absinthe

The same night we sous vide turkey  our friend Brian came over, and brought his awesome new absinthe set! I don't know if you've ever seen one of these, but it drips one drop of water at a time onto a cube of sugar through a special spoon into the glass. The whole process is really fun. Here are just a couple pictures...

first go at sous vide

For Thanksgiving this year, I thought I would sous vide our turkey. This is just documentation of the practice run. (I didn't want to poison my relatives) Here are some pretty pictures about how we did it. Oh, I should mention that we followed Chef Grant and Nick's instructions from the youtube videos here and here and recipe from Alinea Mosaic here.

So we started with a full turkey and thawed it in the sink full of water for 24 hours, draining it and refilling it with room temp water every couple hours. (Wil handled all of this) When it came time to actually start cooking, I took the biggest knife we have and hacked it into pieces that would fit in the freezer bags.

we cut up a stick of butter and placed into each bag

then we added a bunch of sage and thyme

time to add the turkey! and seal tightly (this is a two person job getting as much air out as possible)

place the bags into the stock pot

and keep the temperature at 170 F for two and a half to three hours. (we did three hours)

while waiting: get really hungry and eat cookies. find bliss.

Results: one of the bags broke. please note, if this happens, just throw away the contents. 

The turkey in the bag that did not break was really good though, very moist throughout, and naturally flavorful. We are really excited to try out cooking other things this way as well!

the most awesome last minute dinner

seriously this took like 5 minutes to prep.

all you need is an eggplant, some havarti cheese, chicken breasts, an onion, italian dressing, lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper

i sliced the eggplant into roughly 3/4" pieces, and then just covered each piece with the cheese.

chop the onion and place the chicken breasts over them (for extra flavor!) drizzle all with olive oil, salt and pepper. squirt just a bit of italian dressing and lime juice on the chicken.... and throw it all in the broiler!

i did five minutes on high with the broiler and then flipped the chicken, and did another five minutes. at this point the eggplant was done (you'll know when it's toasty on top) so i took that off the sheet and broiled the chicken for another 5 minutes (15 total). and voila! 

seriously i think the best dinners are the last minute ones we randomly throw together. 

the ring

this is the ring...and my first go around with free lensing. it is scary as all get out. but also really awesome if you don't happen to have a macro lens. (and yes, it needs to be cleaned already)

5.02 carats of cushion cut green tourmaline in 18k gold with 4 .8mm diamonds on the prongs.

because i'm just not a diamond in platinum kind of girl.

Microsoft Event Chicago

What an awesome week we had! It was so great to meet all of you. Here are just a few pictures... 

(more at the link at the bottom)

From our RAM outing:

Because there just isn't enough space... the rest of the pictures are on my flickr!

And because I'm shameless...more pictures on the website.

Violet Hour

I'm convinced that Violet Hour is the best bar in Chicago. I absolutely freaking love this place. (and I love that it's so close to my house even more)

This is the violet hour, the hour of hush and wonder, when the affections glow again and valor is reborn, when the shadows deepen magically along the edge of the forest and we believe that, if we watch carefully, at any moment we may see the unicorn.

- Bernard DeVoto "The Hour"

meet Robby, one of our regular bartenders

as always...more pictures at ...emilia jane photography

ENGAGED!!!!!!

Friday night we got engaged!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wil's original plan was to propose before dinner at Alinea on Wednesday. But because we had to go through three rounds of CAD designs because I was being super picky with the ring (this should come as a shock to no one) it wasn't done on time.

We went to Bandera on Michigan and had an awesome dinner Friday night (I highly recommend the veggie platter). And we had been talking about going to ride the ferris wheel at Navy Pier before it gets too cold out, so that was our next stop.

We had the most incredible view of the skyline, I was busy taking pictures (of course) and talking about how pretty it was when Wil starts talking to me about when we first started dating and how much he loves me and looks forward to our future together. At this point I realized what was coming and got really really excited. He pulled the ring out of his pocket and got down on one knee and asked me to be Mrs. Schobeiri!!!!!! When we looked up it was time to disembark; pretty sure that was the fastest ferris wheel ride ever.

The first picture above is from when we were still on the ferris wheel just after he proposed.

After Navy Pier, we went up to the Congress Theater for the Dead Mau5 show. Both of these last two pictures were taken there. And yes, we were definitely the most dressed up people at the show.

More pictures of the ring to follow (of course).