Sugar Penalty for The Sweet Life

Molly's birthday cake, Barefoot Contessa Coconut Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, served with Raspberry Sauce and Camille's homemade Coconut Ice Cream

Dear Lovely Friends d'Internet,
How are you? I am fine. No, seriously....I know I keep disappearing on you but I'm still kickin and in some areas, kickin some ass. We'll blame the pain meds for the crass language.

Yes, pain meds. I think we've discussed my tendency toward dental dilemma before. I have to have a root canal tomorrow and at this point I'm just excited for the novacaine- the last 36 hours have really been a new level of discomfort. As you can see, I'm a fan of getting the bad news out of the way first.

The good news? Can't keep a good woman down (ok, maybe not 110% good woman but definitely trying and the rest is really just little bits of mischief here and there). Because I had a great weekend- wine at Bin Wine Cafe, Palomas at Salud, lil Dyl in my 826 Chi class "Happily Ever After?", the girls over for cake and wine for Molly's birthday(see top), GREAT SEASONAL BEER at the Map Room with artisan salami flown in from Pike's Place....all in the midst of 7 inches of rain. Not too shabby!!

And work is rocking. I'm busy. I'm working really hard and it's not slowing down anytime soon. Which is fine by me...things are heating up in the kitchen and I like it that way. Most of all- I'm a month and a half in and knowing it was the right move. I'm working on the things I want to work on, I'm working with people (on all sides) that I want to work with and this is why you go to the big leagues...you learn something new every damn day. There go those gauche pain meds again- back to your proper-ish southern belle tomorrow:)

Odds and Ends:
Late dinner at La Madia in River North last night. Even on my soft things/soup only diet, P and I had a GREAT dinner- house-cured olives (not as good as Bin's but still pretty awesome), "pizza fondue," chicken-spinach-ricotta ravioli in brown butter sauce, scallops with late summer corn salad and a bottle of Delta Pinot Noir.

Taco Soup recipe from Mom. Jaimeson and I ate two meals of this on the Cape over Labor Day and with mom dancing around going "it's just so easy!!" I knew I was going to need to make some. She's not kidding. Brown a pound or two of ground turkey in some PAM then add the following:
- 1 packet taco seasoning
- 1 packet dried Ranch seasoning
1 can diced tomatoes (I used one with onion and garlic)
1 can black beans
1 can red beans
1 can white beans
1 can corn
2 cans chicken broth
2 small cans V8
TKTC Note: + pinch of Ground Ancho Pepper and a pinch of cinnamon

I hope you recycle cause that's a lot of cans. And seriously- just dump the cans in once the meat has browned and let it heat through. Ta-DA! Serve with a little low fat sour cream/Mexican crema and the cheddar of your choosing. It makes a lot. I had a bowl that night, a tupperware for lunch today and still had this left over...Two single serving Tupperware containers and probably three servings in the big guy. Or just two if we fast forward two weeks and Jaimeson and I are up late watching True Blood, drinking wine and being hungry.

What I'm listening to:
Good Arms Vs. Bad Arms by Frightened Rabbit (another spot ON request from Brother)
I'll Find a Way by Rachael Yamagata (tour starts Saturday)
Paper Planes by M.I.A. (from Lex- you should see me listening to this on the train...so street)