adventures | kimberly ah

Jun 03 2013

celebrations, Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening

Our 7th Anniversary Weekend

Naoto & I spent the whole weekend together celebrating the every day of seven years of marriage. We did nothing exceptional, we just enjoyed each other’s company and lots of good food. Naoto popped out on Saturday afternoon and brought back this huge bouquet of flowers “from Presley”. It was such a sweet surprise and I’m enjoying having them at my desk (for maximum enjoyment and minimum Presley “enjoyment”.)

After relaxing on the balcony with breakfast and coffee, we headed to the community garden to check on the plants. We did a fair amount of weeding and watered our plot. (I will talk more about the garden later this week…we are both amazed and thankful to see it’s growing!)

After relaxing out on the balcony and watching it rain, we headed to the Golden Steer for our traditional (since moving to Forest Park) anniversary dinner.

It was our fourth year going there and it never disappoints. I always fill up too much on the cracker basket, the French Onion Soup, the salad and the baked potato to eat much of my steak! And the lone button mushroom floating around on the steak plate makes me giggle every time…

After the Steer, we went to the Marion Street Cheese Market for dessert. Naoto had a chocolate dessert with a homemade chocolate marshmallow and some snicker doodles and I had a strawberry rhubarb dessert (sweet pastry layered with strawberry rhubarb and topped with meringue).

Sunday was our actual anniversary. We slept in, had coffee and exchanged gifts (more on that later). Then we reluctantly went to the gym together. So romantic, I know.

After the gym, we headed to the Little Goat Diner. This was Naoto’s choice, not that I needed any arm twisting. I did a little research and realized that it’s an easy trip on the el (too easy…I think we might have to get pie and coffee at least once a week now!)

Little Goat was busy, but they could seat us right away at the counter, so we decided to try it out. We’ve sat in all of their seating options now (communal table, booth and counter) and while the booth is nice and quiet and private, we both really enjoyed the frenetic people watching at the counter. It was neat to see the orchestration of the orders and to hear the cooks interacting with each other.

We ordered the Smoke Fries…and I don’t think I will ever NOT order the Smoke Fries in all future visits. They were skinny and perfectly crisp and savory…my idea of the perfect fry. (My passion for these fries will now rival my love for the pie.)

Naoto got the Tonkatsu sandwich, which came with this tasty-creative pickled daikon radish, zucchini and rhubarb salad. I decided, since I always feel too full for pie, to get a CUP of the Tomato Apple Soup, which now comes with a tiny Monte Cristo sandwich on the side (instead of the original, reeeeallllly good cheesy toast from our visit in February). I was super disappointed…until I took a bite of the Monte Cristo…it was like eating a tiny ham and cheese sandwich in between two savory donuts…

And for dessert, of course I got the pie (Blood Orange Meringue) and Naoto got the Miso Hungry Banana Split…ice cream covered in a miso sauce with miso chips on top. Weird? Not at all…it was amazing!

(I just realized that I spent most of my anniversary post talking about Little Goat Diner…no regrets!)

When we got home, I made us two Blue Hawaii cocktails (more on these later) and we lit our unity candle and toasted seven years.

It was the perfect ending to the weekend.

Tagged adventures, celebrations, food, forest park, garden, gardening, memories, wedding

May 29 2013

11 Comments

adventures, Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening, homemaking, summer manifesto

SUMMER MANIFESTO 2013

Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer.

Last year, I created a summer manifesto–a list of activities, projects to accomplish and things to learn during the summer months. I was really happy with my progress! While I didn’t accomplish everything on the list, it was still fun to keep the manifesto in mind as I made summer plans. It made me prioritize the important things of summer, like sitting outside and eating fresh fruits and cool popsicles. I had a great time documenting everything in a little photo book (which I completed but never shared the final product here…would it be weird to share it a year later?) I plan to do the same thing this year. I’ve already purchased this book in neon pink so I’m ready to get started!

This summer I will:

* embrace the mornings (as in, get up and get something done before noon!)

* tend to the gardens (balcony & community garden plot)

* take advantage of our Farmers Market in Forest Park (It’s in an inconvenient location & happens on Friday nights, but I want to support it so it sticks around!)

* travel to Boston

* take my camera out more often and practice

* make an anniversary gift (due on Sunday!!)

* master three more cocktails (Summer-y ones with in-season ingredients would be awesome!)

* host a Hawaii-themed party (We thought we were all partied out, but by mid-summer we’ll be itching for something new to plan!)

* paint the bedroom (It’s the last big, nagging thing on my home improvement list!)

* create three pieces of art for our home (I have ideas…it’s the execution I’m lacking…)

* participate fully in 30 Days of Creativity (I love a good month-long challenge.)

* start working on my zine idea (I’ve had the idea floating around for two years now…it’s time to get started. I have no dreams of selling it, I just want to create it.)

And three more from last year…

* find the ice cream truck

* wear sunscreen & sun hats

* document summer & finish my summer minibook

Of course, Naoto will be along for the ride, and a real participant in some of the things like traveling to Boston, tending the garden, chasing the ice cream man, drinking the cocktails and painting the bedroom (ahem…)

I can’t wait to get started!

How about you? Any summer have-tos on your list?

Tagged adventures, crafts, summer

May 28 2013

3 Comments

adventures, Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening

Grandma Visits Forest Park

This weekend my parents and my grandma drove up to visit us and to see our apartment. I haven’t seen my grandma in for-everrrrr so it was great to spend time with her and to know she is as spunky as ever. I really don’t think she has aged a bit since I’ve seen her last! We gave her the tour of our apartment (including the dreaded spare room!), took her to Portillo’s for an Italian beef, checked out our community garden and stopped by Trader Joe’s for some snacks. It was pretty much a run-of-the-mill Saturday with the extra bonus of spending it with my family. Nothing fancy, just quality time together.

At the community garden we all did a little weeding and I planted a new Juliette tomato plant from my dad. The garden is looking really good! Thanks to all of the rain lately, everything is popping up except my loofah. My mom and grandma sat on the garden swing while we finished planting and weeding. (I joined them, letting my dad and Naoto take care of the rest of the weeds!) After garden and shopping we came home and indulged in some Portillo’s chocolate cake for dessert. Yum. Then, Mom, Dad and Grandma got all packed up to leave…I’m so glad they could come.

Tagged adventures, food, forest park, garden, gardening

May 24 2013

1 Comment

adventures, Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening, home is a 1970s apartment

It’s GROWING!

It’s been a rainy week here in Chicagoland, so gardening has been put on hold…the rain takes care of the watering, but we need to get in soon to pull weeds! BUT, we visited the garden quickly last night before the sun went down and I’m happy to report that WE HAVE PLANTS! And not just weed plants (hmmm…you know what I mean…) we have daikon and watermelon radishes, lettuce and cucumbers peeking out of the ground! Many a high fives were exchanged in the car after this picture was taken. I know we have a lot more growing to do, so don’t think we are getting over-confident around here, but it’s good to see things popping up. Thanks to Mother Nature for all of the good rain to help things along!

We have a busy, busy weekend planned. Tomorrow my parents are bringing my grandma up to see our apartment for the first time! I’ve been trying to clean and get our place into “show mode” and failing miserably. So the rest of my Friday night shall be spent mopping floors and dusting and trying to pretend the guest room looks okay (even though it is the retired furniture graveyard and full of Honor Flight Mail Call stuff!) I haven’t seen my grandmother in so long and we’ve never hosted her in our neighborhood, so I’m really excited to see her and my parents, too! We’re taking them to see our garden and to Portillo’s for an Italian Beef. Then Sunday we both work, then we are going to a potluck BBQ at the community garden and then we are hosting cocktails for our friend Karen’s birthday. And on Monday (Memorial Day here in the US), we both work (boo)…

I’m looking forward to a quiet week next week. Our wedding anniversary is coming up and I still need to finalize my plan for Naoto’s gift. I am wishfully thinking of making something for him…something out of wool or copper. (Those are the traditional gifts for the 7th anniversary.) I’ll keep you posted.

Have a good weekend! I’ll be back Monday

Tagged adventures, food, forest park, garden, gardening, parents

May 17 2013

4 Comments

adventures, Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening

The Garden is Planted

Yesterday afternoon Naoto and I popped over to the garden and planted MOST of our garden. It was the perfect day for planting–warm, sunny and quiet in the garden. It was nice to be there with Naoto…and not just because he did some of the heavy lifting! We both quickly realized that this whole gardening hobby could be a lot of fun this summer–and probably could be pretty rewarding as long as we actually grow something!

We pulled weeds and added a little bit more mulch to our plot before we got started. Then, Naoto dug holes for me and I planted our three tomato plants (two Big Boys and one Brandywine) and our pepper plant in the south end of our plot. Then, while Naoto weeded around our garden plot (the man was a weeding maniac!), I planted our Japanese cucumber and our luffa seeds in the North part of the garden. (Yes, we are going to try to grow our own loofah sponges…a totally weird experiment that I just couldn’t resist!) Our watermelon is going in this neighborhood, too, I just forgot the seeds at home. Then, in the center of the garden, we planted our daikon, watermelon radishes, lettuce, golden beets, limas and peas. There is still quite a bit of real estate left on our plot…I’m thinking more tomatoes. Or green beans. Or tomatoes. Definitely tomatoes. Oh, and we dug up the chive (thanks to Danielle and my dad for knowing what the big ol’ mystery plant is!) and it is now living happily (?) in a pot on our balcony.

At the end, Naoto gave our garden a hearty rain shower. I’m looking forward to going back later this afternoon to check on things…and I’m trying to remain an optimist that things will actually grow!

Have a good weekend! I’ll be back next week with a tasty, Naoto-approved somen recipe, my new favorite summer cocktail recipe and hopefully a peek at the balcony garden!

Disclaimer: As much as it looks like Naoto was the only one working, I promise that is only because I was the only one taking pictures and my work went undocumented.

Tagged adventures, diy, food, forest park, garden, gardening, summer

May 08 2013

12 Comments

adventures, gardening, summer manifesto

Getting Started…

I headed over to the garden plot this afternoon to tackle the weed situation in our plot. As you can tell from above, things were pretty weedy…but our plot wasn’t the worst one, so that made me feel a little bit better as I kneeled down and started pulling. Most of the weeds came out relatively easily, but several of them were really rooted. I have callouses on my hands from all the tugging. I kept thinking, as I was bending over, the drivers sitting at the light on Harlem must see me like one of those “old lady butts” that used to be popular garden decorations. (Do you remember those? No? Maybe it was a regional thing? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s an example of one.)

I found this tiny, soft carrot during the weed pulling.

After weeding, I started hauling mulch to our plot. The community garden had a huge mulch delivery that we are all welcome to use. I hauled five buckets to our plot, which was dirty work, thanks to a mulch avalanche onto my feet and the fact that I was doing everything with my tiny garden spade instead of a proper shovel.

After two hours of weeding and hauling, I had this to enjoy:

There is a plant in the corner (garlic maybe?) that I didn’t weed out. I’m not sure what it is and I know I don’t want to keep it, but it’s so big that I think I’ll need a shovel to get it out (instead of my tiny gardening spade). Naoto and I will be back at the garden this weekend to take care of the mystery plant. We’ll plant our seeds and tomato and pepper plants then, too. I am really excited! I’m looking forward to more afternoons of dirty feet and dirty hands this summer!

Tagged adventures, community garden, forest park, garden, gardening, summer

May 07 2013

7 Comments

adventures, gardening, Sweet Tooth, Those Were the Days

Sweet Tooth

This past weekend, I met up with my parents for some garden shopping. We met in our usual spot, Peru, Illinois, which is kind of a halfway point for us. (It’s a bit of a longer drive for me, but it’s worth it because that area has great thrift stores!) We usually go to the same ol’ places but since I was on the hunt for tomato and pepper plants for my garden, they took me to Rural King–“America’s Farm & Home Store”. I did get some plants and some seeds here (more on that later) but I fell in love with the store for other reasons.

Reason #1: the free popcorn and coffee. When you walk in the Rural King door, you are welcomed by the scent of freshly popped popcorn and a pot of coffee. Isn’t that so sweet and old-fashioned? My mom and I helped ourselves to some popcorn while we poked around the candy aisles.

Reason #2: the vintage candy selection! Where else can you get seeds for your garden, parts for your tractor, food for your chickens AND old-timey gum and sweets?! I could have bought one of everything, but I decided to narrow it down to a few things (mainly because I didn’t want my candy bill to out-do my garden bill…so embarrassing…)

Here’s a rundown of my choices:

Chuckles, a sugar coated jelly candy introduced in 1921. (There is an interesting review of the Chuckles flavors here.) I am familiar with Chuckles, but I can’t remember ever tasting them, so I’m looking forward to breaking the package open this week.

Teaberry gum, my faaaavorite gum of all time. It was introduced in 1900 was popular in the 60s. (Has it been on Mad Men?) If you’ve never tried it, I think you should–it’s sweet and has a slight wintergreen flavor…it’s hard to pinpoint…it’s not super minty, it’s just wonderful. And I love the packaging and all of its vintage pink goodness. I found the commercial below and I may have spent a good amount of time this morning perfecting my Teaberry shuffle…

Clove gum is another old gum…there’s not much to say about it except that it’s reeeally clove-y. It’s not bad, but I think one pack would have been enough to walk down memory lane.

Beemans gum is from the 19th century. I’d forgotten what it tasted like. For some reason, I was thinking honey (BEEman…turns out he’s the inventor of the gum and not a bee) but it’s a nice light mint flavor…different than Teaberry, but almost as good!

And finally, Sky Bar. I’d never seen this one before and I am most excited to try it. It’s made up of four sections with four different fillings: caramel, vanilla, peanut and fudge. According to the Necco website, the Sky Bar is still the only candy bar to offer four different flavors. I had a very healthy lunch today (involving roasted cauliflower) so I doubt this candy bar makes it through the afternoon.

I think my favorite part of the old-timey candies is that their packaging is usually the original design…no one felt the need to update it to keep up with the “cool kids”. It’s charming and tasty and while I’m eating it, I just can’t help but think (in an old granny voice): They don’t make things like they used to.

Tagged adventures, food, garden, gardening, memories, shopping, vintage

Apr 24 2013

2 Comments

adventures at the library, crafty adventures, Forest Park, Oak Park

Screen Printing at the Library

Last night I went to a screen printing workshop at the Forest Park Public Library. I’ve always wanted to learn about screen printing and what better place to get a taste of something than the library?

Because it would have taken a lot of time, materials and a dark room to create our own screens, Maureen-the-librarian had two screens prepared for us. One, a fist with the word “READ” tattooed on the fingers and the other, an image of Maureen’s cat reading Moby Dick. I’m sure it will come as no surprise which design I chose!

There were six of us in the class and we all took turns printing on paper and on little totes. It was actually pretty easy to print on paper as long as someone held the screen steady and you squeegeed the ink on with enough force. It was harder to achieve “perfection” on the bag because the fabric absorbs more ink, but I’m pretty happy with how it all turned out. I’m going to frame my print and continue hanging artwork above the desk on the right side.

I love library events. They are a great, low-pressure way to learn a little bit about something new. In this case, it made me want to learn a lot more about screen printing. I picked up a copy of Christine Schmidt’s Print Workshop book so I could read about more projects and ideas. I hope this isn’t the last time for screen printing and me! Thanks to Maureen and the Forest Park Library for hosting such a great workshop!

To see other fun library adventures, go here.

And P.S. That was my 200th post!

Tagged adventures, crafts, diy, forest park

Apr 16 2013

4 Comments

adventures, coffee talk

A Sunday in Spring

Sunday was the first day that had a real taste of spring in Chicago. It was warm enough to finally go coat-less and the sun was shining with a brightness that hasn’t been seen in months. Naoto and I took advantage of the warm afternoon and took a walk downtown Oak Park. We stopped at Sugar Fixe, a local pastry shop, for coffee and pie. (Lemon meringue–highly recommended!)

Sidenote: We sat at a table in the actual spot where Naoto and I had our very first conversation in 2001. Sugar Fixe replaced a children’s clothing store which replaced the coffee shop where we met.

During our coffee break, I pulled out my camera and took a few shots of Naoto enjoying his coffee. I’m taking an online photography class this month and I’m trying to get more comfortable using my camera out in public. There is nothing more awkward than pulling out a big ol’ DSLR and then feeling like you are stumbling through your technique (if you can even call it “technique”). Naoto was my model as I played around with depth of field.

A perfect day for practicing…

Tagged adventures, coffee, food, photography

Apr 15 2013

2 Comments

adventures, in my library

Relish Book Signing

Last Wednesday night, Naoto & I headed into the city to Challengers Comics & Conversation for a book signing party for Lucy Knisley’s book, Relish. I’m not a huge graphic novel follower…I’ve only read a few, but Relish is about food, and I know food. I had to work, so we missed Lucy’s talk about the book, but we did buy a copy and had it signed. Lucy asked us for our favorite food and she included a drawing of it with her signature. We chose sushi…mainly because my favorite food is pizza and tacos and Naoto’s favorite food is whatever he is eating at the moment…we can agree on sushi. Challengers had food and drink on hand to lend to the celebration. I had a delicious slice of pie from Hoosier Mama Pie Company. I shall insist on the visit to their shop soon…now that Naoto can (almost) eat again, I’m sure he won’t object to joining me!

Along with the book, we both fell in love with a print of cat positions. Naoto insisted on buying it (because it reminded him so much of Presley). We had Lucy sign it “for Presley” and then we exchanged pictures of our kitties (like the proud parents we are!).