dark dried chiles, pecans, pinenuts, hazelnuts, avocado leaf):

AND lastly,
An AMAZING Chocolate Mole with chocolate cake balls, coconut ice cream, etc. (sorry no pics)

My husband is a bit of a pickier eater so he decided against having one of the chef's whole tasting menus and got just the Sopa Azteca to start (best soup we have ever tasted) and the Puerco en Clemole (pork mole) entree instead, which was my favorite of all the moles. I will say though that Dave's full dish of the pork mole was cooked superbly yet, my smaller portion was overdone... their one and only strike against them of the night. The rest of that mole dish though, including the pumpkin bread pudding, was so amazing that the pork was more of a sideshow anyway.

The complexity of flavors in both the soup and each of the moles was indescribable. I have never had such layered and sophisticated flavors in a Mexican meal in my life, and probably never will again since I'm unsure of the next we'll splurge to go back. I will however, try the more affordable and casual Frontera Grill in the future. They share a kitchen and a drink menu.

Overall, I'd highly recommend a visit to Topolobampo next time your are looking for a special night out in the city of Chicago! My compliments to the chef, Rick Bayless!

Topolobampo, Turning 29 & Eleven Eleven Mississippi

Today is my 29th birthday (yes, the last year in my twenties) and my wonderful husband Dave is taking me to eat tonight at Topolobampo!

If any of you are Top Chef Masters fans, you probably know that this is one of winner Rick Bayless' signature restaurants in Chicago -- one of the only fine-dining Mexican restaurants in the country.

Ever since his big win, reservations are virtually impossible to get at his restaurants without a few months wait. Dave tried in October to get reservations for our November wedding anniversary and was told the first open reservation was in JANUARY! So he decided to make them for my birthday instead and surprise me with his ability to plan way ahead ;-)

Here is this month's menu and it all looks amazing! I'll write a full report about what we order and what we think in the days to come.

I also took off work tomorrow so that I could thoroughly enjoy some cocktails tonight and also have a nice 4-day birthday weekend, since Monday we are off for work for MLK day.

With the extended time of off work, I am heading home to Saint Louis Friday to celebrate my birthday with family & friends there and also to celebrate my grandpa's 90th birthday on Saturday! Yes, 90. Much more impressive than 29.

My Saint Louis birthday dinner with my immediate family will be at Eleven Eleven Mississippi. Here is their menu, and once you take a gander I'm sure you'll see why I am really excited to eat there as well. Creamy aged goat cheese polenta? Yes, please!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Artery Clogging Coconut Cake

This weekend I tried my hand at baking my first ever, completely from scratch, cake. I took the new KitchenAid mixer out of the box for the first time since receiving it at a wedding shower last year and got to work.

After reading some reviews online, I slightly adapted the Barefoot Contessa's Coconut Cake Recipe as my guide. The link shows her recipe but I changed out a few things that I'll list here. (Warning: With as much butter that is in this recipe, you'd think Ina Gardner took a page from Paula Dean's cookbook!)

Substitutions: I used coconut milk instead of regular milk, more vanilla/less almond extract, cake flour instead of regular flour, adjusted baking time, and toasted the coconut topping instead of using it as is.

Ingredients

• 3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing the pans
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon pure almond extract
• 3 cups cake flour, plus more for dusting the pans
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 4 ounces sweetened shredded coconut

For the frosting: (this made way too much frosting for my cake, but I guess I could have used some more between the layers.)

• 1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
• 1/4 teaspoon imitation coconut extract
• 1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted (I used a bit more to thicken it)
• 6 ounces sweetened shredded coconut (PLEASE NOTE: I preferred the color and texture of toasted coconut for this part, so I baked it on a baking sheet at 325 degrees for about 12 minutes. Mine was already sweetened, but here are instructions for sweetening and toasting your coconut.)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans, then line them parchment paper. Grease them again and dust lightly with flour.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until light yellow and fluffy. Crack the eggs into a small bowl. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs 1 at a time, scraping down the bowl once during mixing. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well. The mixture might look curdled; don't be concerned.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients and the milk to the batter in 3 parts, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Fold in the 4 ounces of coconut with a rubber spatula.

Pour the batter evenly into the 2 pans and smooth the top with a knife. Bake in the center of the oven for 35-45 minutes (she suggests 45-55 and that is too long!), until the tops are browned and a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool on a baking rack for 30 minutes, then turn the cakes out onto a baking rack to finish cooling.

For the frosting, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, almond and coconut extract on low speed. Add the confectioners' sugar and mix until just smooth (don't whip!).

To assemble, place 1 layer on a flat serving plate, top side down, and spread with frosting. Place the second layer on top, top side up, and frost the top and sides.

To decorate the cake, sprinkle the top with toasted coconut and lightly press more coconut onto the sides.

Serve at room temperature.

Enjoy! But with over a pound of butter and a pound of cream cheese, don't enjoy TOO often ;-)

Happy end of your Birthday Week, Dave!

A Day at the Races

On Saturday Dave & I packed a picnic and ventured to Arlington Park for a day of betting on some horse races and soaking in the sun. This was our second celebration of Dave's birthday since we rushed to the Elton John/Billy Joel concert (which was AWESOME!) on the night of his actual day, but we never shared a meal or cake or anything so we just made it a birth-week instead!

The night before, I went to the brand new Whole Foods in Lincoln Park, which is my favorite Whole Foods, or grocery store in general, on earth! There I spent way too much on way too scrumptious picnic food, including really good roast beef, gouda and pretzel rolls for sandwiches, edamame & carrot salad, pasta salad, cheese & crackers, fresh pineapple chunks, deviled eggs, etc., etc.,

Then on Saturday we got to pull out all of those lovely summery wedding gifts that we have yet to use, like out picnic basket, picnic blankets and more, packed up the Volvo and drove to the burbs!

The weather was perfectly gorgeous and my favorite summer beer Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy was on draft, what more could we ask for?

Here are a few photos from the day. Our spread:

Our mini bottle of wine we "snuck in":

And the stars of the day:

This park is GORGEOUS and we WILL be back again. It's only $7 general admission and they allow coolers for food and non-alcoholic drinks. Now that's affordable fun!

Happy 29th Birthday Hubby!

Happy 29th Birthday, Dave! I love you more than words can say.

You are my rock... My old rock ;-)

And I'm so excited to have a fun night out with you at the Elton John & Billy Joel Concert @ Wrigley tonight!

Cutest Birthday Gift Ever

Ok, it's still one hour until my birthday, but I already received a fabulous gift from my new niece and nephew (well, really I guess my sister-in-law & brother-in-law are to thank unless these kids are SUPER high-tech). It's on YouTube, check it out.

I love them!