Valentine's Day Pasta Making

Last year thanks to Groupon, Tim and I went to a pasta making class at a cooking school in Chicago (Cooking Fools). It was really fun and surprisingly easy to make pasta from scratch that you can then fill with all manner of tasty things.

We hadn't actually got round to making any since our class. So, Valentines Day, the perfect time for a low key night to try out our new pasta making skills. During the class we used proper hand winding pasta makers, which of course it seemed the whole of Chicago seemed to be sold out of the day we actually want one, so we had to resort to rolling the dough by hand. (I say we, to his credit Tim did most of the hard work of kneading the dough and making it into pasta.)

We have an Island in the middle of our kitchen with a marble top, so it was perfect! We decided on Ravioli filled with Walnuts  and Ricotta, with a pancetta, cream and pea sauce. It turned out pretty darn tasty. We have since acquired a proper pasta maker, so hopefully there is more fresh pasta to come.

Playtime in New York

So.... my time in New York has come to an end for now....

Between Christmas and now I did have a little bit of time to play though in New York.

Tim came out for the Martin Luther King long weekend which was awesome. Here's some of what we got up too...

Hung out in a very frozen Central Park...

Ate some yummy vietnamese food at OBao in New York...

Hung out in Bryant Park drinking Champagne watching the ice skating....

Wandered past the Rockefeller Centre....

And went to a Rangers Ice Hockey game and the magnificent Madison Square Garden...

I also went to a new exercise class that they do at the gym I went to in New  York called Glee Club! You dance... and you sing.... We learnt the dance moves to Thriller. I'm sure that will come in handy one day.
It was pretty fun. It was pretty much exactly like the show, some nightmare broadway/diva types, some flamboyant guys and a few more round but super keen ladies (i.e. me). This is the video of the class...
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4385954/glee-club-workout?r_src=ramp

Also my lovely team while in New York threw me a wicked leaving party. I was presented with this spangly tiara, we ate lots of yummy Italian food and then proceeded to ride a mechanical bull.... I still have the bruise to prove it and it's been a week! A great send off.


And last but not least I've been meaning to get a picture of this for ages.... we my new found paparazzi skills this is what I mostly look like now...

San Francisco - Anne's Birthday Trip May 2010

For my birthday this year Tim and I headed out to the west coast, to San Francisco. 

We flew out during the day on Friday, it was actually quite nice not to just rush from work to the airport on Thursday night like we normally would for a long weekend, but its does mean you lose most of that day, however we were much more relaxed!

We were staying at The Clift, a hotel that I had found on my latest obsession www.jetsetter.com. Turned out well. We were a few block from Union Square and the Trolleys. Once we got in we set off in hunt of some food for a picnic lunch the next day. We used the Trolleys, which although are a tourist trap and actually pretty handy to get around. We bought 3 day passes which turned out to be pretty worth the money. 

Those trolleys are mad, there is a poor brake guy with and actual giant lever on the back of the trolley, and is the only thing stopping you from flying down the super steep San Francisco hills. Rather him than me. We hopped off near China Town and wandered towards the Italian area, where we found lunch for the next day and a lovely bistro/cafe to sit in the sun and watch the world go by. Good espresso too.

Saturday (birthday day) was jam packed. We took the trolley down to Fisherman's wharf. I love being down by the sea, hanging out with boats and seafood is one of my favourite pastimes. We watched them turn around the trolley at the end of the track, amazing that they still just do it by hand, and then headed off towards the Golden Gate bridge for our picnic. It was an irritatingly hazy day (as I'm told it often is in San Fran), so we couldn't quite see the top of the bridge, but it was awesome to see it anyways.

After the trek there and back we went for a quick walk through Fisherman's wharf, lots of yummy looking crab and seafood stands. And of course the pier 39 Sealions.

We then jumped on the Ferry to Alcatraz Island. There is a great audio tour around the old prison island. It's amazing to imagine what it would of been like to of been there, both as a prisoner or as a guard or their family. You can even hear to sounds from the city from the Island, must of been tortuous on its own. There's a great view of the city from the ferry and from the island. We returned back to the hotel to discover we both were seriously sunburnt.... you would of thought we'd learnt by now. We met a bunch of Thoughtworkers that Tim and I are friends with for a birthday dinner. Awesome to see everyone again, and also to meet new people that I'd heard an awful lot about.

On Sunday I decided that I hadn't eaten enough of the seafood at Fisherman's Wharf so we headed back there for lunch in the Ferry Building. Really good fresh crab cakes and shrimp sandwiches. We then met up with Ian and Suzi and headed towards the Haight district. Forgetting that it was the Bay to Breakers fun run that day, the place was a mad house. Definitely a time to see the more erm eccentric side of San Francisco.

 We had a lovely time in San Francisco. A great place for eating! We didn't go to the Wine Country on this trip as we thought it would be too rushed, so I'm definitely looking forwards to that someday in the not too distant future hopefully.

Baconfest Chicago 2010

See the main website for Baconfest Chicago 2010 here.

Tickets were sold out within the first day of sale, the very first Baconfest came to Chicago in April. I was sat in Atlanta airport waiting for my flight back to Chicago in February and I got a text from Tim saying "Fancy going to a Baconfest in April?" my reply was "You really need to ask?! I'm in." We love bacon.

Our friend Steve had been to a preliminary  run in the Fall at The Publican. They asked a bunch of guest chefs to cooks a bacon-oriented dish and it was up to the audience to taste and judge the best. It was such a success they organised a fully fledged Baconfest for the spring.

For $45, you could choose from the morning shift (11am to 2pm) or the afternoon shift (3pm to 6pm). There would be 12 chefs from local restaurants, with their bacon-inspired dishes. You also got a goody bag, drink tickets and access to the downstairs vendor area.

Some sample dishes:
Bacon Tacos with Ramp salsa and truffle cabbage - The Primehouse.

Vanilla Bacon Icecream with Ahi Amarillo caramel and a Curry Bacon Crumble (YES! Bacon icecream!) - Chalkboard

Spring Pea Bacon and Pecorino Salad - The Purple Pig  (one of my favourites)

Pork Belly Frisee Salad with Soft Boiled Quail Egg - Balsan (this WAS my favourite)

Bacon snickers Bar and Bacon Cappuccino - Atwood Cafe. (By all accounts this was really good, but they'd run out by the time we got there :()

At the bar there was:

Bloody Mary - with bacon in it...

And... Bacon Vodka Milkshake...

There was a vendor selling area downstairs. I never realised that Bacon could be put into so many things...
Bacon flavoured popcorn, chocolate covered bacon, bacon cupcakes.... to name just a few. There was also an awesome array of bacon-inspired board games, jewelry (?!) and action figures.

There were a few die-hard bacon fans sporting some awesome t-shirts too:

For the first few dishes I said "This is genius, and a bargain.....". Tell you what, after all of that I was feeling pretty yuk. When you walked into the room there was literally a wall of bacon fat air that hit you... So lack of air was a bit of a downfall. It would be awesome if it was outside next year in a street vendor style. Also, I didn't even get to try everything as lots of the chefs had run out of their dish pretty quickly. But, for the first year, it was an awesome experience. Sign me up for next year!

World Cup Downhill, Lake Louise, 28th November 2009

Last year I went to one of the World Cup downhill skiing runs and had a brilliant time. So I managed to persuade Tim to come with me for a weekend in the mountains this year. It was the first time we'd attempted to go skiing together, so I was quite nervous and excited!

It was US Thanksgiving weekend so I had the luxury of having Tim in Calgary for 5 whole days. It was a particularly wet snowy evening when we set off, seemed that Calgary was caught unawares so the roads hadn't been treated and were particularly treacherous. It took us a massive 2 hours to get to COP, a trip that normally takes 20 mins, at which point I drove up the on ramp to get onto the Trans Canada highway which goes to Banff, as I drove up the sheet of ice that was supposed to be a road, everyone started sliding backwards including me, most scared ever been, thankfully having a Canadian sitting next to me who knows what to do helped, and as everyone else was stuck too, they all got out and helped push each one of us up the road. Some crazy stupid drivers out there.

Thankfully the snow hadn't fallen past the outskirts of Calgary and the road to Banff was completely dry. We made it to our hotel and I was defiantly thinking that I had deserved a bottle of wine.

We made reservations at The Bison, on Bear St in Banff. We had had brunch there when we met up with Tim's sister in the summer and were really impressed and also had heard rave reviews from some of our friends, so were looking forward to having dinner there.
The atmosphere was nice and there are some interesting things on the menu, we had an unusual bottle of wine called Boom Boom! (admittedly we picked it purely because of the name) accompanied by a meat and cheese platter full of bison meat, duck, venison and wild boar. Yum. Highly recommend it to anyone wanting a nice meal in Banff, slightly elevated tourist prices but worth it I reckon.

The next day we headed to Lake Louise, we got Tim all geared up for his first ski in 15 years or something. I always love the atmosphere at the races. It's free to go and watch so if you don't want to ski and just watch the racing in the finish area that's perfectly acceptable. They have free hot cider and cookies and a marshmallow roasting fire pits. They also give out wee cow bells, meaning that all the racers get a rapturous reception as they cross the finish line. A great positive energy, and it's fun spotting all the "famous" racers ;-)

We then went for a bit of a ski, and credit to Tim he was pretty receptive to his ski instructing girlfriend trying to help him. heehee.

Cupcake Challenge - Crave vs. Buttercream

I love a good cupcake as much as the next girl.
So when I moved to Calgary I was overjoyed to discover Crave , the ultimate cupcake shop on 17th Ave SW. (They also have a shop in Kensington)
They sell normal sized cupcakes, mini cupcakes (my fave!) and also cookies too. You have a choice of a chocolate or vanilla base and then a multitude of toppings, my favorites being Va Va Vanilla and The Princess on vanilla cake. I prefer the mini ones, the large ones seem just too indulgent, but the mini ones seem to have just the rate ratio of topping to cake, in a handy two bites. The mini ones also handily fit into my cupcake holder that Crave also sell.
Recently a rival cupcake shop has opened on 17th Ave, Buttercream. I thought I would take it upon myself to find out which was better and would I be converted.

On Saturday I hit up Crave first, getting my two favorite minis, they had been freshly baked not long before, and they put them in a box for me (which irritatingly was too big for them so they fell over in my bag and go squished, hence the less than elegant photos below!). I then went on down to Buttercream, They had lots of the big ones left but not many minis. When I asked the lady for just one vanilla one she went hunting out the back and found me one.

I must of looked like a lunatic carrying my precious cupcakes in my hands down 17th Ave, but I found a park to sit down in to conduct my experiment. First I had to put my squashed ones back together. I tried the Buttercream one first, the sponge was nice and light, the topping was also quite light, still tasty though. The crave one again had a light sponge, slightly crisp too, the topping is pretty rich and you can definitely taste the butter cream. Both pretty damn nice.

In conclusion, although the Buttercream cupcake was a bit lighter, if like me, you treat yourself to a single cupcake every now and again, if you're gonna do it, do it properly, and go for the most indulgent taste of the two and that would my old friend Crave! Yay!

So Crave still holds me for now, and next time I must remember not to try my cupcake challenge for breakfast....

Weddings, Banff and a night out at a "microclub"

Last weekend I had the pleasure of Tim in Calgary for a whole 5 days. Yay!

On Friday we went to I think my favourite sushi place in Calgary, Zen 8 - more pricey that the other sushi places but way nicer in my opinion. Had a nice bottle of sake too. nom nom.

Saturday saw us going to Milt and Judy's wedding. Tim used to go to university with Milt and so it was a pretty good reunion with a lot of his university friends. They got married in a church in Kensington, they are both Chinese and Milt's family is pretty large so they got an impressive turnout.

All glamed up Tim, I, Abe and Carol headed off for a bite to eat and stopped by Mountain Equipment Co-Op for them to get a backpack to put their son Bryce in. We certainly looked out of place in a camping shop dolled up in our wedding gear!
We were blessed with a beautiful sunny day, not to hot but warm enough. The evening 'do was in the stampede grounds. Huge reception of 300-400 people, beautiful set up and for that many people must of been run with military precision.

The next day we headed out to Banff for the day. Tim's sister Kim and her husband were randomly in Calgary picking up a friend from the UK from the airport. They live down in Nelson which is in inner British Columbia, in the Rockies. Tim and Kim haven't seen each other for a couple of years so it was pretty good luck that they both were passing through Calgary on the same weekend. We drove up to Banff town and met them at the Bison Restaurant & Lounge for brunch. The food there is divine..... definitely must go back. Banff is quite different in the summer, nice but almost like a different place. They were right when people told me it was busier in the summer than in the winter though. Feels weird going to the mountains when they're not covered in snow! Wrong somehow.
It was great to meet some more of Tim's family. Have to confess I was pretty nervous. Turns out there was no need to be though. Felt like we all got on immediately, Kim and Wes are lovely people, seem very kind and very in love. Look forward to getting to spend some more time with them at some stage.
After hanging out in Banff for a few hours we headed back to Calgary and went to Farm for dinner. I love that place. We consumed a bottle of champagne in celebration of Tim selling his condo here and ate a large pile of cheeses and local meats. Good weekend on the food front!

This week I have working away as usual. Our dev team on the project I'm working on has shrunk recently and I was quite worried about the dynamics. But actually it's turned out to be working quite well. Which is nice. I am having a super lazy weekend this weekend, which is awesome. Long lie in's, PJ's.... Got all my hair chopped off yesterday, now its just above my shoulders. Then JJ, Sarah, Amit and Michelle and I all headed out for a few drinks last night. We went to Meet, and then the Milk Tiger Lounge. Nice place, lots of petites Bouches, (small food on a stick to you and me). Again, YUM. Then we ventured to Habitat which is a wee Micro Club. It was pretty small.... Although we all showed our age and gave up a 1.20am. Nice night though.

My Birthday in New York

I spent my 24th Birthday in New York this year. In the company of the lovely Tim.

We had an absolutely brilliant time. We met each other at Newark airport. I flew in from Calgary and Tim from Chicago on the Thursday evening.


Tim had organised a lovely hotel just off Broadway and between Times Square and Central Park. The whole thing was utterly serial and completely met my expectations. At times I felt like I was walking around a movie set haven seen most of the sights a thousand times on the TV. Amazing.

It was lovely and warm in NYC, and we spent my actual birthday having a great picnic in Central Park. We wandered around for hours and only covered a tiny part of the park! We also headed to the Central Park Zoo. Unfortunatly didn't bump into any of the animals from the Madagascar movie. But then I guess thats because they're still there...

We then walked down 5th Ave, where I drooled at the shops. Headed to the Rockefellor Centre and up to the Top of The Rock. Amazing views. Then out for a nice dinner.

The Next day saw us visiting Grand Central Station, the New York Public Library and then heading to a Broadway Show. We went to see Avenue Q. Highly recommend everyone to go and see. Hilarious. Followed by dinner at a lovely Seafood resturant where I had the obligatory Cosmopolitan cocktail, and then a nice walk up around the area.

We headed to more of the southern Manahatten areas on the Sunday. Took a trip out to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty, quite an overwhelming thing to see that close up, and then Ellis Island. Provided some amazing views of Manhatten and the Hudson River. We then walked up towards ground zero. Very eerie area, we wanted to walk round it to just gage the sheer scale of what was left behind, not somewhere you want to linger though, very sad. Then onto to Wall St and the City Hall and along the Brooklyn Bridge

Then came the incredible Megu. An upmarket sushi resturant that my Lonely Planet had suggested. Quite an amazing experience. Incredible atmosphere and insides, and the sushi was pretty amazing.... probably shouldn't of ordered the wine size bottle of Sake for the two of us though!

On Monday we attempted to head home. Spent a LONG time in Newark airport as our flight to Chicago had been cancelled. 5 hours later I was on my way home to Calgary via Toronto and Tim caught the second flight out that left for Chicago.

A weekend I will remember forever.