One of Dallas’s Christmas gifts from Amanda were spices from Penzey’s Spices. We’ve had these spices out on our countertop since then and have been having fun trying them while cooking. They’re very good. And how cute. Monopoly cards that give tips about uses. And I love the papers seals that say “Love to Cook — Cook to Love.”

I’m kind of embarassed it took me so long to post about this and say a public thank you, but over the holidays (on December 20), I totally won this awesome New England Gift Box from Eat Boutique. I have followed Erin’s blog, Erin Cooks, for quite some time and when she had a contest there, I entered on a whim. And won!!! These were the goodies in the box:

• Slightly sweet, totally crunchy granola from Cow & Crumb (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
• A caramel sauce made from goat’s milk from Fat Toad Farm (Brookfield, Vermont)
• Lark (Essex, Massachusetts) whole wheat oat cookies with cranberries and bittersweet chocolate
• A cherrywood smoked sea salt for finishing soups, roasts and veggies from Salt Traders (Ipswich, Massachusetts)
• One of the best maple syrups from Sweet Brook Farm (Williamstown, Massachusetts)

I haven’t tried everything yet, but what I have has been so yummy! Thanks, Erin and thank you, Eat Boutique!

Unlike the last two years, Paul Baker decided not to celebrate his birthday at Spring World this year (2010, 2011) and instead we all went to Cafe Laguardia. I’d never been to Cafe Laguardia before and I quite liked the food.

I wanted to order this:

When the waitress came over to take our order, Paul said, “You have red snapper on the menu six different ways, which is the best?” And the waitress said, “We’re all out of the red snapper fillets, so you can have a whole red snapper or you can have none.” Paul got the whole red snapper (and made out with it). I had none. Instead I had this:

Roast Pork (Pernil De Cerdo Asado), sliced pork lightly sauteed with onions and garlic sauce. For an appetizer we all split some pork that was slow roasted for 16 hours and it was so good, I asked the waitress which entree was most like it and this is what she pointed me towards. SO GOOD. And a big portion. I took half of it home and had a delicious pork quesadilla the next day!

Obviously Paul loved his fish too. He sure cleaned it off the bones!

At the end they brought out flan for Paul’s “birthday cake.” I didn’t try it, but he said it was good. Happy birthday, Paul!

Yesterday Jen and Chad hosted a superbowl party. I went, but Dallas is in Las Vegas, so he missed out. Or, I’m sure he’d say we missed out on his fun in Vegas. There was a ton of great food. Everyone brought something. I brought these cute (if I do say so myself) cookies.

I am not a huge fan of sugar cookies, so I made these chocolate roll-out cookies that I found on Smitten Kitchen. I decorated with both royal icing and chocolate royal icing using the outline and flood method. The Giants and the Patriots were playing so I took their quarterbacks numbers to use on the jerseys. Eli Manning is #10 and Tom Brady is #12.

The cookies were pretty good, but I think I’m still not a huge, huge fan of roll-out cookies with royal icing. There were plenty of kids at the party, though, and they all seemed to love the cookies. I don’t know if their parents loved how red and blue their mouths became after a cookie or two, but, oh well!

I didn’t really favor either team, but since the Giants beat the Packers and pushed them out of the race, I sort of wanted them to win. And they did.

Last Sunday, a British singer-songwriter called Rumer was featured on CBS Sunday Morning. Dallas and I like to watch this program, even though we’re convinced it’s aimed towards retirees. You can tell by all the laxative and AARP commercials! But on the Monday following the segment, Rumer’s album hit #1 on iTunes, so we can’t be the only ones watching. Then again, maybe there are a lot of retirees using iTunes!

On Thursday, Dallas, now 5 days into his Rumer obsession, was watching her videos on YouTube. This is probably her most famous song (and video), Aretha:

Well, Dallas noticed on the YouTube channel that Rumer was playing that night in Chicago at Lincoln Hall. He got so excited and asked if I wanted to go. I hadn’t really listened to much of her music since seeing the segment, but the show was only $13 and would fit in perfectly after our dinner at Glenn’s, so we got our tickets. And I did some cramming by listening to her album a few times.

If you’ve never heard of Rumer, don’t be surprised. Her album went Platinum in the UK and hit the #3 spot, but she’s pretty much unknown in the U.S. She has appeared onstage with Elton John and Burt Bacharach once flew her to his home in California so he could hear her sing. But yeh, pretty much no one here has heard of her. Back at home she performs with 8-piece orchestras, but here? A guy on keyboards, a guy on guitar and a guy with the most scaled down percussion you can imagine. Very low key.

The room was sparsely populated. I’d say there were maybe 100 people there? It was not crowded at all. You could basically walk up as close to the stage as you wanted. Must be quite a change compared to what Rumer is used to in the UK! And her voice was so clear and beautiful. It sounded exactly like the album. There are no crazy recording studio tricks that were used there. Dallas describes her as some kind of cross between Karen Carpenter, Carole King and Mama Cass. Very interesting. I hope she makes it and becomes more popular in the United States!

Also, a surprise at the show. We were sitting in the outer room waiting for the opening act to finish and who walks by? Jamie! She was there with Fitz. Totally unplanned, but nice to hang out with them during the show.

Oh, and here’s a photo of the percussionist. He was shaking a shaker percussion thingy and hitting his hand on the box that he was sitting on. That was about it. Somehow it sounded just like a drum. Oh, and I think he might have had a tambourine controlled by his foot.

And one more song that I like, Thankful:

Back in November or December I realized that I hadn’t been to Glenn’s Diner for a long time, so I emailled some friends who we usually go there with – Jen, Chad, Kristin, Brian, Jill – and tried to arrange a date. It all got lost in the holidays, but in January we rescheduled. This week we made or visit.

We tried to think back to when the last time we were at Glenn’s and it was June 2010 for Jen’s birthday! One and a half years ago! Such a shame because I love Glenn’s. The seafood is always so fresh and delicious. I had scallops with a mushroom, bacon sherry cream sauce. ZOMG. So delicious. And Glenn’s doesn’t skimp. I had six huge seared sea scallops. YUM. Dallas, Chad and Jen got the all-you-can-eat shrimp, which is a Thursday night special.

What a fun night to hang out with everyone. And Halle and Quinn were our constant sources of entertainment, of course. Can’t wait to go back!

A few months ago Jess and I attended a CHIRP event, The First Time: First Date at Beat Kitchen. It was so much fun, we decided to go again and this time drag Sara and Loden along with us. (They actually wanted to attend the first time, but couldn’t.) The theme this time was first record. I knew one reader very well, Chuck, and a few others were friends of friends. There were several Chicagoists that I got to see and catch up with a bit. I missed the Hixx though! Oh well. Next time! (You better attend the next time, Margaret!).

Here’s a lineup of everyone who read essays about their first record:

John Morrison of Subism
Shawn Campbell of CHIRP Radio
Sabrina Harper of Second City
Whet Moser of Chicago Magazine
Jessica Galliart of Red Eye
Chuck Sudo of Chicagoist

Unlike last time when we were sitting front and center, this time we were in the back of the room. Not a bad view, but not great for taking photos, so I just concentrated on getting a good one of Chuck His essay was hilarious, one of the best of the night, I think.

Again, after each essay, the band played a song of the writer/reader’s choosing. Again, the band was fabulous. Gerald Dowd sang a version of Huey Lewis and the News’ Power of Love that I want to buy and listen to 10 more times. It was awesome!

I guess I have to settle for this version, by Huey Lews and the News!

The event was $10 and all proceeds went to benefit CHIRP. The next event is going to be in April. Follow CHIRP’s Facebook page to make sure you get alerted as to the exact date! You won’t want to miss it.

Hey, and the reason we were late and had to stand in the back? Super slow service at the Village Tap. Our favorite waitress, Carolyn, made sure to say hi to us and even remembered the exact last date we were there. But we weren’t in her section.

And the reason we went to The Tap? We meant to go to Kitsch’n and use a Groupon, but they were randomly closed on a Wednesday night? What the heck?

I got to Roscoe Village early and strolled a bit, on the streets and down memory lane.

Dug this out from the late summer.

Cute goat!

The goat appears all over the place. So cute.

This cute goat is all over their napkins, menus, cutting boards. I love it.

Dining room.

The dining room is really big. Like at least double what I was expecting. It’s moving and lively and LOUD. At some points Dallas and I were literally yelling at each other across the table. Other than that, I really liked it.

Rainier oysters special

The menu is divided into into sections for vegetables, seafood and meat. We tried to order off each of these sections, although you’ll see that our vegetable selection was actually a mushroom! Our server told us that the food comes out in smallish plates for sharing and she recommended that we order about two plates per person, not including the bread and oyster appetizer. We couldn’t settle on four so we did five. We started off with an oyster special. I don’t know what was in these, because it was the special of the day and I can’t look it up now, but they were SO delicious! And huge!

Bread with housemade butter and beer cheese.

Someone had told us ahead of time “don’t fill up on bread!,” which seemed like “duh!” but Girl and the Goat has 3 different breads every day that you can order. We got the one with the beer cheese spread. We liked it, but did comment that it’s not Rev‘s beer cheese (which we are so in love with we’d bathe in it).

pan fried duck tongues . shiitake mushroom . pickled watermelon rind . chili oil . coriander

To try something really different, we ordered the duck tongues. When they came out, it was more like salad-ish. Very light, with pieces of fried strips, which were the tongues. To me, they didn’t really taste like much, they tasted like “fried,” but Dallas couldn’t really get over the fact that they were little duck tongues. The day after we went to Girl and the Goat I said something about my stomach being upset and he said it was duck tongue karma!

grilled baby octopus . guanciale . wax beans . romano beans . radish . pistachio-lemon vinaigrette

Grilled octopus. Good. Light. It reminded me of the octopus we had at El Ideas except I remember the octopus at El being even more tender.

Hen of the woods mushroom ragout. sweet potato agnolotti . shroom creme fraiche . capers

The mushroom ragout is something that really stood out to me when we ordered. I don’t know why, but it was calling my name! Mushrooms, potatoes, creme fraiche, capers! What’s not to love? Well, this was the only dish of the night that I really did not like. There was some sauce that was really sweet and just overpowered everything. Dallas ate most of this dish.

smoked goat rilette empanadas . tuna aioli . celery . tomato salad

The empanada was good, but to be honest, we’re so spoiled by living next to El Nandu. We love their empanadas. If anyone is an empanada expert, let me ask this: Is there such thing as an Argentinean-style empanada? We love El Nandu’s style of making empanadas and are wondering if it’s the restaurant’s way of doing things or if that’s Argentinean style. They’re so light there. Not heavy or oily at all.

Everyone told us to get the pig face.

wood oven roasted pig face . sunny side egg . tamarind . cilantro . potato stix

Stir it up!

Everyone told us ahead of time to get the pig face. I actually remember when the restaurant opened and I looked at the menu online. Pig face. No thanks!!! I was imagining an actual face on a plate. What you really get is some patties made from pig… cheeks? jowl? Not sure. I think there’s just some novelty in actually saying and ordering “pig face.” Or server told us to stir it all up on the serving plate then dig in, so we did. I thought it was good. The patties are crisp on the outside and contrast well with the egg.

Dessert menu

Blue cheese from Westby, WI

chocolate-thai chili gelato . chocolate cake. peanut fluff . pomegranate . left hand milk stout

butternut malasadas . bourbon gelato . brown butter apples . hook’s cheddar

I was getting pretty full at this point, but the desserts looked so good, we had to give them a try. Dallas saw blue cheese on the dessert menu and had to get that first. It was pretty great. Then, in a complete roll reversal, Dallas went for the chocolate dessert and I got the fruity malasada. As Dallas took his first bite of gelato and dessert, his favorite Tears for Fears song came on and I think his eyes rolled back in his head a little. The dessert was that good. Or maybe it was the music! No really, this chocolate dessert was so delicious. The peanut fluff was more like peanut butter crispies and the pomegranate gave a nice freshness to the dish. The chocolate cake was so moist! As for my dessert, it was delicious as well. Probably the best malasadas I’ve had in Chicago. They were a bit more dense than those we get in Hawaii, but this might also be because they had cheddar cheese in the centers! Hats off to the pastry chef. The desserts were one of our favorite parts of our entire meal.

The Girl and the Goat was nominated for a James Beard award in 2011 for best new restaurant. Chef Stephanie Izard is in the Chicago news constantly, it seems. I thought the food was good. We definitely enjoyed our dinner and were glad we went. I just think it’s one of those things where there’s so much hype and build up (and a 3 month wait) that you’re expecting to be going to the moon and back! I would definitely go back and recommend it to others, but try to tune out all this hype!

This book took me a couple months to get through because I listened to it on audio book at the gym and it’s loooong. 30 hrs and 44 mins! But I loved it. This was the best book I’ve read or listened to in quite a while. I loved the narration on the audiobook as well. On Audible, 3,500 people averaged a 4.5/5.0 rating, so if you don’t believe me…. And if you’re thinking that you’re not into Stephen King, gore or horror, this is not like that at all. There is an element of fantasy, time travel, but it’s not gory or scary. More historical. Lee Harvey Oswald and JFK.