St. Patricks Day 2010: Dying of the River

It was my birthday this weekend, so my husband treated me to a lovely trip downtown. One of the main events was the Dying of the Chicago River, which we also attended a few years ago. It was a bit different this time because the weather was so awful. But we still had a great time!

First, we wandered around our hotel area and at the Hyatt, wondering if they really were going to do the dying of the river since it was so crappy out. Rainy and lots of fog. See?

The Wrigley Building. You can't even see the clocktower.


The river, pre-dying.


Just in case you need some perspective, here was our view from our room on Saturday morning, and then on Sunday:



But people did start arriving, surrounding the river on all sides. Lots and lots of weird St. Pat's outfits. I only got a couple of shots without being obvious.






She is my St. Patrick's Day soulmate. Hee!

I know, you are thinking, "But the river already looks green!"


But it's not NEON KELLY green. Once they start dying it, the difference is hilariously obvious.










They throw an orange powder into the water which instantly turns green. But if the wind is blowing the wrong way like it was this weekend, the guys throwing it start to look like Cheese Doodles. Hence the white coveralls, LOL.







When it's done, it's really quite lovely.









I'm lovin' it!






Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Art Institute January 2010

The Art Institute added a Modern Wing. It's pretty darned cool.










(This isn't blurry.)


See?

Christmas Tree 2009

Instead of putting up the big tree this year, we decided to get a cute little four-footer (no lights, unfortunately) at Menards yesterday, so a tree has gone up in our house!




It's not a Christmas tree without this ornament, a gift from my Aunt Rose long ago.


I stole this lighted wire gift box idea from an art display I saw a couple of weeks ago. I've had those boxes forever but wasn't sure what to do with them.


The side table by the window. (Yes, my living room walls are bright blue and mustard. And the couch is red. I like color in my home!)


My husband's stocking. Mine is Tweety Bird.


I think this was my husband's grandmothers. We had a couple in my house growing up too, but I think they are long gone.


My cats love to sleep under the tree every year, but since this one is on a small table they've been denied. So now they are sleeping under the table. I am going to get a large soft tree skirt and put it under for them; I'll take photos of it tonight.

Thanksgiving Eats

I love cooking for Thanksgiving, because I get to be in charge of what we eat. We've started our own traditions, favorites that we love but we're too lazy to cook most nights. This year we had:

-fresh cranberry sauce
-turkey breast with herbs, basted with chicken stock and aromatics
-cornbread stuffing with sweet turkey sausage (our one indulgence)
-pan-roasted Brussels sprouts with shallots
-roasted vegetables and potatoes: carrots, sweet potatoes, parsnips, rutabega, acorn squash, Yukon potatoes, green beans, onions, 2 cloves garlic, tossed in olive oil and rosemary and thyme
-crescent rolls (my childhood favorite)

The turkey was done much sooner than expected, so the timing was off and the carrots weren't as soft as they should have been. But it was still delicious! This was my plate:





Oh, I did have more stuffing than that. But not much more; filling half my plate with veggies saved my dupa. I haven't overstuffed myself at any point this weekend, and of course we have continued to eat. We HAD to have sandwiches that night: turkey, stuffing, cranberry with bacon on toast. It's a long-held tradition in my family. The best part nowadays is that all the leftovers we have are still so healthy. Tomorrow we'll start really diving in; I may even make soup with the turkey and veggies. Yum yum yum.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We skipped the football games and went to the casino instead, and Hubby won a bundle. I'm getting a new computer for Christmas!

Comment changes

Sorry, I've had to make some changes on my blog to require people who want to comment to sign up with some kind of ID name. I've been getting spammed on older entries almost every day, and this is the only way I can stop that. Please feel free to sign up with some kind of ID system so you can continue to post...whenever I post again, that is. :)

Thanksgiving Recipes

My friend Angie was asking to see some of my Thanksgiving food photos and some recipes. I'll try to take some better ones this year, but these are the cheesy mashed potatoes I made my first Thanksgiving three years ago. I'm not making them this year; they'll be my Christmas dish instead.

This is the recipe for them, from my friend Sharyn in Massachusetts.

Mashed Potato Casserole

8 - 12 potatoes (about 3 pounds. Depends on how big the potatoes are)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, peeled
1 stick of butter (you can use half this, and it's fine)
1 cup sour cream (regular or light)
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish (you can prepare it yourself if you like. But I used the kind from the jar)
1 tablespoon coarse-ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
paprika (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Wash, peel and quarter potatoes (if you use red potatoes, you don't have to peel, although I prefer my mashed potatoes peel-less). Place in a large pot and cover with water. Boil potatoes until tender (about 15 minutes).

While potatoes are cooking, heat oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Coarsely chop onion and place in the skillet. Saute until translucent (about 5 minutes).

Drain potatoes and return to pot (or use a large mixing bowl. I don't like to wash extra stuff). Add onion, butter, sour cream, horseradish, pepper and salt. Now, the original recipe says to whip the potatoes using a hand-held electric mixer. I think it makes the potatoes a little gluey, so I just mix it all up good with a large wooden spoon. If you've cooked the potatoes long enough, they'll mash up easy. Or use a potato masher! It depends on how you like your potatoes mixed. In any case, if you use a wooden spoon, beat them up good, until they're fairly smooth. Then! Stir in your cheese.

Put the entire thing in an ungreased casserole dish.* I sprinkle paprika on it at this point, but it's more for looks than for taste, so that's optional. Cover with foil and bake for about 20 minutes, or until thoroughly heated. Take foil off for last few minutes and it will brown up a bit, if you like that.

*If you want, refrigerate it at this point, and bake the next day. It takes more like 40 minutes to bake if it's cold when starting.

+++++

I also make a cornbread and sausage stuffing which is DIVINE. I promise there will be many pictures this year. But here's the recipe from Eating Well.

DIVINE.

OLR 5K

I ran a 5K today! My first in many years. It felt good, but it was haaard. I'm pretty beat right now, I'm not gonna lie.

None of the photos were taken by me; my husband Richard was the guest photographer on this one. He also has video of me crossing the finish line (instead of a still photo) so we'll have to figure out how to upload that somehow. :)








Me and my running buddy, Cheryl. She is running an AIDS marathon in October! Go support her!





We are nowhere near the front.


And we're off!



My time was 38:01, #356. Not bad; I just wanted to finish under 40 minutes, and I did!

Lyric Opera at Millenium Park

Went to a free performance by the stars of the Lyric Opera. It was held downtown in the Pritzker Pavilion in Millenium Park. It was so pretty and fun!











I love my city.