June 30, 2009

Tourists, continued

Jenn and I had another full weekend, this time an old college friend was in town so we met up with Josh and A.J. down at the Chipp Inn and spent a couple hours catching up and reminiscing Saturday night (ok, I was reminiscing, Jenn was laughing at the crazy olden days). We called it an early night however as we had early tickets to see Transfomers 2 on the IMAX down at Navy Pier. After catching the movie which was fantastic we started walking down the Pier and came across the first set up boat tours. We quickly decided that the Architecture tour was the way to go, so we bought our tickets and we were off, heading down two branches of the Chicago River while learning all about the beautiful buildings that make up downtown Chicago. Luckily Jenn always has her camera handy, and got some great pictures. Be sure to check them out!

June 23, 2009

Playing Tourist

My parents and brother were in Chicago last weekend which gave Jeremy and I a chance to play tourist. We spent most of the day Saturday trekking around town hitting up the Sears Tower, Grant Park, the Art Institute of Chicago's garden, Millennium Park, the Field Museum, Wrigley Field, and the Chicago Diner. To complete the weekend in true Jenn & Jeremy style, we prepared several yummy food items including chocolate chip cookies, hashbrowns with soy crumbles for breakfast on Saturday, and homemade pizza and breadsticks on Sunday. While we didn't get as many pictures as we would have liked to, make sure you check out the ones we did get here.

Oh and while I'm mentioning pictures... I added a bunch of new pictures to the Random - 2009 and Foods! albums, so make sure you check those out too!

June 06, 2009

Recipes!

Jeremy and I do a lot of cooking and while the majority of the recipes we use come from various vegan cookbooks, some come from the internet. For the last 6 months or so, I have been keeping a running list of recipes both that we've tried and those that we would like to try and now I'm posting it here so you can try some of the recipes too! You can find the new Recipes page on the left hand menu or by clicking here.

In addition to the recipes page itself, I would also like to start posting more of our own recipes. I'll start with the Pizza Bites we made the other day...

Pizza Bites
Dough:
- about 2c flour
- about 1c water
- pinch of salt

Filling:
- 1 package of Boca Ground Crumbles
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2-1 jar of your favorite pizza sauce (we make our own with tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic salt, oregano, black pepper, and sugar)

Directions:
* Pre-heat the oven to 350F.
* In a medium sized frying pan, add the Boca Ground Crumbles, onion, and olive oil. Cook over medium heat stirring frequently for about 10 minutes until the crumbles are thawed and the onion is cooked.
* Using a stand mixer with a dough hook (or kneed by hand), add flour, water, and salt and mix until well combined (about 5 minutes).
* On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until about 1/8-1/16" thick.
* In a large bowl, place the crumble and onion mixture. Slowly add the pizza sauce until the desired consistency is reached.
* Cut the dough into 2"x2" pieces.
* In the center of each dough square, place a large spoonful of the crumble mixture. Then take the four corners of the square and bring them up to the middle sealing the 'pizza bite'.
* Place on a lightly oiled cookie sheet.
* Repeat until you are out of dough and filling (about 36 bites).
* Bake for 20 minutes.

May 23, 2009

Dangerous

Our cooking has just crossed over from unbelievably good, to down right dangerous.

Jenn and I just created vegan pizza bites. Absolutely. Delicious.

May 08, 2009

First Cubs game of 2009

Tuesday Jenn and I decided to take the day off work, and venture to the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field and catch the Cubs take on the San Fransisco Giants from the bleachers.

This is the first game we're going to this year - we have tickets to a night game coming up in July, but we figured it'd be nice to catch a day game before it gets too hot out, and then a night game when it finally does get too hot to be out in the day.

The game started out slightly overcast, however the sun peaked out just in time to make the cold, frosty beverages quite enjoyable. Unfortunately (although not unpredicted) the Cubs lost the game. We've seen the Bears win, the Bulls win, and the Blackhawks win; however we just can't seem to make it to a game when the Cubs pull one out.

However, I must sign off here. Jenn's playing with her new Canon Digital Rebel XSi and we have Mogwai tickets for tonight at the Congress theater.