On the road again

...On the road again

Goin' places that I've never been.

Seein' things that I may never see again

And I can't wait to get on the road again....

- Willie Nelson, On the road again

Things I love.

There are a handful of food items that I could absolutely not live without. Cheese is one them. (As is, in case you didn't already pick up on it: chocolate, ice cream, tomatoes, food & food...etc.). So why my love for cheese?

Well I would be remissed if I did not qualify this post. I am a Wisconsinite. Not born and raised, but raised. I used to only have experience with a few select varieties of cheese - american, swiss, colby, mozzarella, cheddar (hey, not bad!), but as I have grown so has my taste. Part of this may have been influenced by my jaunt to Espana and trying the many delightful ranks of aged cheeses. Of course, when paired with a good wine - how could I resist.

I truly think my *love for queso came from a trip to the zoo. I actually think it was the Brookfield zoo and there was an exhibit on how milk was made. The presentation at this exhibit talked about how cheese was made. I was probably all of 5-6 years old and was fascinated. So fascinated in fact, that my mom, younger brothers, aunt and cousins kept walking around and left me behind. I got lost (for the the first and only time I ever remember) over cheese & dairy products. How fitting, I guess. Needless to say, I was found.

To this day, one of the first things I scour the fridge for is cheese when I want a snack. Cheese & crackers are a staple. Usually though it's not just cheese & crackers; it becomes that paired with olives, vegetables, humus, cold cuts.... etc. Anyway, hope I made my point. I love cheese.

Plus, it's how we Americans encourage smiles in photos. Here's to c-h-e-e-s-e!

Totally unrelated, but still related: I have yet to enter into Mars Cheese. pm took this shot. This past summer the heat got the best of me multiple times. This particular day was the first of three mild heat strokes. blah.

step up.

Community. It's been a topic that has been on my mind a lot lately. What is it? How do you get involved in one? Where can you find one?

I am nearing by first year in the Windy City, and pm is just days away from being here for a year. While arguably we haven't completed rooted ourselves in this city, we have tried to partake in as much as we can in our neighborhood. We frequent the local shops, restaurants and bars and always try to take visitors to places close to home. We're building our own community from scratch.

Building a community from scratch isn't always easy. I've come to find that sometimes community finds you. Today on my way home on the EL, I really felt like part of the "Chicago community." Unlike during the summer months, with school back in session, my commute to and from work is packed to the gills. I'm lucky to have (thus far) always gotten a seat on the way to work; on my way home I always get a seat until I switch lines.

Most days it's an annoyance to have no room to move around when standing between stops. The driver slams on the breaks and you slam into everyone around you. Today was no different in that sense. The people were different though. The people in my' standing corner' actually conversed with each other. Real words. Real conversations. Okay, not about anything deep, but still.

This to me is community. Talking to your neighbors. Sharing in similar life experiences. Acknowledging those around you. I'm glad community found me today.

needed: more sunshine

The weekend was the perfect double dose of sunshine ... just like this double-exposure holga I took back in July.

There are a few things I always have to come to term with around this time of year.

1. It is going to start getting colder.

2. Green is going to be harder to come by in the great outdoors.

3. There is going to be less light during the day.

I haven't come up with plans to remedy all of the above, but I can at least start prepping myself for the month that lie ahead. Here's my plan thus far:

Remedy #1:

Put away summer clothes and bring out the hats, mittens and down coats. Look for bargains on sweaters and other winter gear. Until then, pm has a wonderful collection of over-sized sweatshirts. This is the best remedy of all, both for the pocket book and comfort.

Remedy #2:

Buy plants on sale and keep them alive and thriving during the winter months. We just bought a new jade plant. I am so incredibly excited by this, partly because we lost 3 jade plants just a month or two ago. I am determined to keep this new plant alive. I will not over water you, little jade; I will not over water you, little jade.

Remedy #3:

Get as many rays as you can now before it's too late. We're making a point to go for a walk right when we get home from work before it turns dark. We may also be investing in a winter "happy lamp" this year. We'll see just how glum it turns out to be this winter, before I commit.

What are your pre-winter remedies?

10.10.10

Since we don't have any #10s in the archives to celebrate 10.10.10, I thought I'd at least post some numbers. Plus, I happen to like how these digits look. It isn't every day that you see staples on light posts. This must be because it seems like these days most light posts are metal, not wood.

All in all, it's just another day. Not one that we'll look back from years from now and be able to remember the course of events (even if they were grand :)). Suppose if we would have gone to a wedding, been born or ran the Chicago Marathon today it would have been a day to remember always. Days are days. They come and they go. Even if they look cool in print - 10.10.10.

Black & White

...The road is long

the memory slides

to the whole of my undoing

put aside

I put away

I push it back to get through each day

and all I feel is black and white

and I'm wound up small and tight

and I don't know who I am ...

~Sarah McLachlan, Black & White

It's a black & white kind of day. Not sure why, but it is.

We took this photo this summer on a camping trip. You can hardly tell from the photo what time of year it is. Maybe that's one reason why I like black and white photos so much -- there is a real timeless quality to them. One that you don't always get with color.

spanish delight: empanada

Yesterday I had an awful day. Between being rained on during the day on Saturday and having the cold wind in my face most of Sunday, I woke up Monday to being quite sick. Fear not, I am doing better today. Nothing that a lot of r&r, orange juice, soup and meds couldn't fix.

That's one thing I've come to learn about myself. When I get sick, I get sick. My body doesn't mess around with just a little head cold or the flu. No way. Why have just a little when you can have it all? Anyway, this post is not to complain about my health.

Instead, it is to boast about my wonderful hubs. I have been craving and obsessing about empanada ever since I have a less than average meal at Ba Ba Reba (sorry for my honesty :)). The one thing on the menu that was actually worth eating was their empanada. Everything else, in my opinion and with my experience eating Spanish cuisine, screamed Americanized Spanish food. The food really got to me because (a) Spanish food is not difficult to make, (b) croquetas should not taste like fried fish or be served with tartar sauce and (c) good sangria should be not be served via tap. Okay, enough of that rant.

Back to my wonderful hubs. I came home from work today to the delightful smell of .... empanada. Thank goodness I can actually taste today. Pm made a delicious beef, chorizo and pepper empanada. It was delicious.

And so in lies one of my new goals: Try to cook my way through some of our favorite Spanish dishes from our Spanish cookbooks. This in itself will be challenge, mostly because I'm not as savvy as I'd like to be with the metric system when used for recipes. Not sure what the next dish will be, but I will be certain to keep this readership in the know. Approveche!