Alinea

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!  Did you hear my scream from where you live??  After trying for 15 minutes, I finally got through to Alinea in Chicago to make a reservation for our 5-year anniversary dinner!!!!!!!!  On the first day of every month, they open reservations up for 3 months out which means they began excepting reservations today for June.  After my disappointing call to Volt, I wasn't getting my hopes up especially as the minutes ticked by this morning and I kept hitting redial.  Volt was going to be awesome but Alinea is (I hope) going to be even better. 

Alinea was named the 10th best restaurant in the WORLD by S.Pellegrino in 2009.  I will admit, I have no idea what qualifications S.Pellegrino has to make such a bold statement but I'll take it.  They were also named to the top 40 US restaurants by Gayot magazine for 2010.  (I always find it interesting when "best ofs" come out at the beginning of the year.....how do they know already?)

For dinner we're doing the Tour which is currently 23 courses of yummy goodness (last time I looked at the menu it was 27!).  Many of the courses are only amuse-bouches (single, bite-sized) which I think is a good thing.  I read that if you drew a vertical line between the farthest circle on the left and the farthest circle on the right, circles that fell to the left of the line indicated a more savory dish and those to the right are sweeter.  Also, the bigger the circle, the bigger the portion.  I also read on Chowhound (an excellent site/resource if you haven't checked it out already) that this cartoon is actually a very realistic description of the dinner.  I'm so excited I can't stand it! 

Will Dr. Tabayoyong Please Stand Up?

This site is still under reno and I'm terribly overdue for a post - my mind is racing with thoughts - but the big HUGE news is that Bill, my intelligent, handsome, super awesome husband, defended his thesis yesterday and passed with flying colors.  HE HAS HIS PhD!!!!!!!!!  The journey began in August 2005 and he's been a dedicated trooper ever since - vacations have been spent working; I became his psuedo secretary eager to lend my business skills whenever he needed help; weekends - wait, what's a weekend??; and there were countless midnight lab visits to tend to his experiments.  I'm tired just thinking about it.....or it could be that we went out with friends last night to celebrate and I didn't get in bed until 2am.  Next up is med school (again) where clinical rotations begin at the end of the month and will continue until he graduates in May 2011.  YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!  GO BILL!

Please Pardon the Dust

I am trying to find a new multi-page layout for this blog so things may look a little weird as I wade blindly through XML code. Please bear with me.....

Table 21

I am beyond bummed right now. I just called Volt, the restaurant in Frederick, MD that's owned by Bryan Voltaggio who was the runner up on Season 6 of Top Chef, to make a reservation for JUNE for Table 21. Table 21 is located in their kitchen, seats 4 people and serves a 21 course dinner. If you have a few minutes, please click here to read about a guy's experience eating there because you will feel my pain when I tell you that Table 21 is booked through NEXT YEAR. You have no idea how sad I am. I was looking forward to an amazing dinner, a night out with Bill sans Audrey and most importantly, celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary. We are already having to pass on a Hawaiian vacation to see our good friends get married that same month so this was to be our consolation prize. ARGH!

As I'm sitting here thinking of alternatives, maybe we'll head to Cleveland and hit up Michael Symon's (Food Network Iron Chef) restaurant Lola or Chicago for Rick Bayless' (Top Chef Masters winner) Topolobompo or Art Smith's (Top Chef Masters) Table Fifty-Two. It could also be fun to drive down to Kansas City and just pig out on all the BBQ we can handle. *SIGH* I guess we have some time to plan now.....

Merry Christmas to Us

I'm really excited about two Christmas presents we got this year - new cookbooks! Not that we have any time to cook as I mentioned in my last entry. I got Bill Mario Batali's Molto Italiano. I think many of the recipes are going to be really challenging but we're up for it. They are very authentic and not at all Olive Garden! We definitely need to buy a pasta press and meat grinder but we probably should have those items on hand anyway. The other cookbook we got is a follow up to our favorite cookbook The Wine Lover's Cookbook, which I have mentioned in this blog many times before, The Wine Lover Cooks with Wine. The first book is about pairing a wine with your meal based on the "base" (protein) and "bridge" (spices, cheese, vegetables, etc) ingredients used. The second book is about actually using wine in the preparation of the meal by steaming, braising, making a sauce, simminering or poaching with the wine. All three books are EXTREMELY informative by offering pages of discussion of both the food and wine. The wine books are actually really great learning tools and I still haven't found a chance to sit down and read the new one. I HIGHLY recommend them. Yes, they are a little more advanced and time consuming but totally worth it.

Introducing Audrey Helen

Our little one is finally here! Audrey Helen was born on 11/24/2009 at 2:57am, 6lbs 14oz and 19.5 inches long. Life has sure changed and it's hard to find time to get on the computer let alone write a blog. I can tell you that our foodie adventures have been put on hold as we struggle to even have time to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner but I had a few ideas to write about prior to Miss Audrey's arrival so I'll be sure to get some posts out here soon. I'm also looking to change the blog's layout so I can separate food blogs from items about the Aud Meister. After all, writing about my future children was the whole point of starting this blog in the first place. Who knew that the "future" would be here so fast! Little did I know.....

Here's Miss Audrey.....