The Easter Bunny Strikes Again

Sorry I've been away from my computer.  I was off in Los Angeles last week being fabulous with my old friend Mary.  If you're interested in what all I did in LA, check out my other blog, futurearchitectwicky.

             But anyway, back to Chicago and normal pianoteacherwicky things.  After flying home late late Friday night (you might even call it Saturday morning) I was greeted with a package from Mama Wicky, my original Easter Bunny.  She sent the best of Connecticut in a box: Munson's chocolates.  And she included a cute little Nantucket basket which I think I'll have to use for non-Easter purposes because it's too sweet to be put away.
             On Sunday I hosted my 5th annual Easter Pot Luck Brunch.  We were 16 strong again.  This year, instead of baking a ham as I have for the past few years, I stopped in to the Bleeding Heart Bakery, just a mile west of me on Belmont Avenue and picked up a few cupcakes and some french toast cake balls.  And boy, did they go like hot-cake[ball]s.  They are basically like an amazingly yummy donut hole.  While picking out food at the bakery I also tried a jelly bean cake ball, which was scrumptious.  I still have one carrot cupcake and one "pretty pink princess" cupcake left, which I will eat over the next few days.

            Some other welcome, new additions to the brunch menu were a mimosa bar, supplied by my friend Abby:

A beautiful fruit salad from my friend Katie (okay this isn't anything new, but putting the fruit on skewers made it way more exciting to eat!)

And some homemade macaroons (chocolate with salted caramel filling) by my friend Brittany.
            It was a beautiful day, so we enjoyed a post-brunch chat on my back deck, and some of us went for a little walk around the neighborhood.  As I gear up for architecture school in the fall, I wonder if I'll be able to host some more parties like this in the future.  I think that as long as they're pot lucks, I should be able to squeeze in a few here and there.
Otherwise, I will sure miss these lovely gents.

Cupcake Bowl, 2011

This past Sunday was the Superbowl across the country, and the third annual Cupcake Bowl at my house.  Friends brought cupcakes from their kitchens (and one professional bakery) all over the city (well, mostly north side) to share and enjoy while watching the big game.
            This year, I made lemon coconut cupcakes, which were modeled after the scrumptious cupcake I had from my visit to Sprinkles last month.  I have to admit I've had a stomach-ache ever since, so I haven't gotten a chance to try every cupcake yet, so I'm not going to mention names or flavors until I can be a better, more thorough judge :-)

            My old friend Jenny, who you, dear readers, have not heard much from lately, came back from her home in Utah with a belated birthday gift for our friend Katy, a set of Lincoln Log party favors. Katy kindly shared a set with me and they quickly became the hit of the party (at least amongst the girls spending the whole evening in the kitchen).
            Mind you, there were boys at this party as well, but they were more interested in the game, and betting on everything imaginable, than cupcakes and party favors, so I will leave you with this evidence of all the females present.  It's a pretty good looking group, I think.

Festivus for All of Us.

Friday night was my annual Holiday Party/carol sing/gift exchange.  It was another huge success, with 3 bowls of punch being drunk up by about 20 people.  (that's 2 handles of vodka, 6 bottles of champagne, etc.)  Needless to say it was a long, loud evening and I hope my downstairs neighbors don't hate me!

        Christmas Carols later turned to a Guns 'n' Roses singalong by the piano, and I got a ShamWow from my secret santa, which had to be used soon after for multiple spills.  Yesterday was spent mopping my floors, then lying on the couch for 9 hours at my friend Anna's "hangover party," watching some great Christmas movies and Point Break.  Since most of my party pictures need to be censored (ahem), I will pass on this one little gem, when, late in the evening, I was convinced to get out my accordion.

4th Annual Easter Brunch

Easter started a few days early for me, on Thursday.  What would normally have been a totally terrible afternoon (my car practically broke down on my way to work; I had to turn around, and leave it at the shop, so I cancelled work and came home) was magically turned around when I was home to receive a special delivery from my mom: a beautiful pot of hydrangeas, which helped get my house in the Easter spirit.

            Today was our 4th Annual Pot Luck Easter brunch.  I played Easter Bunny yesterday, filling little baskets for everybody (16 people!) and snacking on lots of candy while doing so.  The brunch was a huge success, and the weather cooperated this year.  It was the perfect temperature for a little post-brunch walk, which I went on with a few of my guests.  The spread of food was epic as usual.  Lots of full plates, and, soon after, full bellies.  The guests have all dissipated to sleep off the meal, but it will be Easter for a few more days at our house, where leftovers have taken over the fridge.

Summer in January

Tonight I'm off to a lovely dinner party at my friend Anna's apartment.  It's a BYOB, pot luck, summer-in-January themed dinner, since we've been living with freezing cold temperatures here for the past week.  I volunteered to bring a dessert, and going with the summer theme, I made my first ever American Flag cake.

It's angel food cake with a cream cheese/whipped cream frosting, and berries (obviously).  I had some extra batter too, so I made some cupcakes; I already know it's going to be good!
Here's hoping we have some umbrellas for the drinks!

Christmas preparations - for real this time

So I've been way too busy getting ready for Christmas.    You could say the prep. started over a month ago, when my mom was out for a visit and we planted some paper-white and amaryllis bulbs.  My Amaryllis is gorgeous, as you can see.  3 blooms already on this stalk, with one more ready to pop, and another stalk growing, so hopefully we'll have blooms into January.
We bought our tree 2 weeks ago, and it's still alive, lit, and mostly red.  I'm putting up a picture here of the tree, with all of the secret santa gifts under it from the party.  Unfortunately, those gifts hide the neat tree skirt I bought on sale at Crate and Barrel after last Christmas.
Our 4th Annual carol singing party, which was last Saturday, was another huge success.  We had close to 30 guests to enjoy the food, sing carols, and swap secret santa gifts.  And we managed to make the punch not taste like jello shots this year - a true victory. 
I spent a good part of the week baking - a follow-up to the baking I had done the previous week for my piano recital.  I love decorating cookies and I really think I should take a cake decorating class soon, when I can find one that works with my schedule.
And once the party was over, I got to work wrapping Christmas gifts for my family, which I have shipped off to their destinations this morning, so for the next week until I fly home to CT my only other project is Christmas cards.  Oh Christmas cards.

But that being said, I hope to get moving on some new, real projects soon (as well as my annual New Year's redesign of a closet).  Check back for more holiday fun!

Labor Day weekend Staycation

It's been a good Labor Day weekend. Technically it's still going, but I'm off to teach a few lessons this morning before lying around again all afternoon (hopefully getting a little more quilting done).

On Saturday Nate the Great and I walked on over to Lenscrafters to get him new glasses - his first new pair in the whole 7 1/2 years I've known him. Then in the afternoon I was off to Ikea with Jenny (photographer of this pic of Ikea carts) where I picked up a red bookcase for my piano music and new towels and a shower curtain for my guest bathroom. I also got some new pots for my indoor plants, which are growing quite nicely, but I have to drill some holes in the bottom before I can actually use them.

Saturday evening was spent on Dan and Katy's roof deck enjoying the sunset, a few beers and each others' company. We had a little mustache theme going for the night - both real and sharpied. Later, when it got colder and we gathered inside, I discovered a wonderful Ripley's Believe It or Not coffee table book they have and had a great time reading about people's funny names. Did you know that Iccolo Miccolo played the piccolo in the LA Philharmonic?

Sunday was spent baking lemon ginger cookies, watching The Sound of Music, and putting together my new bookcase. Around 6 we headed over to Karla's where she stuffed us all full of spring rolls - her family's warm weather Sunday tradition. I can't wait for dumplings in a month or so!

Bikes, beer and brunch.

Saturday was a beautiful day and in spite of the perfect weather our team's softball game was cancelled. Nate the Great and I used the afternoon instead to go back up to the Forest Preserve and go biking. After a 9 (or so) mile ride, we took a little lunch break, sitting on the banks of the north branch of the Chicago River.
Saturday evening continued to be beautiful for a party at Katie and Kristen's apartment, and back yard. There were brats and burgers and a full keg which was definitely empty by the end of the night. The party was supposed to be celebrating our final regular-season softball game, but it also coincided with Anna's birthday (Anna is the center lady in the photo) so we sang happy birthday and she had cake and lots of strange men hitting on her all night.
Sunday morning we were up bright and not so early for Anna's birthday brunch at DeLeece. Having done my online research beforehand, Nate and I were looking forward to ordering Lobster Benedict all week and so we did. It was pretty good, but needed more hollandaise! (what doesn't?)

We "walked off" brunch (yeah right) by taking a long route home and ended up at Scooters (oops) for some frozen custard. Now it's an exhausted Sunday night and not looking forward to work tomorrow. The better the weekend, the more I don't want to work! But vacation is just 4 days away . . .

4th of July weekend

I was surprised, at first, that so many people had Friday off from work, but we Americans love our 3-day weekends, so what better way to celebrate Independence Day than take a non-holiday off from work. Of course, I had the day off anyway, so I went downtown to have lunch with Jess (after finishing her 82 hour work-week) and to pick up a Cubs jacket at the American Girl Doll store. Nate got me 1 jacket off of Ebay for my birthday (at Wrigley Field, they have 1 night each year when they give out these jackets to all the girls 13 and under and I've always wanted one for my dolls) and it came with a coupon for a 2nd on at the store downtown. My dolls are back in CT right now, but next time I see them they will be looking sporty and sassy!

Friday evening we were treated to the 4th(?) annual 3rd of July party at our friend Dan's apartment. His roof-deck looks right out onto the Wrigley Field bleachers sign. It was a perfect night for a party and we even got to see a few fireworks.

Saturday was dreary and drizzly so we stayed home during the day. I made crab dip and Nate the Great made a cherry pie (crust from scratch - he puts me to shame). The weather cleared up by the evening, luckily, so we went up to Edgewater for a party at Bob and Magda's.
In addition to the foods we brought for the party, we enjoyed some pigs in a blanket, deviled eggs, and a magnificent chocolate roulade which is Magda's specialty. After eating plenty of food, we all made our way down to the beach (25 yards from their apartment) where we were able to see south down the lake-shore, all the way to downtown. We could see probably 4 different fireworks shows simultaneously. Though rather cold and wet, it ended up being a wonderful 4th of July.

Sunday, however, was sunny and warm, so Nate and I packed our

bikes in the car and drove up to the Northern branch of the Chicago Forest Preserve trails. We rode up to the Chicago Botanic Garden (I stupidly didn't bring my camera) and soaked up the scenery with plenty of other cyclists and picnickers.

Amazing birthday weekend

Saturday morning I met up with Jenny for some quality time - we hadn't seen each other in 2 months! And our real purpose for getting out was to go apartment hunting. Of course, in Lincoln Park, our hunting basically turned into lots of ogling at large, single-family homes. We took pictures of a few we liked . . .
and some places we found monstrous and horrifying.

We also happened upon a spot of sidewalk that is possibly the coolest I've seen - I threw my shoe out there to pretend we were playing Monopoly. If only there had been a Scotty around! After a good walk and a nice lunch (complete with a pitcher of cranberry margaritas) I left Jenny to go down to the Taste of Chicago with Ruthie, in the hopes that we would get to see Counting Crows. Alas, the CC's were going on stage too late, so we enjoyed Augustana then headed home to put on party clothes.
The party this year was Nantucket theme. Most of my friends were born ready for a party like this but still managed to go out and buy a new ensemble for the occasion. A few guys picked up some new topsiders. . .

And the girls were looking spiffy as well. All in all, it was another hit of a party - the punch was plentiful and the collars were popped. Nate the Great did himself proud!

On Sunday afternoon, Nate treated me to a tour of Wrigley Field. We got to see the visiting teams's clubhouse (the smallest in the Major Leagues), the press box, etc. etc. And we really lucked out because the Cubs were not yet back from their away game which meant we got to see their clubhouse as well. Look at all of those perfectly laundered jerseys, just waiting for some dirt and grass stains.
The tour ended at the Cubs' dugout, and we got to walk on the ground brick, but NOT the grass (although I stuck my toes on the grass, just to see how it felt - luscious!) We ended the day with a birthday dinner at Soprano's, an Italian restaurant near our house we had always been meaning to try.

I got some great (and crafty) gifts from family (loyal blog readers). Please check back because as I use/read/bake with my bday gifts, I'll post about them! 27 - so far so good!

Easter Feaster

In preparation for our 3rd annual Easter Pot Luck Brunch, Jenny came over on Saturday to help me fill easter baskets and set the tables.

We decided it would also be best if we made Jenny's pot luck contribution, a carrot cake, at my house so we could frost it and then she wouldn't have to worry about bringing it with her the next day.  

Little did Jenny know, it was going to turn into another epic "crafternoon"  ( I just made that up - catchy, don't you think?)  While going through my magazines on Friday, I found instructions in Martha Stewart Living on making marzipan carrots to top your Easter carrot cake, and being the crafty lady that I am, I had some marzipan on hand, so we set to work making them.  

I put a little too much red dye in the mix, but once we put the little nicks in them, they looked pretty realistic, I think.  After taking the cake layers out of the oven, we realized that not all of the layers were 100% flat.  But instead of cutting off the rounded/slanted tops, we just filled it in with frosting.  Nothing wrong with that!  

Bright and not-so-early, at 11:30 on Sunday, our Easter guests started arriving.  We had a large group this year -17!- but we still managed to have a place and Easter basket for everyone.  Anna made her usual sausage, egg and cheese casserole and as usual, I ate as much as I could.  Dan makes mini turkey club sandwiches on little toasted rye bread slices and Pete makes his family's traditional pineapple souffle.  A new addition this year was Katie M's green bean "casserole" which involved bacon, butter and brown sugar (the 3 B's!)  We also enjoyed blueberry muffins, citrus salad, scalloped potatoes, a green salad with pears and candied pecans, and scotch eggs, which are terrible for you, but oh, so good.  Oh and I made a honey ham.  For dessert, we feasted on Jenny's carrot cake, german chocolate cupcakes, and a cheesecake with homemade strawberry jam.  

Multiple cakes

for multiple loved ones!  Yesterday was Nate the Great's birthday so we did a nice, grown up dinner party which of course degenerated into a huge Rock Band marathon (Rock Band was his big bday gift from me).  At his request, I made him a lemon curd marbled cheesecake for his birthday cake.  He is a zombie for cheesecake!

Happy news this week: Jenny got into the UIC architecture program, which means (if she wants to) she can stay in Chicago and keep crafting with me forever!  In honor of this, and to give her extra incentive to stay, I made her a special Frank Lloyd Wright cake, also for the party.  A birthday party with 2 cakes.  It was a hit of course.  Here's Jenny's cake.  I'm considering sending this photo to the Ace of Cakes people in hopes I might get a job. . . 

And here are all the ladies who I went to Taliesin with in August.  Let's face it, the Frank Lloyd Wright cake was a hit all around.  

Cupcakes and Sewing Crises

In order to finish last weekend's purse, I had to hand-sew the 2nd purse fabric to the inside of the 1st fabric and I was not happy about it!  My sewing machine was having major issues with the amount of fabric that I was trying to put through there and was doing all kinds of things to get out of doing the job (breaking the thread, eating the fabric, etc.)  Many thanks to Jenny, who came over to craft with me on Sunday and ended up helping fix my machine, which ended up to be not that complicated - I had just installed the needle backward a while ago.  Hmmm, I guess it's time to read the instructions.  We did take the top off and cleaned all the dust out of the inner cavities.  Years worth of dust - no wonder my sewing machine was not behaving!  

Armed with a newly fixed machine, I was able to sew a storage bin with Jenny, and later a little bag to go along with my beach bag.  This one is for storing a wet bathing suit, or other things that need to be kept separate.  I used some flannel-y Little Mermaid fabric for the outside and the inside was made of fused-together plastic shopping bags.  As always, it wasn't as perfect as I had imagined in my head, but hopefully it will get the job done, and look cute doing so.  

Sunday afternoon was, of course, the Superbowl, which fell on Ruthie's birthday this year.  In honor of her birthday, and the fact that everyone loves cupcakes, Nate and I hosted a Cupcake Bowl and 5 different people brought cupcakes.  Too bad we were all pretty full from the awesome pizzas that Nate had made from his dad's pizza dough recipe.  (Side note: when Nate called home to get the recipe, he said "Hi Mom, is Dad home?  I want his pizza dough recipe," and she said "oh, I thought you were calling to wish me a happy birthday!"  That Nate, what a good son!)

We had probably 6 times as many cupcakes as people, and we were all so full that hardly anyone wanted to take leftovers home.  Does anyone want to come over and help me eat cupcakes? Here are mine; mocha cupcakes with coffee buttercream frosting:

Holiday Parties

I have been taking quite a break from blogging, it is true.  But let's see if I can redeem myself.  Last weekend was a big one:  my holiday party (carol singing and gift exchanging) Saturday night, followed by my piano recital Sunday afternoon.  My lucky friend Jessica was in town for the weekend, staying with me, and got to attend both.  I'm sure she's looking forward to moving to Chicago, and getting to go home in between events in the future!  She did help out by frosting cookies with me, and she was official taste-tester of cookies, some dips, and the punch, which did need some tweaking.  

The 3rd Annual Holiday party was a great success.  By my count, we had almost 30 people in attendance, and everyone was ready to spread holiday cheer.  Meatballs were consumed, many gifts of alcohol and useless but cute bits of this and that were exchanged, and carols were sung heartily.  By many standards, I have a sizeable home, but we were definitely pushing it when we packed everyone into the living room to exchange gifts.  I'm already looking forward to the party next year, but first I have a Hannumas party next weekend, and of course New Year's!

theme parties

are totally awesome. . . when the theme is filling yourself past comfort level with yummy food and then sitting around and watching almost an entire season of How I Met Your Mother.  Some friends and I recently decided to indulge all of our basest desires and sit around for the better part of a day watching one of our favorite shows.  The first get together was relatively tame - a pot luck lasagna night and each of the 8 participants picked their favorite episode from the first 2 seasons.  

This second get-together was a heartier and hardier affair.  The dish of choice was Texas beef brisket chili, from last month's bon appetit - Nate has been wanting to make it since the day the magazine arrived in the mail - and a deliciously easy beer bread.  I made 2 loaves of the bread, one with Sam Adams Oktoberfest beer, which was yummy but a little crumbly, and the other with Miller Lite, which stuck together quite nicely.  I'm considering using less butter next time - I think it could have been adequately delicious without the 1/2 stick of butter on each loaf.   Thanks to Ruthie, who again brought cupcakes from the Alliance bakery (see picture in previous post).  The red velvet cakes are not to be missed!

And we watched more than 2/3 of the entire third season.  Sandcastles in the Sand, you're up next.  One thing's for sure: if we have another one in November, it'll be the best Slapsgiving ever.

Jenny's birthday festivities

Jenny's birthday was last weekend and I was happy to host a ladies-only dinner party in her honor saturday night.  The evening was high class from top to bottom.  We started off with baked brie and white wine, courtesy of Jenny's cousin Katie, and we sat out on my deck amongst the flowers before dinner.  The main course was a bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin with maple sauce, mashed potatoes, and an avocado and mandarin orange salad with homemade poppyseed dressing, supplied by Anna.  

Dessert was champagne and carrot cake, as Jenny requested.  I was happy to try out a new recipe I found in my Martha Stewart magazine - 3 layers!  I even made enough extra frosting to dye and decorate with.  I take great pride in assuming that this cake would not end up on my new favorite blog, cake wrecks.  Ruthie also brought a box of beautiful cupcakes from a bakery near her new apartment.  Unfortunately none of us had room for them at the time, but the next night I enjoyed eating the one I kept.  It's the one on top in the picture with pink and green swirls.  Someone suggested that I wanted it just because it was pink and green.  I cannot argue.  But it was also vanilla cake and very good frosting so who can blame me?   

Easter Eggs

I hosted a little easter egg dying party this past weekend, mostly because I wanted an excuse to try out many different egg-decorating ideas.  Many of them inspired by Martha, of course.  

I tried blowing out my eggs this year; last year I only hard-boiled, then made some beautiful decoupaged eggs that I was super bummed I had to throw out.  The whole blowing-out process is not something I was prepared for and I must assure you it is not for the faint-hearted.  I started out with 11 eggs, and "successfully" ble

w out 5.  (The other 6 either cracked when I was making holes in them, or I blew so hard that they exploded - not pretty.)  The next morning I found that I had not managed to fully blow out one egg, which had leaked into the egg carton overnight, and was then stuck and I broke it.  So I was down to 4 eggs, but I was going to make them the best decoupaged eggs I could manage.

Of course, I supplemented with hard boiled eggs, and a fine time was had by all.  My favorite eggs, though, are actually the styrofoam ones that I covered with origami paper, so little note-to-self there.  Next year I'll be trying for 5 successfully blown out eggs.