Crisp and Cleanin

We, I mean Tarek and my mom spent the weekend tackling the living room, basement, and upstairs rooms, which consisted of organizing all the cords, knick knacks, and papers lying around the house. I put away most of my stuff the first two days we moved in and now I'm just waiting for some storage containers to arrive so I can put away the rest of the stuff I don't need right this minute such as study materials and books. We're still pluggin along though!

 

No matter how many things get put away, this table never seems to get clean!

Our kitchen looks pretty organized now thanks to my momma!

the baby's room is almost cleared away! Our nursery furniture is coming next weekend- can't wait!

I decorated the baby's bathroom even though he's probably not going to appreciate it until he gets older :-)

Call me a bit obsessed with monkeys

Friday night's dinner was some broiled, baked, and grilled chicken with some rice and beans, potato salad, and salad. We had a bit of trouble with our fire alarm while T made dinner and I swear it went off 3 times before we finally decided to stop using the oven and just finish off the chicken on the stove. Yet again we have a really sensitive fire alarm!! Blergh.

On Saturday, we stopped by my favorite chicken spot in Chicago (favorite being I've eaten there only 3 times, hehe) called Crisp and then ran a couple errands.

Crisp has the most delicious *Korean* fried chicken I've ever tasted, along with some tasty sides such as these fried mushrooms.

kkaktugi- spicy radishes

The Big Boy Buddha Bowl loaded with a TON of veggies and generous portions of beef.

The main event- Seoul Sassy and Crisp Bbq whole chicken platter. It's finger lickin good!!

We also stopped by Dirk's Fish and Gourmet shop on our way home, picking up some things for dinner. T's been on a roll, doing most, if not all the cooking this past week!

two kinds of shrimp

http://www.dirksfish.com/

shrimp #1 slightly bigger than the second

shrimp #2 the smalller, more flavorful one

pre-made crab cakes with grainy mustard

I crumbled my crab cake and ate it with more salad, which helped balance out the saltiness of the cakes.

 

cooked scallop roll with spicy mayo

I tried Thomas bagel thins  for the first time and it was the perfect size for me, not too big that I get overly full, typical these days since my stomach can't handle an overload of food, and not too small that I'm still hungry. 

Errand time!! Target, Kohl's, and possibly gym membership search. 

Moving Day 2012

We have officially moved into our new apartment!! There is stuff E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E. but we're taking the one step at a time approach with organizing all of our random stuff everything.

 

I was worried the movers would dirty up our floors but they were very professional and laid down red protection for us and also covered our carpet with plastic. They arrived at 9 and left by 12:30- now that's what I call prompt service! I guess that's also what happens when a corporation pays for your move (they pack and unpack everything for you!!).

We also had movers on Wednesday that brought all the new furniture we bought. Now our living room, dining room, and bedroom is mostly complete.

Thankfully T didn't have to put everything together.

Our new bedroom furniture! :-)

Nightstand

Living room set

Entertainment center

Our first meal at our apartment from Pizza Metro, one of our many neighborhood pizza joints. The pizza was tasty except for the crust- T was right when he said it tasted like crushed up crackers! I think I got a bit spoiled eating lots of amazing pizza in London. Damn.

Sitting patiently marking off all the boxes that the movers brought in.

On moving day, T brought us breakfast from our local coffee joint Bucktown Beanery. I had an egg and bagel sandwich with ham, which was delicious and perfect with my side of almond tea.

We spent Valentines Day at the Wyndam Hotel since we couldn't move into our new place til the morning after. Dinner was at Hotel Conrad, less than a mile from our hotel. Our pre fixe meal included shrimp bisque, goat cheese "salad", lobster ravioli, and chocolate fondue.

the shrimp bisque was perfect and had a generous portion of shrimp.

I wouldn't really consider this a salad even though that's what they called it- a Parmesan crisp under a spread of goat cheese that tasted like yogurt in texture along with honey. Yummy!!

We both agreed there was a generous portion of lobster stuffed into the freshly made ravioli but there was something citrusy about the sauce that threw us both off. Otherwise, it was a great dish.

Chocolate fondue with all the fixin's- strawberries, pineapple, almond cake, and sugar crusted marshmallows. 

Time to relax on the couch!!

Eating, sleeping, and SVU marathons

Since moving to Rockford, we've discovered a couple of decent places to eat, such as Marc's Fusion Cafe and this burrito bowl above at Panchero's Mexican Grill. Not too shabby. http://www.pancheros.com/index.php. I wouldn't say it's as good as Chipotle or Chilango's in London but it's an enjoyable bowl of chicken, beans, rice, corn, and salsa.

 

I've also been enjoying a lot of my mom's cooking since being here. Who doesn't love their momma's cookin!!

 

This was a mixture of a few days old Chinese food and some fresh ingredients like the schrimp!

http://www.fiveguys.com/

I also tried Five Guys, a Washington D.C., fresh burger chain that tasted as good as it looked! Yay for handcut fries. Yummy!

T made this delicious Bo ssam the other night using David Chang's recipe found here:
http://cltampa.com/dailyloaf/archives/2010/03/03/momofukus-bo-ssandaumlm-recipe#.Tzflj_ny-Sp

 

I thought the pork was delicious although a bit salty. T thought the entire dish was wrong due to the weird measurement of ingredients in the recipe. Even I thought it was odd that a recipe would say to use an entire cup of salt!!

Anyway, our entire spread was delicious AND it included some crab claws dipped in homemade spicy mayo sauce.

Panera frontega chicken sandwich and broccoli cheddar you pick two lunch. Is it just me or did the soups get smaller? 

Yesterday, we did the rest of our bedroom furniture shopping and ended up buying two bedroom sets; one for downstairs (the guest bedroom) and another for our master bedroom. This purple one will go in the guest bedroom!

We also saw this beautiful dining set and had to buy it- You can never have enough plates!! :)

 

Bedding for our room 

All our loot we've accumulated so far.. and more!

Our filling Korean breakfast this morning before I get ready for my friend's baby shower!

Daenjang guk

japchae

You've probably been wondering what I've been doing besides all this shopping and eating.. Well.. here it is!! Lots of cuddling, sleeping, and SVU marathons!

Strollers and breast pumps

The last couple of days have been pretty busy- dropped off dad at the airport, went and bought more baby stuff at Buy Buy Baby, drove into Chicago for a doctor's appointment and dinner meeting with T's potential collegues.. PHEW!! On the plus side, we have a new stroller, car seat, and breast pump. I swear, if all our purchases from here on out are baby related and not for us, I would still be extremely happy. It gives me so much pleasure to buy anything and everything for our lil guy.

We bought the Graco car seat because I was told by our Real Estate agent that its compatible with the BOB jogging stroller (as long as you get a car seat adapter). We also made sure this was correct info with the Buy Buy Baby consultant before purchasing this car seat.

Now the real test is figuring out how to use this thing!! I love/hate reading manuals!

A hands free breast pump for the days when I can't breastfeed because
a.) I'm too tired
b.) I'm trying to wean
c.) I need to step out during the day/night and someone else has to feed
d.) Hands free so I can do some catch up on blogs, reading, texting, whatever!!

http://www.amazon.com/BOB-Revolution-Single-Stroller-Orange/dp/B004DC9TAI

I bought the BOB stroller SE because I heard great reviews from people and the web. When I tested it out at the store, it felt like butta!! Moving around with it and turning it proved to be a cinch so I'm super happy with our purchase :)

After baby shopping, we went to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch. We started with fried mac n cheese and southern style chicken sliders- yum!

the chicken sliders were my fav!

Poor momma- she got sick during our lunch!!

I could only finish 1/2 of my old fashioned burger because I was so full! Plus, I wanted to save a little room for cheesecake.

Their red velvet cheesecake was delish and not super sweet considering all that frosting.

On Monday, we went down to Chicago and I had my first meeting with the doctor that might potentially be birthing my baby. I say potentially because our of the 6 doctors at their practice, it depends on whether I go into labor at night (different doctor maybe), and if I have the baby on the weekend (again potentially a different doctor). Dr. Muchandani was nice and approachable. I felt she really cared about my well being because she asked me a lot of comprehensive questions to get the full scope of my pregnancy thus far and also did a full exam, which I didn't feel I got while being looked after in London.

Dinner was at Mastro's, a steakhouse in Chicago. I didn't take any pictures since this was a dinner out with T's potential work colleagues. My appetizer was the mushrooms with lump crab, which I thought was perfectly cooked but the crab didn't really sing in the dish. The petite filet for my entree was delicious but not really anything out of the ordinary. I did think our sides were delicious though (lobster mash- I got 4 huge chunks of lobster!!), and our dessert (butter cake- accompanied with strawberries and fresh whipped cream). Overall, I thought the food was good but I couldn't really justify the prices IF we would have paid for the dinner ourselves.