Cumulonimbus

Click here for the special EnviTote GroupShop!

**This is the THIRD time I’m typing out this post after stupid Ecto ate it twice before. Anyone know how to fix this?**

Why am I referring to clouds again? Well, there are a multitude of reasons…but before I get to that, a definition:

In ordinary, normal, everyday English though, cumulonimbus clouds are those tall pouffy clouds that look like they’re sitting on something in the sky.

[source]

So much of today, I felt like I was above the clouds for, as I said, a multitude of reasons.

Reason #1: All of your kind and genuine comments on my post from last night truly uplifted my spirits! I checked my comments a few times today, and each and every time, my mood would get better with your amazing comments! Thank you SO much, and as my mom used to say, “poop on you!” to the negative commenters!

Reason #2: I made a fan-freaking-tastic dinner! I started out with something I’ve been thinking about since I made it last: Gina’s raw sushi rolls with cauliflower “rice”. They were just as good as last time, and I filled them with cucumber, avocado, and some shredded crabmeat.

I continued with a delicious spinach salad with a pan-roasted Ahi tuna filet. I bought the most amazing-looking tuna filets at Trader Joe’s yesterday, and I’d been thinking about them all day, so I knew they had to be on the menu. I whipped up a quick salad dressing with:

1 Tbsp. dijon mustard
1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. oregano

I shook them together and then set the dressing aside while I pan-roasted the tuna filet in a super-hot skillet with some olive and sesame oil. I over-cooked it slightly, but it was still delicious! While it cooked, I cut up my cucumbers, dressed the salad, and then sliced the tuna. The whole darn thing got sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Reason #3: Lemon Vanilla Cloud Cookies

After last night’s coconut clouds, I knew I had to perfect the recipe. I hesitate to call these meringues because they’re lacking the sugar that standard meringues have, but I’m good with calling them clouds. They sound so happy!

Lemon Vanilla Clouds

Ingredients

5 egg whites, brought to room temperature

2 packets Splenda (or 1/4 c. sugar)

2 tsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. lemon zest

1 vanilla bean, halved and scraped

Directions

Heat the oven to 200*. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the lemon juice, zest, Splenda, and vanilla, and whip until stiff peaks form. Pipe or spoon onto a clean and dry cookie sheet, then place in the oven until lightly browned and dry (about 2 hours).

Reason #4: There’s a great thing happening on my OpenSky shop tomorrow! OpenSky has been hosting cooperative shopping deals called GroupShops and I’m going to be apart of one from 9 a.m. tomorrow until midnight on Friday. All the details will be revealed tomorrow morning, but what I can tell you is that it involves EnviTotes and will be under $25!

Click here for the special EnviTote GroupShop!

So after a day of feeling above the clouds, and then eating some clouds, it’s time for me to land and go to bed shortly…

Technorati Tags: Baking, dessert, dinner, EnviTote, OpenSky, seafood, simple, simple recipe, sushi, tuna

8 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, March 9th 2010 | Tags: Baking, dessert, dinner, EnviTote, OpenSky, seafood, simple, simple recipe, sushi, tuna
Posted in fish or seafood, simple recipe

Steak House? No! Our House!

Today was one of those days that made me realize how lucky I am to be a part of this wonderful blogging community. Who else can say that they have friends from LITERALLY all over the country, many of whom they’ve never met in person??

I started my day bright and early by meeting up with two of my favorite bloggers, and girls who have been loyal readers and commenters pretty much since day one of this little blog of mine: Jenn and Caroline! We met up with each other at a childhood favorite restaurant of mine, Walker Brothers Pancake House, and as usual, the line was out the door. Luckily, they got us in and seated quickly!

I got a mushroom omelet, fruit, and a side of bacon. I only ate the strawberries out of the fruit cup…

Walker Bros. was the first place I ever remember going that had amazingly fluffy baked omelets, instead of the flat and folded over ones of so many greasy spoon places. The bacon was, well, bacon…so it was awesome! The best part though was the company and conversation. Thanks so much for a great morning!

From left: Me, Jenn, Caroline, and Caroline’s cousin

I’ve made an executive decision: all the bloggers I’ve met need to move to Chicago so that we can hang out on a regular basis.

Since I was so close, I stopped off at my mom’s house to show off the new camera, and of course, the lovely Stella was thrilled to be the subject of an impromptu photo shoot!

She’s been watching Top Model!

I came home and vegged out for a while, because its Sunday…and then set out to the grocery store with my EnviTote for a few days worth of produce and ingredients for dinners. Much to my surprise and delight, 3 lb. bags of baby spinach were on sale, buy one get one free for $3.99! Needless to say, I then needed to stock up on Green Monster ingredients too… I had a very specific dinner in mind, hence the trip to the grocery store.

Last weekend for Valentine’s Day, I bought a bunch of ingredients for broth/bouillon fondue after we ate our cheese, and found that we were too full after the first course. The ingredients went into the freezer, and I wanted to use them today. What were these ingredients? Jumbo shrimp and filet mignon!

The steaks needed a simple preparation: just a sprinkle of salt and fresh ground pepper, then a quick sear in a pan and then a few minutes under the broiler.

The shrimp though, got the royal treatment… they got Scampi-fied!

Shrimp Scampi

Ingredients

1 lb. peeled raw shrimp

2 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 c. dry white wine

juice of 1 lemon

5 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped

Directions

Heat a saucepan over medium heat. Add the butter and olive oil, then the garlic. Cook a few minutes, then add the white wine. Reduce by half. Add lemon juice and shrimp and cook until shrimp are done, about 6 minutes. Add parsley, stir and serve immediately.

In addition, I made a batch of the same creamed spinach I made recently. In all, this was, as Adam said, like Wildfire at home. Remember Wildfire? We went there at the end of my first week of camp this summer, and it’s one of our very favorite steakhouses! To hear that I successfully recreated at home a similar meal as we enjoy out was one of the best food-related compliments I’ve gotten!

All together now:

So, with a full belly and a sleepy head, and thoughts of snow days lingering in the back of my brain… I bid you good night!

Technorati Tags: bacon, beef, breakfast, Chicago dining, dinner, EnviTote, food, friends, fun, out, seafood, simple recipe

14 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, February 21st 2010 | Tags: bacon, beef, breakfast, Chicago dining, dinner, EnviTote, food, friends, fun, out, seafood, simple recipe
Posted in beef, fish or seafood, friends, simple recipe

Honeymoon, Take 2 or Ya, Mon! Goes International

Did you miss Part 1 or Part 2? Catch up!

On our third day, we spent a good amount of time hanging out at the main pool, which conveniently had a swim-up bar. Just check out this scenery:

DSCN5370 DSCN5374 DSCN5375 DSCN5415

It was quite possibly the most relaxing day at the pool I can remember in a long time! I tend to associate spending time at a pool with spending time with 12 screaming four-year-olds, but this was just relaxing. And it helped that we both had cocktails most of the day as well!

Our third night’s dinner was at the “Caribbean” themed restaurant where we were treated to some more “traditional” Caribbean food. It was beyond dark, and I couldn’t capture a picture of many of the dishes, but my meal included:

cod and tomato terrine
fresh vegetable salad
fish chowder
snapper and eggplant seasoned with cinnamon and hot pepper
“black cake”, a small gingery cake dotted with mango sauce

We had a fun time at this meal watching the little geckos skitter around the tables

I awoke the next morning a bit before Adam and took advantage of the light to take some photos of the view outside our window. This is my favorite:

Ok, and this one too:

I really couldn’t get over how lush and green it was there! After breakfast, we decided to spend the day at the beach and take advantage of a couple of the activities the resort had to offer. First, we chose to ride the giant aqua-trikes. What is an aqua-trike you might ask? This is an Aqua-Trike:

[source]

The one we rode was blue and green though, and it terrified the heck out of me! It worked a lot like a typical paddle boat, but made this awful clunking noise every third or fourth paddle. We “rode” out about 50 yards, then turned around and came back. We did manage to get this adorable picture though:

We then proceeded to relax on the beach the rest of the day. I finished reading Julie and Julia and now look forward to seeing the movie! Upon returning to the room, I realized that, while I applied sunscreen, I apparently didn’t apply enough… I was quite red!

Adam was calling me the reverse raccoon!! It was slightly painful, but luckily almost all the redness was gone by the next morning. We changed into nicer clothes and went to dinner at the nicer of the restaurants, and Italian-style place. We had a small wait, so we took advantage of the photo op:

Dinner was quite delicious, and I finally decided to suck it up and use a flash to capture some of the food we were eating. We both started with a ricotta and spinach ravioli with a creamy walnut sauce. I think this was both of our favorite dishes we ate on the whole trip!

Continued with a chicken and meatball soup:

Caprese salad:

Crispy snapper on fried polenta with yellow squash and garlic cream:

Adam got salmon in a tomato sauce with scallops:

Dessert was non-bruleed creme brulee:

And Adam got an apple tart:

It was a delicious meal, and while not “Italian” as I know it, the food was definitely good!

Make sure you come back tomorrow for part 4, in which we eat Mediterranean food, watch a “reggae” show, and have dinner with another couple!

Thanks for reading my spread-out recap… it’s helping me cope with going back to work!

Technorati Tags: dessert, dinner, dinner out, family, fun, holiday, honeymoon, seafood, Tropical

17 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, January 4th 2010 | Tags: dessert, dinner, dinner out, family, fun, holiday, honeymoon, seafood, Tropical
Posted in dinner out, family, fish or seafood

Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful…

…But my dinner was so delightful.

Wow, cheesy post title there…wow.

Seriously though, its brutal out there right now! There are HUGE snow storms coming, and it’s supposed to snow until 6 p.m. tomorrow! Apparently, winter is here… but in 9 days, we’ll be here:

I can’t freaking wait!

Dinner tonight was a big casserole dish full of deliciousness! Usually, people have childhood memories of mom’s tuna casserole. I have to say, I have NO memories of a tuna casserole mostly because my mom doesn’t like hot tuna (not to be confused with Hot Tuna, the fantastic band with members from Jefferson Airplane). My first experience with tuna casserole was in college, when some glue-like substance held together questionable tuna and mushy noodles in the dorm cafeteria.

I decided, after many requests last year from Adam, to make a tuna casserole. I mucked with a few recipes I found online, and came up with a fairly decent meal. When I was in the grocery store today, and saw that my favorite canned tuna was only $1.00 a can, I knew what dinner was going to be: Tuna Noodle Casserole.

Ingredients

14 oz. small pasta, cooked

2 cans white tuna, drained

1 can peas, drained

1 can reduced fat, low-sodium cream of mushroom soup

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 Tbsp. dried minced onions

black pepper to taste

1.5 c. shredded low-fat cheddar cheese, divided

1/2 c. panko bread crumbs

Directions

In a bowl, mix together all ingredients except the pasta and panko, reserving half the cheese. Pour the pasta into a baking dish, and top with the tuna mixture. Stir well, then top with remaining cheese and panko. Bake at 375* for about 30 minutes until heated through and the top is crunchy. Enjoy!

I love how simple and comforting this recipe is, and I love even more how MUCH it makes! I’ve got lunch for tomorrow (if there’s school) and the rest of the week!

Tonight is also one of my favorite nights of the winter: Charlie Brown Christmas night! I just love PigPen in the dancing scenes…

Have a wonderful night!!

Technorati Tags: cheese, noodles, pasta, seafood, simple recipe, tuna

15 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, December 8th 2009 | Tags: cheese, noodles, pasta, seafood, simple recipe, tuna
Posted in fish or seafood, simple recipe

Wedding Week Recap!

I know, I’ve been gone for a while… getting back to reality after the crazy and amazing week I had last week has been a little difficult, and that includes blogging. But I’m back, and ready with a week-long recap for you! Are you sitting down? Get comfortable, this is going to be a long one, and it may take some time to load, as it’s very photo-heavy…but worth it!

Monday, November 23

I worked a normal school day full of meetings and inservices, and got home to find my dad sitting on our couch! I hadn’t seen my dad since our engagement party in January, and I was so excited to see him! We sat and talked for a while, then headed out for dinner. We went to Sushi Station for a light dinner, and then to Yogen Früz since he’d never had it (with living in Oregon and all). Then, we went to Macy’s to find a tie for him for the wedding, and went our separate ways after that, at least for that day. I had a busy few days ahead of me!

Tuesday, November 24

At about 10 a.m. I left for my mom’s house. Why you might ask? Well, when my mom and dad got married, my mom and her mom spent a day baking a challah for their wedding. I wanted to do the same thing! My sister came over as well, and we got to work. After mixing and kneading the dough, letting it rise an hour, then punching it down and rising again, it was time to braid. In the end we came out with one HUGE challah, two smaller ones, and three mini ones:

Wednesday, November 25

It was a hair day! I met my mom at our favorite hair place for highlights, an eyebrow wax (desperately needed) and a professional blow-dry. The result was fantastic, but of course, I forgot to take a picture! I then spent the remainder of the afternoon dodging “Blackout Wednesday” traffic to get our centerpieces and other supplies to our wedding venue, then picking up Lizz’s bridesmaid’s dress from the tailor. We had sandwiches from Boloney’s for dinner, and I believe I was asleep by 10 p.m.

Thursday, November 26

Thanksgiving day! I debated not being a food blogger and just enjoying the day, but I realized that, down the line, I’d be bummed if I didn’t document the meal. My mom’s best friend put out an amazing spread as usual, and no one was left with an empty stomach. Just a sampling of the eats:

Friday, November 27

Rehearsal day! Adam had to work Black Friday morning at his part-time job, so I spent the morning getting last minute things together and packing my bag for two nights. When he got home, we went for lunch, and then drove down to our wedding venue for a quick rehearsal with everyone involved. The guys left after that, and the girls went to get manicures and pedicures.

Afterwards, we drove like crazy people to the rehearsal dinner at Gino’s East Pizzeria for some Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, salad, and pasta. At that point, I said bye to Adam until the wedding! We still talked later in the night, but it was odd not seeing each other.

Saturday, November 28

Wedding day!!! I’ll let the pictures tell the story… it was truly the happiest and best day of my life so far.

We spent the night dancing, celebrating, and well, it was the best wedding EVER! I’m beyond thrilled with how well it all went, and even MORE thrilled to be married to my amazing HUSBAND (I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of saying that!) We were beyond exhausted by the time the night was over, and made a rather surprising decision for:

Sunday, November 29

Rather than staying in a hotel for Sunday night, Adam and I opted to go home and sleep in our own bed. We had some friends in from out of town we wanted to see before they left, and the measly 4 hours of sleep Saturday night just weren’t cutting it! We both took long naps after brunch, and decided to spend our “hotel money” on a great dinner out to celebrate. We went to Shaw’s Crab House near our house for a fantastic meal.

(I know what you’re thinking…enough with the wedding stuff and get onto some food!)

We started with a spicy crab california roll:

And shared a cup of the amazingly creamy clam chowder:

We decided to really splurge and get what we REALLY wanted, so I got King crab legs, the best I’ve ever had:

Adam (the HUSBAND! Notice his ring?!?!) got these Nantucket scallops with spinach:

Rather than getting dessert at the restaurant, we opted instead to have dessert at home. On Saturday, we didn’t get ONE piece of our wedding cake! Well, we each got a tiny bite when we cut it, but that was IT! So what did we do? We had slices of our top tier! Instead of saving it for a full year, we had one piece Sunday, we’ll have another Saturday (to celebrate one week married) another at one month after the honeymoon, another at 6 months, and the rest at a year.

This cake was alternating chocolate and red velvet with milk chocolate buttercream and white icing:

(Are you still here?)

Thank you for reading the recap of the BEST week of my life… here’s to a hundred more years! Adam, I love you more than anything!

Speaking of honeymoons: We leave for our honeymoon December 19, and obviously, I’ll need guest posters! Send me an email if you’re interested!

Technorati Tags: Chicago dining, dad, dinner out, family, food, friends, fun, out, pizza, sandwich, seafood, wedding

48 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, December 2nd 2009 | Tags: Chicago dining, dad, dinner out, family, food, friends, fun, out, pizza, sandwich, seafood, wedding
Posted in dinner out, family, fish or seafood, friends

I Heart Whole Foods

After work today, I had to drive out to my mom’s office for some wedding related stuff. My mom’s office is in a suburb which is right near the day camp that I work at all summer. This suburb has all sorts of wonderful things in it that we don’t yet have out here in chain-restaurant-ville… but most importantly, it has a HUGE and GORGEOUS Whole Foods!

This specific whole foods has not one, not two, but THREE enormous salad and hot bars, everything is constantly refreshed and it has, by far, the BEST selection of different foods I’ve ever seen at any Whole Foods. I haven’t had Whole Foods hot bar in months, and when I realized that my route home from my mom’s office would take me RIGHT past this mecca of food goodness, I knew what dinner was going to be.

I noticed immediately that the store had been rearranged because just to the left of the door was a wall of bars. Every single kind of bar I’ve ever wanted to try was sitting there, beckoning… I managed to restrain myself:

Snacks for the rest of the week!

Then I perused the hot and cold bars for a while. I thought and thought, and eventually decided on what dinner would be. I didn’t want a ridiculous conglomeration of odd foods, but I wanted some variety.

I decided on a spicy tuna roll from the sushi bar, which I thought was brown rice, but alas, it was not. Still delicious!

I love Whole Foods’ spicy sauce. It’s not too mayo-y.

I also, of course, got a container of some salad randomness:

Romaine, spinach, topped with hummus, cucumbers, marinated mushrooms, baked tofu, and a small spoonful of the best macaroni and cheese

I’m quite satisfied. There’s a little bit of hummus and mushrooms left, and I’m trying to decide whether or not to save it for later or eat it now! there’s some pumpkin ice cream in the freezer calling my name…

You tell me, what’s your biggest Whole Foods/Health food store weakness?

Technorati Tags: dinner out, food, out, salad, seafood, sushi, tofu, tuna, vegetables, vegetarian

16 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, November 16th 2009 | Tags: dinner out, food, out, salad, seafood, sushi, tofu, tuna, vegetables, vegetarian
Posted in dinner out, fish or seafood, tofu, vegetarian

Bachelorette Party Recap!

Only a food blogger… I swear, only a food blogger would do what I did at her bachelorette party.

There was much drinking (as was expected) and a great time was had by all… There were quite a few embarrassing pictures taken of me, mostly involving odd facial expressions and looks of shock while opening gifts. There was one photo, actually, that one Meghan said she’d give me $100 if I put it on the blog. I deleted it. I guess I can share one goofy one with you…

I should rewind a bit. My sister Leigh(my Maid of Honor) did a fantastic job planning a very “Mara” night out. Thanks to some cool chef people my sister knows, she was able to get reservations at The Bristol, a restaurant that does not take reservations. It’s a very cool restaurant with interesting food and a focus on sustainable ingredients.

Lizz and I got there early (a RARE occurrence for us) and went up to the upstairs bar while we waited for the rest of the party to arrive.

While we waited, we ordered drinks. Little did I know that the drinks we ordered would be some of the best I’ve ever had, EVER.

This was called a Dardanian Cocktail. It contained gin, muddled pear, elderflower and sour. It was un-freaking-believable. I drank oh… 4 of these.

This was called a Cu-Cui, which had pear vodka, cucumber puree, and something else I don’t remember. Lizz kept saying it was like someone took a salad and put it in a drink. It was also amazing.

Before we sat down at the table, I made it a point to get a picture with Leigh and Lizz

The rest of the party finally arrived, and we headed downstairs to the table

We perused the menus and decided to share a bunch of appetizers and each get our own entrees. Now, you all knew that I’d take pictures of my food. I actually debated blogging about the night, but then Lizz reminded me that if I didn’t, I’d probably regret it… so, here goes (some of the pics are blurry…I did my best!):

I ordered another pear cocktail, and my friend Erin proceeded to order me drinks.

Another pear cocktail as well as a cocktail with Patrón silver tequila and citrus

Then the appetizers came… duck fat fries (the BEST I’ve ever had, hands down)

These came with homemade ketchup and horseradish cream sauce… SO AMAZING!

And, there was savory monkey bread with dill butter… which luckily, Leigh remembered to take a picture of with one piece remaining while I scolded myself… bad food blogger!

There was an apple and manchengo cheese salad

And Leigh and I split fresh radishes with butter and salt. An amazing combo if you’ve never tried it!

Then the entrees came out. Not only did I take pictures of MY food, but I passed my camera around and made everyone else take pictures of THEIR food. I’m really not positive of what all this stuff was… I’ll label the ones I’m sure of.

Half chicken with mustard spaetzle and apple salad (there were about 5 of these at the table)

Goat meat ravioli type things. Thanks for the great picture Meghan!

Raviolo. A HUGE ravioli filled with fresh ricotta cheese and egg yolk. Still smacking myself for not ordering this myself!

Fresh noodles with something called mojama. It’s a Spanish delicacy of cured tuna, grated over the top

Organic grass-fed beef with sweet potatoes (they’re in the background!)

No idea… greens of some sort?

Leigh and I split this whole roasted Pompano fish. I’ve never had more buttery fish, ever!

There were also desserts that were devoured before a picture could be taken, but I assure you, they were FANTASTIC!

After dinner, the group split up and a bunch of us headed north to a quasi-improv show called Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind. I say quasi-improv because while true improv isn’t rehearsed, this is… it’s 30 plays in 60 minutes, the cost of admission is $9 plus whatever is rolled on a 6-sided die, and if they sell out, they order pizza. We’ve been going to this show for the better part of the last 15 years, and it was the PERFECT thing for us to do. The doors didn’t open for another 45 minutes when we got there, so we went around the corner to a favorite bar, Hopleaf, for another drink. I got a raspberry Lambic.

[source]

We then went back, got in line, and took a final group picture.

From Left: Me, Lizz, Leigh, Leah, Mom, Anna, and Kristin

It was an amazingly fun and perfect night out! Thank you SO MUCH to Leigh,, all who came, and everyone who helped make it a night I’ll never forget! I love you all!

I spent the night at Lizz’s house, and we had the luxury of going to IHOP for brunch… there’s something about breakfast food cooked by someone else that’s just so great! Dinner has yet to be decided…

Technorati Tags: beef, Bristol, cheese, Chicago dining, dinner, dinner out, family, food, friends, fun, noodles, out, red meat, restaurant, salad, seafood, thank you, wedding

19 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, November 15th 2009 | Tags: beef, Bristol, cheese, Chicago dining, dinner, dinner out, family, food, friends, fun, noodles, out, red meat, restaurant, salad, seafood, thank you, wedding
Posted in beef, dinner out, family, friends

Bang Bang

After days and days of not having dinner together, when Adam offered to take us to dinner, I took him up on it! We hadn’t had dinner together since Sunday! We debated back and forth about where to go, and when Adam suggested Bonefish Grill, again, I took him up on it!

We’ve been to Bonefish a couple times, and each time we get something different for our entrees, but we keep one thing the same: our appetizer. They are famous for this one appetizer called Bang Bang Shrimp, and honestly, I don’t care how terrible they are for me, they are SO DELICIOUS it’s worth it! They’re spicy, crispy, slightly sweet, and amazing…

For my entree, I got pan-roasted Norwegian salmon topped with spinach, bacon, and gorgonzola. It was a bit too much gorgonzola for me, but it was definitely delicious. The sauce was just the right level of creaminess, and the mashed potatoes were stellar! The veggies on the side was a succotash with corn, edamame, peppers, and bacon:

Adam got “Lobster Thermidor Mahi-Mahi” which had a sherry-spiked sauce on it. Also quite delicious! It was a grilled mahi filet topped with lobster and crab, and then the sauce had lump crab in it.

We both agreed that the food was delicious, and great for a weeknight date-night out… but it wasn’t “eyes closed” good. I’m never disappointed with Bonefish Grill though, so it was a fantastic Thursday night! Thanks for a fun night Adam!

Thanks to a contest I won from Two Boos Who Eat, my fridge is now stocked with Chobani yogurt for the morning, so I’m actually excited to get to bed so I can eat breakfast in the morning! I got one of the elusive pineapple ones…so I can’t wait!

Have a wonderful night! TGIFF!

Technorati Tags: cheese, Chicago dining, dinner out, giveaway, out, seafood

13 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, November 5th 2009 | Tags: cheese, Chicago dining, dinner out, giveaway, out, seafood
Posted in dinner out, fish or seafood, giveaway

Fall Has Fell

Something happened today that really and truly signifies that Fall is here. No, I didn’t carve pumpkins, or jump in leaves, or even go apple picking. No, nothing that typical.

I did this:

Yep, the nails are O.P.I. Lincoln Park After Dark, my favorite fall shade of nail polish EVER! They’ll be back to a French manicure for the wedding, but for now? Now they’re going to be more “fall”. I could see my breath on my way home from the nail salon, I broke out a fleece jacket and the Ugg boots, and am rocking some cozy sweatpants tonight. Fall has definitely fallen…

We celebrated Friday with an old tradition, Sushi Friday! We decided to head to Sushi Station due to the variety and the lack of waiting for our orders.

In lieu of my usual photo montage, I made a slideshow of our sushi adventure. Enjoy the randomness of our Sushi Station dinner:

Original Video – More videos at TinyPic

Make sure you come back tomorrow for Cute Food Saturday, and Sunday for a very special announcement! OH! And check out Coco’s Dr. Kracker Giveaway!

Technorati Tags: Asian, Chicago dining, dinner, dinner out, food, fun, seafood, sushi

11 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, October 16th 2009 | Tags: Asian, Chicago dining, dinner, dinner out, food, fun, seafood, sushi
Posted in Asian, dinner out, fish or seafood

L’Shana Tovah!

A very happy new year from your resident Jewish foodie blogger!

Adam and I are laying low tonight, after a delicious dinner at Asian Noodle House. We met a friend of Adam’s there, and we got quite adventurous with our ordering!

Lovely crab rangoon

Fried pork and shrimp wontons and fresh spring rolls

Watermelon slush with giant tapioca

Malaysian-style Chow Fun with shrimp, chicken, squid, krab, and tofu…so good!

Adam’s friend Oyster with her braised noodles and BBQ pork.

Don’t forget to enter the Alouette Cheese $150 cheese tasting party giveaway!!! You have until Sunday night, and then comments will be closed!

L’Shana Tovah to all my Jewish friends, and a very happy Friday to you all! Make sure to come back tomorrow for Cute Food Saturday!

Technorati Tags: alouette, Asian, dinner out, friends, giveaway, pork, restaurant, seafood

4 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, September 18th 2009 | Tags: alouette, Asian, dinner out, friends, giveaway, pork, restaurant, seafood
Posted in Asian, contest/giveaway, dinner out, friends, giveaway

What's For Dinner?

Cumulonimbus

Click here for the special EnviTote GroupShop!

Click here for the special EnviTote GroupShop!

8 Comments

Steak House? No! Our House!

14 Comments

Honeymoon, Take 2 or Ya, Mon! Goes International

17 Comments

Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful…

15 Comments

Wedding Week Recap!

48 Comments

I Heart Whole Foods

16 Comments

Bachelorette Party Recap!

19 Comments

Bang Bang

13 Comments

Fall Has Fell

11 Comments

L’Shana Tovah!

4 Comments

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